Mission Lawrence

Renewal From The Roots: Leading Transformation In The Traditional Church

2008-08-07T21:25:00.002-05:00

This is a cordial invitation to one and all on these lists and the friends I've included by carbon copy to attend a special seminar Sept 8 - 11 in Lawrenceburg TN. Please read it. If it's not for you, please forward it to someone who might benefit!

You should only come IF

- You are a pastor, church leader, or church worker interested in the renewal of the traditional church?
- You are sick and tired of being sick and tired with the "status quo" of your church?
- You are desperate to see Christ's church be transformed?
- You know it's MONDAY because you want to quit again
- You get depressed and discouraged when you go to church instead of being encouraged
- You know the solution for your church won't come from trying to "mimic" some mega church down the road

If that's you, you need...

RENEWAL FROM THE ROOTS: LEADING TRANSFORMATION IN THE TRADITIONAL CHURCH

God HAS given you and your church what you need to reach the unreached people groups all around you. Will you seek God until your church is UNLEASHED for His service?

We'll have Evening services for everybody on Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday @ 7 PM & specialized Daytime Leadership Sessions Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday 9 - Noon!

Here are the highlights -

Here's the Evening Meeting Highlights:

God's renewal strategy in your community,

He has a plan for the isolated, insulated, detached, and alienated.

Monday:

Walled communities and divine engagements

Today we are clustered very differently than the family and neighborhood communities of our parent's time – we come together in facebook circles, blog sites, workplace relationships and by shared interests, needs, physical infirmities, and addictions. We are often living in isolated 'walled communities' to which you or I, and perhaps we alone have access. How does Jesus enter into our lives through the walls and boundaries we form? How does He speak through us in these situations?

Tuesday:

Lost Children and Divine Compassion

Detachment disorder is a term often used to describe an affliction of abandoned or orphaned children, but today many of us are 'detached' through circumstances such as divorce or addiction or the isolation of modern life. It is difficult of us to have authentic, trusting relationships. God's heart is broken for his lost children of all ages whom He desires to reclaim for himself. What is His plan?

Wednesday:

911, Responding to the Call

For all the actual 911 calls that are placed for emergency response, there are thousands of 911 calls from the human heart that are never actually dialed. Human crisis is the opportunity for Christ to transform and heal. He always meets us at the point of our deepest need. If we are Christ's first responders, how effective are we? How are you called to respond to the cry of the human heart?

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Here's the agenda for the DayTime Leadership Schedule:
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RENEWAL FROM THE ROOTS: LEADING TRANSFORMATION IN THE TRADITIONAL CHURCH

Tuesday:

God's plan for the church in crisis
*Character of the crisis in the mainline and evangelical church, the bad, the ugly and the unlikely.

*Historic church renewal – a north american grassroots miracle
*At the center of the public square – we are the story
*God's southern strategy and other unlikely special operations

Wednesday:

Transformational leadership through

* The eyes of Jesus
* The voice of God
* The action of the Holy Spirit
*The body of Christ

Thursday:

How to do on the ground renewal with
*Your church
*Where you live
*With those people
* In these times
* Taking it apart and putting it back together to make it work like new.

PLUS - Pastors/Church Leaders/Church Workers - email a history of your church in advance following the outline below for specific tips and concepts to apply to your ministry as a case study during the workshop!

Our leader for the week will be a Team Leader for Vision New England's VISION ONE program for helping every local church reach it's local "unreached people group"

This program is sponsored by the Session of First Presbyterian Church 252 Admiral Circle Lawrenceburg TN 38464

Cost: Those RSVP before September 1st will only be asked for a love offering instead of a set fee. So....Please RSVP to Pastor Chuck Huckaby at the email on the sidebar of this page!

Luke 12: 13 - 21 The Rich Fool

2007-07-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

Read or listen to this Bible Story here.

1. Which of the 10 commandments did Jesus warn about in this Bible Story?

2. What would a day in the life of the Rich Man possibly look like? What would in include? What do you think it would exclude? What appointments would he have? What would be on his "to do" list?

What would the register of his check book or credit card statement reveal? Or lack?

3. Except for the amounts, how does the Rich Fool's schedule and check register look differently than yours?

4. What slogans or "Mottoes" do you think the Rich Man lives by?

5. What does Jesus mean when he says that the man was not "rich towards God?"

No handout available.

The Rich Young Ruler Mark 10: 17 - 22

2007-07-16T10:25:00.000-05:00

The Bible Story for the coming week is the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10: 17 - 22. You may read and hear the story here.

Questions for discussion:

1. Why did Jesus ask "Why do you call me 'good'?" in response to this young man?

2. What does it mean to "inherit" eternal life?

3. Why does Jesus link inheriting eternal life to keeping the commandments? (Suggested readings: Exodus 19,20; Romans 12: 1, 2; Ephesians 2: 1 - 10)

4. Just before Jesus told the man something that made him sorrowful, it said Jesus "loved him". How does that fit in to this story?

5. Though the young man claims to have kept the commandments from his youth, does anything about this passage make you think he was fooling himself?

Bible Story Handouts for this story can be found here. (This handout is based on the text in Luke 18:18-27)

Lazarus Raised July 15, 2007

2007-07-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

The story for the next Lord's Day is that of Lazarus Raised - you may read it or listen to it here John 11: 1 - 44

Questions:

1. Why was Jesus not closer to Bethany?

2. Was Jesus in any danger returning to Bethany? How so?

3. What does this story tell us about Jesus and who He is?

4. Are we too much like Martha is believing God will only work in the distant future?

5. How did the people see the glory of God?

Bible Story Handouts

I am the Door John 10

2007-07-06T08:07:00.001-05:00

The Bible story for July 8, 2007 - John 10: 7 - 18.

You may read and hear the Bible story being read at the link above.

Questions:

1. What are the ways Jesus describes himself in this passage?

2. What do they mean in this Bible Story?

3. What does it mean to "know Jesus" in this passage beginning with verses 14, 15?

4. Where else in the Bible does it talk about "knowing"? (Hint: some places to start: Genesis 4:1, Amos 3:2, Romans 8:28 - 30)

5. What is the alternative to abundant life in Jesus?

6. By whose authority does Jesus lay down his life?

Bible Story Handouts

Plans for the MissionLawrence Site

2007-07-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

I reserved the site name in hopes of developing a county wide mission enterprise based on promoting Bible Studies across the county.

As my interest in Bible Story Telling has grown, the idea has morphed into a network of Bible Studies based on Bible Stories.

Till now the site has hosted my occaisional rants, thoughts, and the general flotsam and jetsom of my mind. The blogosphere doesn't need another one of these blogs!

Now I seek to harness the site to promote Chronological Bible Storytelling here in Lawrence County TN.

Because it will be a public service, I believe I can obtain some free publicity through Christian Radio here.

My intention is to update the site weekly with links to the Bible Story for the week.

Along with each Bible Story will be guided study questions for each Bible Story.

It will link to the scripture text and the scripture actually read by Max McLean since this can be done for free.

Your prayers are solicited for this upgrade and effort to update the MissionLawrence.org site and use it for it's original purpose... saturating a county with the Bible Study groups.

I am indebted to the mission philosophy expressed by these missionaries to Peru for expanding my understanding of the concept of "parish" in presbyterian and reformed terms and as a starting point for a local missions and evangelism strategy.

I must also admit that just as the Apostle Paul hoped to provoke his fellow Jews to a holy jealousy (Romans 11:14), Mission Arlington, started by a "retired" Baptist missionary has provoked me as a reformed minister to jealousy. I hope to visit their operation one day and see it first hand.

Lord have mercy and hear my prayers for your glory in this regard. Amen.

How To Use Mission Lawrence

2007-07-01T10:47:00.000-05:00

Here's how Mission Lawrence is designed to be used.

Each week, Lord willing, we'll post the Bible Story to be studied the following Lord's Day in church

The links in each post let you read and hear the story so you can tell it to others or study it yourself.

The study questions are suggestions to help you think about the Bible Story for the week.

You can learn more about the use of Bible Story Telling here.

If possible, you will want to use the information from that site and books by Rev. H. Jackson and Doris Day to learn how to tell Bible Stories for yourself. If you live near Lawrence County, TN you can participate in any training opportunities available here. Email for more information.

We are creating a network of people to tell Bible Stories locally. This site is designed to help them do that.

Research for Outreach

2007-06-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

I was fortunate enough thanks to God's mercy to have an announcement placed on the local Christian Radio Station.

It made me wonder... just how far did the announcement possibly travel?

That's when I found Radio-Locator.com.

I got this rough map of the station's "reach" geographically. I'm sure you can do the same for your press releases.

I think the "local" reach area is pretty sound. No pun intended.

I don't think it reaches all the blue lined areas except at night maybe. But I'm not travelling too much then.

I think this gives a pretty good estimate of our potential "parish" conceived in its broadest fashion, i.e. the center of our county.

By the way, here's where I draw my understanding of the parish, not the supposed model usually described as "people who owe me a hearing".

Sudan Threatens Soft Drink Industry If Sanctions Imposed

2007-06-02T13:21:00.000-05:00

Corrected Version

In former days, men such as William Carey went without cane sugar because the product benefitted the slave trade.

Today, the world soft drink industry enriches the Sudanese goverment through sales of gum arabic, a key ingredient in the mix.

As a result the Sudanese government threatened to hold drinkers of Coca Cola hostage if sanctions are imposed. (In reality there is no substance to the claim that Coca Cola will suffer according to the article I've linked to, but Pepsi declined to comment!)

How odd that our appetites for soft drinks and oil enrich those who hate the West so much!

I doubt that those who are so passionate about Darfur care enough to stop drinking soft drinks voluntarily to cripple the Sudanese regime if it could be shown to have an impact.

We're all outrage but no action...Our consciences are crippled by our appetites and we have no will to chage. Isn't that the definition of an "addict" when applied to an individual? If so, we have become the "Addict Culture".

On another note, I wonder how many who are so outraged about "Darfur" and "Tibet" and want something to be "done" are also against the "War in Iraq"?

And if not war... what is to be "done"? We can't even stop drinking soft drinks when the sodium benzoate is linked to Parkinson's, premature aging, and liver damage! We want "someone" to take "decisive action" without any personal cost to ourselves or any interruption in our conveniences.

We have no common worldview and as a result can arrive at no common moral consensus.

More Junk Evangelical Concern From Outreach & Evangelism Ezine This Time

2007-05-10T11:31:00.000-05:00

My email box got the latest email from "Outreach" today.

I like to stay informed about outreach opportunities and this has the potential to be a good source of "outside the box" ideas as they say.

But I'm getting sick at the way evangelicals who are desperately in search of "relevance" these days seem to seek that "relevance" at any cost.

We have no internal compass to judge the validity of the world's agenda, so we kow tow to their wisdom at every opportunity it seems.

The latest example of this for me is this article: Whose Earth Is It Anyway? - Outreach & Evangelism

It's about the need to replace all the light bulbs in the church to save the world in Jesus's Name.

It's amazing how Jesus never calculated on the incandescent light bulb as the true barrier to his plans for creating the new heaven and new earth... He just thought sin, death, and the devil were the real problem!

Forgive my sarcasm. But it does get me to my point.

I think American Christians have lost their minds. Or at least their (our) discernment. The "Copenhagen Consensus" (summary chart below) was compiled by secular and environmentalist friendly persons without an axe to grind. They simply asked ... "What gives us the most bang for the buck in addresseing global human needs while bringing demonstrable results?"

On the chart below, you'll see how everything in this article about warming and climate control ranks as a cruel joke to the world's truly needy.

That means our evangelical preoccupation with climate change nonsense is also our participation in a cruel joke on the world's truly needy.

The only thing "addressing global warming" guarantees is the frightening increase of totalitarianism, the greatest mass murderer in human history - if you're not counting the devil, of course.

God help us and give us some perspective on what justice and righteousness really mean - from the Sciptures and not from the pagans of this world.

As an example of why I concur with the Copenhage Consensus, I would ask you to consider the message of this advertisement from Acton Institute. This is where we really need to be devoting our efforts as stewards instead of dupes of the zeitgeist.

For the projected cost of Kyoto in just the year 2010, the biggest health problem facing mankind could be fixed. We could provide clean drinking water and sanitation for every person in the world. Permanently.

Currently one billion people in the world use unsafe sources of drinking water. As a result of this contaminated water and lack of basic sanitation, 4,500 children die each day.

Worrying about deaths from global warming is, at best, a case of misplaced priorities.

Obviously, we can’t ignore any real global warming threats. But, with limited resources, we need to make smart, moral choices about what we do. Technological advancement is the key to controlling environmental pollution. And it takes wealth to make those advancements. If saving lives is our goal, we must advocate policies
that will help developing countries prosper.

Hospital Replaces Crucifix With Mary

2007-05-10T08:03:00.000-05:00

This is both a setback for Protestant/Roman* relations and a setback for Christendom.

A hospital in Milan replaces crucifixes with pictures of Mary to appease Muslims.

For one thing, it is a setback for Protestant/Roman* relations because despite the protests of Rome, especially after Vatican II, that Marian devotion was simply "honor" and "respect" instead of the worship and devotion given to the Triune God, on a practical level, Mary has become part of the Godhead and easily replaces Jesus when the chips are down. This will confirm for many Protestants the latent fear that the "Roman Reformation" of Vatican II was only superficial and that the true affections of Rome are idolatrous and turning away from Jesus Christ.Some will say that on a practical level, Mary is already part of the Roman godhead.

I don't personally believe this to be the case. The Roman communion is too broad to make such a sweeping statement. My point is that the ability to thoughtlessly replace Jesus with Mary by grassroots Romanists will confirm for the average Protestant the lingering suspicion that the agenda of Rome is ultimately worship Mary.

But this is also a setback for Christendom. Christian people in a once Christian land are not free to practice Christianity for fear of the unrest from the followers of a minority religion with a history of violence.

*Note: I do not say "Protestant/Catholic" relations because - as one considered "Protestant" by Rome though I prefer to consider myself evangelical, reformed, and catholic - I confess my belief in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. To qualify "Catholic", a term for universality, with "Roman" a local and juridictional term for the pretensions of the ancient Bishopric of Rome, is to create an oxymoron and absolve "Protestants" of their obligation to pursue catholicity within the bounds of theological integrity.

Tolkien's Christianity and the pagan tragedy

2007-05-03T15:14:00.000-05:00

The link below is an excellent summary of what the Christian writer Tolkien was attempting to do in his work The Lord of the Rings and now in the "Children of Hurin".

Tolkien's Christianity and the pagan tragedy

Tolkien's popular Ring trilogy, I have attempted to show, sought to undermine and supplant Richard Wagner's operatic Ring cycle, which had offered so much inspiration for Nazism. With the reconstruction of the young Tolkien's prehistory of Middle-earth, we discern a far broader purpose: to recast as tragedy the heroic myths of pre-Christian peoples, in which the tragic flaw is the pagan's tribal identity. Tolkien saw his generation decimated, and his circle of friends exterminated, by the nationalist compulsions of World War I; he saw the cult of Siegfried replace the cult of Christ during World War II. His life's work was to attack the pagan flaw at the foundation of the West.

It is too simple to consider Tolkien's protagonist Turin as a conflation of Siegfried and Beowulf, but the defining moments in Turin's bitter life refer clearly to the older myths, with a crucial difference: the same qualities that make Siegfried and Beowulf exemplars to the pagans instead make Turin a victim of dark forces, and a menace to all who love him. Tolkien was the anti-Wagner, and Turin is the anti-Siegfried, the anti-Beowulf. Tolkien reconstructed a mythology for the English not (as Wainwright and other suggest) because he thought it might make them proud of themselves, but rather because he believed that the actual pagan mythology was not good enough to be a predecessor to Christianity.

It's About The Word - Vol 1 - CD and Gift Book [IATW-V1] - $19.95 : It's About The Word

2007-04-30T09:13:00.000-05:00

If people are looking for worshipful resources, this is an excellent one. "It's about the Word" volume 1 has an excellent collection of scripture songs that make for wonderful siging.

I've been looking for a sound that fits our people. Something singable and scriptural that "fits" us culturally. These selections filled the bill and my family got to learn one of them as we sang it together this week.

A friend had given it to another friend. Thankfully there' s 3 more volumes when we're done with this one. It's About The Word - Vol 1 - CD and Gift Book [IATW-V1] - $19.95 : It's About The Word

Dissatisfaction and Yearning Drive Protestants From Church To Church

2007-04-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

From USAToday reports that...

Most of the switchers who changed their house of worship without making a residential move (58%) say their old church failed to engage their faith, or put their talents to work, or it seemed hypocritical or judgmental.

But 42% of the people say they switched because another church offered more appealing doctrines and preaching or the preacher and church members' faith seemed more "authentic."

