respect

In my study on 1 Timothy 5:1-2, I was struck by the little phrase "with all purity." Purity in this passage is in the context of respect and mutual submission. And the question is what does purity have to do with respect? Often times purity is talked about in terms of what we don't do. Obviously that is a part of purity, but pursuing purity from this passage is a proactive way to give respect to one another.

Paul invites this church to treat women as sisters with all purity. Impurity actually denigrates our relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ. Sexual impurity is taking people created in the image of God and denigrating them to objects of lust or desire. Impurity not only disrespects people, but it disrespects God’s created order. To pursue purity is to see each other as brothers and sisters. Instead of lust, we seek to see people as sisters in need of dignity and grieve when they are not respected. Therefore, one reason we pursue purity is so that we can show more respect to one another.

Also, I would recommend an online book that I read as a part of my preparation. It is specifically about the issues of lust and pornography written specifically for men. You can find it here.

election day

Here is an excellent post by John Piper on how Christians should view government and our call to prayer. Check it out.

txt messaging and culture

I really appreciate the recent work on Christians in culture. I believe that our call as Christians should involve interpreting our culture as well as interpreting scripture. That is the good work of each of us as missionaries. Too often we either throw darts at culture or simply let it wash over us instead of asking how we can be involved in the redemption of culture.

On Andy Crouch's blog, he takes a "cultural artifact" and asks 5 questions to help us in the process. I think this is a great exercise to get us thinking about our culture. For example he took the cultural artifact of text messaging here. Here are the questions that he asks about each cultural artifact.

1. What does text messaging assume about the way the world is?
2. What does text messaging assume about the way the world should be?
3. What does text messaging make possible?
4. What does text messaging make impossible (or at least a lot more difficult)?
5. What new culture is created in response?

It is interesting to see people's responses. Other examples: the weather channel, presidential debates and backpacks.

Mystery Shopper?

A Wall Street Journal article came out today about the newish phenomena of mystery worshipers visiting churches to evaluate them. It is much like secret shoppers who evaluate their experience at restaurants and stores. This particular consultant charges $1500 for a visit and a written evaluation. The article said that some pastors "say that church shopping has become necessary for churches seeking to compete in an increasingly mobile and consumer-oriented society."

It is sad that often churches aren't very welcoming as seen by this article. I think that it is important to know what newcomers think about your church, but this article concerns me. My concern is the fundamental assertion that church is another cog in the consumer driven wheel. Should churches "compete" with each other? Should a church's biggest concern be meeting peoples' needs? What are the metrics that should evaluate a church?

Prodigal God

Tim Keller has a new book coming out this month called "Prodigal God." It will discuss how the famous story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 shows the heart of the gospel. This is one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible. I can't wait. Below he talks about the sermon that gave him inspiration for this book from crossway:

"Many excellent studies have been written on this Biblical text over the last several years, but the foundation for my understanding of it was a sermon I heard preached over thirty years ago by Dr. Edmund P. Clowney. Listening to that sermon changed the way I understood Christianity. I almost felt I had discovered the secret heart of Christianity. Over the years I have often returned to teach and counsel from the parable. I have seen more people encouraged, enlightened, and helped by this passage, when I explained the true meaning of it, than by any other text (pp. xii-xiii)."

Religulous

I read a good post by Dan Kimball today on Bill Maher's movie: Religulous. I have not seen it, but Dan has and gives thoughts on the documentary/commentary. I also appreciated some of the dialogue in the comments below.

Old News or Good News

Christians would never say it, but sometimes they act like the gospel is "old news." Most of you guys know that is one of my biggest frustrations with the church in America today. When that happens much of Christianity simply becomes moralism. Michael Horton's new book addresses this issue: Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church. You can read more on Justin Taylor's Blog.

Faith and Politics

This Saturday night at 7pm Rick Warren will be interviewing Barack Obama and John McCain on CNN and online. This is the first time in history where both candidates will meet with a pastor to talk about faith's role in politics. This should be very interesting. There is more information here: Saddleback Civil Forum

Article about our denomination

Christianity Today wrote an article about the changes that the EFCA made to its doctrinal statement. I was very happy to see the inclusion of "God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed..." Check out the article and the changes here.

