The Simple Pastor

By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer

• New Series: Questions of life

  August 11, 2008 | 286 Views | 4 Comments

  I recently read my friend Dave’s blog and was very humbled by this post. I had no idea the talk I gave had such an impact. It always as encouragement to a preacher to hear that God has used you to speak to someone. Anyway, I hadn’t given that talk much thought in recent times and the questions Dave lists are good questions. So I thought I’d write a series of posts reflecting on those questions, starting with the first one – ‘what about the consumer dream?’.

  The audio from that talk isn’t available but the powerpoint I used is below…

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  Categories: lifestyle, preaching, simplicity

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• Francine Mason

  I have always found this ‘Living Simply’ thing a real challenge.
  The bible tells me to sell my possessions and give the money to the poor, yet most christian books seem to tell me keep your stuff, just hold it lightly….
  I struggle to line that up with the word of God.
  Of course, I don’t know how to line up the word of God against having children, a mortgage and a dog!
  I’m happy to drive old cars, buy less, make do and mend…I’m probably more reduce and reuse, than recycle, but I certainly feel like I’m swimming against the tide of popular choice..
  Anyway, thanks for the slides and the blog link. It’s given me even more to think about in this area.

• Blue, with a hint of amber

  Good post Francine. These are a few levels at which I approached the subject.

  - Being content with what I have
  - Needing less new stuff
  - Needing less of my old stuff
  - Giving more
  - Sharing more
  - Finding where stuff comes from and who benefits
  - Finding the environmental cost of my own consumption and doing what I can to reduce this

  I found that consumption was a “feeling” that needed to be suppressed and a desire that needed to be starved, and had relatively little to do with what I owned or what I bought, as they barely made any difference to how I felt.

• Francine Mason

  Thanks, those things have given me even more to think about!!
  I haven’t gone down the line of buying ‘fairtrade’. Perhaps that’s something I need to reconsider…?
  We have generally spent less ( more value type products), consumed less and wasted less ( used up left overs etc.)
  I’ve also started to give charity shops a fair go in regards to presents and clothes etc.
  I’m quite into the ideas behind freeganism and skip diving, but I’m sure these things are seen as slightly more extreme!!!

• Phil

  Here’s a way of thinking that helped me, instead of trying to cut back my lifestyle, I tried to increase my giving and connection to the things GOd wanted. So how can I give more, campaign more, love creation more (instead of pollute less). It made my actions about increasing the positive rather than reducing the negative.