Category: CHRISTianity

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Missionaries & Democracy

Pam pointed this article out to me and it is quite cool. Robert Woodberry has done compelling research indicating a connection between non-state supported, conversion focused missionaries and the development of the elements of strong democracies. To quote Woodberry:

Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.

Cool thing is that these conversionary missionaries (Woodberry’s term for evangelistic missionaries) brought with them the desires for social justice and education that led to greater freedom and stability for those countries whose people they were trying to reach. The missionaries’ influence planted the seeds that decolonized the colonies they went to. This speaks of a kingdom priority that was different from the nations the missionaries came from. The article discusses some of the statistics associated with his research. I’m interested enough that I will have to find more that he has written.

You should read the entire article. It is quite interesting. Here’s Christianity Today‘s article discussing Woodberry’s work. I just found Woodberry’s original article here and will be reading it after I finish Miroslav Volf’s Embrace & Exclusion (which could be a while because while it is great, it is also not a page turner).

I would be intrigued to hear what my missionary (talking about you Andy & Arnold) and political science (talking about you Kirby & Clint) friends think about this.

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Ting & Evangelism

Earlier today I had an email conversation with a friend concerning the cell phone company I swapped to about 4 months ago. The company is Ting and I really like them a lot. My experience with them has been very positive which is saying something for cell phone companies. In fact, the only cell phone experience I have that would top my experience with Ting is when my friend Devon was the manager of our local Sprint reseller. Devon was, and is, a friend and my experience with him was great. My experience with Sprint was mhem. So Ting is up there with a personal friend. If you are a friend of mine in Point there is a good chance that I have mentioned Ting to you because I enjoy talking about things, people, and companies that I believe in. It is the same reason that during conversations with new people I mention my wife (everyone should know her because she is great), or encourage people to fish the Wisconsin River (Point’s fishing is amazing), or tell people that Emy J’s has the best coffee in town, or finally if you are a journal users (or a chocolate lover) then you should go to the Paper Doll and say “hi” to Mary. I naturally like to recommend people and things that I think are great for life. Ting is just another example of this.

Anyhow my email conversation with my friend centered around what I liked about Ting and how he could start using Ting. If this had been a religious conversation this would have been called evangelism. That is all evangelism is, sharing your experience with Christ and helping someone else to figure out how to start their relationship with Jesus. So often we make it so difficult when it should simply be an enjoyable conversation about someone who has changed your life. I don’t really know how to program a phone to connect with the Ting network but I don’t have to know how to do that. The reps at Ting with help my friend with connecting a phone. All I did was talk about a service that I found helpful. You don’t have to know everything bout Christ, in fact, no one does.You just need to know some of what He has done for you and share it with those around you. Others can help with more detailed theological stuff.

I once heard evangelism described as an enjoyable conversation about the One who is most important to you (if you are a Christian). I like that definition.

Truth in blogging moment here – I do get a referral credit from Ting if my friend swaps. If you look at Ting and decide to swap I would much appreciate you using this link (https://zd66pl1ta93.ting.com/).

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Anselm on Remembering via the Imago Dei

I acknowledge, Lord, and I give thanks that you have created in me this your image, so that I can remember you, think about you and love you. But it is so worn away by sins, so smudged over by the smoke of sins, that it cannot do what it was created to do unless you renew and reform it. I do not even try, Lord, to rise up to your heights, because my intellect does not measure up to that task; but I do want to understand in some small measure your truth, which my heart believes in and loved. Nor do I seek to understand so that I can believe, but rather I believe so that I can understand. For I believe this too, that “unless I believe I shall not understand

Anselm, Proslogion, Chapter 1.

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Disciples Stop Loitering

I saw this tweet today and the photo made me laugh.

Last night at Tapestry we talked about the church in Philippi beginning through God using Paul and Silas to disrupt people’s lives and point to them to a better kingdom. The story of the gospel is God’s kingdom versus all the other kingdoms of the world. For all my friends who are “threads” and followers of Christ, I hope you remember that disciples aren’t allowed to loiter. Or to quote the angel’s response to the Apostles when Jesus was taken into Heaven after His resurrection:

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:11

Yes this verse talks about the return of Christ but it has implications about loitering also. You see for the past few days I have been humming to myself Bill Wither’s classic song “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Why? Well because it is my normal train of thought when Pam is gone on a trip and Pam just went on a whirlwind trip to Portland & Seattle. Don’t worry, I don’t get all depressed when Pam is gone, though after a day or two I do definitely miss her. I just really like Bill Wither’s song and I am always reminded of it when Pam is gone. Anyhow she gets back tonight and that means that the already liveable house will be super cleaned tonight before she gets home.

