Arcade Fire, Mission and culture

One of the highlights of this year's Greenbelt was a seminar by Bishop Graham Cray on the Canadian band Arcade Fire's new album, "Neon Bible". It was the classic Graham Cray analysis of contemporary culture with reflections and challenges for the church. Well, I had the privilege of seeing them live on Tuesday evening and it was a breathtaking performance of passion with no little comment on the state of the world today; the musical equivalent of the "Great American Novel". People like Graham Cray have contributed hugely to a constructive engagement with contemporary culture, releasing us to ask questions like, "what is God saying to us through this?", "where is the Spirit at work as we hear this song?" etc. One of my intentions in this blog is to attempt to bring such a mindset into our encounter with other faiths. Apart from within the pages of heavy duty theology, there is little mainstream reflection on questions such as "what might Muslims be saying to us that deepens our own understanding of Jesus?", or "what is God doing in our plural, mixed world?" These are vital questions for the church. So, several degrees of separation from Arcade Fire, I'd like to pose the question, "what might God be wanting to the church to become through its encounter with Islam?"