A New Language for Christians?

MOVED

2010-06-30T15:36:00.000-05:00

This blog has moved to Evangelical Monk Come and visit some time. Thanks

Being Single - Concluding Thoughts

2010-06-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

As I was doing some sitting and reflecting on concluding these posts of singleness and marriage, a conversation with my friend who pastors in the St. Louis area came to mind. He noted how he was with a group of servants and the closeness and intimacy that existed for that time with them. He also noted that the intimacy then was equal to the intimacy he has with his wife. Then he nailed it for

ViralHope

2010-06-16T15:44:00.000-05:00

Great read. For what it's worth, highly recommended. JR Woodward, who I think it would be appropriate to label a missional thinker gathered a number of blog responses to his request for a summary of the Good News as if the contributor's local newspaper were to publish the summary. The result is this text of 50 responses. Those responses are neatly wrapped with a foreword by Scot McKnight and

Being Single, Being Whole - Part 3

2010-06-11T13:57:00.001-05:00

I guess the million dollar question is why do we seem to have such a drive toward marriage? There are indications that it is the script written from tradition - be it the normal for our culture or for some mix of economic, emotional, spiritual and religious reasons (as well as legal reasons when you include the same-sex union issue or unfortunately there are a number who seek marriage for

Going Deeper - Singleness and Joy - Part 2

2010-06-08T12:43:00.001-05:00

From the last 2 blogs you may have a sense of the views I’m raising here. First and foremost, that singleness is a valid state of being for believers, and marriage, in and of itself, while equally valid, is not an ideal Christians should seek or hope to attain for any sense of wholeness or becoming complete. In the post prior to that I talked about having a sense of joy. For the Israelites

Going Deeper - Being Single, Being Whole - Part 1

2010-06-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

Another great sermon from Matthew this past Sunday and he tackled a controversial topic, for some, as to that word in Ephesians 5:22 - submit. While the sermon was remarkably well-considered, and was not intended or designed, as far as I could see, to consider the question of marriage and singleness as proper states of being, the context seemed to suggest joy and fulfillment were the gifts to

Obedience, Joy and Good Works - part 1

2010-06-04T12:04:00.001-05:00

A lyric from one of my favorite singers, Michael Card, goes, "There is a joy in the journey. There's a light we can love on the way. There is a wonder and wildness to life. And freedom for those who obey." For many I suppose that first line catches them as there is joy in the journey with Christ. But for some reason that last line caught me. Is there really freedom, if not joy, in obedience?

Violence within the Christian Community

2010-05-25T20:49:00.002-05:00

I have heard it said that John 3:16 is the most well-known verse of the Christian Scriptures. While leaving for another day the question of what this says about our evangelistic aims and successes, maybe there is another verse that deserves to be brought to the forefront. In all of the Synoptics, there is a verse that Jesus offered up as the greatest commandment – love the Lord your God and love

Salvation

2010-05-24T09:35:00.001-05:00

"How does God decide who receives the gracious gift of salvation?" That provocative question was raised in a blog posting over at Jesus Creed. David answered this question later in his post when he acknowledged "The final judgment is God's prerogative alone." To speculate on the parameters, in my view, threatens to do violence to others and undermines the mission of the Church. The aim may be

On Being a Community of Grace on the Island of Misfit Toys

2010-05-09T15:24:00.002-05:00

A while ago I asked the question, “If small groups are the answer, what is the question?” I was reading the latest text by Miroslav Volf, Against the Tide: Love in a Time of Petty Dreams and Persisting Enmities (a great read), when I came to his essay, “Negative Externality.” The line that caught me was, “Jesus’ ministry, of which the treatment of children is a paradigmatic case, presupposes

Function and Worth

2010-05-07T06:21:00.003-05:00

A dear friend of mine and I were talking about a sermon he was preparing and a critique he received was that he seemed to be making Jesus out as somehow lesser than the Father - part of his references were to Jesus being obedient to the Father. For me the narrative in John 8 comes to mind, “I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” (John 8:28b ESV) So for some

That Sin Thing - Jennifer Knapp

2010-04-30T13:11:00.001-05:00

I have been following some great discussions about sin, and in particular, the sin of homosexuality. Now if there is an explosive hot button issue that seems to be it. David Fitch has been blogging on a missional approach to the GLBT circumstance as a third way to the Neo-Reformed and the emerging strands of doing church. I have been contrasting that with the discussion about Jennifer Knapp (

Going Deeper Loving and Being Loved

2010-04-27T21:31:00.003-05:00

If small groups are the answer, what is the question? In another of his powerful sermons, Matthew pointed us to John 13:34, "You must love each other, just as I have loved you." (CEV). Matthew then directed us to take a step deeper by asking who are these "each others." Paul enfleshes that commandment of Jesus in Galatians 6:10, "Every time we get a chance, let us work for the benefit of all