WHY PEOPLE CHANGE CHURCHES

Why they left their old church1

• Disenchanted with the pastor or church: 51%
• It wasn't fulfilling their needs or the reasons they attended: 44%
• Something changed about the church: 33%
• Felt out of place at church: 31%
• Could not agree with church teachings or positions on issues: 27%

Why they chose a new church1

• Beliefs or doctrines of the church: 89%
• Authenticity of church members/pastor: 88%
• Quality of the preaching: 87%
• Prefer the worship style: 80%
• Found more evidence of God's work/changed lives: 76%
• New church cares for the community: 76%

1Respondents could name more than one reason

Source: Lifeway Research survey of Protestants. Based on 415 respondents who switched churches but had not made a residential move; margin of error is +/- 3.9 percentage points.

Rest in the Peace of Christ: German Missionary Martyr Tilmann Geske

2007-04-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

This link describes the funeral and life of martyred German Missionary Tilmann Geske. Two other local Christians converts were killed as well in the name of "protecting" Islam according to their attackers.

Susanne and Tilmann Geske met at a church in Lindau, Germany, when he was working mornings as a pastor at a Protestant church and afternoons as a forklift operator, and she was looking for a job. They first came to Turkey in 1992 on their honeymoon.

The next year they returned, spending three weeks in Turkey's undeveloped east, the setting for fighting between Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish government forces. The Geskes were undeterred, and a few years later decided to settle permanently in Adana, near the Mediterranean coast. They learned to speak Turkish and raised their two girls and a boy there: Michal Janina, 13, Lukas, 10 and Miriam, 8.

A letter to Christians around the world was released from the Protestant Church of Smyrna.

Though the whole letter deserves your attention, I end with this quote:

In an act that hit front pages in the largest newspapers in Turkey, Susanne Tilman in a television interview expressed her forgiveness. She did not want revenge, she told reporters. "Oh God, forgive them for they know not what they do," she said, wholeheartedly agreeing with the words of Christ on Calvary (Luke 23:34).

In a country where blood-for-blood revenge is as normal as breathing, many many reports have come to the attention of the church of how this comment of Susanne Tilman has changed lives. One columnist wrote of her comment, "She said in one sentence what 1000 missionaries in 1000 years could never do."

The 5 murderers surrendered at the scene and are in custody.

Street Pastors Tackle Disorder

2007-04-17T09:37:00.000-05:00

From the BBC

"Street Pastors" are a great idea. Where do I get my blue cap and jacket?

The idea for the street pastors originated in Jamaica when churches joined forces to take their values into the streets and tackle the growing tide of gang culture, guns, drugs and violence.

It was pioneered in London by the Reverend Les Isaacs in 2003 and since then has been set up in Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Southend and Wrexham with some interesting results.

Figures from the Ascension Trust, which was set up to co-ordinate the project, show a 74% reduction in street crime in Peckham, south London, since the street pastors began their patrols and a 95% reduction in Camberwell.

Image courtesy BBC

Tell Me The Story Of Jesus

2007-04-09T16:02:00.000-05:00

There's a resurgence of telling Bible Stories.

It's under the concern for "Orality"... no, that's not a form of foot in mouth disease.

It's a preference for learning via means other than reading and writing.

Even in "literate" nations, as many as 50% of the population is estimated to prefer learning through means other than books and taking notes.

When reading about the phenomenon at sites like OralBible.com, one can get the impression that we're talking about people sitting around a flickering campfire. But studies show that an oral preference is very likely to exist amongst people who spend their time sitting around a flickering computer screen instead.

That metaphor of flickering campfire for primarily oral learners and flickering computer screen for secondarily oral learners or oral preference learners comes from one of the highly skilled practitioners in the Bible Story Evangelism field - Jackson Day who used Bible stories to plant churches amongst the highly educated in Brazil. His website is BibleStorytelling.org

Funding the Church as Abbey

2007-04-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

Chuck Warnock is fond of discussing the concept of the "Church as Abbey".

One of the traits of the Celtic abbey (or monasterium or minister)was that they were self sufficient economically though as Chuck's comment mentions, sometimes that economic independence came through the benevolence of a benefactor.

Let's brainstorm some possible ways to fund the "Church as Abbey".

How might they be economically self-sufficient? Leave your comment and I'll add it to the list. Note... the enterprise funding the abbey may not be on the abbey's premises.

1. Paid Daycare/School
2. Thrift Store
3. Coffee House
4. Social Security Disability Representation (see Note 1)
5. Agricultural products (see Note 2)
6. Software development - Can you say "Broderbund"? Yes that brand was started by a Hutterite offshoot to fund their communal lifestyle. I think they were bought out a long time ago, but you get the idea.
7. A "Middleman" for local producers (see Note 3)
8. Bakery
9. Local/Regional Publications selling advertising
10. Bookstore
11. Non Profit Credit Union (see Note 4)

Note 1 - Yes, it's possible to be paid to represent persons filing for Social Security Disability... persons with a medical background or other related training may do this. One doesn't have to be an attorney. Truly disabled people though really do need help getting through the bureaucracy. Here's a resource to discuss what takes place: Social Security Disability and the Legal Professional (West Legal Studies)

Note 2 - My guess is that intensive crop production and the growing interest in local food supply may make this more viable than you'd think. Here's a resource to allow a small experimental start in the process: CA$H from Square Foot Gardening

Note 3 - you see this in groups promoting "fair trade" all the time. But it can work for promoting the wares of local crafts people in the US too and using the "abbey's" network (or a network of abbey's pooling their products to create a "catalog")

Note 4 - Non profit credit unions still generate revenue to fund salaries and pay overhead. Creating a non profit community development credit union is really a multi church project I think. I wish there were a network of churches linked by such a credit union to stop the pay day loan businesses through service instead of regulation. Regulation will just drive people to unregulated lenders. Local churches operating as "branches" could offer job support, financial counseling, Christian nurture and support while people enter into programs to help them escape the pay day loan trap. I think this is brilliant but alas, no benefactor has arisen to help fund my dream!

Here's a hard reality most of these discussions never mention: the problem with any idea of this nature is that many ministers tend to think of making money in any form as evil and greedy. If that's the case, your economic self-sufficiency project won't get very far for very long. It would be good for more ministers to have a hand in running a business and seeing the work it takes to meet a payroll or pay for inventory. They might really develop a respect for their congregants who don't get to read their favorite books at "work".

The Book of Worship - John Randall Dennis

2007-03-31T12:45:00.000-05:00

The Book of Worship: 365 Inspiring Readings Based on Worship Songs and Classic Hymns by John Randall Dennis is designed to follow the weeks within the Church Year.

It includes the author's selections of hymns and choruses for every week in the year along with minor adaptations to Thomas Cranmer's collects from the Book of Common Prayer (the English is mildly updated for modern style and vocabulary).

Here's what I find valuable about it:

1. This author serves as a bridge between the theologically oriented pastor's concern for faithful worship and the congregation's yearning for "modern songs". Without agreeing with every selection, one can at least respect the author's guiding principle: each song must contain or allude to a biblical reference or references.

2. It presents these musical selections in the appropriate order for the church year to help the busy pastor prepare worship services that are seasonally relevant. It also helps keep the music in sync with the season and scripture readings while increasing the breadth of the congregation's muscial repetroire.

3. It puts the venerable collects of the Book of Common Prayer within the grasp of church members who will simply find this to be a very accessible aid that can be used in private or family devotions bringing the worship of the church into the home.

4. It includes devotional readings that pastors and church members may find thought provoking and helpful for personal or corporate devotion.

For such low price, I consider it a worthy compliment to more technical prayer books and worship books.

It can be a quite helpful tool in congregational renewal to help you bypass the worship wars

Why Bono Still Can't Find What He's Looking For 'Cause He Needs to Study Economics and Embrace A Biblical View of the Church

2007-03-16T15:05:00.000-05:00

Here's an excellent post that demonstrates many things... the pathetic state of the church that looks to the governments of the world to lead in areas of compassion... the pathetic state of Bono's thinking on the one hand when he thinks giving more money to Third World crooks will help things and his actions-speak-louder-than-words deviation from what he tells us to do when he does every thing he can to protect his own income from government taxation.

Anthony Bradley: Bono Can't Find What He's Looking For 'Cause He Needs to Study Economics and Embrace A Biblical View of the Church

Review: Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition - Prison Fellowship

2007-03-13T15:59:00.000-05:00

My reivew, Review: Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition, was published in the World View Church newsletter today.

If you're visiting from the link in the article, welcome! Please pray for me and the work of God in Lawrence County TN - that Jesus Christ the Lord would be exalted and we will be faithful in the task of laboring so that All People May Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever.

Creating A Climate For Church Growth

2007-03-09T14:08:00.000-06:00

Is there a "common climate for church growth"?

Something commoon to all growing churches that transcends cultural oddities like the style of music or architecture of the building?

This article refers to several such traits. I'll list them but go to the article for more depth in discussing each one.

From Mayberry Driven Church

1. Commitment to prayer
2. Shared purpose as a church
3. Simple organization
4. Good communication
5. Willingness to change
6. Unified Leadership
7. Functional Goals and Objectives
8. Operate by faith

Steve Sjogren On Your Life Message

2007-03-09T09:54:00.000-06:00

This is a quote from part of an article by Steve Sjogren. Frankly it was a relief to hear for many ministers in their 40's.

So it's not just a midlife crisis?!

That's a relief!

From CROnline

I have coached close to one thousand planters and frustrated mid-career ministry people to the end that [they should] discover the unique, seminal focus they alone can can carry out. My experience shows that the earliest one discovers that focus is in one's mid-30s, but usually not until one is in one's mid-40s. Tragically, ministry commonly destroys people [before] they reach that point of discovery... they "grow weary of doing good" as Paul warns against. The majority, even those with significant gifts, quit before they discover their unique contribution to the advance of God's kingdom.

3 Questions Every Church Must Ask

2007-03-08T19:51:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to "keep things simple" and ask..."In the most simple terms possible, what must happen for churches to become focused on mission instead of maintenance?"

Here are the three questions I posed to our church:

Every member must be able to answer these questions for themselves.

1. Why am I a Christian serving the Lord in this church?

2. Who is your mission field?

3. What are you doing to disciple your mission field?

Am I Being Too Picky Over These Translational Differences?

2007-03-07T21:28:00.000-06:00

A Bible Translator in Mozambique is entering into a comparison of the CEV and NLT which are dynamic equivalent translations.

My quotes from most of these translations comes from Biblegateway, NET Bible, and the New Jerusalem Bible which happened to be on my shelf.

My interest in the discussion comes from wanting to learn how to communicate more clearly to people in my county and congregation while adequately translating the Bible texts into modern English.

I was reading Psalm 4 in several translations. My inquiry is prompted by the above post and the translation of two different Hebrew phrases by the same concept, namely, "protector".

For background, the NASB translates the phrase in question (v1):

"Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!"

The NLT translates the phrase "O God of my righteousness" (the literal phrase) as

"Answer me when I call to you,O God who declares me innocent."

The NET Bible translates "O God of my righteousness" as "O God who vindicates me".

The CEV translates the phrase that includes "O God of my righteousness" as "You are my God and protector."

"Protector" summarizes the concept of righteousness for the CEV.

After mulling this over, I think that vindication perhaps explains it best to me but the NLT's "declares me innocent" is more likely to be language the people I minister to would understand. It's from the Hebrew "tsedeq"

"Protect" is a derived meaning. Trying to decide if this is a good rendering I went to the New Jerusalem Bible for a fresh look. They translate it "God, upholder of my right". So I guess protect is fair enough in some sense but starting to stray off the ranch a bit in my mind. I think "defender" would be better in Psalm 4.

What concerns me about the CEV is that in the Psalm under discussion by Lingamish, Psalm 7, the concept of protection is again used as a synonym for God being th e One to whom we flee for refuge.

I think that "protection" is closer as a modern English equivalent for "fleeing for refuge" and more appropriate in this translational context.

The fact that two such different phrases are translated by the same English term "protect" glosses over the underlying differences which I think are nice to know are there just by reading the English.

Am I being too picky?

How Big Is The Bible In Your Heart?

2007-03-05T15:43:00.000-06:00

The Bible's we carry are approximately the same size.

But how big is the Bible you carry with you in the deep recesses of your heart and mind?

You might wish it were bigger in an emergency.

More importantly, as we minister to people... are we grounding them in the Bible or our own ideas?

From Stories From [Biblical] Storytellers

What Size Is the Bible in Your Heart?

When Howard Rutledge's plane was shot down over Vietnam, he parachuted into a little village and was immediately attacked, stripped naked, and imprisoned. For the next seven years he endured brutal treatment. His food was little more than a bowl of rotting soup with a glob of pig fatskin, hair, and all. Rats the size of cats and spiders as big as fists scurried around him. He was frequently cold, alone, and tortured. He was sometimes shackled in excruciating positions and left for days in his own waste with carnivorous insects boring through his oozing sores. How did he keep his sanity?

In his book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, Rutledge gives a powerful testimony as to the importance of Scripture memory. Some excerpts follow:

"Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. Now I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church. But in Heartbreak solitary confinement there was no pastor, no Sunday-school teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God, and so I had to go back in my memory to those Sunday-school days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If I couldn't have a Bible and hymnbook, I would try to rebuild them in my mind.

"I tried desperately to recall snatches of Scripture, sermons, gospel choruses from childhood, and hymns we sang in church. The first three dozen songs were relatively easy. Every day I'd try to recall another verse or a new song. One night there was a huge thunderstormit was the season of the monsoon rainsand a bolt of lightning knocked out the lights and plunged the entire prison into darkness. I had been going over hymn tunes in my mind and stopped to lie down and sleep when the rains began to fall. The darkened prison echoed with wave after wave of water. Suddenly, I was humming my thirty-seventh song, one I had entirely forgotten since childhood.

Showers of blessings,
Showers of blessings we need!
Mercy drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead

"I no sooner had recalled those words than another song popped into my mind, the theme song of a radio program my mother listened to when I was just a kid.

Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine
Flooding my soul with glory divine.
Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine,
Hallelujah! Jesus is mine!

"Most of my fellow prisoners were struggling like me to rediscover faith, to reconstruct workable value systems. Harry Jenkins lived in a cell nearby during much of my captivity. Often we would use those priceless seconds of communication in a day to help one another recall Scripture verses and stories.

"One day I heard him whistle. When the cell block was clear, I waited for his communication, thinking it to be some important news. 'I got a new one,'he said. 'I don't know where it comes from or why I remember it, but it's a story about Ruth and Naomi.' He then went on to tell that ancient story of Ruth following Naomi into a hostile new land and finding God's presence and protection there. Harry's urgent news was 2,000 years old. It may not seem important to prison life, but we lived off that story for days, rebuilding it, thinking about what it meant, and applying God's ancient words to our predicament.

"Everyone knew the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm, but the camp favorite verse that everyone recalled first and quoted most often is found in the Gospel of John, third chapter, sixteenth verse.…With Harry's help, I even reconstructed the seventeenth and eighteenth verses.

"How I struggled to recall those Scriptures and hymns! I had spent my first eighteen years in a Southern Baptist Sunday school, and I was amazed at how much I could recall. Regrettably, I had not seen then the importance of memorizing verses from the Bible, or learning gospel songs. Now, when I needed them, it was too late. I never dreamed that I would spend almost seven years (five of them in solitary confinement) in a prison in North Vietnam or that thinking about one memorized verse could have made the whole day bearable.

"One portion of a verse I did remember was, 'Thy word have I hid in my heart.' How often I wished I had really worked to hide God's Word in my heart. I put my mind to work. Every day I planned to accomplish certain tasks. I woke early, did my physical exercises, cleaned up as best I could, then began a period of devotional prayer and meditation. I would pray, hum hymns silently, quote Scripture, and think about what the verse meant to me.

"Remember, we weren't playing games. The enemy knew that the best way to break a man's resistance was to crush his spirit in a lonely cell. In other words, some of our POWs after solitary confinement lay down in a fetal position and died. All this talk of Scripture and hymns may seem boring to some, but it was the way we conquered our enemy and overcame the power of death around us." (from Nelson's complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes; Thomas Nelson Publishers).

"Stories from Storytellers" is published weekly.
These are REAL stories by REAL people.

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My Absurd Title

2007-02-27T14:43:00.000-06:00

This is one of those things you do while taking a break to stay sane...

I know many people who DO consider me positively Antediluvian!

But then again I suppose that anyone in someplace called Waterless is by definition still awaiting a flood!

Oh well... I'll still enjoy my "title".

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Earl Charles the Antediluvian of Waterless St Mildred
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

No Skeleton In God's Closet

2007-02-27T11:12:00.000-06:00

My friend Phil Corr has a blog entry titled "No Skeletons In God's Closet". It's just the "Da Vinci Code" with the pretense of archaeological gravitas.

Phil quotes the historial Paul Maier:

Thanks for the profusion of e-mails I’ve received over the last two days regarding the Talpiot tombs discovery in Jerusalem, a.k.a., “the Jesus Family Tomb” story. Some of you also suggested that “life seemed to be following art” so far as my A Skeleton in God’s Closet was concerned. Believe me, this is not the way I wanted my novel to hit the visual media!

Alas, this whole affair is just the latest in the long-running media attack on the historical Jesus, which – we thought – had culminated in that book of lies, The Da Vinci Code. But no: the caricatures of Christ continue.

