Jason Valendy 5/16/12 Jason Valendy 5/16/12

Fetal cells, the Church and Christ

Recently I listened to a podcast from RadioLabs that addressed the fact that a mother will carry in her body cells of the children she bore for several decades. That is to say that a mother will carry within her body foreign cells in which her antibodies do not attack.

And the thing is, we are not sure why these cells remain in the mother’s body at all.

RadioLabs goes on to speak with researchers in this area and the complexity of why these cells are there and what they actually do to the mother’s body I will leave for you to hear from the source.

What came into my head was a question – If you give birth to an idea or a cause, then will there always be your “cells” roaming around the idea/cause even after you have jettison? And if so, then how long can your “cells” remain in that idea/cause?

How long are the “cells” of the church able to move through the body of Christ?

Jason Valendy 5/12/12 Jason Valendy 5/12/12

Peter Rollins video - Insurrection

In the event you have not heard of Peter Rollins, well get ready to have your mind blown. His book Insurrection was an amazing book that is something that will require me to read at least two more times to get at the heart of his points. It is thought provoking and engaging in a way that challenges the core of my being. Be mindful, Rollins is a prophetic voice of the Church.

Jason Valendy 4/21/12 Jason Valendy 4/21/12

Functional Fixedness and the Church

Quick!

In 30 seconds, how many ways can a brick be used?

GO!

If you are like me when I first took this little test, you came up with a good number of things, but they are all basically two or three categories 1) some sort of weight 2) some sort of structural use 3) some sort of weapon.

When you examine this question however you can begin to see that we self limit our responses. For instance this question says nothing about the size of the brick or what it is made of? What if the brick was ground up or 1,000 feet tall? What if it was a brick of gold, Legos, or soap?

Functional Fixedness is the reason people are not good at coming up with new uses for an old thing and it is the reason that you and I come up with the same - predictable? - list of uses for a brick.