The Christian will be conscious that a primary allegiance to Jesus shapes us in distinctive ways, and will want to ask what difference a worldview informed by Scripture makes to the teaching and learning of maths, geography, and history as well as the so-called ‘social and emotional aspects of learning’. Christians are citizens of the kingdom of heaven before they are citizens of the United Kingdom, and will recognise that virtues of courage, compassion and honesty look different when they take shape under the lordship of Christ rather than Caesar. Antony Billington Shaping Education

So many key words here bear thinking about, such as 'primary allegiance' or 'recognise virtues look different'. (The picture is of the inside of a cello) My friend Peter wrote this recently :-

I said that our little faith only allows us to live this type of 21st century Western Christian middle-class life of balance. But I lie awake at night wondering what the Church could become if it were willing to let go of its 21st century identity, and if we were willing to let go of our lives and all the things we hang on to.

At our staff meeting this week we in passing we thought about what radical discipleship really is about. One church at least is wondering whether this means less about programming and more the leading of God. I remain unconvinced that that the CEO model is appropriate for Christian organizations as mission statements etc serve as safe boundaries and exclude the prophetic. The real period in Israel's history was not the monarchy but the period of Judges where leaders and prophets came and went as required. It was a period where Israel was different, counter-cultural at least structurally so. Theocracy places power in safer hands and, where the prophetic voice exists and is heeded, also accountability in the right hands.

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Psalm 146:2-3