Please, lose no sleep over the Talpiot “discoveries” for the following reasons, and here are the facts:.

1) Nothing is new here: scholars have known about the ossuaries ever since March of 1980. The general public learned when the BBC filmed a documentary on them in 1996. James Tabor’s book, The Jesus Dynasty, also made a big fuss over the Talpiot tombs more recently, and now James Cameron (The Titanic) and Simcha Jacobovici have climbed aboard the sensationalist bandwagon as well. He

2) All the names – Yeshua, Joseph, Maria, Mariamene, Matia, Judah, and Jose -- are extremely frequent Jewish names for that time and place, and thus most scholars consider this merely coincidental, as they did from the start. One-quarter of Jewish women at that time, for example, were named Maria.

3) There is no reason whatever to equate “Mary Magdalene” with “Mariamene,”
as Jacobovici claims.

4) So what if her DNA is different from that of “Yeshua” ? That particular :Mariamme” (as it is usually spelled today) could indeed have been the wife of that particular “Yeshua.”

5) What in the world is the “Jesus Family” doing, having a burial plot in Jerusalem, of all places, the very city that crucified Jesus? Galilee was their home. In Galilee they could have had such a family plot, not Judea. Besides all of which, church tradition – and Eusebius – are unanimous in reporting that Mary died in Ephesus, where the apostle John, faithful to his commission from Jesus on the cross, had accompanied Mary.

6) If this were Jesus’ family burial, what is Matthew doing there – if indeed “Matia” is thus to be translated?

7) How come there is no tradition whatever – Christian, Jewish, or secular -- that any part of the Holy Family was buried at Jerusalem?

8) Please note the extreme bias of the director and narrator, Simcha Jacobovici. The man is an Indiana-Jones-wannabe, who oversensationalizes anything he touches. You may have caught him on his TV special regarding The Exodus, in which the man “explained” just everything that still needed proving or explaining in the Exodus account in the Old Testament! It finally became ludicrous, and now he’s doing it again. – As for James Cameron, how do you follow The Titanic? Well, with an even more “titanic” story. He should have known better.

There are more arguments, to be sure, but I want to get this off pronto.

With warm regards,

Paul L. Maier

I'd add that when you review the collected writings of the ante-Nicene church (pre 325 A.D.) you will find a letter addressed to Mary the mother of our Lord and her response.

Far from Jerusalem and any tomb there, Mary the mother of Jesus was living under the care of the Apostle John in Asia Minor and apparently travelling with him on at least some of his apostolic visits.

She was busy proclaiming the resurrected Lord "to all nations", not hiding away his bones and covering up a lie!

The Cure Of Souls - Eugene Peterson

2007-02-17T16:17:00.000-06:00

This is an excellent article titled "The Cure of Souls" by Eugene Peterson.

Read the whole article.

Here are some quotes to demonstrate, I trust, it's worth.

It should be clear that the cure of souls is not a specialized form of ministry (analogous, for instance, to hospital chaplain or pastoral counselor) but is the essential pastoral work. It is not a narrowing of pastoral work to its devotional aspects, but it is a way of life that uses weekday tasks, encounters, and situations as the raw material for teaching prayer, developing faith, and preparing for a good death. Curing souls is a term that filters out what is introduced by a secularizing culture. It is also a term that identifies us with our ancestors and colleagues in ministry, lay and clerical, who are convinced that a life of prayer is the connective tissue between holy day proclamation and weekday discipleship.

How we speak about "the ministry":

Running-the-church questions are: What do we do? How can we get things going again?

Cure-of-souls questions are: What has God been doing here? What traces of grace can I discern in this life? What history of love can I read in this group? What has God set in motion that I can get in on?

About Mission Lawrence

2007-02-12T09:14:00.000-06:00

"Mission Lawrence" exists so that you, your loved ones, and all we come into contact with in person or online may receive the world's greatest gift: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever through Jesus Christ.

Telling you the narratives of God's mighty work of salvation from Genesis to Revelation is the best way for us to give that gift.

Why do we do it?

Because God's love compels us to introduce you to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life as revealed in God's Word written, the Bible.

If you already walk with Jesus the Lord and have a church home, we hope this site will encourage your faith and equip you to tell the Story of Jesus to others.

This site is operated by Rev. Chuck Huckaby, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church Lawrenceburg TN. All those who do not have a church home are welcome to join us as we worship Jesus Christ the Risen Lord!

Jesse Remington High School Blog

2007-02-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

The students at Jesse Remington High School in Candia, NH are at it again.

At the urging of their headmaster, they're now sharing their thoughts with the world through the Jesse Remington Blog.

Check it out. If I lived anywhere near Candia, NH, thats' where I'd want my children going to High School!

St John Vianney's Pastoral Plan

2007-02-10T19:34:00.000-06:00

St John Vianneys Pastoral Plan retells the story of Fr. John Vianney (1786- 1859)- or St. John Vianney to the Roman Church - who is called the "patron saint of parish priests".

I was first introduced to this man's example by a charismatic episcopalian priest who was attracted to Vianney's gift of spiritual discernment which was described to me as a prophetic intuition that God used to bring people to repentance.

This article however does not address that subject or even acknowledge it. (Making me wonder about the first representation I received! I've lost the web site addresses where I read them!)

Instead, this study delves into what faithful ministers can do to serve the Lord and revitalize a parish.

It focuses on what pastors can be responsible for - their ministry in public and private - not that which they cannot be held responsible for, i.e. charismatic and prophetic gifts which are the Lord's to dispense.

So in this way Vianney becomes a Roman version of Richard Baxter or possibly Vianney's Lutheran contemporary in France Oberlin who likewise ministered during a time of France's struggles with the aftermath of the French Revolution's growing secular influences.

This article comes just in time for ministers of our day serving in the midst of America's resurgent unbelief.

May the Lord bless it to us all.

As you read the article with discernment, perhaps you'll note some of these gems and perhaps many more:

When we hear about pastoral plans, we often think first of implementing some packaged program motivating parishioners to “get involved.” St. John Vianney’s plan did not begin with the parishioners in what they needed to do, nor did it begin with what he needed to implement for them. He began with what he needed to do within his own life.

Coming upon the boundary of his new parish for the first time, Father Vianney knelt down and prayed. He was acutely aware that the mission given him was completely beyond his ability. If his priestly ministry was to be fruitful, it would come from Jesus working through him. For this reason we find him face down on the floor of his church early in the morning and late at night begging, even crying, for the grace of conversion for his parish. “My God,” he was heard to pray before the tabernacle, “grant me the conversion of my parish; I am willing to suffer all my life whatsoever it may please thee to lay upon me; yes, even for a hundred years am I prepared to endure the sharpest pains, only let my people be converted” (p. 118). Only a priest who understood himself as a true father, and not a hireling could utter such a prayer. A hireling easily finds a way to avoid responsibility while a father takes responsibility. If the people were not holy, it was his responsibility to do something about it.

When the people began living their lives centered on God and not on work and pleasure, the symptoms of destitution and loose living began to disappear. One deacon related that Vianney did not begin by saying, “I’m going to end poverty in Ars.” Rather he began with a campaign to honor the Lord’s Day. This point does not insinuate that it is “either or” solution: either focus on Sunday or act in a more direct manner to alleviate society’s problems, but the solution is “both and.” Without the primacy of orienting one’s life toward God, however, the other efforts at societal reform, though noble, will not ultimately succeed. It should also be noted that his efforts required much time and patience. The rebuilding of respect for the Lord’s Day and the closing of the taverns took eight years of ceaseless effort, and even so was not completely successful. Nevertheless, a majority did re center their lives on the Lord, and destitution largely disappeared.

To convert the people of Ars, Vianney did not have to become a psychologist, a bureaucrat, or a social worker. The effectiveness of his plan also did not come from his charisma or “cult of personality.” He was simply their priest, the Curé of Ars. All that was required was that he strive to become the man and priest Jesus had made him to be.

Proud People Hard Times

2007-02-09T11:48:00.000-06:00

I had a proud man come talk to me today. He's worked all his life until the most recent plant shut down.

It's been almost 2 years and he hasn't been able -as we say down South - "Buy a job".

He represents hundreds here.

He then asked me about help with his light bill. Probably for the first time in his adult life, he's not able to pay it.

So I referred him to the folks who do help in this instance.

I pray for Godly ingenuity and entrepreneurship to come to this county.

Even more, I pray that our hard times will make us cry out to the Living God whose blessings and kind providence in the past we have taken for granted.

In our poverty, may Jesus Christ be exalted, our hearts weaned from the world, and our affections pointed to God the Father's glory that will sustain us until our labors have ended.

Who Are The Poor?

2007-02-05T16:45:00.000-06:00

I recently have kept running across the bold assertion that "God favors the poor and so we must work to alleviate poverty". (It reminds me that I should probably reread George Grant's book Bringing In The Sheaves.)

But back to my subject.

Usually the episode of Jesus speaking in Nazareth in Luke 4 is a frequent proof text for these assertions as our Lord quotes the prophet Isaiah. I noticed that we all assume we know who the "poor" are. So who are they?

I've noticed we assume that the poor are whoever some arbitrary government income chart declares are "under the poverty line". They may have cable TV, smoke $50 in cigarettes per month, drink and dope all night long but they are hungry and show up at the food bank asking for help.

Are they the poor Jesus talks about?

I'm all for helping the truly poor our Lord spoke of.

Can you tell me who they are?

I've been trying to help the ones I thought were poor for quite some time and am pretty sure I haven't found them on many occasions. I think I found some people I've helped again and again who - had they they money and opportunity - have the attitude necessary to be the Rich Man who goes to torment in Luke 16. They don't care about anyone but themselves or about anything but their problems.

So I offer this word of warning.

If you're planning on getting into helping the "poor", prepare your soul. Keep focused on Christ and obeying Him because you'll beat your head against a wall plenty of times thinking you're helping the poor when you're just enabling their self-destruction. I don't think that bothers some. "Jesus" for them seems to serve as a political rallying cry to rationalize the government's increasing ownership of everything since they've done so well already (not!). When that happens the poor just become "pawns" in a bigger game to be paraded out and pimped as needed to justify an agenda. But really help them? As individuals? Only a loving church - not a new "program" can do that.

When I hear Jesus mentioned in that way, as a slogan, that Jesus isn't the Lord I know whose death and resurrection enables sinners to be reconciled to a holy God and then transformed by the Holy Spirit.

So who are the poor and how do I know I'm helping them?

I've worked in rural poverty for the last 7 years and am the local board chair for a FEMA funded "Emergency Food and Shelter Program" (Your county has one too I suspect... check http://efsp.unitedway.org ) and, also, am burned out.

I am struck at the ingratitude and sense of entitlement of the so called "poor" and the general unwillingness of most of them to lift a finger for themselves but instead see how many people they can get to do something for them first.

It's ironic: I work with an office full of social workers (I'm bi-vocational) who'd eat canned dog food and work 3 jobs before asking someone for help and who spend all day and will bend over backwards to help people who won't work at all. Yet these "poor" people will cuss you out for not giving them whatever they want when they want it.

As I've preached through the lectionary in Epiphany I couldn't help but notice a juxtaposition between Luke 4 and Nehemiah 8.

Jesus speaks in a synagogue of people we'd consider dirt poor by modern standards and who would be the instant object of our charitable help. And as we helped them we'd say we were doing it because Jesus wants us to "care for the poor".

Yet Jesus said to these very people we consider the "poor" that they weren't going to see his miracles, and they tried to kill him for it. I'm sure they were "under the poverty line" by all modern standards of wealth but they must not have been the poor. I say that because Jesus didn't go out of his way to help them because of their unbelief.

So who were the poor the prophet spoke of if not these dirt poor Nazareth dwellers? I think Nehemiah 8 was a good choice to juxtapose with this text...those "poor" in Nehemiah's day left everything they might have accumulated in exile to return to the Land to restore a holy nation. When Ezra read the Law of God, they wept bitterly in repentance when they heard God's Word for their sins. They truly were "poor in spirit".

On a variety of occasions in Ezra-Nehemiah, you see the people NOT asking for the king's help because they don't want God's Name to be mocked.

The poor it seems are the "poor in spirit"... the repentant... those who hunger and thirst - Jesus says - for justice or righteousness, not just for their "piece of the pie".

In the New Testament church they were widows without support, orphans who could not fend for themselves, and travelers to Jerusalem for Pentecost who stayed to be discipled in the message of Jesus and who had left their livelihoods behind to attend the feast. Collections were taken up for victims of famine. But those who wouldn't work - even for good theological reasons like the imminency of Christ's coming - weren't to be fed.

In the post apostolic church that conquered the empire, the poor served in Jesus' Name were still widows without support and orphans, the sick who had nobody to care for them, and also the infants left to die of exposure.

Jesus in Matthew 25 said to visit the prisoners, but let's be honest, that's a bit different than the guy who held up a convenience store and shot the clerk. Usually those kind of criminals were killed. It was political prisoners who were imprisoned then... and unlike today's lock ups with 3 meals, free GED classes, etc. those prisoners didn't eat unless people from the outside brought food.

I'm not saying not to help prisoners, I just wish the people who use the name of the "poor" to promote their agendas and bind the Christian conscience weren't the same ones who complain about the alleged "separation of church and state" and shut down proven Christian programs like those of Prison Fellowship.

I admit. I need Jesus to revitalize me... I am burned out.

I need discernment so I will help the truly poor - those who cannot help themselves so I do not encourage the lazy to destroy themselves and never trust in the Living God. Why should they if I'm here to give them a hand out and never bring up the issue of God and the inevitable issue of God's transforming power?

Why Are There So Many Orphans In America?

2007-01-30T09:46:00.000-06:00

Anthony Bradley has a thought provoking post on the incidence of orphaned children in foster care. He posits: "America Only Has A Dozen Or So Christian Families, Right?" Obviously if we had really Christian families, these orphans would have homes by now?

Here's more:

Giving money to homes is good but actually taking in orphans, which was a regular practice in the early church (when people were poorer), is the BEST
context for orphans. Adoption is the best option for multiple reasons (John
14:38; 15, Rom 8:23).
Leaving children as orphans is not necessary in America. A group home isn't better than a family. Again, what happens to the kid at 18-years-old? The Christian church could probably put an end to the foster care system in America in about 2 years.
We need long-term solutions: covenant families engaged in personal, sacrificial mission to their local community out of their local church.

Christians in the first centuries of the church believed that they should rescue children left exposed to the elements or hungry animals to die. That's why the church grew so fast too. These infants were raised as Christians. Why? They practices James 1:27 - "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

The Micah Fund is one organization that "provides financial assistance for qualified adoptive parents for the payment of fees to those agencies who are committed to providing quality services to birthparents, their children, and prospective Christian parents." This defrays the often prohibitive cost of an adoption.

It's service area is limited to Minnesota.

One like it is needed in every state.

But even more - Christians who see Christian parenting as a "ministry" are needed in every church!

I think Dr. Bradley hits the nail on the head when he says that if reformed Christians spent the same time, zeal, money and anguish on this issue as they have attacking the theological hobby horse de jour the problem would be well on the way to being resolved.

Photo courtesy Anthony Bradley

Family Integrated Churches

2007-01-26T10:25:00.000-06:00

Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. helps lead Grace Family Baptist Church - a Family Integrated Church. Dr. Baucham is a reformed baptist.

Here he answers the question... "What is a Family Integrated Church?"

Read the whole page to see how this works out in dealing with both families and singles and how it affects church programming and evangelism.

In general this is a sound approach and very reformed in its emphasis. The family is to be redeemed. As they note, planning for singleness and broken families is essential because of the fallenness of this world and the fact that our Lord warned that the Gospel and allegiance to His Lordship would, in fact, separate families.

He puts it like this: While we believe the ideal family involves two loving, godly parents, we do not consider single-parent families inferior to traditional, nuclear families. We understand that many people find themselves raising children without the help of a spouse for a variety of reasons beyond their control, and we embrace these families (Deuteronomy 10:18; 16:14; 24:19-21).

Because we are sinners, it is essential that we remember that this method of ministry like all the others are subject to idolatry.

It's easy to be smug when we recognize the Big Church's idolatry towards its building and lust for the biggest Dog and Pony show they call "worship".

But there's also a very subtle idolaltry related to feeling oneself to be "family centered" though I believe they can make a much better case for it than the mega church can for theirs.

The "family centered" approach CAN wrongly be used to justify single family house churches that have no connection to other Christian families around them. I've seen this breed isolation, exclusiveness, and an actual self-excommunication because the family assumes all the prerogatives of the church for itself, including the sacraments. Such families can - in the name of "protecting their family" - become heretical (theologically by wackiness and not just socially isolated) because it's just "them and the King James Version" or really their favorite far away profit who exerts no personal pastoral ministry to them at all . I've also seen that some men who consider themselves "family centered" do so to justify not any form of legitimate fatherly leadership but to justify tyranny, arrogance, and an unwillingness to listen to any "Preacher" who might disagree with their novel idiocies. There is also a tendency when such families are isolated from the church and never rub elbows with families that are less "perfect" to look down on others, try to keep their kids "pure" to the point of Pharisaisim, and so forth. At least that's what I've observed.

