The "So What?" of the Gospel

I realize, of course, by the nature of their questions that they have been listening. It's because they understand very clearly that Paul's world is different from our world, that Paul faced different challenges than we do today, that Paul's assumptions do not translate directly into out context, they must ask "So what?" They want to take Paul's advice seriously. It's not enough for them to understand the historical meaning of Paul’s letters. They want to know-they must know!-if Paul's gospel still matters today, especially since the apostle dealt with some of the same issues we face: gender battles, social contests, racial prejudice, marital struggles, sexual vices. Indeed, Paul didn’t hide behind vague theological ideas when he wrote his letters to the churches of the first century. He deals with the messy details of daily life for Christ believers. Do we eat this or that? Should I have sex with her or not? Do we have to believe everything you do? Should I get married? Should we help the poor who refuse to work? Because Paul's instructions are so specific on his experiences and ideas about what the gospel should look like in his time, we can’t help but wonder: is Paul's timely advice timeless?

Trying to answer the "So what?" question has brought Paul's gospel into better focus for us-not just his theological ideas, but his personal experience of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his spirituality. Typically, Paul's letters have been used as resources for his theology. We’ve grown accustomed to studying Paul for his theological insights, siphoning from his letters what he believed, distilling the contents for "hard doctrine." Yet, for Paul, the gospel was not merely what he taught, but how he lived. He wanted his converts not only to believe what he had "received”; he expected them to follow "his ways" in Christ (1 Cor 4:17).

Spirituality According to Paul by Rodney Reeves

Keeping the Mystery

If nothing else, school teaches that is an answer to every question; only in the real world do young people discover that many aspects of life are uncertain, mysterious, and even unknowable. If you have a chance to play in nature, if you are sprayed by a beetle, if the color of a butterfly wing comes off on your fingers, if you watch a caterpillar spin its cocoon—you come away with a sense of mystery and uncertainty. The more you watch, the more mysterious the natural world becomes, and the more you realize how little you know. Along with its beauty, you may also come to experience its fecundity, its wastefulness, aggressiveness, ruthlessness, parasitism, and its violence. These qualities are not well-conveyed in textbooks.

Micro by Michael Crichton

The Absurdity of It All

Yesterday, during the worship service as we celebrated Jesus’ birth and looked forward toward his arrival, the absurdity of it all hit me. It is absurd that Jesus came as a baby. Babies can’t do anything. They are completely dependent on others. They are helpless. They get sick. They need to be fed and changed. They are needy. They are powerless over their world.

As I pondered how absurd Jesus’ arrival was, I began to think through Bible stories I know and how absurd they are. God created people knowing they would rebel. He called a nation to follow Him and all they did was make a mockery of His name. He used a harlot to deliver the spies of Israel. He used a bitter prophet to call a godless nation into repentance. Even Jesus using twelve people to change the world and then the most competent one betraying Him. And it goes on and on. It is just absurd.

But then it hit me. It is absurd that God would show me complete acceptance based on Christ and not my own effort. It is absurd to love your enemies. It is absurd to forgive those who wrong you. It is absurd to trust God rather than our own efforts. It is absurd to live by faith.

Those who have placed their faith in Christ are called to live an absurd life. It is absurd to a lost and dying world. It is absurd to logic and strategic thinking. Many things in relationships are absurd. A person who has first experienced the emotion of love does absurd things…and it is wonderful!

The challenge is to live the absurdity of this wonder out on a daily basis.

Redemptive Skepticism

O'Connor insisted that it was her Christian faith that kept her skeptical. She says that the cultivation of skepticism is a sacred obligation because skepticism keeps us asking questions. Against whatever flavor of brainwash is popular, skepticism "will keep you free - not free to do anything you please, but free to be formed by something larger than your own intellect or the intellects of those around you." This redemptive skepticism is a religious commitment to avoid being swept up by bad ideas, especially ones that wear a godly guise and demand absolute, unquestioning allegiance.

The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark

The Christian mind can discern the divine wisdom in the forms in which angels are present to us. To the half-converted mind, hankering after miraculous visitations and supernatural sensations, God says, "Nothing doing. I am supernaturally present with you, but you will only know it through the duties and responsibilities of the immediate life around you." But to the devout Christians, intent on faithful intercessions and patient burden-bearing, the Spirit on occasion gives visions and dreams to fortify the faithful with the knowledge that we are surrounded and supported by heavenly hosts in our warfare. Angels are for encouragement, not for entertainment.

Reversed Thunder by Eugene Peterson

And What About Evil?

Evil is not minimized, but it is put in its place, bracketed between Christ and prayer. There is a detail listing of evil and a courageous facing of evil, but no explanation of it. Nowhere in the Bible is there any attempt to answer the question, “Why does a good God permit evil?” Evil is a fact. The Bible spends a good deal of space insisting that certain facts are evil, and not minor blemishes on the surface of existence. But the Bible does not provide an explanation of evil – rather, it defines a context: all evil takes place in an historical arena bounded by Christ and prayer. Evil is not explained but surrounded. The Revelation summarizes the context: admit evil and do not fear it – for “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4); endure evil, for you are already triumphant over it – “ I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). The Revelation expands the apostolic and dominical words into visions. By putting evil in its place and enumerating it accurately in the precise part of the story where it belongs, it is seen as finite episode and not a total triumph.

Reversed Thunder by Eugene Peterson

Looking Outside the Box

Remember, the answers to the crisis won't come from within the current thinking. We have to both transcend and include our surroundings in order to go on a search for new answers. Key leadership must initiate and guide this journey, first by getting other leaders in touch with this sense of disorientation, anomaly, and crisis. Second, leaders should try to resolve the problems without recourse to the prevailing thinking, with its overused repertoire of solutions.

On the Verge by Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson

Grain of Understanding

I was talking to a homeless man at a laundry mat recently, and he said that when we reduce Christian spirituality to math we defile the Holy. I thought that was very beautiful and comforting because I have never been good at math. Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me. The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and otherness forever.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

Grain of Understanding

I was talking to a homeless man at a laundry mat recently, and he said that when we reduce Christian spirituality to math we defile the Holy. I thought that was very beautiful and comforting because I have never been good at math. Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me. The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and otherness forever.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

If We Remain Unthinking

Discovering the hidden way technology shapes us is a bit like being the victim of a prank: We feel humiliated and trapped. When I first began studying media influence, I felt like the fish oblivious to the hook inside the worm. Fortunately, however, nothing is inevitable. There is not some predetermined and unstoppable effect of all media. In fact, the chair will continue to be pulled out from under us only if we remain unthinking. Our lack of awareness is what empowers the media to bully us.

Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps

Communication Revolution by Terry Storch

Terry Storch gave a talk at MinistryCOM 2007 entitled "Communication Revolution." In this talk he highlights how our culture is slamming into the traditional ideas of the way churches operate. He list the top five impact points as:

1) One Way Communication vs. Participatory Conversation - No longer is the expectation that you will tell me what I need to know. I want to be part of discovering what I need to know.

2) Service Times vs. On-Demand Content - Our world will not wait for us. They want the content when they want it. We need to provide access so that can interact with content at point-of-need.

3) Walls vs. People - We have tended to think about church inside the building. We need to move the practice of church out into the community.

4) Going to Communities vs.Being in Communities - The way we think about missions and outreach needs change. We need to change from going to communities to becoming involved in the communities we want to reach with the Gospel.

5) Asking People to Just Invite One vs. The Power of One Inviting Everyone - Addition through just bringing one friend is not overcoming the attrition churches are experiencing. We live in age when one person can invite so many more to experience Christ. We need to find and equip those people.

Computer's Illision

The adage that computers do not impose their ways upon their users is misleading, because it hides an imposing destiny in a guise of instrumental neutrality. By reassuring ourselves that the computer does not impose its ways upon us, we have already succumbed to the imposition of its destiny. The computer, for example, promises greater freedom in creating and organizing data in accordance with our goals and purposes. Yet computers can only be used in a limited number of ways for creating, storing and classifying this information, thereby forming the goals and purposes that it purportedly serves in an instrumental manner. The resulting ‘freedom’ is illusory, because the computer, like any technology, constrains the range of choices its users can make within the limited parameters of its imposed destiny. More broadly, particular technological developments and application permit certain forms of civil society and political community while excluding others.

From Human to Posthuman by Brent Waters

Stranger in a Strange Land

Below are the Power Point slides for a talk I gave on how Christians have interacted with culture.

Stranger.gwgifa.9.11 [slideshare id=9181700&w=425&h=355&sc=no]

View more presentations from John Shapiro

Growing with God in a Facebook Age

On Wednesday nights, I am leading a study entitled Growing with God in a Facebook Age. Here are the first two presentations from the series:

Growing with God in a Facebook Age [slideshare id=9007770&w=425&h=355&sc=no]

View more presentations from John Shapiro

Tech savygod.gwgifa.8.11 [slideshare id=9165038&w=425&h=355&sc=no]

View more presentations from John Shapiro

The Unchanging in Changing

While God’s words are eternal and unchanging the tools we use to access those words do change, and those changes in technology also bring subtle changes to the practice of worship.  When we fail to recognize the impact of such technological change, we run the risk of allowing our tools to dictate our methods. Technology should not dictate our values or our methods. Rather, we must use technology out of our convictions and values.

From the Garden to the City by John Dyer.

Who is this God? An Introduction to Genesis

Where you grow up impacts the way you look at the world. Imagine with me if you would that you have been in Egypt for 400 years.  You are a community within a community.  One of the things that has formed you to this point is you believe in a different God; You’ve been slaves and all of a sudden you are now leaving Egypt and you are out in the wilderness. Moses is leading you. You have a collection of stories that have been verbally passed around for generations.  For the first time you are by yourselves as a people and you are engaging with a God personally that you’ve known about mainly through stories. You have a change of environment, a change in position (you are no longer slaves), and you are getting to know again this God who has formed your community.

This provides the backdrop for Genesis. Genesis is a book written to reintroduce to a God they were in relationship with in a whole new way. Through Moses everything was brought together.  I think that Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament. And as you think about what he did, Moses is probably the most logical choice.  He was trained in Egypt and trained in the house of Pharaoh.  He most likely would have been educated and have the skill of writing. Also, he would have been introduced to the history of Egypt and other nations.

Moses also had many personal experiences with God. When you think about stories of Moses, there are details that Moses would have only known that are included in the writings. Moses probably did use some other sources to assist in his writing.  There were also some stories that were passed around verbally that helped shape what we have recorded. If it was Moses that wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament, then they were probably written around 15 century BC.

Moses was writing to the Israelites as they were on their way to the Promised Land. They had just come out of Egypt and so they are leaving patterns of worship and behavior and they are being introduced to new patterns of worship and behavior in light of their new provision as a people. There was a great need for this introduction. Even as they are in waiting for Moses to come back down from Mt. Sinai what happens?  Aaron is asked to make for them an idol and what does he do? He makes them an idol. He is asked to personify God to them.  And so, he goes Ok, this is the god that delivered you out of Egypt. While Moses is interacting with the God that did bring them out of Egypt, they are dancing around a lie.

What Aaron gave them was just an object to worship.  Moses was about to introduce them to the God that they were in relationship with and how they were to interact with Him.  It’s much different to have an object to put affection on verses being in a relationship with the supreme creator of the universe. Genesis is the start to that introduction.

Genesis as a book was to remind them of things that they may have forgotten. It was to help remind them of both the moral nature of their relationship as well as the spiritual nature. It was to remind them of what was required to be in right relationship especially when you put it into context of the first 5 books, you have a lot there about “since you are my people, here is how then you behave.”

One of the things that I think is interesting and the reason I started with the story of “where did you grow up” is because where we grow up so often defines us in ways we really don’t know much about until we experience other cultures.  And, I just finished a book called Save Me a Place in Heaven by Jerry Deriso. The book centers on his experience growing up in South Georgia in the 50’s and 60’s. Those events and stories formed his outlook as he grew older and his outlook on his culture today. He wanted people today to have the same experience he had growing up and share in the values that those experiences formed.

Genesis has some of the same feel. The writings were being used to create a sense of time and place to reemphasize values.  This helps explain the stories and the genealogies. There is also a wide range of literary devices used to create this feel. Genesis starts with a broad view of the world from the stand point of creation. And from creation, you have a narrowing down of this person called Abraham. And so you have this telescoping down to Abraham and then expansion back out to the twelve tribes.