I don’t do this because I have too and the house doesn’t look like a bachelor pad or anything right now anyhow. It is already basically clean. It is just that when Pam walks in I always want the house to be specially clean. I want her to not only be excited about seeing me, the boys, and most importantly her cat (maybe even a little excited about seeing the dogs). I also want her be excited about the fact that the laundry is done, the kitchen has been mopped, the bathrooms are clean, and the sheets have been washed. I want her to walk in and think “Wow!” The fact that she is returning tonight makes me want to work because it is another way I can show her that I love her.

So disciples, why are you loitering? Don’t you know that he is coming back? Don’t just stand around looking up in the air. Get to work being a part of His disruptive kingdom.

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The Teaching of the Twelve

While you may not have heard of the didache (the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) you should read it. You can do so here. The Didache is a pastoral document from the mid to late 1st century. It was quite possibly written as early as 40 AD. It is a great look into the early church and it doesn’t take very long to read. Maybe 20 minutes. It covers the way of life and the way of death, baptism, fasting, the Lord’s Supper, and the ethical thought of the 1st century church. The Didache is a great look into what was important to the earliest followers of Jesus. Therefore, as modern followers of Jesus we should look into what our fore-fathers and fore-mothers thought.

Billy Crystal grooves a little.
Billy Crystal grooves a little.

SIDE NOTE – watching Chuck with the oldest boy-child and the show has one of the catchiest, grooviest theme songs that has ever been on TV. It is really hard not to kick into the white man’s overbite whenever it comes on. It is a fun show also but right now I can’t get the theme song out of my head.

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Hope versus Hoaxes

hoax copy

I love Jurgen Moltmann and I love this quote from him.

The reason I post this quote tonight is because I just read a blog post that made me think of it. You should go to “Reason for Change” (a blog I haven’t read before but will start reading, if for no other reason than its wonderful tag line, “theology isn’t science; it’s art”) and read Jayson Bradley’s wonderful post “4 Reasons Christians Need to Quit Sharing Hoaxes.” Bradley does a great job of pointing out some reasons that many Evangelical Christians need to stop acting like idiots and posting ludicrous hoax posts on the web and especially their social media sites. For example, the Pastor Jeremiah Steepek hoax that is going around right now. It didn’t happen. It would have been great if it had been presented as a parable. Instead it was presented as a fact and that makes it a lie since it didn’t really happen. Really all you have to do is do a quick search on Google and you can quickly determine what posts are hoaxes. In my example a quick Google reveals that Pastor Jeremiah Steepek doesn’t exist anywhere else on the web except for pages telling this same story. That’s a pretty good sign it is fake but snopes it honest enough to call it undetermined as of right now. If it is undetermined then perhaps you shouldn’t post it until you can figure out if it is real or not. It doesn’t take a research specialist to figure this stuff out. Snopes people. Just go to snopes. If it isn’t important enough for you to do some research on the subject then it isn’t important enough for you to post about it.

Anyhow, Bradley’s second reason Christians shouldn’t post about hoxes is that “they spread fear.” He has this wonderful paragraph explaining what he means.

The Christian message to the world isn’t, “Hey, look how bad things are!” It’s “take heart, He has overcome the world!” We don’t have to share every sensational and scary story—especially when their truth is suspect.

That paragraph was what pointed me back to the Moltmann quote. The good news of Jesus Christ is centered on hope not fear. Hope is the tool of God. Fear is the tool of those who cling to this present age. Hope transforms and resurrects. Fear destroys and inhibits. Hope creates. Fear terminates. Jesus calls His followers to operate out of His hope not out of fear. So why are many Evangelicals spreading hoaxes of fear? Doesn’t seems like a good way to live out our faith in the One Who brings hope to the hopeless.

So come on people. Don’t be stupid. Google these things before you post them.

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Power & the Church

I might blog more about this later but I thought I would at least put down these 4 ideas. As I have mentioned before I am reading (actually I’ll finish it tonight) Daniel Migliore’s book “The Power of God and the gods of Power” and I am really enjoying it. As you can probably guess from the title the book is about the difference between God’s powers and the other powers. All of us are actors with power and subjects of power. For those of us who are followers of Jesus our relation to how we use power and are affected by the use of power on us should be shaped by our faith in Christ.

One of the things that Migliore discusses is power in the church. He quotes Karl Barth in saying that nature of the life, structure, and preaching of the church should be a reminder and promise “that there is already on earth a community who order is based on that great alteration of the human situation.”1 In other words when those outside view the church they should see an example of the One Whose “power is made perfect in weakness,” rather than an organization that functions with the same power dynamics as any other organization around it. So Migliore asked what the use of power in the church should look like. He suggests these four examples of the the church using power in a manner that points to the kingdom of God.2

  1. It would be a church of participants rather than a church made up of passive observers.
  2. It would be a church in which leadership would be a matter of service rather than prerogative.
  3. It would be a church whose mission centered not on itself but on God’s coming reign inaugurated in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ.
  4. It would be a church that knew it was called to deal differently and noncoercively with the issues of the exercise of power in the community.