Going Deeper - Serving and Eating Books

2010-04-20T13:24:00.002-05:00

Is anyone hungry?In a remarkable vision, the Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel was told to eat a very particular item. In the 3rd chapter of his text, we read: " 1The LORD said, "Ezekiel, son of man, after you eat this scroll, go speak to the people of Israel." 2-3He handed me the scroll and said, "Eat this and fill up on it." So I ate the scroll, and it tasted sweet as honey." (CEV)Scott

Going Deeper: The Marathon Man and the Church

2010-04-13T15:15:00.001-05:00

Unless you are older than say about 40 years you may not have seen a classic drama movie starring a young Dustin Hoffman and Lawrence Olivier. In a famous scene, Olivier, portraying a Nazi war criminal who is attempting to retrieve his diamonds, suspecting any effort to get them from the safety deposit box is a trap and that Hoffman has information about any surveillance, tortures Hoffman by

Is this what He died for? The gay man and the Samaritan.

2010-04-04T06:02:00.002-05:00

Let us re-imagine the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The landscape is a land divided and Jesus is hard to find. The priest is now a pastor in a well-known, orthodox church nearby. The Levite has become a CEO of a large and also well-known parachurch organization specializing in helping the widow and the orphan. The man riding on the bicycle is the person who sits next to you in

Going Deeper Living in the Paradise

2010-03-30T20:29:00.003-05:00

In another wonderful sermon this past Sunday, Matthew recounted for us that powerful image of Jesus on the Cross. As our Lord heard the thief denounce the doubting thief, and ask Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom, the Lord assures him that this day, the thief would be with Jesus. Notice the timing of all of this. Jesus had not yet risen, that is Easter, this was what we call

GOING DEEPER WITH FORGIVENESS

2010-03-23T13:20:00.003-05:00

As we approach Easter, Matthew's sermon last Sunday pointed us directly to that ultimate act of forgiveness, the Cross of Christ. In order to go a little bit deeper, maybe looking at the place of forgiveness for people who have come to faith in Christ will be helpful. Somehow it seems like we believers in this post modern culture have forgotten the necessity of forgiveness as a Christian

FRUSTRATION AT THE INTERSECTION OF THEOLOGY, ORTHODOXY AND MISSIONAL

2010-03-20T12:37:00.003-05:00

At times the frustration level is high. An admission, I enjoy theology a great deal. Maybe that is something God had in mind when He called me over a decade ago in my middle years. I have this sense that if we are to be a people living for and by Jesus, on the ground, that is in the concreteness of living in this world every day, we must come to an understanding of what it means to be a

Missional and Inclusivity

2010-03-13T16:19:00.004-06:00

I was reading the comments to a blog post on Reclaiming the Mission about a missional understanding of inclusivity. The points made in the main post were pretty well thought out and the conclusion was powerful - regarding forming a posture of inclusion, as opposed to developing a concept of inclusion. Does away with my concern for the inherent tendency, in my view, of over-intellectualizing

Going Deeper - Great Risks

2010-03-08T19:33:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Rev. Jordan for his sermon this past Sunday. He had me doing a continuous amen! As I sought to do for last week's sermon, I hope to go a step deeper and do some thinking about how to make the discipline part of everyday life and not just a Sunday worship thing, or for that matter, a practice that comes out only in times of crisis.If I understood Rev. Jordan correctly, if our purpose

Going Deeper in Pray (2/28/2010)

2010-03-01T11:25:00.002-06:00

Another great sermon from Matthew (2/28) on great prayer. The 4 points about prayer are awesome and clearly direct our focus when praying. What I hope to do is to maybe take a step deeper into the topics as they come, and reflect a little on how to make the discipline a part of everyday life. For isn’t that the real issue, making what we learn something that spreads out from Sunday morning

Doing Church

2010-02-24T15:51:00.002-06:00

Philip Yancey quotes a Paul Tournier, a Swiss physician and pastoral counselor, who observed, "there are two things we cannot do alone, one is being married and the other is to be a Christian." While acknowledging that this is not necessarily the same as doing church, I get the feeling that Tournier was indeed suggesting being the body is essential to being Christian. Yet, gaining a great deal

Walking and Good Works -

2010-02-11T16:35:00.001-06:00

A little late in coming but here goes. What if we didn’t really concern ourselves with the idea of what we were going to be doing was a good work or not? What if we took the position that we are going to walk as the Holy Spirit directs us? Now that does raise the question of discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit as opposed to what our internal voice wants us to do – that I will get to in

Sincerely Walking with Christ

2009-12-01T13:36:00.001-06:00

Mike's sermon on the 15th was great. I'm sure people who heard it had a different takeaway. For me what had me thinking, and still has, was the point about a sincere walk with Christ, and part and parcel of that walk is the question of good works. Sometimes I get this haunting feeling that our focus on good works misses the mark, and particularly as it has to do with our walking with Christ.