Because the telescoping nature of the book focuses on Abraham, it is good to ask, “Why is Abraham significant in our understanding of the Bible?” God had a special relationship with Abraham, something very specific. God said that he wanted Abraham’s people to be His people so that through them the world could be blessed. God wanted a special relationship with them so that they could be beneficial to the whole world. We find this idea of God’s interaction with people for the purpose of displaying His character to the whole world so that the whole world can be blessed throughout scripture.

As we come to the Book of Genesis, I am going to focus on what does this passage tell us about this God that we are in relationship with.  Because, even though the book was written to the Israelites as they left Egypt, God wrote it with the full accounts of scripture in mind. And he knew that one day, there would be a group sitting in McKinney opening up His word and studying it to find out what’s true because they’ve met Christ and they now have a relationship with Christ.  And so He’s got very specific things to say to us about what is true of Him and true of His character that will then define how we should live in light of where we are in our culture. This makes sense because we have a right relationship with God, our job in this culture is to be men and women who live out kingdom values today. And in turn, that helps frame what our community of faith should look like, as well as what our lives and families should look like. My summary for this overview of Genesis is this:  God gave us Genesis to help reveal who He is in regards to His plan for His people.

Why History Matters

 

Rather, I would argue that the connection between history and Christianity is essential. Because the Incarnation was nothing less than the entry of God Himself into the stream of human history, it affirms the reality and value of the lived human experience. The Second Person of the Trinity affects our salvation not as an abstraction, but as a human life. In becoming a son, a friend, a teacher, in speaking our language and mourning our dead, God affirmed the temporal and social reality of our being. In entering our history at a specific time, in continuity with a meaningful past, and proclaiming a future of consummation, Christ repudiated the classical understanding of cyclical and ultimately meaningless history and codified the Jewish understanding of history as the story of God and His people, a story with a beginning and an end. Christianity has temporarily in its essence.

 

Read the rest of the blog here: Why Christian History Matters

A Frightening God

In reference to Exodus 19:17-20:21:

There are several reasons why the Israelites don't want to be close to God. Yahweh's behavior in this passage is intimidating, with all the lightning, thunder, smoke and explosions (reminiscent of the enchanter Tim in The Holy Grail). Who would want to get close to all that fire and noise?

Yahweh does distance himself here from his people, but he does it for a purpose. He has just delivered them from Egyptian bondage, and lest they think he will protect them no matter how they behave, he wants them to revere him, particularly as he delivers the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1-17). They need to understand that he is holy, powerful, and concerned about obedience.

But in this incident, even as Yahweh is loud and frightful, he is also near and tangible. At the beginning of the passage, Moses brings the people out of their camp for the purpose of meeting God. God doesn't allow them to come close, but there's a good reason for that: he's trying to protect them from harm.

God Behaving Badly by David Lamb

Family Mission Trip 2011 Day 3

What a great day! Great team! Great God!



Here are some text from people on what impacted them:

Loved all the ladies and little girls jumping in to touch ladies, hold their hands, look into their eyes and hear their stories.

Loved God's timing in bringing a grieving sister to be loved, an overwhelmed mom to be served and her kids be ministered to, a recovering addict to be encouraged, loved, and heard...all not members at that church.

At the beginning of this trip i felt like i would b able to do just as much good in my home town than driving 6 hrs and doing whatever is port arthur. I to a room with 2 other people. Somewhere in between the heat and the mosquitos i realized that port arthur needs a mission trip. Driving around and looking at the living conditions and everything really opened my eyes to how blessed i was to like in fairview and have everything that i have.

I was very encouraged that I was able to introduce my heavenly father , but the most important thing was that I was able to be an earthly father figure to the children. I was blessed and fortunate God used me in this capacity.

Allowing God to get me out of my comfort zone and minister to his people thru music when I am definitely not a music person.

I was humbled by the reminder of how blessed we are materially with our nice homes. I hope each of us will have the image of people living in their cars permanently burned in our memories. God loves each of them just as much as he loves us.

Seeing the children smile and the children participates!

Loved serving as a family and putting Jesus first. Reminds us of our true purpose. What a joy!

Seeing the sacrifice that Brent and Savanah live daily. This is their life!

It gave our children a chance to serve.

It was a great chance to get my family involved in giving back.

Loved watching the body of Christ use their gifts.

How many people enjoyed and were impacted at the block party.

Family Mission Trip 2011 Day 1

This is from our Family Mission Trip that we are currently on in Port Arthur, Texas.



If video does not show, please click here to watch.

My Confessions....

This video challenges me on so many levels. The question for me is, "Do I live in such a way to show Christ or Christianity?"

Leadership and the Incarnation

The Incarnation lies at the heart of the early church's wrestling over what it meant to be the church in specific cultures. The concrete, material revelation of God in Jesus Christ was the basis of their thinking and practice. This is why the character and identity of those leading the church were articulated in terms of participation in God. But this participation was not about some private, otherworldly, spiritual practices having nothing to do with the public, political, social life of a people. it was in fact the very opposite. Participation in God meant forming a community of God's people whose lives often challenged the political and social institutions of their day.

 

The Missional Leader by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk

 

 

Come, Go, Both, and/or Neither

How do we best fulfill God's command to "go and make disciples"? Thought provoking video:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25964979]

 

If video player does not show, access video here.

What do you want to change about your life?

What do you want to change about your life? Go for it! You have 30 days!

[ted id=1183]

What does love look like?

What does love look like?

It could look like 50 bags.

50 jars of peanut butter

50 jars of jelly

50 loaves of bread

50 boxes of powered milk

50 boxes of cereal

50 notes to let people know, because of Jesus, that we care.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"
The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Mathew 25:31-40

If you love me, keep my commands.

John 14:15

Why Christians and the Church need to be active in technology and social media

Why Christians and the Church need to be active in technology and social media:

Why Technology and Social Media Matters

Why Christians and the Church need to be active in technology and social media:

Communion's Insight into Ministry and Mission

The communal character of the sacrament means that the communion is with each other as well as with God. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus bids us be reconciled with each other before we bring our gifts to the altar (5:23)….What role then to the gifts of the bread and wine have in all this? They are surely of great importance, but not in a manner that is detachable from the totality of what is going on. It seems to me of great significance that the bread and wine are not only gifts of created nature in that they derive from wheat and grapes, but are also the products of human labor. In liturgical words that are often used at the Offertory, the gifts are ‘what earth has given and human hands have made.’ They represent the drawing together, in the action of the Eucharist, of the fruits of nature and the fruits of human work and skill in the offering of creation.