Dr. Baucham's model with its church centeredness is not the subject of my concern. It's the isolated families downloading sermons and considering themselves autonomous from the larger Body of Christ that are my concern.

Dr. Baucham's model should be more widely implemented in the church. The extremes I've noted are not the result of Baucham's model. They are caricatures - albeit factual ones - of this valuable model! And these caricatures are merely the opposite and miniscule extreme of the larger problem in our society of fatherlessness and the larger problem in the church of male passivity, homes not practicing the Christian faith Monday through Saturday, and the church's programming aping whatever the secular educational hierarchy suggests. (We must remember that professional education as a secular profession had the goal of alienating children from their families and the church because they "knew best". The church has betrayed its mission by failing to proclaim the Lordship of Christ over all education and allowing secularism to gut education of any transcendent content - but that's another posting or hundred. )

Here's another quote I agree with: One of the biggest distinctions of a FIC is the absence of age-graded ministries. We do not have segregated youth ministry, or children’s ministry. First, these ministries are not part of the biblical church model. The Bible is clear on whose job it is to disciple children... parents. Second, these ministries can work against the biblical mode. Parents who are relieved of their discipleship duties tend to become dependent on those who have taken over the job. Finally, these ministries have failed. We are losing 75-88% of Evangelical teens by the end of their freshman year in college. And as Dr. Alvin Reid has noticed, “The largest rise of youth professionals in history has been accompanied by a decline in youth evangelism effectiveness.” Ouch! But it's true isn't it... the more we've hired "youth ministers" with goatees, the less get's done because we're trusting the youth minister and abdicating parental responsibility!

People do grasp at such caricatures of "family centeredness" though to minimize the importance of implementing the things we should be learning from Family Integrated Churches.

Note: Rev. Anthony Carter's blog brought Dr. Baucham's work to my attention.

Amazing Grace - The Movie

2007-01-25T14:29:00.000-06:00

I just viewed the movie trailer for the forthcoming film Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce. It's timed to come out February 23rd, 2007 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. (At least the English slave trade. 27 million it's estimated still languish in slavery of one sort or another, but this movie will still help them.)

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) led the twenty-year fight to end the British slave trade, a victory now regarded as He finally succeeded in March 1807 and continued to fight for abolition until, days before his death in 1833, he saw the institution of slavery abolished throughout the British colonies. Not limiting himself to just abolitionist work, he dedicated his life to what he called his "two great objects:" abolishing slavery in the British Empire and what he called "the reformation of manners [society]." To this end, he advocated for child labor laws, campaigned for education of the blind and deaf, and founded organizations as diverse as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the National Gallery (of Art). "Good causes," it has been said, "stuck to him like pins to a magnet." - Wilberforce biographer and Amazing Grace lead historical consultant, Kevin Belmonte

The movie hopes to also introduce The Amazing Change Campaign to end modern chattel slavery. Sunday February 18th is "Amazing Grace Sunday" Most churches using a lectionary based on the common lectionary will be celebrating our Lord's Transfiguration. By extending the reading to include all of Luke 9:28-43 they can include the text where immediately after that event our Lord descends the mount to free a child held in bondage to demonic spirits... How appropriate!

One little known fact: There are more slaves being traded and in bondage now than any time during the 400 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade the Wilberforce helped end non-violently.

One Concern: Will the movie adequately portray William Wilberforce's Christian motivations or downplay them? The bio of Wilberforce never mentions that he lived and died a zealous Christian after an "evangelical" conversion experience!

Are the promoters of the film hoping to downplay this fact to give the movie broader appeal (the lead character starred in the "Fantastic 4" and is recognizable to millions of youth)? Do they hope that Christian interest can be maintained by having the song Amazing Grace play in the background?

I did notice a link to the World Evangelical Alliance Amazing Grace Church Resources page for this movie.

At least their marketing is better than the Nativity Scene! They are also linking a movie to CONCRETE ACTION!

Here's the Official Movie Site: AmazingGraceMovie.com

John Wesley and John Calvin - Their Commonalities

2007-01-23T16:28:00.000-06:00

I found this excellent article on the Commonalities between John Wesley and John Calvin.

Both, of course, were profoundly Augustinian in their view of grace and the sacraments. So in some ways, modern heirs of Wesley would find Wesley's own theology objectionable if they understood it! Come to think of it, Wesley is probably more "reformed" than many Presbyterian evangelicals if you really questioned them!

Wesley did not believe in "aribirtrary predestination" the author rights... but then again, neither does any Calvinist who believes that God is supremely loving and holy. Nothing God does is "arbitrary". I don't believe in Random Acts of kindness as displaying God's kindness either for that matter - kindness at random is too often "feel good slumming" in the fetid neighborhoods of sin. It doesn't display the covenant faithfulness and intentionality of God and usually is worthless for little more than feel good session for our self-righteousness.
Here's an excerpt.

Also Wesley wasn't "Arminian" in the sense that he believed one could be saved "at any time." God had to draw first and all prevenient grace is associated with some proximity to the means of grace, i.e. preaching (or at least the Bible) and the sacraments.

For more on the Wesley the Calvinist, read on.

For example, John Wesley does not believe people have an inherent power as the result of prevenient grace to exercise saving faith at any given moment, to decide when and where they will commit their lives to Christ, as is implied often in contemporary Wesleyan circles. Likewise, John Wesley is not a Semi-Pelegian—someone who believes human beings retain vestiges of the moral image of God and thus are only partially destitute spiritually (as is often assumed by Calvinists). The fact is there is so much common ground between John Wesley and John Calvin that Wesley himself claimed his position was within a “hair’s breadth” of Calvinism (at least on Justification, though not perhaps on sanctification)[Letter to John Newton, 14 May, 1765].

If human beings are totally dependent upon God’s grace for “saving faith” the question must be asked, “How does God communicate His grace to people?” Again, Wesley answers with Calvin and Luther that God communicates his grace through the “means of grace.” Primarily the means of grace are delineated in the Protestant marks of the Church – the preaching of the “pure word of God, the due administration of the sacraments, and the community rightly ordered.” While Wesley did not believe these were the only means of grace, these were the primary means by which God communicates grace to individuals and communities. As people are exposed to the means of grace or as they place themselves in the flow of the means of grace (as they hear the Gospel, partake in baptism and Holy Communion, and participate in the Body of Christ), grace capable of creating saving faith is made available.

However, in contrast to the Roman Catholic tradition (which teaches that grace is always communicated to the recipients of the means of grace) John Wesley along with the Reformers did not believe that participation in the means of grace always guarantees the transmission of grace to each participant. More specifically, the means of grace were seen as the most likely places for God to transmit His grace but there is no assurance that grace will be given. Therefore, not every time the Gospel is preached, the sacraments duly administered, and the community rightly ordered is grace communicated. There are times when the Gospel is preached, when “little” or “nothing” happens, while there are other times when God is working to draw, convict, and convince a person or people through the means of grace. John Wesley agrees essentially with Luther and Calvin on the means of grace.

[I]n today’s theological world Wesley can seem to be closer to the Reformed tradition than the very theological tradition that bears his name!

Wesley’s position is:

Because of the extent of original sin, human beings are completely dependent upon God for the work of salvation – in conviction, repentance, and faith.

A person can not be saved at any moment the person chooses, but only in those moments in which grace is being offered capable of creating saving faith.

The only part a person plays in the work of salvation is to place themselves in the means of grace and then when that grace that can create saving faith comes choose to cooperate with it.

However, even this work of human cooperation is in itself a gift of prevenient grace.

*Written by Professor Keith Drury of Indiana Wesleyan University

FormingFaith.com - Excellent Resource For Family Ministry

2007-01-22T19:49:00.000-06:00

Pastor Greg Priebbenow of FormingFaith.com is an Australian Lutheran minister who specializes in family ministry.

His site specializes in helping Christians pass on the faith to the next generation and includes the weekly pamphlets the congregation he serves - St. Paul's Lutheran in Box Hill - distributes to their church family.

Family ministry has been growing in Lutheran circles thanks to 2 things I can discern... a reemphasis on catechesis is the first. Luther's Smaller Catechism specifically enjoins the parents to instruct the children at home. In Anglicanism this was a task reserved in the Prayer Book for presbyters... they were supposed to assemble the children Sunday's for catechism. The parents were never mentioned. Luther gets this right in his catechism. Plus it has the advantage of being short and focused on the essentials of catechesis in the Western Tradition... the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments along with some simple prayers and a table of duties.

The Anglican Prayer Book catechism is simple enough but the parents are not specifically encouraged to join in... Christianity must start in the home!

The reformeers did better in following Luther but their major catechisms are all rather tedious for instructing children - even the wonderful Heidelberg Catechism.

The reformed doctrine of the covenant that undergirds reformed baptismal practice jibes well with the content at FormingFaith.com if you're not a Lutheran.

The second impetus to the current Lutheran interest in passing the faith on to the next generation is, in my opinion, the work of Merton Strommen author of "Passing on the Faith to the Next Generation."

FormingFaith.com distills the teaching of Strommen et al into simple terms for reference and puts it in action through the weekly hand outs. I use them for inspiration and perhaps you might too?

An excellent resource awaits you here. Strommen's book is well worth reading too!

Why Use The Lectionary?

2007-01-18T11:44:00.000-06:00

Though I come from a "non-liturgical" church, I now preach from the lectionary mostly on Sunday mornings.

In my opinion the best version of the Revised Common Lectionary is one that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has produced (check Textweek.com and you'll see most groups revise the revised common lectionary!) The primary difference in this version of the RCL is that while it keeps the RCL's focus on the Gospel reading for a particular year, e.g. primarily the Gospel of Luke for this year "C", the Old Testament readings are more likely to vary: "In its revisions, the committee has given special attention to the Old Testament readings. The goal has been to choose readings that best relate to the Holy Gospel for the day. In addition, careful attention has been paid to the types of Old Testament readings, with the goal being to include a larger number of the great stories of the faith."

Chuck Warnock has a great overview of "Why Preach From The Lectionary?"

I also like how Dr. Stan Hall (professor of Liturgics at Austin Presbyterian Seminary) describes the older Common Lectionary on which this LCMS (and ELCA) lectionary follows:

I find the RC Mass lectionary or the Common Lectionary (the 2 variants) to be the best lectionary system the church has ever devised. The system is based on extensive historical study of Christian practice, ancient-modern and East-West, as well as a systematic Christology and ecclesiology. It takes into account the best of biblical scholarship as to genre and types. It is meant to lead to the sacrament, to evoke the response of faith in hearers, to summon disciples and to structure a community of hearing, prayer and service that becomes in itself the primary seminary of Christians. It can be called sacramental, liturgical, evangelistic.

I agree. Using the lectionary regularly and working from it, the worship of the church is the tool of spiritual formation that other "discipleship" classes now serve after we have turned the worship service into everything but the center of the church's life.

"Advocate For The Homless" Bumbling Officials Help Starve The Homeless

2007-01-04T09:30:00.000-06:00

A self proclaimed "Advocate for the homeless" from Fairfax County, Virginia called the food police on some grannies who were making soup and corn bread at home for their church and then feeding homeless people for free, but obviously not through the "proper" homeless advocacy channels.

Between the "advocates" - grant seeking whiners who don't want competition from churches and who don't want "compassion" to be anything more than grant money channelled through their grubby hands so they can get a hefty cut of it whether the poor are helped or not - and the "health department" whose actions give people no option but to eat out of dumpsters, is there anyone really helping the homeless here?

Too often "Compassion" has become an industry to fatten the wallets of "advocates" and extend the power of bureaucrats. What's been lost in the equation is anything that might reconnect people who are alienated from both Jesus Christ and society back to both... like the personal help of little old ladies making home made soup.

Thankfully 2 pastors are speaking out...

Rev. [Judy] Fender added, "They've set up a situation that you have to have a $40,000 kitchen to feed someone who's going to get their food from questionable sources at best."

Rev. Kathleen Chesson said her First Christian Church would not obey the rules. "Our agenda is to feed the hungry. We're going to feed the hungry. That's it."

Evidently adverse publicity has let the soup kitchen reopen - for now.

Note: This news I've linked to here jibes perfectly with an article I read today on who the real skinflints are... the ones shouting loudest about "caring". More "homeless advocates" I presume.

Why Is "The Nativity" Bombing At The Box Office?

2006-12-21T11:51:00.000-06:00

WorldNetDaily.com reports that "The Nativity" is bombing at the box office.

This is supposed to reflect the people of faith's ennui and laziness.

Of course it couldn't reflect Hollywood's lack of credibility?

Or Hollywood's lack of marketing for the film?

Here's more of what the article said...

Baehr believes a major problem for "Nativity" was that marketers didn't get the word out early to their vital partner, the churches.

Mel Gibson, he pointed out, was promoting "Passion" in churches nine months before its release. With "Narnia," study guides were distributed to nearly every church – an effort that requires marketers to be "one year ahead of the game." "Passion," released in 2004, had a worldwide box office of $604 million.

The bottom line is that even when Hollywood produces a great film - like the one recently on Esther, a "Night with the King" - nobody ever hears about it until the day it comes out. The Passion built interest and tension months in advance.

It just goes to show that Hollywood doesn't know how to market wholesome movies.

Hire the crew that promoted the Passion and partner with churches and you'll have a huge turn out.

Personally I love the film and have encouraged everyone I've spoken to about the film to see it. I might go see it again just to register my interest.

Deliberate People(tm) Daily Prayer Guide

2006-12-21T09:35:00.000-06:00

The Daily Audio Bible has reached 2.5 million downloads on iTunes.

They also sell a helpful Bible Reading, Prayer Guide and Journal "in one" called the Deliberate People(tm) Daily Devotion Journal.

This prayer guide is excertpted from their free downloadable Bible Reading Guide to let you see what's in it.

The Bible Reading portions are simpliar to those found in "One Year Bibles" with daily readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. This is a good plan though what I plan to use in 2007 Lord willing is the M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan except I'll drop M'Cheyne's Psalm readings (giving me only 3 chapters to read some days) because I aim to read the pslams morning and evening anyway. You can find it online here or as an RSS feed in your favorite translation (hopefully) here.

Daily Prayer Guide

Praying the way Jesus taught - Matthew 6:9-13
1. Worship the person of God (Praise, Thanksgiving, Singing)

A. “Our Father in Heaven” (Affirming our identity as
children of God)

B. “Hallowed be Your Name” (Praise God for who He
is and what He has done)

2. Pursuing the Purpose of God

A. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven”

1. My life (Daily surrender of every area, asking for
fresh filling of the Holy Spirit)
2. My family (family members, friends)
3. My church (Pastors, leaders, events)
4. My world (Body of Christ, spiritual and political
leaders, city, state, nation, world, revival, awakening,
harvest)

B. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Pray dependently,
consistently, specifi cally and expectantly for physical,
emotional and spiritual needs)

C. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”

1. Receiving God’s forgiveness for ourselves (Confession
and cleansing)
2. Releasing God’s forgiveness to others (canceling
their debt)

D. “Do not lead us (allow us to be lead) into temptation
but deliver us from the evil one”
(Take particular areas of temptation before the Lord,
surrendering to God’s strength and protection, as well as
taking authority over the enemy, committing to resisting
his attacks)

E. “Yours is the kingdom and power and glory forever”

1. The Kingdom – Resting in the knowledge that God’s
rule and dominion is working in us and around us.
2. The Power – Relying on the dynamic, abundant,
mighty, miracle-working, creative power of God.
3. The Glory – Refl ecting God’s excellence, honor,
beauty, majesty and splendor to the world.

Impact of Religion on Social Stability

2006-12-20T10:34:00.000-06:00

Let me note that in the United States at least, "Religion" usually means "Christianity" - or a religion that has inevitably been heavily influenced by the moral values of traditional Christianity so that it can fit into American society.

So it's very significant that the Heritage Foundation has recently published this paper entitled Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability By Patrick F. Fagan

Despite the ignorant special pleading of self-avowed atheists (like Richard Dawkins) and those who glorify their own debauchery (like Elton John) that religion is the problem, following Jesus Christ is in fact the solution to our ills. Servants of Christ knew that already, but here's some more empirical proof.

Why won't this paper have much impact?

Because there is no longer a common definition of what is "good" and "right".

We got in this mess, to quote Eugene Peterson's version of Romans 1:18-25 called the "Message" because...

People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them.

When there's no common definition of "God" or "good" or "bad" (a classical case of Postmoderism being so profoundly wise in its own eyes it has become stupid. But without the grace of God we prefer our stupidity to the initially painful act of repentance), there will never be any agreement about a way forward in families, denominations or societies.

Who Were The Wise Men?

2006-12-19T11:10:00.000-06:00

This post at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship Blog got me thinking: "Who were the Wise Men?"

Here's my first thoughts.

I think the "Wise Men" were men who had been influenced by the ministry of Daniel and perhaps a form of what we see as "God fearers" in the New Testament. They'd seen the prophecy of the return from exile fulfilled after the 70 years mentioned in Jeremiah and knew the God's promises were true. God had also revealed to Daniel that the full flower of the "return promises" would ultimately await a Messiah after 70 weeks or 490 years. This was neare the Magi's own time.

