We know that the stories we live in can affect us and our world, but how? And how can we see clearly what’s good and what’s not in terms of who we are and how we live? Let us introduce you to the Being Human lens – a new tool to help us recognise the cultural stories of our day and help build confidence in how the God story enables us to live truly fully human lives.

We all have lenses (figuratively speaking!). We all view the world, and one another, through something. The best kind of lenses help us to bring new things into focus and to recognise things previously obscured.

The Being Human lens bring an innovative focus to the stories of who we are and how we live by identifying four core themes that bubble up throughout our cultural conversations. These are: significance, connection, presence and participation. As we dig into these four aspects, we can start to see how the richness of the God story enables us to truly discover what it is to be human and respond to Jesus’ invitation into a new humanity.

Listen along to the conversation today.

Interested in taking the lens further? Jo and Peter’s new book Being Human: A new lens for our cultural conversations, is out 12 October 2023. To find out more and pre-order your copy today, click here.

Part one (00:00)
03:02 – Welcome to the Being Human lens – a new tool to help see how stories affect who we are and how we live in terms of our significance, connection, presence and participation.
07:20 – We look to Jesus as the ultimate, truly fully human being, who invites us to find our humanity in and through Him.
08:50 – Significance – We matter, but who can we trust to tell us that we matter, and why? Do we earn significance, give ourselves significance, or receive it from God?

Part two (12:30)
12:35 – The secular stories of uncertainty, contestability and fragility, in which believers are tempted to doubt and doubters are tempted to believe. Who know us in an age of unknowing?
16:32 – Connection – We matter to each other. How can AI help us consider our connection and relationship towards each other?  How is Jesus both the model and means for transforming relationships?

Part three (20:50)
20:55 Presence – Being here, now, matters. Despite the tendency to deconstruct and doubt, to be human is to be present, in a time, a place and a body.
26:52 Participation – The difference we make matters. Amidst ongoing permacrisis, how can we partner with an active God to bring light to the darkness and order to the chaos?
33:10 The invitation is to take notice of the storylines we are encountering, to recognise how they are shaping our humanity and consider the good, true and beautiful vision of being human found in the God story.

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