Science and The Trinity by John Polkinghorne

A Better Reason to Share With Those In Need

Often books and speakers tell Christians that they should help the needy because they have so much. That is, of course, quite true. Common sense tells us that, if human beings are to live together on the planet, there should be a constant sharing of resources.

But this approach is very limited in its motivating power. Ultimately it produces guilt....Soon, with an anxious weariness, we turn away from books or speakers who simply make us feel guilty about the needy.

The Bible does not use the guilt-producing motivation, yet it powerfully argues for the ministry of mercy....Mercy is spontaneous, superabounding love which comes from an experience of the grace of God. The deeper the experience of the free grace of God, the more generous we must become. This is why Robert Murray M'Cheyne could say: "There are many hearing me now know well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart."

Gospel in Life by Timothy Keller

They Never Seemed to Take God Very Serious

Pastors were never very important to me. I liked them. They were nice, and they told great stories, but they never seemed to be very serious about God, and I was. They just seemed peripheral to ordinary life, whereas in my dad's butcher shop, things were very serious. My father took everybody seriously and treated them with dignity. I got the image very early on that he was a priest...Everyone was treated the same, there was no discrimination with anybody.

Eugene Peterson from "The formation of Eugene Peterson" in neue magazine.

The Secret

If you want your kids to abandon church when they are older, force them to attend a church you secretly wish you could abandon now!

Andy Stanley (@AndyStanley)

If you want your kids to abandon church when they are older, force them to attend a church you secretly wish you could abandon now!

Andy Stanley (@AndyStanley)

Blue Like Jazz the Movie

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-EEzBTui8w?rel=0&w=640&h=390]

Faith is not "King Sized Ibuprofen"

It took me a long time to figure all this out, to understand that even when God is with me, life is not always going to turn out the way I hoped. I knew there would be disappointments and struggles. But part of me still wanted to believe my faith could act like a king sized ibuprofen. I wanted to believe that as long as I knew God was with me, the pain of those difficult moment would be eased.

Plan B by Pete Wilson

Great Quote about Emptiness

I think that part of my life may be over, and it leaves a hole. One that whistles in the middle of the night, as if there was a wind way down inside. A wind trying to fill up what's no longer there.

from the short story "N." in Just After Sunsetby Stephen King

Failure to Launch

Churches, like college freshman, often struggle with declaring their major. The consequence of their indecision causes a major dilemma...With no clear sense of purpose, they never set a clear strategy. What they do to fulfill what they think God wants constantly changes. They languish in seeming shadow-lands where forward momentum always seems one step out of reach.

Transformational Churches have leaders who understand their vision and purpose. A clear desire for changed lives is part of the new scorecard. They are not always looking for another "thing" to try for faster results. TC [Transformational Church] leaders instead watch and learn from the best practices of others to inform an already clear understanding of their context.

Transformational Church by Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer

This Sacred Moment

A telephone call came into the rectory. It was the father of a twenty-year-old man named Doug. Doug had contracted this strange disease [AIDS]and was asking for a visit by a priest. Monsignor Henry, the pastor in his seventies, asked all three full-time priests to go; each refused, using the severity and unknown cause of the disease as an excuse. Monsignor Henry then approached me. I was hesitant and was going to use my studies as an excuse. However, when he agreed to accompany me, I decided to go.

Once we arrived at the hospital, we were told to put on protective "moon suits" before going in to Doug's room. He looked much older and sicker than I had expected. We talked softly for about fifteen minutes; then Doug began to cry.

"What's wrong, Doug?" I asked.

He looked at me and with incredible sadness replied, "It dawns on me that no one has even touched me in over three months."

I let those words sink in and wondered how I would have handled life without a handshake or hug for three months. As I thought about that, I suddenly became aware of Monsignor Henry slowly removing the helmet and garb of the protective "moon suit." And then I witnessed the parable of the judgement of the nations played out as elderly Monsignor Henry bent over and hugged dying Doug.

A holy silence descended upon the room. I wondered how Monsignor Henry could be willing to rick his own life by responding to Doug that way.

We drove home in virtual silence. As we approached the church in the Bronx, I turned to Monsignor Henry, but before I could say a word he simply said with tears in his eyes, "Years ago, I told Jesus that I would give him everything - and I mean everything. Today, I was able to give to Jesus what he has given to me." Monsignor Henry subconsciously knew that selfless openness could lead to an encounter with the God who empties himself in the ordinary yet sacred moment before him.

This Sacred Moment by Albet Haase O.F.M.

Response to Love Wins by Rob Bell

I finished reading Rob Bell’s Love Wins last night. I enjoy reading Bell. He writes in what can best be called a “blog” style which for some reason I seem to connect with easily. I am not going to write a chapter by chapter review (Darrell Bock does a great job of that here) but I do want to share my positive and negative responses to Bell’s book.

The strongest positive impression I am left with from Love Wins is that heaven should not just be some ethereal idea but a concrete reality that those who know Christ are laying the foundation in our world today. Bell challenges the “heaven as an everlasting church service” image that many churched and un-churched people carry with them today. He does a good job of raising the need for Christians to be about alleviating the “hell” on earth by living out heaven (or kingdom) principles today. I am, as is Bell, also repulsed by the pride of those who claim to have a relationship with Christ and then clearly choose to not participate in helping to impact the world but instead continue to exploit and take advantage of others for their own comfort or gain.

I also appreciate how Bell pushes back on the “pray the prayer” approach to heaven. A prayer is a great way to demonstrate that you are placing your trust in Christ. But if your trust in Christ never results in tangible change in the way you live, the prayer and belief is pointless. The book of James makes the same point.  Jesus often did challenge the heart issues of those He encountered to help highlight what trusting in Him would cost.  The rich young ruler in Luke 18:18-30 being one such case.

Bell seems to fluctuate between wanting judgment with consequences and then wanting judgment without consequences. He speaks clearly, and rightfully so, against the sin of this world and how that distorts many people’s understanding of God and the Gospel. But he also communicates that those who do not respond to God before death will be able to still be in process after death. I understand the concept but just don’t find Bell’s arguments successful. I see that he reads as much of his own view into the text of the Bible as he claims others have done.