If this is a correct reading of the Magi's experience, perhaps it is a call to heed the scriptures more minutely and humbly than we do and take as our basis for action an expectation that God is still extending the reign of the King through the mission of the church. As John Piper has said "Missions exist because of the places where Worship does not".

The wise men are the first from the "nations" to meet Jesus who then commanded that the annoucement of His enthronement should be proclaimed to all the nations that they might be brought under His Saving Reign (Psalm 2). Jesus' saving reign encompasses both justification and sanctification on an individual level but likewise results in the blessing of God in the transformation of the kingdoms of men into the kingdom of our God (Revelation 5:10)through the preaching of the Gospel and the flowering of the communion of the saints.

The Wise Men remind us that the "missional message" is "near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart" (to use the language of Romans 10:8). The missional message is as near as the message of Holy Scripture yet as distant as our failed obedience and sinfully distorted and selfish world views that do not allow Jesus to truly be "Lord".

How Do You Respond To The Good News Ee-Taow

2006-12-14T08:25:00.000-06:00

How do you respond to the Good News of Jesus? Is it so "old hat" to you that you really need to get your kicks some other way?

Is the message of Jesus - to your way of thinking - just for "Sunday School kids"?

When was the last time that the message of your sin and mine laid on Jesus brought tears to your eyes?

When was the last time that the message of Christ's righteousness reckoned to you lead you to outrageous rejoicing?

If the time frame for either answer is "not recently", you need to watch Ee-Taow the story of the reaction of the Mouk people of Papua New Guinea as they hear the Good News about Jesus Christ for the first time.

You'll be amazed to see the story of the Zook family as they leave an idyllic lifestyle many idolize in the Amish country of the US (though they themselves were not Amish) to take the gospel to people who had never heard about Jesus and who lived in fear and self-degredation.

In true incarnational fashion, the Zook family (after overcoming their own hurdles to get to the mission field) did what all missionaries do when coming to people who have no written language...they learned, listened, and befriended until they could understand the people and convey their love. Then they began translating the key stories of the Bible into the Mouk language. It took quite some time.

They taught through the key stories of the Old Testament for over 2 months without ever mentioning Jesus using words, pictures and drama.

They recorded the stories and the Mouk listened to them again and again on hand powered cassette recorders.

Then when it came time to finally tell the story of Jesus, the Mouk sat and listened 2 hours per session, twice per day for 2 weeks.

Their response to the Gospel was amazing and convicting.

I strongly suggest getting this 2 part DVD for jaded Western Christians for whom the story of Jesus seems too "mundane". Why do we assume our people even "know" as much about Jesus as they do now? Most haven't taken the time to learn as much as they have.

May God use it to awaken them to the truth and the joyous good news of Jesus.

P.S. Don't we have to do the same thing as the Zook's even if we speak the "same language"?

Leadership must be in for the long haul

2006-12-13T11:20:00.000-06:00

This is a quote from the Presbyterian Global Fellowship blog on "Wilderness Leadership".

This kind of missional leadership is slow. It is not fast. Missional leaders are not one minute managers. We are lifetime managers. We don't lead people with a fast food drive thru rush mentality. We lead with calendars, seasons, and years. Missional leaders know that any real, significant change can't happen quickly. It needs time to ferment. It simmers slowly. People are not square pegs that we can force into round holes. They are fellow travellers on the journey. Sometimes they are obstinate, for sure. And sometimes they are as unreasonable as their leaders. But God knows, that the dramatic shift in the North American church will not happen overnight. It will happen in a generation. Wilderness leadership is not just about waiting for a generation to die off. It's about raising up a new generation, that learns from the old generation, and then figures out how to get out of the desert.

Why She Is A Deaconess

2006-12-05T11:19:00.000-06:00

From Life of the World

Mrs. Patricia Nuffer, a Deaconess Intern at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, is now working on a proposal for the “Hands of Mercy Training Center for People with Disabilities” to be tested during a five month trial in Yambio, Sudan. The picture of holding Maria’s hands, disfigured through leprosy, is the inspiration for the name of this project. She hopes this will be a model for other churches in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudan to follow in reaching out to people with disabilities.

Here she holds the hand stumps of a woman with advanced leprosy.

When you read her story you begin to understand why so many hospitals bear the name "deaconess" in their title. Without Christian compassion there would never have been hospitals. They were never known until the coming of Christianity.

The vocation of the deaconess (alternately called the "parish nurse" for groups not comfortable with that name) dates back to the New Testament of course (Romans 16:2, 1 Timothy 3:11) but was revived in Germany in the late 1800's. It spawned the nursing and Red Cross movements as the students of the movement took it's principles to the battlefields of that century.

The nursing "profession" is its secularized form, but the Christian ministry and calling of the deaconess is much needed in our day.

By divorcing the nursing profession from its Christian roots, we've in practice taught one and all that healing is separated somehow from the providential care of God and the church.

And because nursing is considered a profession, it reaches only those able to afford hospitalization or to visit a doctor.

If we want to personalize care to the poor and make it independent of their ability to pay, we need to revive the ministry of the deaconess or parish nurse and her training must be more than what it offered by the nursing profession. It must be grounded in doctrinal and theological training in addition to nursing training so that it is a ministry done in Jesus' name and it must be funded as a ministry of the church not dependent on the recipient's ability to pay or have medical insurance.

What must be done to revive this wonderful ministry?

The Reformed and Missional Doctrine Of The Parish

2006-11-24T21:31:00.000-06:00

One of the theological fads of the church growth movement is to equate the doctrine of the "parish church" with a non apostolic, "come serve me" mentality of doing church.

It's usually linked to another favorite whipping boy, the doctrine of "Christendom".

These two doctrines are used to "prove" the Church expected people to come to it and was not interested in being "apostolic".

But the "parish system" need not be "non apostolic" at all.

There's a clue to that in a source Reformed people should know. After all our most famous confession is the Westminister Confession. Celtic Christianity scholar Ian Bradley reminds us that the phrase "minster" derives from the more ancient term monasterium - the missional base of operations from which to penetrate a geographical area with the gospel. The monasterium was devoted to worship, praise, the training of leadership and the preservation of knowledge from which to send mission teams. This model saved civilization once when Europe was going "Post Roman". Why wouldn't it work again in "Post Christian" America?

A missional doctrine of the parish doesn't see it as a doctrine teaching the privilege and prestige of the Church and, by implication, the obligation of the masses to fawn before the Church and kiss the Bishop's ring. Instead the missional understanding of the parish is held because of the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and over all and the right of people within geographical reach of the minster to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. It should go without saying it is based on the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20.

Click here to open an adobe acrobat file discussing, in essence, the Reformed and Missional Doctrine of the Parish. It's an actual mission philosophy for a small missions agency working in Peru.

Bible Stories as English Teaching Tool (ESL/EFL)

2006-11-23T19:37:00.000-06:00

In the U.S. the question of "illegal immigrants" occupies the daily news - at least if there's a political campaign on the horizon.

The church of Jesus Christ exists within a tension - not encouraging people to break the law of the land but also called to "welcome the stranger" because we Christians realize we ourselves are pilgrims and strangers in this world.

So whether your church is surrounded by illegal aliens wanting to learn English or legal aliens in the form of students, business owners, etc. these resources may help your ministry.

Most "English" courses focus on the "rules" of English. What they don't give people is practice in reading or speaking simple English.

These tools are being used in Southeast Asia but might as easily be used here in the United States if reaching out to folks wanting to improve their English.

They're based on the concepts of Chronological Bible Teaching and Chronological Bible Storytelling.

The book A True Story is fairly short - about 150 pages - and can be printed without royalty if following the author's guidelines. Download the zipped file here. There are also simple guidelines for using these materials as well.

We are making these books available, with no charge, to anyone who wants to take the time to help a non-English-speaking person. Teachers in more that 60 countries are using and reproducing these books, or even parts of a book, to help their students. If you are looking for an activity to enrich your life, this is a golden opportunity. Try downloading one of the books listed below (we recommend starting with "A True Story"), and help another person read and understand it. The books are not on various grade levels. Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated.

Note: Many of the resources at the Chronological Bible Storytelling site are from Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries. The nature of these stories should not require too much adaptation if any to your particular denominational context.

Related Links:

>Teaching English Language Learners The Good News

>English Lessons from the Book of Mark I - student edition

>English Lessons from the Book of Mark I - teacher edition

Or here...

New Diaconal Opportunity Via NationalSOS.com

2006-11-22T13:36:00.000-06:00

Part of the "attractional" ministries of our Lord were his healings and public feedings.

In response to our Lord's example, the missional church has always been the diaconally active church starting in the Book of Acts and continuing throughout history. Public education, hospitals, the rule of "law", and the advance of science are all attributable to the abiding impact of Jesus Christ.

The concept of Disaster Relief is no different...it owes it's inspiration to the diakonal ministry of the Church.

Communications failures in the wake of 9-11, Hurricane Katrina and the threat of terror attacks or the possibility of other local disasters that might, for instance, disable cell towers or telephone lines inspire a voluntary nationwide effort called NationalSOS.com .

By planning ahead and using inexpensive Family Radio Service hand held devices costing $10 to $30 (or more expensive Ground Mobile Radio Service radios that require licensure) and coordinating with local ham radio operators, it's entirely possible to create a decentralized alternative communications system for use in emergencies that take advantage of the 100 million FRS radios already sold to the public, 70,000 GMRS operators, and 700,000 Ham Radio operators.

A working model of the NationalSOS concept is being formed in Washington, DC no less, the DC Emergency Radio Network.

Guidelines to make the networks operate in a uniform manner already exist.

What's lacking is organization on a local basis so people who already have these units are trained to access the system during an emergency.

Undoubtedly many churches already have men in the diaconate who are Volunteer Fire Firghters who'd be ideal to help communities put this program into action, help people be trained, and drilled on its use.

In the postmodern world, the church can either inflitrate a "beehive of people" to share the gospel or - in this case - create a beehive of people. In this case that would be people concerned about emergency communications.

Churches that are centrally located are ideal settings to host the training meetings and the participants are either people who need to hear the Gospel or people are already part of the church and who need your encouragement to labor in God's Vineyard.

Let's be honest about another reality... the estrangement of many men from church. They feel alienated if they can't teach, sing, or speak in public, especially if they consider themselves "working class".

Does Christ's kingdom have no place for them? Of course not! Look at Peter, the fisherman!

Harness men's propensity to "protect" their loved ones by involving them in an outreach like this. While they might feel awkward inviting other men to a Promise Keeper style emotional share-a-thon, they would probably feel different about inviting other men to church to learn how them to help their community.

This is an amazing opportunity to reach out to people in every community of the US. Will we use that opportunity?

From NationalSOS.com:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a major contributing factor to the tragic loss of life was the near total breakdown of communication systems. When electricity, telephone, and cell phone services failed, people were unable to let neighbors, family, and rescuers know of their dire situation -- and some died as a result.

Purpose(ly) Driven Off from Church - It Doesn't Have To Happen

2006-11-18T14:57:00.000-06:00

Recently the Wall Street Journal and Baptist Press have noted a disturbing trend.

Pastors wanting grow their church into a mega church and looking to Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Church" seminars for the instant recipe mix are leaving split churches in their wake. Life long church members with years of service to a particular church are finding themselves ousted as troublemakers and rabble rousers if they oppose the new measures.

But it's not fair to blame Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church methodology or any methodology really. The spirit of Diotrephes can manifest itself in many forms, though many prideful pastors seem to be using Warren's words as a pretext for their self-exaltation. We did hire them to be the Messiah, right? (Oh wait, I think He's already come! That's why there was a church there in the first place!)

I remember reading Warren's book and I remember the part that could be taken to "prove" the need to drive off rabble rousers.

As Warren was building Saddleback from scratch as a church planter, new visitors attracted to his nascent church would say things like "At ___________ we used to do ___________". Since he was building the church from scratch and he had the investment in the church, not they, he'd suggest they may be happier back at their other church. I'll bet many times the left the last place in a huff and it was probably good advice not to seek a "geographical cure" for their personal inablility to get along at church.

When Messiah wannabe pastors though come to a church where they were invited to be a shepherd, the situation's entirely different.

It's the long term members who have the investment in the place.

Their attitude is "he acts like he wants to be here, but we'll give it a few years." That's why folks say it takes 6 years in a church to have maximum impact. Till then, the people still wonder if you'll be gone on the next train.

So when Messiah II (the new preacher) comes in, unpacks his bags, and starts changing things before he even remembers anyone's name - whether it's to help the church be "Purpose Driven", "Liturgical", "Free in the Spirit", "Evangelistic" - you name the symptom in front of the disease of pride - and tries bending people who don't trust him to his iron will, the manure's going to hit the spreader.

I chalk most of these splits in the name of trying to be "Purpose Driven" to pride, foolishness, and utter lack of love. Some of these people posing as pastors can taste success so badly they'd excommunicate their mother from the church as a "rabble rouser" if they didn't coo like a dove after every sermon. They're just climbing the ladder of "pastoral success" and looking for the right rung to launch their mega church reputation from.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

I ran across the blog of a pastor whose writing exudes pastoral love and concern. The man purposely chose a small church - and to minister to other small churches in his area - because of his heart for the small church.

When I checked out his church's website, lo and behold, he lead this small church to be "Purpose Driven".

Do I think his church's adoption of Rick Warren's methodology will cause a split?

No.

Why?

He's not pompous, arrogant, or self-centered! That's why. It used to be called having a "pastor's heart". That's not discussed much in the CEO model of the church.

So he's going to use the method to revitalize his church and the cluster of churches he has influence with.

God bless those pastors who are doing what they feel to be the most faithful things to build up the body of Christ.

They'll do so with a pastor's heart that seeks the lost sheep without driving away the "ninety and nine".

MTV Style Youth Ministry Is Out Dude!

2006-11-17T10:08:00.000-06:00

MTV Style Youth Ministry is OUT... the Bible is IN says the Christian Post.

We could never compete with Disney anyway, but we preachers are good at making fools of ourselves. So why not try that too?

Thankfully the teenagers are smarter than we'd give them credit for. But, then, by definition, they'd have to be smarter than we thought if we assumed "ministry to teens" meant trying to answer the question "What would Beavis and Butthead do while wearing a W.W.J.D. bracelet?"

One surprising finding that Fuller Seminary's Center for Youth and Family Ministry revealed in an ongoing study was that teens attend youth group because they like their youth pastor and to learn about God. Those reasons were listed by the majority of the surveyed students. The Barna Group found the top reason listed among teens for attending church was to "understand better what I believe."

Students also said they wanted to have more time for deep conversation and also desired more accountability in their youth groups. Games or other activities were not a desired priority. (emphasis added).

Sadly, by the time we figured this out, a generation may have gone down the drain.

The question is: will we challenge youth to be more than "slogan Christians"?

A local church in our presbytery had a youth group who got sick of giving toys at Christmas. They kept getting asked for "Xbox's" and "Playstations" and they didn't own them themselves. So their youth director wisely got them involved helping some people who really needed help and who appreciated getting clothes and food for Christmas. That became life changing and helped the kids peel off the middle class materialism and ingratitude we tend to suffer from.

Reformed University Fellowship has done a good job helping college age youth reconnect with the great post-reformation hymns set to new music, complete with occasional archaic language retained. In the process, they have learned the theology of the hymns.

Forever Grateful Music has put 80 to 100 scripture passages to modern tunes to aid scripture memorization.

I find that most Christians - even ones who've been in the church "all their lives" and are no longer teens - need to reconnect with the rich history of the Christian Faith in general and their own church's tradition in particular. Ministers to all ages need to help people learn a Christian worldview for the first time and break out of the dumbed down sentimentality that passes for the faith of the apostles, prophets, and martyrs in our churches.

Comfortable Christianity Depresses Me - Baroness Cox

2006-11-15T13:43:00.000-06:00

The TimesOnline (UK) writes about Baroness Cox's work articulating the plight of the world's persecuted Christians. Her latest book is Cox’s Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs. They write:

It is not an easy read. We hear of walking 12 miles of scorched earth littered with corpses of women and children in Sudan; of beheaded teenage girls in Indonesia; and religious persecution in the shape of rape, torture and murder elsewhere.

But we also hear the story of 15,000 people fleeing violence in East Timor, who are fed for a week from one bag of rice by Sister Maria Lourdes; and remarkable instances of courage, such as when Lady Cox sat beside the Rev Rinaldy Damanik in an Indonesian court and heard him choose the scaffold over renouncing his faith (he was later released after serving a prison sentence, during which time he handed out to injured Muslim inmates plasters that contained verses from the Bible).

Growing A Church With Love - Rose Sims

2006-11-15T11:01:00.000-06:00

Rose Sims tells some of her experiences revitalizing small, country churches.

It's a thrilling story of how she and her husband (until his death) spent their ministry revitalizing churches that denominational officials were about to close as "dead".

I found a copy of her book (used - they all seem out of print) called "The Dream Lives On" at Amazon and hopefully it will be here soon.