I don’t really have time to write my thoughts on each of these right now (I have to change the alternator in Fred, run, map out replacing an outside step, and prepare to go see the Mid-State Sisters of Skate with Noah tonight) but I will say two things. First, I was and am amazed by these four statements considering power in the church. When I read them all I could think was “Dang It!” Second, I think Tapestry would rate pretty good based on those four statements. The key is to make sure we always do. That will take trust and discipline.

SIDE NOTE – Yep I just found a WP plugin that will footnote things for me. I am a big fan of footnotes. Especially content notes. I love content footnotes. I probably should have footnoted this side note. That would have been fun.

  1. Karl Barth, “The Strange New World within the Bible,” in The Word of God and the Word of Man, 28-50. [↩]
  2. Migliore, The Power of God and the gods of Power, 69. [↩]
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3 Backpacks

image

A few weeks ago I wrote about OGIO replacing the backpack that Pam and the boys gave me a few years ago. The zipper was faulty on it and thankfully the the backpack had a lifetime warranty. OGIO was really great about the whole process and they just wanted a certain tag and a logo cut off of the bag. So once I received the replacement bag I thought I would have the other bag fixed for another member of the family. You see Pam, Adam, and Noah all wanted my previous backpack and they were already clamoring for either the new or fixed backpack.

If you doubt me concerning them wanting my backpacks just look at what Pam just tweeted.

Today things became a little more interesting. I pulled into the driveway around lunch and saw a package on our front porch. When I opened it I found inside a new backpack sent to me from the North American Mission Board SEND campaign. Guess what type of bag it was? If you guessed the exact same type of bag as my old OGIO backpack you would be right. Same brand, same model, different color. Woohoo! Thanks NAMB.

Now I just need a 4th cool OGIO backpack to suddenly show up in my life and I will have the whole family covered for the cost of one Father’s Day present several years ago. I love it when a plan comes together … or in this case the plan is just being lucky. I love that too.

SIDE NOTE – I am presently reading Daniel Migliore’s book “The Power of God and the gods of Power” and it is amazing. I read “The Power of God” back during my Masters of Divinity and so enjoyed it that I read everything I could find from Migliore. A few years ago he did a thorough revision of “The Power of God” for this book and it is really good. The only problem with it is that I find myself wanting to highlight and tweet too much of the book. For example:


Good stuff.

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Jambalaya as a Bow & Arrow Experience

Miss Jambalaya

As I posted a few days ago Tapestry provides the teachers and staff of Washington Elementary School a jambalaya lunch on their last day of work each year. We’ve been doing this since we started the church a few years ago. The teachers, and their families, love it. Just look at the picture of the pot above. The photo shows exactly how much jambalaya I took home after the teachers were finished. As I said, they love it. Every time I see a teacher from Washington in public invariably their first statement is “you guys are going to make jambalaya for us again this year, right?” Today there were 8 “threads” that were a part of providing food for this meal. Those of us that were there heard the teachers and staff say “thanks” a ton but I want to make sure that everyone who couldn’t be there knows that those thanks were meant for you too.

But first, an illustration of why I want to make sure everyone else knows those thanks go to them too.

Katniss is nice enough to illustrate my point here. See how the bow and arrow work together.

I have some friends that I love and respect greatly that form a amazing church in Baton Rouge. They have taught me more than I will ever be able to adequately acknowledge. One of the things that they do that I love is that when they talk about missions they use the example of a bow & arrow. It is such a great example. You see the arrow is what hits the target. You could say the arrow is what accomplishes the aim (that’s right I just made a pun). Yet the arrow can’t do anything without the bow. The bow gives the arrow its power. The bow sends the arrow on its mission. The bow and arrow work together.

The Holy Spirit working through the “threads” of Tapestry is the bow. I know all of you can’t make it to a lunch during the work week. You are working. You have responsibilities that don’t allow you to do take off at 10:30 a.m. on a Friday. Still, please remember that you were a very important part of the meal that took place today. Your offerings through the church paid for the jambalaya. Your belief in what we do as a church makes it where people consider it part of my work to make jambalaya rather than just considering it a picnic for me. Some of you even went out of your way to drop off food even though you couldn’t be there. The 8 of us that were there may have been the arrow but God working through all of the “threads” is the bow. Whether you were are Washington today or not God is still working through you and what God is doing through you is powerful and effective.

So this arrow wants to say thanks to all of you for being an amazing bow. Thanks Tapestry for believing in us serving in manners like this and thanks for making it possible!