I also struggled with the concept of God’s will that Bell talks about in Chapter 4 entitled, “Does God get what God wants?” I don’t see the concept of God’s love as a hindrance to consequences of the choices we make in our lives. Not to over simplify the concept, but I am a parent and my love for my children allows room for their disobedience and the resulting consequences of their actions. I don’t see God’s power or rule being comprised by man’s rebellion. I do believe that love will win in the end but that does not mean that all will experience it because they have chosen to not respond.

Because Bell is not writing a systemic approach to the issues of heaven and hell, there are many issues that are left either unsupported or unanswered. I appreciate the style for creating dialog and inviting others to investigate the issues. I would love for Bell to have written a more disciplined book that frames his understanding of the issues and how it would impact the way we should live. I feel like Love Wins is a good read even though it leaves one with more questions than answers.

Is Church Not Working? (Questions around models of church)

I have been in several discussions recently centered on the question, “Is the way we do church today working?” Through these discussions, there is often a reference to the description of the early faith community in Acts 2:43-47. There is a passion for us to return to the simplicity of that experience and the home church model that many of those early believers gathered in. A Home Church Model is lifted up as the best model for us to experience growth in our love affair with Christ. That led me to ask, was their community model that culturally different? Was that difference because of Christ? And then finally, did the community work at producing Christ followers?

The focused reference when supporting a Home Church model is to point to Acts 2:37-42 and follows Peter’s sermon. Even before that moment, those that had followed Christ had been gathering before the sermon as referenced in Acts 1:15. These gatherings did not frame the totality of their spiritual development because we also see that they continued to worship at the Temple for prayer (Acts 3:1).  In Acts 4:32-34, we have reference to how the community of believers shared with one another which provided the catalyst for Ananias and Sapphira’s sin and resulting judgment.

There were issues even though God’s power was being displayed. There was an issue of impartiality in the serving of those in need that led to divisiveness and an over dependence on the church leaders for assistance (Acts 6:1-7). The church leaders, to alleviate the situation, empowered others who were of great character and ability to help serve so ministry could handle the capacity of growth. Stephen was one of those selected and was carrying out his role so well he created an issue for those who did not know Christ which caused him to be put to death (Acts 6:8-60).

In Acts, we see that those who trusted Christ gathered often in homes. However it does not seem that is was an intentional decision as much as a practical one. Once a person trusted in Christ they were often ostracized from their previous relationships and cultural networks. This necessitated them quickly finding a new community or else they would turn their back on Christ and return to their previous community out of necessity of survival.

One of the things that did make their gatherings different was that they often bled past racial and ethically accepted grouping. This happened as those outside the Jewish community began trusting in Christ (Acts 10:1-48). Paul’s letters support the idea that this was a difficult issue for many early Christian communities (one passage is Ephesians 2:11-22). This unity in diversity is one of the hallmarks of the Christian community in its early life.

But did these early communities of faith, which often met in homes, work at producing followers of Christ? The answer is “yes” and “no”. The answer is “yes” because we have a history of men and women who practice their faith being passed down from generation to generation. We have an understanding of what it means to know Christ from their practice and commitment to Christ.

The answer is “no” because of the rest of the New Testaments gives us evidence that these communities struggled just as much as any community in living out their faith. Paul is constantly challenging them to manifest their new life in Christ and overcome sin patterns that they had ignored. Often these sin patterns where being fostered in their gatherings (1 Corinthians 11:23-34 is one example). James also has another example of how in their gathering they were showing preferential treatment toward the rich at the belittlement of the poor (James 2:1-13).

In the New Testament, I see the emphasis not on a model of meeting together but an ethos of what it means to follow Christ together that can have a diversity of cultural expressions. To say that the Home Church model works better and accurately fits the way the early followers made disciples is not helpful. They did meet together in homes. They did look different because of Christ. But their practice was far from successful because of their model. I think that the incarnation gives us great freedom in form but raises high demand in character and practice.

There is no doubt that how we do church today has many challenges. We as church leaders are in need to raise the expiation and constantly refine the programs and experiences we create to move people toward maturity in Christ. The model is not the issue. Each social frame work has advantages and disadvantages toward manifesting the Gospel. The responsibility for church leaders is to understand that environment and push on the inherent sin patterns to help people see what following Christ looks like in our day and age.

All that is Left

In judged Jerusalem [during the time of Jeremiah] it was impossible to confuse material prosperity with God's blessing. It was impossible to confuse social status with God's favor. It was impossible to confuse national pride with God's glory. It was impossible to confuse rituals of religion with God's presence. The clutter of possessions was gone; the trappings of status were gone. And God was present. All the cultural and political and religious and social assumptions and presuppositions that interfere with the clear hearing of God's word in Jeremiah's preaching were taken away. Conditions had never been better for developing a mature community of faith.

Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

Wholeness through Trust

Religions that we make up for ourselves always reduce reality to what we feel comfortable with, or what makes us comfortable. We love being insiders. We feel secure when we are with cronies who talk our language and sing our songs and don't rock the boat. It hardly matters that such a life is banal. It is safe...The danger is not to our humanity, but to our sense of running life on our own terms, managing people and things with ourselves at the center. The larger the world, the less of it we can subject to our won control. But that is a miserable ambition and a certain prescription for boredom. It is God's world and God rules it. Our wholeness comes from participating in what God is doing, not manipulating what we can manage. So the Bible continually protests all forms of isolationism.

Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

Maintaining Image

I have benefited from books written by pastors. Over time I have found myself becoming cynical of the volume and reliability of what is being published from pastors. Then a friend forwarded a newsletter that echoed what I feared maybe true of some of these books. It was from The Pastor's Coach and titled 3 Dangers Large Churches Face. Here is the part that stuck out to me:

A staff pastor and trusted friend in a very large church called me to talk about his frustration. The Senior Pastor of this church wrote and published a book about the story of their church and the ministry system it was using. The book was apparently good, and the story captivating, but unfortunately the ministry system wasn't working. They needed to kill it or change it in a big way. But the pastor insisted that the staff stick with it since the book was out. It was obvious that changing the system would hurt the church's reputation if word got out that the system didn't really work and they therefore dropped it.

I know this story is not true for every book, every church, or every pastor. But I also know the temptation to prop ministries up for appearances or accolades. It breaks my heart when I see it so clearly spelled out. We must be careful when we seek to maintain something out of image.