You really need to read the whole article if you're interested in revitalizing small churches. For a taste though, I'll share the story of her latest church revitalization project - Trilby (Florida) United Methodist Church.

I became the pastor of Trilby United Methodist Church. Six years later, those eight in attendance had grown to 350 members with debt-free buildings and a ministry that the Board of Global Ministries evaluated at a replacement cost of nearly a million dollars. Best of all, those buildings had been built and paid for without a fundraiser or a single negative vote. Jesus had been lifted up, and broken lives were mended. The Trilby Mission was packed with the African Americans, Anglos, and Hispanics who came for food, clothes, and our clinic. Our programs became wide-open doors and windows leading many of them to accept Christ. Teenagers and children who had accepted Christ shared their testimonies in a drama group week after week, leading many in attendance to Christ. A petition to the county brought a free health clinic and park. Singles, drama groups, country gospel nights, adult education, literacy programs, AA, a dinner theater group, etc., opened windows of opportunity. I performed 20 weddings for couples from our singles group. After they found Christ, they found new beginnings.

What was her method? Perhaps this paragraph sums it up best:

We programmed to the purpose, budgeted to the purpose, trained to the purpose, and evaluated by the purpose. Of each program we asked, "Is it winning the lost and growing disciples, or are we only doing what some good atheist is probably already doing better?" It was hard work but as one of the local saints remarked, "If we want this church to grow, we shouldn't itch for anything we aren't willing to scratch for." It meant getting involved to the point of inconvenience.

Retooling The Mega Church

2006-11-14T09:28:00.001-06:00

Is it time for "evangelism" writers to apologize? I just picked up Church for the Unchurched on sale the other day on the bargain table. Leafing through it, I find it extolling the wonders of the mega churches for their ability to "evangelize".

And for over a decade, the little churches of America have been told that if they too wanted to "evangelize" they'd have to learn to put on a big city dog and pony show to wow the crowds and build a REAL CHURCH.

Something didn't seem right about this and escapees from the Mega Church funny farms like David E. Fitch told us the dirty secret: There may be 1000 "consumers" at a "mega church" but there may really only be 100 serious Christians runnning the show and keeping the rest entertained on Sundays. So really the church of "thousands" may really just be a true "body" of hundreds plus observers.

But aside from this confession it also didn't seem right. People whom God had called to salvation in Jesus Christ through those little churches may not know how to grow a big church, but they did know that coming to Jesus involved certain things.

We knew it involved things like repentance and faith.

It even requires "denying self".

It's hard to know how the message of denying oneself to follow Jesus ever gets internalized in a church setting that - by definition - caters to the whims of consumers.

We knew there had to be community somewhere in the mix too.

And it's easier to put on a show like Ben Hur demanding a cast of thousands when you have more than a couple of dozen people who don't even have a chariot.

But after a decade of hype extolling the Mega Vhurch virtues, the gallons of guilt poured out upon the little churches that just couldn't muster the showmanship or the commercialism of the mega churches and still look at themselves in the mirror Monday morning, we are told in whispered tones that it was all a sham.

Unlike a car delivered from the factory with a fatal mechanical flaw, there was no recall announced on the Mega Church hype.

The so-called Mega Churches are having to retool to be saved from implosion and irrelevancy.

Randy Frazee, Rev. Connecting Church, has been hired by Willow Creek to bring "connection" to the chaos.

Another mega church, the Community Church of Joy is undergoing it's own transformation after the pastor Walt Kallestad related to Rev. Magazine (if that link doesn't work, check here)that he was told by a younger man that nobody in their right might would want to follow him at the church. They'd spend all their time trying to meet the mortgage instead of preaching Jesus. So they imported Mike Breen from St. Thomas church in Sheffield, England to help put some corn inside the husks.

The key, we learn from the Mega Chuches In Transition is about being mission driven, not just consumer driven.

Hadn't we told them that before?

And while churches like Mars Hill Church in Seattle don't want their worship to be badly done, preaching for an hour every Sunday through books of the Bible and having communion each week after a time of repentance and confession aren't "consumer driven" in the "seeker sensitive" ways of yesterday. Yet somehow, Mars Hill brings in over 4,000 people per week. Maybe 10,000 now. I can't remember.

In Confessions of a Reformission Rev. Mark Driscoll talks about the steps they've taken along the way to bring transformation to the lives of the "crowd". And I thought I had problems in my church!

(Rev. Cho's Full Gospel Church in Korea has over 700,000 and each service is described as "Presbyterian" by observers like Cell Church Guru Ralph Neighbor. They even include the Apostle's Creed in every Sunday Service unlike many Presbyterians nowadays who want to look hip... but I digress. Bottom line: content doesn't kill church growth these examples show.)

Thankfully, God is faithful when the saints wake up and want to do His will. So I rejoice that the Mega Churches are being retooled to being missional communities not just "G" rated yuppie watering holes, Starbucks clones with Angel figurines.

But back to the guilt-drenched smaller churches.

It's not time to gloat because the Mega Church guilt manipulators were wrong, though a few moments to share a sigh of relief will be welcomed by all.

We smaller churches need to take what we knew was right and ask God to help us stop doing what was wrong.

It's time to repent and retool the smaller church too, not bask in our smugness.

The Megachurch That’s Reinventing Itself

2006-11-14T06:44:00.000-06:00

I found that the blog where this article was posted may go offline, so I'm posting it here so I can keep it up.

It's supporting documentation for the post Retooling The Mega Church

The Megachurch That’s Reinventing Itself

by Lee Sparks

In January 2002, Walt Kallestad appeared to "have it all" as senior pastor of Community Church of Joy (CCOJ), one of the largest and most vibrant congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. In his mid-50s, he was successful by most standards and could have "coasted" to retirement. He'd earned a doctorate in church growth from Fuller Theological Seminary, authored several well-received books, established a respected conference center, and was sought after as a guest preacher and seminar leader. Yet despite outward appearances of success, he knew something was terribly wrong with both his life and the congregation he served in Glendale, Arizona.

For more than 20 years, Kallestad had poured himself into building CCOJ from a struggling 200-member church into a megachurch of about 12,000. The church had acquired a prime 127-acre parcel of land within view of a new highway, and built modern and multifunctional facilities, including a large worship center, bell tower, conference center, school, and various offices. Big plans were in the works for additional buildings, all intended to meet the program needs of the church.

Then on January 7, 2002, Kallestad's heart gave out. He suffered a massive heart attack and required six-way bypass surgery. Everyone was shocked at the news, because Kallestad was a tall and lanky man who exercised regularly. Now, three years later, Kallestad realizes that his heart attack was symbolic of what was happening at CCOJ. "I was burned out, overworked, overwhelmed, and near to death, but didn't know it."

Medical professionals were amazed that he survived the heart attack. But they also warned him that the recovery process would take a long time. He asked his church for a leave of absence to heal.

Megachurch Pastor Faces Megadespair

In the yearlong leave of absence from his duties at CCOJ, Kallestad found himself reflecting on the spiritual emptiness he was experiencing, and the growing realization that the megachurch he had helped to create was "missing the mark" in transforming people into disciples of Christ. CCOJ attracted a lot of seeking people, but was there much real spiritual growth happening?

Kallestad's physical heart was slowly healing, but his spiritual heart wasn't. In the early morning hours of November 22, 2002, Kallestad found himself on his knees in prayer, sobbing. "God," he prayed. "I'm broken. I don't know what to do." He remembers his body being ice cold and his heart pounding very hard. "The words of ‘I Surrender All' kept going through my head as I kept telling God, ‘I surrender, I surrender.' I heard a voice that quietly said, ‘I have healed you.' I thought the voice was my wife talking to me, but she was sound asleep," he said.

The next day, Kallestad went to his cardiologist, who was stunned with the healing of his heart. Both agreed it was a miracle.

"My heart attack caused me to get hungrier for God," Kallestad said. "I was CEO of a burgeoning organization, and dealing with structures and systems and finances. It wasn't about people and relationships. I could sense God calling me back to what's most important. And when I realized that what we had [at CCOJ] was not working, my hunger intensified."

Insights From an Unintended Sabbatical

As 2003 began, Kallestad continued to plead with God to show him the future for CCOJ and began to consider who would be his successor to his ministry. In the recently published book, Passionate Church: The Art of Life-Changing Discipleship (Cook Communications), he shares how this time away from his ministry did anything but give him peace of mind:

"After my heart attack and six-way bypass in January 2002, I began to consider who might be the successor to my ministry. It would have to be just the right person, someone capable of raising and managing a multimillion dollar budget as well as the staff and programs of a megachurch. It would need to be someone who could effectively reach the 20- and 30-year-olds I was struggling to reach.

"I discussed this idea with other pastors across the country. But it was in Washington, D.C. that I felt the ground shaking all around me. ‘Why would anyone want your church?' a pastor there responded. ‘Anyone who is serious about ministry today does not want to be stuck raising money for maintaining buildings and mortgages. They want to be on the cutting edge of making a difference.' As hard as it was to hear, I knew what he had just said was right."

During his unintended sabbatical and recovery from the heart attack, he had time to devote to study and reflect on the church in the postmodern era. He read books on the "missional church" and the "emergent church." He spent time learning from leaders in these movements, such as Dan Kimball—pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California, author of The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Zondervan), and a regular contributor to this magazine. He also consulted with Brian McLaren, often called a guru in the emergent church, and author of A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-Yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian (Zondervan). (Yes, that's the real subtitle.)

Kallestad slowly became certain that the church-growth methods he knew, wrote about in his doctorate, and used to build a megachurch, weren't working anymore—not even cutting-edge methods of entertainment evangelism. "In our zeal to attract seekers, we became very presentational," he said. "We believed no one wanted to give anything, no one wanted to sing anything, no one wanted to be known—all of the ‘seeker principles.' In my spirit, I knew that the old principles and practices, including those for seekers, weren't working. And I was dying inside."

A String of Kairos Moments

The combination of a new awareness of life's finiteness, the uncertainty of CCOJ's long-range future, and his sense that the church-growth methods he knew were either obsolete or irrelevant, frequently brought Kallestad to his knees in prayer. He remembers praying, "God, I'm going to fast and pray constantly. Help me. And I'll go anywhere in the world. I'll do anything. God, show me what you're saying to the church."

God would answer his prayers, but in ways he couldn't have dreamed. One of several kairos moments occurred when he called professor Eddie Gibbs, his doctoral advisor at Fuller, and asked him where in the world the church was successfully reaching people (especially those in their 20s and 30s), building an authentic community, and transforming the area where they lived. "Without hesitating, Eddie simply said, ‘Sheffield,' " Kallestad recalls.

Sheffield? As in Sheffield, England? Movie buffs remember the northern England city as the setting for the 1997 film, The Full Monty.

Gibbs told Kallestad about Sheffield's St. Thomas Church, an Anglican and Baptist church, which had grown into one of the largest churches in England, with more than 2,000 attending weekly worship. What intrigued Kallestad even more was the fact that 80 percent of the people at St. Thomas Church were under the age of 40, and 70 percent under age 35.

Without hesitating and without calling ahead, Kallestad boarded a flight from Phoenix to England to see St. Thomas Church for himself in April 2003.

The Man From the Desert Visits Sheffield

Upon his unannounced arrival to Sheffield and St. Thomas Church, Kallestad was immediately impressed with the vitality, spiritual depth, and community among the people. He met Mike Breen, the rector and team leader of St. Tom's (the widely used nickname of the church by its people). By all accounts, the men immediately clicked with where the other was in pastoral leadership. Both men were simple, unassuming, and articulate but not "slick." They felt a connection that both believe was a kairos moment.

While Kallestad had spent his career focused on land, buildings, finances, programs, and attendance growth, Breen had spent very little time on any of those. Instead, in the 10 years he had been at St. Tom's, he had focused nearly all his energy on building community among the people, nearly all of whom were unchurched and young. Instead of building facilities, raising money, and maintaining administrative structures, Breen invested his time and leadership on training leaders for small groups.

The emphasis at St. Tom's during Breen's tenure was effective small-group leadership. The primary requirements for being a small-group leader are an open home, a willingness to share what God's doing in his or her life, accountability for one's actions, and devotion to prayer for the people. Each small group meets about three times a month.

Once several small groups were functioning, four or five small groups would then become part of a "cluster," which would meet about once a month for learning as a larger group. Cluster leaders were responsible for finding venues for the meetings, and have been quite creative in securing them. Clusters meet in coffee shops, bowling alleys, office meeting rooms, pizzerias—almost anywhere that will hold the size of the cluster. Then, about once a month, all of the clusters met for a "celebration," a high-quality worship service.

Early in his ministry at St. Tom's, Breen abandoned virtually all the theories and programs he had learned in seminary and other training. He quickly saw that "student books" and other printed material simply didn't work with a visually oriented generation. The written Word, Breen knew, would have to take a visual shape to reach them. Over time, he began to use simple shapes such as the circle, the semicircle, the triangle, the square, and the pentagon to describe various aspects of Christian life and leadership. He found that the people could easily grasp and retain what they had learned by referring to the shapes. More important, the small group and cluster leaders could use the simple shapes in their leadership for teaching and accountability. That way, Breen didn't have to lead every group or cluster, but was instead able to provide a consistent theological framework for St. Tom's culture and ministry. These teachings evolved over the years and were first called LifeSkills and then LifeShapes. Breen and Kallestad have recently published two books describing the LifeShapes method of discipleship: Passionate Church: The Art of Life-Changing Discipleship (for church pastors/leaders) and Passionate Life (for lay leaders) (both published by Cook Communications).

At St. Tom's and in LifeShapes, Kallestad found the model he had been praying for. St. Tom's emphases were almost all exactly the opposite of CCOJ's. While CCOJ emphasized the large event of entertaining corporate worship, St. Tom's emphasized small-group accountability and was content to worship only once a month as the whole church. While CCOJ was burdened with mortgages and organizational demands, St. Tom's administration was relatively lightweight and low-maintenance. While CCOJ relied on its ordained pastors and other paid staff for virtually all leadership responsibilities, St. Tom's relied almost entirely on lay leadership in small groups and clusters and appeared to be living out what Martin Luther called the "priesthood of all believers."

Within 36 hours of being at St. Tom's, Kallestad knew he had found the answers to his prayers. He became convinced that his megachurch needed a megachange of emphasis from "bigger and more" to "smaller and deeper."

The English Invade Phoenix

In yet another example of a kairos moment, Kallestad's visit coincided with Breen's decision to leave St. Tom's. Breen said he made that decision just prior to Kallestad's visit. Kallestad recalls being there when Breen announced the resignation. Breen believed he had done everything he could for St. Tom's, and sensed God leading him to something new, even though he didn't know what the new thing was. And since St. Tom's leadership model didn't depend heavily on him, his departure didn't mean the church would fall apart. In fact, the opposite has happened: St. Tom's continues to grow.

Indeed, the leadership of St. Tom's had grown and deepened so much that the Church of England commissioned a band of lay leaders as The Order of Mission, the first apostolic missional order authorized by the denomination in 1,000 years. Its members take vows of purity, simplicity, and accountability.

Kallestad arrived there on a Sunday and spent Monday with Breen. By Tuesday, Kallestad believed the Holy Spirit was leading him to work much more intimately with Breen. "On that Tuesday morning, I met with him and said, ‘Mike, I think God is calling you to come to America and work with us,' " Kallestad said. "I didn't go there intending to hire anyone. We certainly didn't have an official call committee or anything like that. I just knew in my heart that God wanted it."

Not only did God call Breen and his family to Phoenix, but God also called several longtime leaders at St. Tom's and members of The Order of Mission. They arrived last summer to begin importing the LifeShapes principles they learned and practiced in Sheffield to CCOJ.

As one might expect, change never is easy for a church, and it hasn't been for CCOJ. Kallestad said mixing the existing staff with the folks from St. Tom's has created a Brady Bunch-type of staff. The "old kids" haven't been exactly sure what to expect with the arrival of the "new kids." About 30 percent of the staff has changed, including some of the pastoral leadership who has been with CCOJ for many years. Kallestad said the change has "frozen the fringes" of the people, with many taking a "wait and see" approach to the changes. However, Kallestad has also seen an increase in small-group involvement and more people in their 20s and 30s coming to church. He's determined for the church to be more entrepreneurial, and to slim down to a "lightweight, low-maintenance" administration.

Kallestad admits that several people (including long-time leaders) of CCOJ have wondered whether he's "gone off the deep end" with a midlife crisis brought on by a severe heart attack. When asked that question directly, he smiled and said, "Yes, I have gone off the deep end—I've gone deeper into God than ever before. God didn't cause my heart attack, but God had to reshape my heart, my vision, to do a new thing in my life and at this church. Since we opened our new campus in 1998, fewer people in our area are now going to ours or any other church. How does it profit one to build a great church, but lose the community?"

Lee Sparks is senior associate editor of Rev. Magazine.

