Its here at last, thoughts from Roly Miller - a.k.a DJ Einz

One of my many failings is that I am not a very focused person. I am more interested in changing my musical set up and researching how to change it, dreaming of how much more productive I will become once I have made that change.

I spend more time reading music technology magazines and websites than I do on making any music. Seems crazy for some one who wants to use his gifts and talents to help God's people into His presence through music, to spend so much of my time set aside for music, not making music. I have had to reconsider my approach as I have had to try to become more disciplined and focused to achieve my goal, of actually making music.

I sometimes find that this way of having my eye taken off the ball invades other areas of my life too. Often I get re-focused on a hot topic or issue, like peak oil (re: the finite resource of oil on the planet) or fair trade or the ONE campaign but recently I have started to wonder how many social or political stances I can adopt and one time. How many colored "issue" wrist-bands can I wear at once? ONE/maketradefair (white), Stop Racism (B&W), Beat Bullying (light blue), LiveStrong (yellow), Breast Cancer (pink), Heart disease (red). The list goes on, but how many are too many? They are all very good causes and deserve our support, but I wonder if it's possible to spread ourselves so thin that we can be unable to make any difference at all. Am I going to end up with a multicoloured (and uncool) mess of plastic bands all the way up both of my arms?

Should I be trying to write a strongly worded letter to my local politician so that they can start to make a difference on a governmental level? Should I do some thing about Darfour, the North/South trade injustice or maybe ask the US government to sign the Kyoto agreement on Global warming, Never mind global issues what about local issues, the thousands of homeless people sleeping on the streets of my city or the gun crime?

Should we just leave it to Bono to do the talking and the campaigning? Doesn't he have a much bigger cache than any of the rest of us put together. Yes probably but I think that unless we are going to take the things we are called to do more seriously then I'm not sure that we are living up to the badge we wear as a follower of Christ.

How many times have I done what I've just done.... ask "should we" and change the person who is going to act from "I" to "we" and think myself out of the problem. Is it not enough for me to buy the wrist band and attend the benefit concert or read an article in the newspaper so that I am informed?

Should we be striving for a focused singularity when it comes to dealing with massive issues of the day and get one sorted at a time? Actually I believe that we need to develop that idea of multitasking in respect to how our outlook is on these many different issues. Personally I think that it's wrong for me to only support the AIDS in Africa issue and not bother to recycle the plastic and paper that passes through my house. We are called to love our neighbor and also to take care of our planet. How have both of these huge, world changing, life saving issues gotten such vocal support from out side of the church that it almost drowns out the voice of those who God has called to "set the captives free" and be a voice for those who have no voice.

I am not saying that what you are doing on the ground or the impact of your personal influence isn't effective, I'm just posing the question of how much more can we do? How can we give more profile to the many needy causes and worthy issues? Perhaps it isn't always that we have to give more cash because we have other currencies which we can use to further a cause. Bono has been quoted as saying that "celebrity is ridiculous. It's silly, but is a kind of currency, and you have to spend it wisely." Thankfully we can clearly see him spending it on the great causes that he champions and not just being celebrity and bolstering his position, like so many of his peers in the music business.

If you are a leader, how about using that currency to raise the issues where you lead? No matter where it is: in church, in your youth meetings, in your prayer times, both corporate and private. What about a justice service to raise these issues in the wider context in the church? What about where you work or study, how can we raise it there? Recently in the Starbucks where I work, we were dividing up the tips so we could go out and enjoy some down time together as a team and it didn't divide up evenly, but I saw that it would do if we had to divide it with another person, so I suggested that we take another portion and give it to charity. Almost everyone was behind the idea and as a team it helped us to feel like we were making a contribution beyond ourselves especially since most of these guys would not have been regular givers.

We have so much more to steward and be responsible for than just the cash that ends up in our bank accounts.

Maybe we should be looking for accountability as to where our cash goes; is it been used wisely with out excessive overheads? For quite a long time it has been OK to ask if the coffee we were drinking at church was fairly traded but how about looking at the environmental impact of our churches, meetings and missions. Or is the new extension that is being planned going to be built in and eco-friendly way using renewable resources and building in the best of alternative power sources (solar panels & wind turbines). Is it possible to reduce our carbon foot print of gathering people from geographically diverse locations by starting car pooling or putting on transport for those with out cars.

Perhaps by admitting that we are part of the problem, not just part of the solution will help us in the long run. It is not just by making a change in whether I decide to recycle, stop using a car or campaign against social injustice or who I choose to give money to. These are important decisions, but in realising that the western lifestyle that I live (& you may be able to include yourself in that but I'm not prepared to make that assumption) is massively responsible to the inequalities that we see globally and is completely unsustainable in the long term. Meaning that the equation of our lifestyle (our processes i.e. the use of concrete being inherently toxic to the planet) versus the finite resources (i.e. Oil, and Gas) of our planet leave us in the negative if not now in the not too distant future. It is the ongoing decisions that we are making and the directions that we are taking that will shape the face of the planet for the forthcoming centuries. Here is can of worms that could take us down a long path of discussion and debate which we can go into at another stage.

For me it comes down to balance and having a more integrated approach to our walk as followers of Christ. Now don't go and get all mad at me for being new age, just because a lot of us have grown up with the ideology that the physical, spiritual and emotional are all different and operate on different levels does not mean to combine them or consider them all the part of the same being is radical or new. How come so many of us have struggled with the problem being a good Christian (what ever that looks like!) on Sunday but as for Monday morning when the rubber hits the road and life happens, it can have the tendency of it all falling apart. In fact the idea of body/spirit/soul being separate is the "new" idea since it has mostly manifested itself in the western world since the enlightenment where there was some fall out between the established Church and the developing discipline of science. (This is probably source for another article).

An example of a more integrated approach is the newly formed (RED) campaign whose aim is to raise awareness and money for the Global Fund by teaming up with worlds most iconic brands and produce (PRODUCT) RED. A percentage of each (PRODUCT) RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. For example with the (RED) American Express card and the Motorola (RED) SLVR a chunk of the phones purchase price as well as a percentage of your monthly spend, at no cost to you, is used to buy and distribute the anti-retroviral medicine to our brothers and sisters dying of aids in Africa. So by making a choice our daily activities can be making a difference.

This is a great Idea but I think that it has the potential to get us thinking that we are already doing something to make a difference but we cannot stop there. We need to look further into how to press our influence for good, how to make choices that are beyond ourselves and our self centered lives and I think this is what we are called to. It is pretty clear to me that life as a follower of Christ is not just about the inward practices of holiness, being devout and quiet times, etc, but also about being in the world to feed the hungry, healing the sick, setting the captive free, standing up against injustice. I am challenged in being a follower of Christ to actually emulate the whole integrated approach of what Jesus did when he walked on the Earth and not to be fashionably post-modern, pluralistic and choose only the bits of Christ's teaching and example that suit me today.

If we are going to do live our lives to make a difference to the world around us, let's do it right and be committed to showing our peers, families, societies and culture that we care for our planet, we love our neighbor in the midst of being head over heels in love with our God.




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Perhaps You disagree with this point of view or you are already doing all of these things and more already. It would be great to start a discussion on the topic so that we can all help each other to get to a place where we are being more effective followers of Christ, but with our hearts & minds but with all the talents, gifts and abilities that God has so generously blessed us with.