A Quick Spiritual Transaction

I think we often treat God like we do a vending machine. When you walk up to a vending machine, you expect to insert the appropriate amount of money, press the correct number or code, and out will pop whatever you were hungry for. The whole process takes about forty-five seconds.

We expect the same thing with God. Maybe not consciously. Maybe we'd never say it. But we still assume that if we do all the right things, say all the right things, and have the right attitude, we can simply press a magic spiritual button and get whatever it is we desire in the moment. We are looking for a quick spiritual transaction that doesn't necessarily lead to a deeper lever of intimacy but gives us what we want. And like children, we want it now!

Plan B by Pete Wilson

A Quick Spiritual Transaction

I think we often treat God like we do a vending machine. When you walk up to a vending machine, you expect to insert the appropriate amount of money, press the correct number or code, and out will pop whatever you were hungry for. The whole process takes about forty-five seconds.

We expect the same thing with God. Maybe not consciously. Maybe we'd never say it. But we still assume that if we do all the right things, say all the right things, and have the right attitude, we can simply press a magic spiritual button and get whatever it is we desire in the moment. We are looking for a quick spiritual transaction that doesn't necessarily lead to a deeper lever of intimacy but gives us what we want. And like children, we want it now!

Plan B by Pete Wilson

Purpose of Christian Community

The people of God must have a visible, tangible, experiential shape. This is not, however, simply a sociological or organizational necessity. It is essential to the mission Dei. The witness to God's loving and saving work in history is through the people God calls and sets apart for this mission. Every mission community is a historical witness to the work of God being carried out; it is concrete evidence of God's purposeful action. This is what the Holy Spirit does: it forms mission communities so that the gospel may be incarnated in particular places, to be the witness to Jesus Christ.

The Continuing Conversion of the Church by Darrell Guder

The Grace of Listening

Yesterday was a crazy day. It was one of those days where I needed to be in 10 places all at the same time. I am trying to be more aware when I feel this way so that I can slow down and not rush. Because I had slowed down, I got into a conversation. Actually it was not a conversation but just me listening. When I could tell that this was the route the interaction was going to take my first desire was to disengage as quickly as possible. After all there were things that needed to be done.

Thankfully God did not let that happen. I continued to listen and I could see a change come over the other person even though I didn’t say anything or offer any help. The longer they talked the more life came into their eyes and their countenance seemed to lift. As I saw this happen, I began to focus more on the person. I asked a couple of small questions to allow the conversation to continue but they were merely moments of permission for the other person to continue to share what they wanted to share.

The conversation ended naturally. As I left, I felt energized. I saw how grace can be extended through listening. I was also convicted about how much I listen not to extend grace but to prove a point, steer a person in a direction I want them to go, or to highlight something I did. Most of my listening is self-centered. Yesterday reminded me that there is a ministry of grace called listening. God models it well and expects us to also.

Reliability of the Bible

This is a Prezi I developed from Mark 16:9-20 that leads to a lesson on how we got the Bible.

Reliablity of the Bible on Prezi

The Personal and Physical Life of Faith

All truth must be experienced personally before it is complete, before it is authentic. This truth, that God shapes us, that we are shaped by God, was Jeremiah's from the beginning. He had lived it in detail. He had been on that potter's wheel from before his birth. No word would mean more to Jeremiah than this one, formed by God. Jeremiah experienced his life as the created work of God. He was not a random accumulation of cells; he was formed by loving, skilled hands....

The life of faith is very physical. Being a Christian is very much a matter of the flesh - of space and time and things. It means being thrown on the potter's wheel and shaped, our entire selves, into something useful and beautiful. And when we are not useful or beautiful we are reshaped. Painful, but worth it.

Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

Church Growth: An Informational or Discipleship Problem?

Most churches desire to impact people with the Gospel. For many churches, there is a recognition that people in their community do not know about their church and the great experience they can have at their church. Questions arise, how do we let them know about us? How do we best move our congregation to action to address this question?

This perspective assumes that people have an informational problem about their church. They don’t have the information. The assumption is that if the information was provided in a warm and welcoming format people would show up.

Thomas Rainer, in his book The Unchurched Next Door, states that many unchurched people who come to church will come if brought by a current attendee of the church. “As I have also indicated, inviting them and taking them into the church building is very important.” (Rainer, 246) Even the most resistant groups toward churches that Rainer studied would be open to a personal invitation to church (Rainer, 240). But current attendees are not inviting and the answer many churches arrive at is a professional presentation (advertising blitz) of our church will help them to get over the fear of inviting.

I wonder if in God’s great wisdom the best thing for churches is that the advertising campaigns are not successful. Why would I say such a thing? First if the tools worked, as we dream and pray they would, the churches would be unprepared for the influx of needs, questions, and growth opportunities that this mass of people would bring. They would simply overwhelm the systems of many churches.

Second, they would enjoy a great service but would they be able to engage in a helpful and meaningful way through the rest of the churches’ growth processes? The discipleship systems many churches have in place are not exceptional at producing disciples who actively engage others.

This goes back to the initial problem. People are not active and engaged enough in the community to provide the large scale introduction to their church. Again the problem is that churches’ internal systems are not actively producing, on a large scale, disciples who are impacting their world in a way that causes others to come and see why they are the way they are. It is not an informational problem, it is a discipleship problem.

Why Words Fail Us

The complaint was the answer. To have heard myself make it was to be answered. Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, "Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or nothing less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole are and joy of words." A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods to not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis

The reworking of the classical myth of Cupid and Pshche

Attractional Ministry

I would argue that this ‘attractional mission’, while effective for a few, is actually a case of putting the cart before the horse. Deciding on a form of church and then trying to make it so that people want to come is mission in reverse.

From Backyardmissionary.com's article on "incarnational" and "attractional" models of ministry.

Worship Matters

A people's lives are only as good as their worship. The temple in Jerusalem was the architectural evidence of the importance of God in the life of the people. All the lines of life crisscrossed in the temple. Meaning was established there. Values were created there. Worship defines life. If worship is corrupt, life will be corrupt. For fifty-five years lust and violence in the temple had percolated into the streets and homes and villages of the nation. Josiah began by cleaning up the temple.

Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson

The Unknown Parts of God

Yesterday as I was driving around town I was pondering the statement, “God wants to be known.” I deeply believe that God does not hide. While He is mysterious, He desires us to know and experience Him through relationship. Jesus’ prayer with the disciples before His crucifixion recorded in John 17 talks about the knowledge of God that comes through relationship.