Authors note: Longtime readers of Rev. Magazine will recongize Walt Kallstead from a profile we ran in 1997, when this magazine was known as Vital Ministry Magazine. That article, "Risk Taker, Vision Maker," focused on CCOJ when it was at the cutting edge of using "entertainment evangelism" in worship - a mix of contemporary music, video clips, humorous vignettes, computer-generated images, brief gospel messages and a come-as-you-are environment to reach "seekers." (If you'd like to get a free copy of that article, please e-mail your request to Lee Sparks) Kallstead re-examined his approach to ministry after a severe heart attack and sense of despair overwhelmed him in 2002.

Parenting Skills, Common Sense, and Outreach

2006-11-09T10:27:00.000-06:00

I went to a meeting sponsored by our local county school board. They are seeking the help of churches, businesses, and community clubs to promote better parenting in hopes of preventing a Columbine style situation here.

I'm all for that and I was struck by the speaker's story about interviewing a young man who is in prison without benefit of parole until he's 109. Aged 27 now, he killed 2 people in a nearby school shooting in 1995.

The trigger?

He was afraid he'd lose his driver's license.

Life wasn't worth living so he decided to kill some people in revenge and assumed he'd die in a hail of gunfire.

He didn't.

His hopelessness was inspired by years of abuse by an alcoholic father.

Now the young man is sane and seeking to help others avoid this tragedy.

Why?

He became a Christian. Someone visited him in jail and told him about Jesus Christ and forgiveness.

The boy forgave his father and now the whole family are united in a way they never were before the tragedy... as a family and as followers of Jesus Christ.

Then the meeting took an odd turn.

Instead of asking us to evangelize better and reach out to these kids, we were introduced to a new plan to promote better parenting in the county.

And we were invited as churches to teach it to our congregations.

They've even offered a curriculum... one that is secular and supposedly "research based".

It might be great, but there were no copies available for any one to review.

Those who've reviewed the curriculum say "It's just common sense".

That's a loaded term for me. In some societies, if a female family member is seen in public without a veil, the dishonor to the family is worthy of death. That's called an "honor killing".

When you inquire about the propriety of it, you're greeted with a statement like "It's common sense! What are you, a barbarian?"

"Common sense" really is totally dependent on one's presuppositions and worldview. Only when two people share a common worldview can there be "common sense".

Even when something allegedly "doesn't promote a particular faith", it promotes a particular faith and worldview. That's why you can have Christian teachers in public schools facilitate the production of secular kids because topics are taught without reference to God. Humanity is the measure of everything. And because the measure is flawed, the results always turn out warped.

I've taught these secular parenting seminars to persons getting a divorce. When they have minor children, they're required to take the classes.

The people coming into the classes will be no better afterward than their presuppositions when entering the class.

The basic problem is that unless there is true humility and repentance to care for the child's needs above one's own pursuit of revenge, all the advice in the world won't help. Good idea - sinful hearts.

I'll do everything I can to help this initiative, but I'll keep pointing them back to the story they started with. That's what the church needs to be focusing on, the parenting instruction can fall into place on fertile soil.

Evangelicals and Social Justice

2006-11-08T14:06:00.000-06:00

The Washington Post ran this article called Let's Stop Stereotyping Evangelicals.

It's an interesting article and perhaps a series of new thoughts for typical Washington Post readers. It does a particularly good job of noting Chuck Colson's work through Prison Fellowship that is a direct outgrowth of his fall from power and redemption in Christ.

As the article shows, evangelicals in America can't catch a break. They used to be criticized for having a theology of salvation described as "pie in the sky, by and by" thanks to Dwight Moody's motto "You don't polish the brass on a sinking ship". Moody, though, never lived up to his motto. For example, he started what is now known as the Moody Bible Institute that remains to this day. Whether you care for every jot and tittle of its theology or not, people who start schools are future oriented, not escapists.

Now the criticism has turned. When evangelicals engage in any social action - once considered the exclusive territory of the mainline - they're condemned for wanting to create a "theocracy" by people busy imposing their own "atheocracies" or "anthropocracies". What else can they be called since the critics of "theocracy" didn't allow belief in "God" to be mentioned in the social realm as anything more than an embarrassing personal failing much like exhibiting flatulence in crowded room.

Why weren't Protestant social activists from the mainline criticized for trying to implement a "theocracy"? Oh, yeah, I guess they had no discernable "theos" to have a "theocracy". With the demise of orthodoxy in the old mainline, it wasn't too threatening. At worst, I suppose, people feared they wanted to impose a "Maybeocracy".

With evangelicals though, it's a case of "darned if you do and darned if you don't".

Loconte and Cromartie do a good job of trying to set the record straight. Hopefully it won't fall on deaf ears.

But if it does, the good news is that evangelicals, absent for a short time from the battlefields of social activism are returning with zeal. However mistaken some of their causes seem to be, like jumping on the Global Warming bandwagon, they're on target and creating innovative solutions in other areas. And best of all they don't care if they're accused of trying to set up a theocracy.

Knowing Jesus is Lord already, there's nothing to set up. It's just time to get to work displaying His rule.

Community Development Credit Unions & Usury

2006-11-07T13:52:00.000-06:00

I written previously about the problem of Usury and Pay Day Loans. As I've researched the matter, the answer I'm seeking seems to be in the creation of a Community Development Credit Union for which there are several models.

Regarding attacking the Pay Day Loan Problem, here are how several credit unions have done that in Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Ohio. The USA today article I referred to last time mentioned the North Carolina model.

I also found an interesting article calle Double Jeopardy: Why The Poor Pay More

The question is how to dovetail this with the diaconal ministry of the church and the proclamation of Christ's Lordship here in Lawrence County?

And of course what to do next...

The Legacy of the Nazi Eugenics Program & It's American Counterpart

2006-11-06T09:21:00.000-06:00

The Times Online (UK) ran an article recently about the Nazi Lebensborn program.

It's a sad and twisted tale about what happens when abortion depopulates a state as Western Europe and Russia are being depopulated by abortion today. Now these nations see themselves about to implode because it takes people to maintain the infrastructure of a culture.

Post World War I Germany noticed that too thanks to the depopulation of war and mad men seized on a "solution" they thought. They would breed the "master race" and seed the Reich with "pure progeny".

Like other experiments where demonic states attempt to replace the family unit ordained by God, it failed on several counts.

The children of the "Master Race" were found to be as subject to their environment as any others. Their genetics did not guarantee superiority despite their nurture.

Hitler believed the “Nordic race” was destined to rule the world. But many Lebensborn children ended up emotionally scarred underachievers, craving the warmth of family ties and alienated from their foster parents or mothers, who in many cases refused to speak about the programme, either out of shame or loyalty to the SS oath that they had sworn. The children’s suffering was worst in Norway, where many never recovered from the stigma of having a German father. Some were put in mental asylums.

Gisela Heidenreich, blue-eyed and tall with fair hair, found out in the 1950s that her father had been a married SS officer and her mother a secretary for Lebensborn. She started investigating her past when she was shown a magazine report about Lebensborn “studs” and “SS whores”.

“My world fell apart. My mother wasn’t a harmless quiet secretary, she was this whore who bred me,” Frau Heidenreich said.

Though Americans will wag their heads in derision of this failed experiment, the philosophy behind it is a well funded entity in the U.S. It's called Planned Parenthood, and its founder shared Hitler's eugenics theory.

In the U.S. the mode of action is not the outright breeding of a "master race" a la Lebebsborn but the attempt to eradicate the "underclasses", those not "fit to breed".

Politicians voting to fund abortions in the name of "Choice" are, in essence, continuing the Nazi program here and have been for nearly a generation.

Today as we shake our heads in wonder at the insanity of Lebensborn and the scarred lives left behind... will we look to ourselves and do something about the same philosophy hard at work here, funded by our government, doing more to kill off the "underclasses" than any of Hitler's schemes accomplished?

Related links: Pastor Clenard Howard Childress, Jr. on how abortion decimates the Black Community.

The Ministry of Presence

2006-11-04T21:45:00.000-06:00

John Wesley the Anglican is one of my favorite characters because of his holistic approach to ministry.

Here, some of those to look to Wesley as their inspiration, practice the ministry of presence and lead others to Jesus Christ outside of "adult" venues. Help me Lord to follow their good example.

In my short time there one of the managers came out to threaten harm, yell, call police and laughingly promise a law suit. Even so, wearing a dress shirt and tie and holding a sign that read “We are praying for you” it was interesting to see pricey vehicles drive up, see that respectable citizens were standing outside and decide to drive on and do something else with their evening.

Not long after my visit Dr. Knight sent an e-mail that certainly encouraged:

I just wanted to tell you some good news. Today in chapel one of the security guards from (one of the clubs) showed up. He cried during the service and wants to come again. He shared that he had quit his job and desired a new life. He also said that another security guard had quit and that an assistant manager had quit. He said it was all due to the fact that we had started coming down there. Praise the Lord!

The secret? No secret, really. There is so much about effective ministry that is easily understood. Prayerfully show up. Play it by ear. Be willing to stay kind, gentle, reasonable. Be courteous but also be able to challenge. Don’t back down. Meet bullying with a heart of love.

Do The Work Of An Evangelist

2006-11-04T11:33:00.000-06:00

The "gate" of entry to the forums at MyParuchia.com contains this challenge and reminder to those of us who so freely chatter online. It's a great reminder that all we do must lead to doing the work of an evangelist.

How are we doing?

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.-2 Timothy 4.5

The great revival of the 5th-9th centuries which exploded out of Ireland across Wales, Scotland, the Low Countries, southern France, and most of the rest of Europe was borne on the preaching of the peregrinati pro cristo. Celtic missionary-monks took up the mantle of martyrdom and went in every direction, by the thousands, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, calling pagans to faith and backslidden believers to repentance and renewal. Traveling sometimes alone, sometimes in groups of 2-12, they established bases near major political and economic centers and made
it their business to embody and declare the Gospel to everyone who would listen. Many of them paid dearly for their commitment, as the term, “red martyrdom” implies.

Have today’s pastors lost that cutting edge of evangelism? Can we say of those who lead our churches today that they are renowned by their congregations for their commitment to going among the lost in their communities, by every means and in every season, to fulfill their ministries by doing the work of evangelists? Churches today have generally adopted a “come/see” mindset toward their communities, rather than the “go/tell” posture that Jesus commands.

Is this because pastors have left off the work of seeking the lost, of penetrating the darkness of their unbelieving communities with the light of the Gospel of Christ? Certainly the people will go no further than the pastors, and if today’s evangelical Christians are known more in name than in demonstration, it can only be because they are following the lead of their shepherds.

How can pastors recover the work of being an evangelist? What would it take for pastors to discover their own peregrinatio and let that be as important a part of fulfilling their ministries as are their teaching, preaching, counseling, and leading of worship? Your thoughts, responses, and suggestions will make up this month’s conversation around the Fireside.

Francis Schaeffer On The "Separated Movement"

2006-11-03T15:51:00.000-06:00

This quote is derived from one of the letters of the late Francis Schaeffer to a friend about how his thinking had gradually changed. His fundamental beliefs and worldview had not changed, but how he sought to live in light of them changed as his views of God's grandeur had broadened. He refused

When I first found Christ through my Bible reading he was very real to me, and I yet remember the loving wonder of His closeness. And then came the struggle against the Old {Presbyterian} Church machine, and then against Westminster, and then against the N.A.E. {National Association of Evangelicals}, and gradually "the {separatist} movement" loomed larger and larger. Do not misunderstand me: my experiences here have convinced me more than ever that each of these struggles was needed and right; but the correct perspective got mislaid in the process. And I tell you frankly, that though I realize I may be wrong, it seems to me that I was not alone in my mistake - that many are as deeply involved, or even more, than I have been. The "movement" grew in our thinking like the great bay tree until for me that wonderful closeness which I have felt to Him in previous days was lost. I wonder if that is not what happened to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2?

God willing, I will push and politick no more.The mountains are too high, history is too long, and eternity is longer. God is too great, man is too small, there are many of God's dear children, and all around there are men going to Hell. And if one man and a small group of men do not approve of where I am and what I do, does it prove I've missed success? No; only one thing will determine that - whether this day I'm where the Lord of lords and King of kings wants me to be. To win as many as I can, to help strengthen the hands of those who fight unbelief in the historical setting in which they are placed, to know the reality of "the Lord is my song," and to be committed to the Holy Spirit - that is what I wish I could know to be the reality of each day as it closes.

The Hunger Behind Halloween Neo Paganism

2006-10-30T10:14:00.000-06:00

Updated 10/31/2006

Chuck Colson has done an excellent job in today's Breakpoint discussing the powerful spiritual hunger and longing behind the growing Halloween Neo Paganism.

Using the research from Christian researcher Catherine Sanders as his starting point, Colson notes the following.

Today's "Wiccans" were frequently raised in nominally Christian homes.

So why have they turned their back on Christ and the church?

1. They have bought into environmentalism and believe the church is silent on the issue.

2. They believe the church is patriarchal and women have no place in the church except doing the dishes after a church meal. (Funny, many men think exactly the opposite - that there's no place for men in the church and that to survive there, one must be emasculated.)

3. They crave true "spirituality" and they find no spiritual reality in the church, just superficiality. I'm not sure if they're reacting against the evangelical penchant for programs for everything, the lack of Christian love and community in the Church, or the lack of a worldview that promotes worship. Maybe all of these came in to play.

As I read this, I find the criticisms true of parts of the Christian Church and therefore shortsighted.

But as one who's spent so much of his time nursing his own myopia, I understand the problem.

Now that Colson has described the problem, I look forward to reading his prescription for action tomorrow, on All Hallow's Eve (Halloween).

On 10/31/2006.

Colson followed up this article describing Wiccans as "The Unpaid Bills of the Church".

Frankly, the prescription was disappointing not because it's wrong, but because it's so vague. It boiled down to the fact that "those we seek to change, we must first love." Ok... now what?

The orthodox church is paralyzed at the moment in dealing with Wiccans for several reasons... for the most part we've stopped believing in demon possession and the demonic that empower Wicca except on the lunatic fringe that sees demons in everything. That comes from the secular mindset even within the church. So we're not prepared to deal with people who have rejected modernism's sterile view of the world as purely materialistic for the world view of somone seeking spiritual experiences from a postmodern, nonmaterialistic framework.

Concerns about the environment, spiritual formation, and women's rights bring a kneejerk negative reaction in traditional orthodox churches because such talk has been introduced into the mainline church by people seeking to transform the Christian faith into something else or in order coopt the church for the agendas of earth worship, radical feminism, or pagan spiritual practices. Why be a bi-vocational Wiccan when you can be a salaried Methodist "reimaging" God? Therefore Colson's analysis of the problem makes us reject the potential answers out of hand. They've been given to us before - we thought - by people we really don't consider faithful Christians.

Since we're spouting out cliches today, I'll spout another one.

Perhaps the way through this morass is to review the history of the Celtic Church. (I told you I'd be dishing out one of those platitudes... and believing that looking to the "Celtic Christians" might be a cure all for the woes of the West is another modern cliche. But cliche's aren't necessarily false, just time worn in this case.)

The Celtic Christians do have much to teach us though. I first recognized this thanks to a book I thought was a joke at first... How The Irish Saved Civilization".

From what I've read about the Celts and how legitimate information about them (versus the fanciful hagiography!) might be applied to today's church, the Celts were...

1. Very connected to nature
2. Had prominent both men and women in prominent leadership positions within their own spheres
3. Had the profound spirituality aimless post moderns seek

Yet they were profoundly Chrisitian, Trinitarian, and Biblical. They preserved the scholarhip of their day so that civilization might be rebuilt after the barbarians had turned the Empire's libraries into latrines.

The problem is implementing these things in the church on the corner where real people live and who have long suffered under the prodding and poking of ecclesiastical makeover fads gone awry.

Here are some sources to consider.

The Fellowship of Ailbe is one group seeking to learn from and implement the vision of the Celtic church and is in a formative stage as I write this. Many other sources for allegedly "Celtic" learning are available, but the Fellowship of Ailbe resonates with me because of its ability to dialog with the Celts and the Reformation.

Another group devoted to restoring Celtic Christianity (and whose Metropolitan can wax eloquent on the prevalence of Celtic Christianity across North America before the "Pilgrims") is the Celtic Episcopal Church. The Celtic Episcopal Church has much to teach those interested in Celtic Christianity through their liturgy and spiritual practices they consider representative of the Celtic past and reconstructed through their own pilgrimage. Ank, again, if you can get their Metropolitan waxing eloquent about Celtic missions to the US, you'll enjoy hearing how deeply he's reconstructed the Celtic impact here (though largely lost)not to mention his mastery of the storyteller's art.

May the risen Lord Jesus Christ who conquered the principalities and powers, disarming them and making mockery of them by His victory be with us to rescue the victims of darkness again.

Their hungers are legitimate in many cases, but their appetites have addicted them to candies laced with poisons. May Jesus Christ go forth through us and set them free.

Halloween Facts

2006-10-29T16:10:00.000-06:00

Some of the folks from church and I are doing a Halloween Candy Distribution, weather permitting. But we're also going to hand out a flyer that will probably be different than anything else produced around here. (Or anywhere I've seen perhaps).