Marriage

2009-05-27T09:17:00.005-05:00

Has anyone seen the new statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control? According to that report 40% of births were to unmarried women and only 23% of those were to unmarried teens. Wow, does this seem to suggest that as its the older women and no marriage - at least at the time of the pregnancy (guess the idea that a later marriage followed would be something of significance) - the

Covenant Marriage as Ascriptural Event (Part Four)

2009-02-10T21:28:00.007-06:00

Is it possible a significant question to be asked during the wedding ceremony, at the time of the exchange of vows, is do you pledge to always consider what is best for the other regardless of the cost to yourself? As a follower of Christ, can there be any other question? Maybe the ceremony is simply a beginning to a lifetime adventure to discover the depths of the vows that were exchanged.

Covenant Marriage as Ascriptural Event (Part Three)

2009-02-10T21:12:00.004-06:00

Romance is fleeting. David Matzko-McCarthy observes love remains the key ingredient leading to marriage, in his Sex and Love in the Home at 153, “two people meet, and they fall in love. Their love sticks so that they see marriage as the logical and inevitable next step. This story continues to be the predominant narrative of marital connection.” Matzko-McCarthy goes on to note the danger of

Covenant Marriage as Ascriptural Event (Part Two)

2009-02-09T21:19:00.003-06:00

Marriage today in the United States is a decidedly secular event. In line with the analysis of Berkhof, marriage as covenant, even within a Scriptural context, is a mutual voluntary agreement between two people, and in keeping with social, moral and legal understandings current today, when one party breaks that mutual voluntary agreement, the other party feels free to terminate that agreement.

Covenant Marriage as Ascriptural Event (Part One)

2009-02-09T21:10:00.011-06:00

In this reflection, I hope to demonstrate some of the more practical aspects of language and its formative power.Shortly before the turn from the 20th Century, a wave of efforts emerged, beginning in Louisiana to be followed by Arkansas and Arizona, which created a new legal category of marriage - the covenant marriage. While to date it appears the movement is stalling, a boost to the potential

Our Language - A Turning Point

2009-01-17T21:33:00.000-06:00

So far a couple of things to keep in mind. First, in some way there is something about Christianity and relationships that needs to be examined. Second, the language we speak has a power and authority well beyond its obvious use as our means of communicating with each other. Our language not only is the means and method of communicating with others and interacting with our world, it also, most

Locating Our Language - Rights (Part Two)

2009-01-16T08:14:00.002-06:00

That second point concerns the individualism of Americans. To get an understanding I think we have to go back, as in Part One, to the formation of this country. As noted earlier in these posts we the people have defined what we believe are essential rights or at least we have set out the broad outlines of what we believe are essential in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Locating our Language - Rights (Part One)

2009-01-14T08:40:00.001-06:00

There is a third aspect to our language to be considered. Recall in the discussion of contracts, the idea of social contract. That is, we give up our rights, or some of them, for the purpose of allowing a central authority control to enable us to form a society. A couple of thoughts are important here. First, we do not necessarily give up rights qua rights so much as grant that central

Locating Our Language - Contracts

2009-01-09T17:36:00.012-06:00

By thinking and speaking in economic metaphors, we, by the very force of our use of those terms, begin to see our world as contractural. If we think about it we are surrounded by contractual relationships - our homes, our cars, our jobs, etc. We buy products on the basis of contracts. A key component of capitalism is the formation of value-laden contractual relationships (labor, materials,

Locating Our Language - Economics (Part Two)

2009-01-01T19:47:00.013-06:00

We have already seen that there is power in words and ultimately our language. I suspect we will find that our language is shaped by the culture we inhabit as well as that culture being molded by our language - a perfect symbiotic relationship.S.I. Hayakawa, in his classic Language in Thought and Action at 11, observed "words - the way he uses them and the way he takes them when spoken by others

Locating Our Language - Economics (Part One)

2008-12-27T21:25:00.006-06:00

Earlier the question was whether the faithful have lost our language. I'm not sure I am at the point of being able to suggest an answer, because a preliminary question to be asked is what language do we speak. If we listen, I think we will hear a lot of economic speak. That is economic metaphors are sprinkled throughout our daily use of language. So the questions I was asking: do we really

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T05:49:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas to all.John 1:14 - The Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood. He came not only to atone for the sins of humanity, as awesome as that was and is, but also to teach us, guide us and show us that narrow path and He gave us a new commandment - love one another as He has loved us. Let that be a truth, a fact, that fills each of us today and each day we are given on this

A Rabbit Trail - Violence in the Old Testament

2008-12-19T10:31:00.004-06:00

Have you been somewhat concerned with the seemingly excessive violence in the Old Testament narratives on the conquest of Canaan? That was a question raised in a recent discussion at Church. As I understand the situation, the standard Evangelical response is that God exercised His sovereign will and executed judgment on an evil people. We moderns then have an objection to the killing of the

Have We Lost Our Language?

2008-12-19T07:40:00.005-06:00