While I believe in God’s desire to be known, I have an issue with the unknown parts of God’s character. There are things that He has not answered about the way He works and about His character. My assumption that He wants to be known creates a tension with what He has not revealed through His word, His creation, and His community.

I have a couple of options on how to handle this situation. The first is to state that what He has not revealed to us is not important to knowing Him. The questions we have about Him in these areas are not important to understanding Him. The second option is to state that what He has not revealed is not comprehensible to us now either because of sinfulness or how we are created. This means that the boundaries of our humanness will always limit our knowledge of Him.

This forced me back to an assumption in my understanding of God’s desire to be known, does relationship mean a journey to complete knowledge?

The Power of the Blog

Great comments from Seth Godin on the power of blogging.

We Want a Happy Ending

Jeremiah ends inconclusively. We want to know the end, but there is no end. The last scene of Jeremiah's life shows him, as he had spent so much of his life, preaching God's word to a contemptuous people (Jer 44). We want to know that he was finally successful so that, if we live well and courageously, we also will be successful. Or we want to know that he was finally unsuccessful so that , since a life of faith and integrity doesn't pay off, we can get on with finding another means by which to live. We get neither in Jeremiah...In Egypt, he continues determinedly faithful, magnificently courageous, heartlessly rejected-a towering life terrifically lived.

Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

His Model Death

His kingdom society will be shaped not by power-mongering but by self-sacrificing service for one another. In fact, he reveals, his own life will be an absolutely perfect sacrifice and memorable example: He will give his own life as a ransom and as a martyr for them. He will die in order to take their death upon himself, and he will, at the same time, provide a model of how to live - by giving your life for others.

One.Life by Scot McKnight

Can a country holding individualism to be its strongest value survive?

It ultimately relates to the fundamental unit in human society, which is the family. Individualism is an expression of the selfish ego, a reflection of the radically autonomous person that leaves no room for the family and the corresponding virtues of society. My coauthor and I disagree with the conclusion that self-interest has been the deciding force in human affairs. Rather, we believe that altruism and the willingness to create a family have been the deciding force. The family provides citizens with a commitment to the future. The society that celebrates the individual over the family is a society in decay; it is overwhelmed by aggressive selfishness.

Quote found in Family Matters: An Interview with Allan Carlson, President of the Howard Center by Bernard Chapin from Salvo On-Line.

 

Can a country country holding individualism to be its strongest value survive?

It ultimately relates to the fundamental unit in human society, which is the family. Individualism is an expression of the selfish ego, a reflection of the radically autonomous person that leaves no room for the family and the corresponding virtues of society. My coauthor and I disagree with the conclusion that self-interest has been the deciding force in human affairs. Rather, we believe that altruism and the willingness to create a family have been the deciding force. The family provides citizens with a commitment to the future. The society that celebrates the individual over the family is a society in decay; it is overwhelmed by aggressive selfishness.

Quote found in Family Matters: An Interview with Allan Carlson, President of the Howard Center by Bernard Chapin from Salvo On-Line.

High School and Beyond

I get to lead the graduating seniors during their Bible Fellowship Group time this Sunday. We are going to look at the topic of Discovering God's Will. I think I may use this quote:

Also imagine a world, Jesus tells us, where there are ultimate consequences for what we do. Imagine a world where the reality hits home that some folks ruin their potential by ignoring the kingdom vision of Jesus. They get all exited about the dream vision of Jesus when they are in high school but fail to do anything about it in college and beyond, because they think it is too demanding. Or maybe they fool themselves in to chasing sex and drugs and drunkenness and money and fame and possessions and power, but fail to see that the Desire Dream and Dollars Dream fade fast. And they don't even care.

Jesus wants his listeners to imagine a world where the one who wins at the end is the one who lets the kingdom seed take deep root and lets the Kingdom.Life shape all of life.

One.Life by Scot McKnight

Why the End Matters

Christian theological claims about providence and anthropology are devoid of any meaningful content in the absence of eschatology. If there is no given telos, as opposed to a projected goal or objective, then the temporal acts of ordering creation are literally pointless meanderings, because they lack any point of reference for determining a direction over time.There is no eventual destination beyond the horizon only infinitely more horizons. If there is no given end, then providence is a vacuous doctrine, for there is no created order that can be said to unfold over time, and human acts are reduced to creative self-assertions, because there are no temporal trajectories with which humans may align their desires and will. Without an operative destiny, we remain enslaved to an infinite regress of historical cultural construction and posthuman self-creation.

From Human to Posthuman by Brent Waters

The Perfect Family

The perfect family, if there is such a thing, is not an idealized nuclear unit of consumption, but an inclusive, warm, inviting environment where people can get a glimpse of true community, and therefore of heaven ...This is no family-first approach as we now conceive it. Rather, for disciples, it must be Jesus first and all things in relation to Him.

"Refocusing on the Family" by Alan and Debra Hirsch from neue magazine.

Following Jesus

Acceptance of Jesus and reading the Bible, having personal prayer times, and going to church are all good Christian things. Make no mistake about that. But Jesus did not frame things this way...Jesus wanted people to know the Bible...so they could follow him more closely and know him more deeply and live for him more completely. In other words, he wanted people to follow him, and the only way we can follow him is to take up his kingdom vision and let it shape everything we do.

One.Life by Scot McKnight

 

 

One's Whole Life

He had theologically refined the Christian life as something active, not reactive. It had nothing to do with avoiding sin or with merely talking or teaching or believing theological notions or principles or rules or tenets. It had everything to do with living one's while life in obedience to God's call through action. It did not merely require a mind, but a body too. It was God's call to be fully human...

About Bonhoeffer from Mataxas biography on Bonhoeffer

Freedom from Guilt

Bonhoeffer knew that to live in fear of incurring " guilt" was itself sinful. God wanted his beloved children to operate out of freedom and joy to do what was right and good, not out of fear of making a mistake. To live in fear and guilt was to be "religious" in the pejorative sense that Bonhoeffer so often talked and preached about.He know that to act freely could mean inadvertently doing wrong and incurring guilt. In fact, he felt that living this way meant that it was impossible to avoid incurring guilt, but if one wished to live responsibly and fully, one would be willing to do so.