Other churches commenting on the day around here are likely in attack mode because of the problems associated with the day. That's complicated by their lack of historical foundation.

I actually read a "Christian" website calling "Halloween" a "Druid holiday". Yes, the festival or holiday Halloween replaced was pagan. Halloween was most definitely implemented as a part of the CHRISTIAN day - the evening prior to All Saint's Day.

You can read more on this at the Christian Research Institute's page on "Halloween: Oppression or Opportunity" which I found after writing this flyer. This one by the Passantino's is good too. (Both open in a new window as pdf files.)

Here's how we're taking advantage of the situation... the same way any missionary would upon going to a new culture and noticing a holiday they could use to reach out to folks they didn't know.

We're going to hand out bags of candy with this flyer called "Halloween Facts". I plan to dress up in my monk's robe and have given a press release to our 2 radio stations announcing that "Friar Chuck and the Gang" from church will be handing out "Free Candy". Our corner get's a steady stream of kid traffic anyway, but we want to give out 200 flyers which invite them to our Wednesday night supper and Bible Study the next night (at least this year it's the next night!)

If you do end up using it and would like to send a donation in any amount to help with outreach here, it would be much appreciated. Send a check to:

1st Presbyterian Church

252 Admiral Circle

Lawrenceburg TN 38464

The heading is, "Halloween Facts".

The text is...

"Halloween" means "Holy Evening" or "Hallowed E'en"... It's the evening before November 1st, All Saints Day.
Long before there was "Halloween" our Ancestors feared this night thinking the spirits of the dead wandered the Earth and had to be pacified with "treats" or else they'd play "tricks".
When the Good News of Jesus Christ came to our ancestors, they realized that Jesus Christ cast out demons and conquered the spirits they feared. Jesus triumphed over them in His resurrection from the dead after He paid for humanity's sins by His death. (see Mark 5: 1 - 15 and Colossians 2: 15)
So they transformed the ancient festival of fear into a day of remembering their Christian Brothers and Sisters who'd died during the previous year. They called it All Saints Day.
Today, Halloween is slowly reverting to its pagan origins.
We enjoy handing out candy because it's fine to have a good time and we want you to be safe.
But we also want you to know that Jesus Christ is not only the reason for the Christmas season, He's the one who transformed the ancient festival of fear into a "Hallowed" or "Holy evening" where joy could rule instead of fear.
So if you happen to tell somebody "Happy Halloween", it CAN be happy because Jesus Christ is the King who brings Joy where fear once ruled.
We'd like to tell you more about Jesus Christ. 5:30 pm Wednesday at First Pres, we study more about Jesus and pray after sharing supper together. We'd love to see you!

Pumpkin artwork courtesy Funnies.com (no other copyright or photograher information was available on the page.)

Blue Collar Resistance And The Politics Of Jesus

2006-10-27T09:33:00.000-05:00

Note: This review was updated 10/28/2006.

In Blue Collar Resistance and the Politics of Jesus, Tex Sample shares some good information on ministry to America's working class white people.

That population segment comprises about 98% of the county I serve and hence my interest in the book. Why aren't we winning these people? Why are their families being destroyed?

I'm still collecting my thoughts, and I found many points worth pondering within the book. My enthusiasm for the work is waning because I don't share Dr. Sample's positions on many critical points. In fact, I see in Dr. Sample the very things that cause the working class to be alienated from the mainline church now thanks to his own analysis of the working class. You see, the working class wants answers, not more "some say this, some say that."

In the final analysis, Dr. Sample just offers more ambiguity. For example, Dr. Sample's assertion on p. 117 that "I cannot imagine that the God we know in Jesus Christ is not active in other faith traditions, and we cannot know ahead of time what God is doing in other traditions" undercuts the rest of his effort to unfold a distinctively Christian view at all.

Take, for instance, his critique of Constantinianism and espousal of pacifism. To use a blue collar expression, Dr. Sample "shoots himself int he foot" and undercuts his entire argument for a distinctively Christian ethic. Here's what I mean: How can Dr. Sample be sure that his faith which he uses to amply critique American culture is at the same time inadequate to critique other religions? Dr. Sample has himself called into question the validity of the doctrines he espouses simply by his assertion that he cannot rule out the possibility of God speaking and working in other religions.

He celebrates the Mormon frontier wife who throws the contents of chamber pot on the marital bed of her husband as he is about to celebrate a "honey moon" with his "second wife" (p.35). But why? Couldn't God have been speaking through that "faith tradition"?

Sample critiques the modern American system for it's "inverted totalitarianism" and the warfare state while admitting in this statement the possibility that dhimmitude and jihad might be God speaking.

This last summer, my children and I read "Daughters of Hope" about Christian women of the Majority World. In many families in India, the daughters eat only if there's food left when the men are done. And even when the girls go hungry, there's fresh and delicious food purchased for the household idols. Is God speaking through that?

This type of behavior only changes when Jesus Christ is presented as Lord and Savior and not until. Sadly, Dr. Sample's statement on page 117 is woefully naive and doesn't recognize how other "faith traditions" adapt to present the morality of Christianity (however watered down) they find here and pretend that's the reality elsewhere. That's the only possible reality from God that Dr. Sample or anyone else might recognize in such "faith traditions" - when they mimic Christian ethics and outlooks.

I suppose if we're being consistent with Sample's assertion here that all faith traditions need to be "heard" we should ask "how old does a wacky belief need to be to become an esteemed 'faith tradition'?" For that reason, why isn't Constantinianism a revered "faith tradition" by now in Sample's mind... it's been around 1700 years, much longer than Sikhism and Mormonism? The American Civil Religion he critiques has been around a couple of hundred years. Surely that's a "faith tradition" worth hearing by now?

Don't get me wrong, Dr. Sample offers some good critiques of the state and the mainline church, among other things. The point is that by this one assertion about his inability to critique other "faith traditions" why should anyone believe the revelation Jesus Christ is anything more than another pious sentiment? And now we're back at the ambiguity and faithless faith that working class people find utterly meaningless.

I had hoped to find insight into the working class here and, indeed, did find some because I do not believe in the ambiguity of the Gospel and sense the urgency of reaching these folks.

I've worked with literally hundreds of laid off factory workers in the last few years here and I see the things he's talking about validated in their experiences.

In the two cases of factory shut downs I observed in the last 3 years, the workers felt that they could have kept on producing the same product at a good value if they had only been given input.

But neither the companies shutting down nor the multiple government agencies sent to "help" seemed to listen. But in both instances, a good many of the workers returned to the same industry producing the same product and these plants might have transitioned in a way less disruptive to the workers and to production.

I recalled these people frequently as I read the book.

I'm still processing how I might apply this material here, though I think there's plenty of things to consider to help me fulfill my calling here. Like many academics, the book is good for some clues but short of specifics as far as practitioners are concerned.

Dr. Sample's endorsement of apprenticeship based discipleship was welcome. His discussion of the role of the eucharist was interesting if vague. His description at the opening of the book about how one pastor successfully "bridged the gap" to serve a working class congregation was about as practical as the book goes.

Dr. Sample's exegetical models are about a generation old ... He's still talking as if the raging New Testament theology debate of the day is between Albert Schweitzer and Oscar Cullman instead of the debates between N.T. Wright and the Jesus Seminar. Before writing your next treatise, Dr. Sample may wish to acquaint himself with some modern biblical scholarship to see if it yields any further insights.

I am most appreciative of Dr. Sample's honesty when it comes to critiquing the mainline.

Why has the mainline lost the common working people given all its rhetoric about serving the poor, justice for the poor, "reconcilation", and "peacemaking"? Frankly it's because of their frequently elitist "Let them eat cake" mentality. You see it - I've seen it - in the seminary graduates who consider taking a blue collar church a venture in ecclesiastical slumming, a transitional period in the Wilderness before a big city church comes along filled with professionals, artists, and managers... a church with "their kind" of people. They're waiting to ascend to a position "worthy" of them when the Son of God took the opposite path (Philippians 2:5 -11).

Mainline denominations like to talk about having an "educated ministry" and indeed that is a worthy goal. But if the educational process confirms students in the prejudices against the working class and educates formerly working class students in new prejudices... the educational process must be questioned.

Dr. Sample also did a good job of defining the "conservatism" of working whites. It is also the conservatism of working black families in my experience, despite Washington's experimentation on the black family structure. Just ask Bill Cosby or Thomas Sowell. It's not a laissez faire economic conservatism but a conservatism centered on maintaining the family unit.

And perhaps that's why the mainline continues to lose working class families. Here's a case in point...while mainline clergy are creating "Marriage Dissolution Ceremonies" and "celebrating" the putting asunder of marriages despite Jesus'words in Matthew 19:6, working class people are grieving the loss of that marriage not denying the loss or "celebrating" it. Working class people still have an ideal in their minds about how life should be in God's world. While they're not stupid and realize that tragedy does enter into ths world of sin, they haven't lost the ideal that guides them.

Sample also discusses orality, storytelling, proverb and communication through the ear channel that is helpful. He begins the book by briefly recounting how a sensitive minister began conducting the Eucharist weekly and adapting his sermons to his listeners. Funny, we're having to do exactly what they do in the mission we support in Bihar, India. In other words, we don't even do for working class people in the US what we do for folks places they've never heard the gospel but we wonder why they don't flock to our churches and go down the street to the Baptists!

Talk about blue collar resistance! In the shadow of the Mainline Cathedral "places" the Blue Collar workers resist with their nondenominational "spaces". Read the book and you'll know what he and I mean.

Thanks Dr. Sample for this provocative, though brief, work. It's thought provoking, if vague at many points.

One word about the language. To communicate "blue collar" attitudes, Dr. Sample had to convince the editor's to leave several instances of the "F word" in the text along with some other vulgarities. I wasn't aware Abigndon Press had any self imposed limits upon what they'd print. I was glad to know they had some boundaries.

To the reader: If you know someone who can help us start that Christian Non Profit Credit Union (or a Christian non profit credit union willing to help us fight usury and help working class people of all races and places!), have them email me at the address on the side of the page!

Microlending And Christian Missions

2006-10-19T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of microlending as way for developing world - Majority world - people to work their way out of poverty without developing dependency on handouts, much like the idea I described for our culture when discussing ways to end the usury of pay day and title loans.

When mircolending is done in conjunction with a Christian Agency like World Relief, my hope is that it's the equivalent of "giving a cup of cold water in Jesus' name" (Matthew 10:42)... not just to benefit an entrepreneur's present bliss, but their eternal bliss as well.

For me, microlending is a necessary corollary to such other aspects of mission as evangelism and disciplemaking.

That's why I've decided to support a Cambodian entrepreneur through World Relief and Kiva.org

I wish I had $10,000 to put to good use in a portfolio of these microloans right now! They don't earn interest, but the principle is repaid so it can be recirculated!

The thought of investing $10,000 in such loans is more thrilling to me than the thought of adding an extra $10,000 to a personal retirement account!

Visit Kiva.org to see just how easy it is.

Madonna and Child

2006-10-17T13:16:00.000-05:00

Rev. Dr. Larry Brown, a missionary teacher in Malawi, tells how the locals in Malawi view Madonna - the performer not the Virgin - obtaining a child under questionable circumstances:

Today Madonna’s adopted child left Malawi. He’s a one-and-a-half year old boy named David Banda. No, Madonna wasn’t with him; he arrived in London accompanied by two of her staff. There has been here in Malawi a cry of outrage. The law says that one must have been a resident in Malawi for one year before being eligible to adopt. A spokesman for the Malawian government told the BBC radio today that after all, it’s only a law, and as such is subject to interpretation. I tell my students here that there’s an ancient American proverb, “Money talks.” They smile knowingly; they have a similar proverb in their culture. The child, meanwhile, is more of an orphan than ever.

Update 11/6/2006 - Reports reveal that "Madonna" chose this child despite the fact that he was not really an orphan. In fact, she passed up legitimately orphaned children, then, after criticism claimed that this boy too was an orphan because his father "never visited him". In fact, the father robe 36 km three times per week - by bicycle - OR MORE to visit the boy.

Iraqi Christians Flee Persecution

2006-10-17T11:17:00.000-05:00

In this article from the New York Times dated today, October 17th, reaffirms a stark conclusion that the war in Iraq has done little to establish any sort of religious freedom from persecution for Iraqi Christians.

Though the Christian faith in Iraq dates back to the first century, and the land of modern Iraq is steeped in biblical significance dating back to the first pages of the Christian Scriptures, as many as 100,000 Christians have been forced to flee for their safety in the last 3 and one-half years. At least under the former regime, they had some safety. That safety diminishes daily under the present system and due to the unwillingness of American forces, let alone the Iraqi's, to protect this minority.

Recent statements by the Pope regarding Islam have inflamed the situation making many of the 600,000 to 800,000 remaining Christians unable to even work to provide for themselves. Many are trying to escape the country.

Though it remains to be seen if the War in Iraq will wipe out terrorism from the world, it seems to have been very effective in wiping out Christianity from one of it's most ancient homelands.

May the Lord be with those who remain and energize their brothers and sisters in Christ in the rest of the world to come to their aid and not leave the task to secular governments whose wills in this matter are weak to say the least.

Ministries serving Iraq despite the troubles are:

Classical School of the Medes

Sisters in Service

Posted by Rev. Chuck Huckaby - Mission Lawrence

Usury & Pay Day Loans

2006-10-16T10:06:00.000-05:00

Pastor Russell Smith of Cincinnati Ohio writes a thoughtful post on Banking, Usury, Pay Day Loans - What Can We Do?

Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice was written against the context of a Roman Catholic society that banned Christians from lending at interest or "usury". The Jews of Venice, though hated, were free from this prohibition and served as lenders of last resort. In the story, one such lender put out money at interest to fund the business adventure forming the background of the story.

In the Church there have always been questions regarding the propriety of lending money at interest because of passages like Psalm 15 which asks the question "LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy mountain?". The question is answered variously in the Psalm, but the last description relates to the topic at hand. There, the righteous are those "who lend money to the poor without interest and do not accept bribes against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken."

This rendition is from Today's New International Version, which implies a no interest loan to the poor. On the other hand, translations like the New King James Version render the phrase in this way: "He who does not put out his money at usury" implying excessive interest which presumably would be an amount greater than the rate of inflation or monentary devaluation during the period of the loan.

Others argue that the prohibition against interest is limited to the needy, not for ordinary "business" transactions since, by definition, bankers don't lend to the needy, but to those with the ability to repay. Still others said that the interest prohibition applies only to fellow Israelites and other borrowers are by definition "fair game".

Suffice it to say our western society has since the Reformation opted for the second interpretation in practice. Most states have "usury" laws defining the upper acceptable limits of interest on loans. In practice though, Usurers often find sympathetic legislators to help them get around any practical limitations or move to a state without such laws. So the answer is not more "legislation" but godly intervention.

So-called pay day loans with annual percentage rates of 300% to 1000% can sink working families near insolvency in a few months. Such usury shops are becoming increasingly prevalent. The trend among people who formerly ran pawn shops is to transition into pay day loan operations ... it's more money without having to dust the merchandise or keep it under lock and key. When communities undergo economic transitions, see factory jobs laying off workers who are unable to replace their wages, then the pay day loan shops, title loan shops, and used car lots seem to become the only "growth industries" around.

The fastest solution to the pay day loan problem would be to emulate a non profit credit union profiled in a recent USA Today article called Breaking The Pay Day Loan Cycle.

In the story, the author relates how the North Carolina State Employees' Credit Union began offering their own version of the "pay day loan". They structured the program though, to funnel a significant portion of the interest into a savings account for the customer which allows them ultimately to have enough savings to escape the need for such loans. Despite the highly charitable ambition behind the loan, it was still greatly profitable and because the recipients of the loan were members of the nonprofit credit union, they would ultimately benefit from any interest they paid anyway.

Concerned Christians could easily start such a credit union on a national level and train local churches to be the representatives who offer this product - along with financial counsel and Christian support - to people trapped in the pay day loan cycle.

Or they could work with a local credit union who'd support their attempts to minister to people instead of just offering just a loan, however good the loan.

Unfortunately, the "Christian" Credit Union I approached on this issue didn't seize upon the opportunity... they mainly served overseas missionaries for whom pay day loans weren't a problem.

Let's remember our heritage though.

Christianity either created or redeemed the institutions we enjoy now, however much they have fallen on hard times, like universal education and hospitals. Without Christians caring for the ignorant and the sick, these institutions would never have existed.

It's time to get back in the world changing business in our culture by doing something instead of just talking about what other people should be doing.

There is a crying need for the spread of Christian nonprofit credit unions who will help the financially enslaved in the Name of Jesus Christ in the manner outlined above. The time is now. Will we rise to serve this mission field outside our doorstep? Or keep sleeping?

See follow up posts here: Community Development Credit Unions

Welcome To Mission Lawrence

2006-10-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

Hello, I'm Rev. Chuck Huckaby.

In the providence of God I've served as a minister in Lawrence County TN since December of 1998.

This weblog is about my service here and thoughts on ministry for those who would like to pray for the work we do here.

I'll make entries as time and thoughtfulness allows.