Inactive Church Members

On the surface of it, inactive Church members would seem to be no more and no less than “dead wood”. From the point of view of praxis, however -- rather than principle -- one needs active members. In fact, there are some serious hazards to "dead wood". Here are five reasons why members of a Church should best be acive:

1. Special quorums may be required for major decisions, and dormant members may make this difficult.
2. There tend to be deep differences of spiritual outlook between active members and dormant members, and these can lead to conflict at critical junctures.
3. With deep differences of spiritual outlook, dormant members may not see the urgency of certain issues, which may lead the Church into stagnation or decline.
4. Dormant members may quickly be activated by someone with an axe to grind, all the more easily because they are out of touch, and
5. The requirement of active membership creates an awareness of the need to be in fellowship in a Church.

OBSERVATION: I have personal experience of all of the above. I need to add, though, that there may be some positives to dormant members. For example, I have seen them mobilised to build a Church. They may also grant special favours when needed..

The Bride

Did I ever post this picture of the bride? I don't think I did. It is wife E, on the morning of our wedding, on 5 January 2013. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

Lo-Fi Amplifier

At seminary, all classes use advanced video conference cameras for distance learning. But I bought a new computer, which turned out to be incompatible with the cameras. What to do? I switched to WhatsApp conference calls, using an amp to broadcast my smart-phone to learners in class. But it broke. OBSERVATION: So I designed and built a new one today -- using just six components -- although it is decidedly lo-fi. I obtained the very small component count by using an amplifier chip (no preamp) with positive feedback.

Malta Lecture Summary

Here's something I created and completely forgot. It's a Gemini Notebook summary of my Malta Lecture last year -- which I titled After the Parts. The subject was holism -- based on a concept I call the "nameless whole". OBSERVATION: I was surprised by the quality of this AI-generated summary. I couldn't do it better.

Manual or Automatic

This one's about a notable event in ministry -- though not my own. A minister's wife, as a teen, suffered a permanent physical injury. This meant that she was impeded in her movement, and couldn't drive a manual car -- but she could drive an automatic. She did a lot of work for the Church -- with the Church being about 1.5 miles distant from the parsonage. When the time came to replace the minister's car, she asked the Church to consider an automatic. But this could push up the price of the car about 10% -- and the petrol bill about 20%. The Church said no. OBSERVATION: The minister and his wife said nothing more about it to the Church. However, it meant a continual struggle for them.

‘Violent Hierarchies’

This one's a philosophical or theological post. Jacques Derrida, in the first phase of deconstruction, would identify oppositions, or types of opposite in a text. However, he then went on to reduce all these oppositions to power dynamics or "violent hierarchies". OBSERVATION: With this, I consider that he made the mistake of the metaphysicians, which was to reduce it all to the "single thought" as Schopenhauer called it. Derrida covered all his oppositions with a layer of power dynamics. He was no longer dealing with pure oppositions. You read it first on this blog.

Preparing for Festivities

I thought that this photo was lost to time, but I rediscovered it this week. The moment I had successfully negotiated the bride-price -- lobola -- for my bride in 2012, a crowd of women sprang into action to prepare for a celebration. I took this photo by the light of two candles, in the kitchen (there was no electricity supply). You may click on the photo to enlarge.

Imagine

I used to be one of three co-editors of the philosophical weekly Philosophical Investigations (Pi for short). It was very successful. No. 7 in its class in the UK. That collapsed, but I kept it stumbling along in new form. Today I published a new piece, by Allister John Marran, which is here: Imagine. OBSERVATION: I still have promises of new material -- although Pi is no longer a weekly. It now publishes occasional pieces.

Cavernous Church

Here's another photo of my friend Father Kees, of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Cape Town. I took a fisheye shot here, then de-fisheyed it, to capture the cavernous size of the Church. That's him, in the orange Adidas sweater. OBSERVATION: Like the sweater? It's still available on (click here) Amazon* in crimson.

*This is an Amazon affiliate link. I earn a commission, at no cost to the buyer. 

Power Flasher

This is a power flasher which flashes "like a lighthouse". It is possible to see this flasher a mile away from all directions -- depending on the lamp used, which may be up to 36 Watts. The Power Flasher's off period is about 20 seconds, and its on period about 0.1 seconds. OBSERVATION: All the pieces should be available from one's local electronics store -- however the lamp LP1 can be more difficult to source. One can find a 12V 1.5W white LED lamp* or a 12V 1.5W red LED lamp* or a 12V 1.5W blue LED lamp* at Amazon. 1.5W is ample to light up the interior of a car or a room -- matching the brightness of a halogen bulb. One could run the Power Flasher off a 12V car battery or (smaller) gel battery. Change R1 to change the frequency of the flash.

*This is an Amazon affiliate link. I earn a commission, at no cost to the buyer.