About Bonhoeffer from Mataxas biography on Bonhoeffer

I am a Pastor

In the secularizing times in which I am living, God is not taken seriously. God is peripheral. God is nice (or maybe not so nice) but not at the center. When people want help with their parents or children or emotions, they do not ordinarily see themselves as wanting help with God. But if I am going to stay true to my vocation as a pastor, I can’t let the “market” determine what I do. I will find ways to pray with and for people and teach them to pray, usually quietly and often subversively when they don’t know I am doing it. But I am not going to wait to be asked. I am a pastor.

from Eugene Peterson's memoir The Pastor

There is a great review of the book at the Internet Monk.

Congregations Matter

Many congregations are in significant decline. For a lot of people, the congregation is little more than a haven in a heartless world, a dispenser of religious goods and services to individuals. Nevertheless, it is still populated by the people of God.

God chooses to create new futures in the most inauspicious of places. Through the Incarnation, we discover that God's future is at work not where we tend to look but among the people we write off as dead or powerless to make things different.

If the Spirit has been poured out in the church - the church as it is, not some ideal type - then we are compelled to believe that the Spirit of God is at work and alive among the congregations of America. Congregations matter. But they need leaders with the skills to cultivate an environment in which the Spirit-given presence of God's future may emerge among the people of God.

The Missional Leader by Roxburgh and Romanuk

When Truth is the Enemy of Truth

When theologians throw out anomalies that threaten their paradigms, they respect their interpretation of truth more than truth, or worse, believe their interpretation of truth is actually truth. They use terms like Biblical and heretic to convince themselves and others that their interpretation is the real truth and others are a threat to “the gospel” or to God Himself. This sort of language isn’t helpful or respectful of anomalies, not to mention it’s behavior indicates a genuine intellectual threat that should be taken seriously, not dismissed as heresy.

From When Truth is the Enemy of Truth by Donald Miller

Prayer, Spiritual Formation, and Ministry

A leading man in the Confessing Church recently said to me: “We have no time for meditation now, the ordinands should learn how to preach and to catechize.” That seems to me either a complete misunderstanding of what young theologians are like today or a culpable ignorance of how preaching and catechism come to life. The questions that are seriously put to us today by young theologians are : How do I learn to pray? How do I learn to read the Bible? If we cannot help them there we cannot help them at all. And there is really nothing obvious about it. To say, “If someone does not know that, then he should not be a minister” would be to exclude most of us from our profession. It is quite clear to me that all these things are only justified when alongside them and with them - at just the same time!-there is really serious and sober theological, exegetical and dogmatic work going on. Otherwise all these questions are given the wrong emphasis.

From a letter that Bonhoeffer wrote to Barth. Quoted from the Mataxas biography on Bonhoeffer

From Lostness to Adventure

The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly. There is little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities but not saints. Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs...

All the same, we continue to have an unquenchable thirst for wholeness, a hunger for righteousness. When we get thoroughly disgusted with the shams and cretins that are served up to us daily as celebrities, some of us turn to Scripture to satisfy our need for someone to look up to....

When we do turn to Scripture for help in this matter we are apt to be surprised. One of the first things that strikes us about the men and women in Scripture is that they were disappointingly  non-heroic. We do not find splendid moral examples. We do not find  impeccably virtuous models...It refuses to feed our lust for hero worship. It will not pander to our adolescent desire to join a fan club. The reason is, I think, clear enough.

Fan clubs encourage secondhand living...Something very different takes place in the life of faith: each person discovers all the element of a unique and original adventure..The Bible makes it clear that every time that there is a story of faith, it is completely original. God's creative genius is endless.

Run with the Horses by Eugene H. Peterson

How infighting will kill the Church

Most of my friends who no longer attend church, and the majority of my friends no longer attend, have left over petty arguments about theology. It’s not that they left because people didn’t agree with them, they actually left because they got tired of hearing other people argue about their interpretation of scripture. They wanted to talk and learn, and a very small group of people simply wanted to dominate the conversation with something they discovered last year when they read a book. These friends don’t mind subscribing to a theological grid, they just got tired of all the jabbing...

Finish the article here: How infighting will kill the Church by Donald Miller

The Meaning of Love

On this day where there is much talk about love, it is good to be reminded what love truly means!

The Danger of Dancing Too Closely

How the German Christians justified twisting and bending the traditionally accepted meaning of the Scriptures and the doctrines of the church is complicated…There’s little question that the liberal theological school of Schleiermacher and Harnack helped push things along in this direction. But the other piece of this puzzle has to do with the confusion that inevitable arises when the Christan faith becomes too closely related to a cultural or national identity. For many Germans, their national identity had become so melted together with whatever Lutheran Christan faith they had that it was impossible to see either clearly. After four hundred years of taking for granted that all Germans were Lutheran Christians, no one really knew what Christianity was anymore.

Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

The Kingdom of God, Grace, and Discipleship

Dallas Willard talks about the kingdom of God and the role of grace in the life of the believer and non-believer.

Welcoming Spirit

The world seems to become more dangerous every day....Because we have been welcomed into the love of Christ and received as dearly loved children, we can offer the world a place of safety and healing. We can incarnate the welcoming heart of God for the world. God welcomes stranger, inviting them to share his home and get to know his family.
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Calhoun

Great Quotes from Bonhoeffer

I am reading Eric Metaxas biography of Bonhoeffer. It is a fantastic work and I just had to share some of these great quotes.

Where a people prays, there is the church, and where the church is; there is never loneliness.

Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.

Commenting on race relations in the 1920s:

The separation of whites from blacks in the southern states really does make a rather shameful impression....It is a bit unnerving that in a country with so inordinately many slogans about brotherhood, peace, and so on, such things still continue completely uncorrected.

Science and Theology

Science and theology lie at the opposite ends of a spectrum of rational human enquiry into reality. At the scientific end is the realm of impersonal experience; at the theological end is the realm of the experience of the transpersonal. In between lie the realms of human personal encounter with reality, which are the subjects of disciplines such as aesthetics and ethics. The whole spectrum of enquiry makes up the rich many-stranded texture of human knowledge, surveying the encounter with the multi-levelled reality of the one world of human experience.

from Science and Theology by John Polkinghorne

Stay Clear

"I also would have steered clear of politics. I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do that now."

Billy Graham answering the question on what he would do different.