Great Gospel Articles

The Christian Vision Project is spending all of 08 asking the question, is our gospel too small. I have enjoyed several of the articles, but I particularly liked this interview by Andy Crouch of James Choung called From Four Laws to Four Circles. I would be curious to hear your thoughts. Also, on the gospel, I would recommend Christianity Today's article by Tim Keller called "The Gospel in All Its Forms."

unChristian

I recommend unChristian as a great book that everyone should read. The book records 20 somethings' views of Christianity. Unfortunately we all know that Christians have not always represented Jesus very well and the research confirms it. I appreciated the research, but I especially liked the end of the book where respected leaders discussed how to positively contribute to culture. I found it interesting that almost every responder said Christianity must change the way it is responding to the major issues like Aids, poverty, injustice, etc. Our gospel has to be bigger than the individualistic version that is so common today.

on the way

This week as I sit in a coffee shop in rainy Seattle, I keep having these few words running through my head. "Come let us go to the other side." We all know that Jesus spent time with the prostitutes, tax collectors, cheats, lepers, but now Jesus was taking it to a whole new level. The other side is the pagan area called the Decapolis or the land of the Gerasenes. This is a place that every good Jew avoided for a lot of reasons. This was their Ninevah! On the way to mission in this pagan place, they face the mother of all storms. And what comes out - FEAR.

This week as I am being challenged to go to the other side. My fears have become front and center. Fear of rejection. Fear of change. Fear of the costs. As we take steps toward mission toward people God truly loves (interestingly enough as Ron Ruchruff said today that Jesus loved the demoniac enough to destroy the economy of the decapolis by killing the pigs in order to deliver and heal him) the evil one wants to put fears front and center. Jesus' answer shouldn't surprise us. It is radical faith.

my new friend

Today I met some of the most amazing people that I have ever been around. People from all over the world like Kenya, Nigeria, Taiwan, India, South Africa, Holland, Reno, Seattle, San Diego to mention a few. I talked to many people today and was quite overwhelmed by all that these people are doing to demonstrate and declare the gospel of Jesus in our world. But one new friend is Jack. Jack serves as a bishop overseing over 400 churches in the Kibera Slum in Kenya. The Kibera slum is the biggest slum in Africa and has over 1 million people living there. I was amazed as he told me stories of ministry in the slums especially in light of the tribal tension this year. Needless to say, my perspective is being changed.

Hotel Rwanda Clip

This week as I was preparing for a sermon about the poor and the oppressed, I was reminded of this convicting clip in Hotel Rwanda. It is a film that talks about the genocide of 800,000 pople in 100 days in Rwanda in 1994. Just as a comparison: 2700 people died in the Twin towers and the Pentagon on 9-11. The genocide in Rwanda would be the same as the World Trade Center and the Pentagon tragedy happening at 8am, 4pm and midnight every single day for 3.5 months.

Here is the clip on Youtube from Hotel Rwanda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QMKv3vRHtg

Letter to Diognetus

This is an exerpt from a letter to Diognetus in the 2nd Century describing early Christians. I thought it was a good explanation of being wholly countercultural while still looking like our culture. I wonder what it would take for someone to write a similar letter today.

“Christians are not differentiated from other people by country, language, or customs; you see, they do not live in cities or their own or speak some strange dialect, or have some peculiar lifestyle. They live in both Greek and foreign cities, wherever chance has put them. They follow local customs in clothing, food, and the other aspects of life. But at the same time, they demonstrate to us the wonderful and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship. They live in their own native lands, but as aliens: as citizens they share all things with others; but like aliens suffer all things. Every foreign country is to them as their native country, and ever native land as a foreign country. They are treated outrageously and behave respectfully to others. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if being given new life. They are attacked by Jews as aliens, and presecuted by Greeks; yet those who hate them cannot give any reason for their hostility."

unedited version

It seems everywhere you look, our culture is longing for true community. This is from John Mayer's blog: "This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right." He continues to say that he longs to be authentic and I think he incapsulates the human desire to be fully known.

Frederick Buechner in Telling Secrets says "the central paradox of our condition--that what we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are--even if we tell it only to ourselves--because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing."

The kind of community where we can truly be our "unedited" self should be found so profoundly in the community centered around the gospel of Christ. Unfortunately Christians can be really good cover-up artists. But if the gospel is true and we are all collectively worse off than we ever thought yet more accepted than we ever hoped to be because of Christ - we of all people ought to be the most authentic, free and unedited.

better than useful

I meant to write earlier about the Transforming culture symposium at our church but April has absolutely been a slammed month for us. All of the speakers were outstanding and I enjoyed interacting with some of the people who came to the symposium. Andy Crouch kicked off the symposium with a brilliant message on culture, art, worship and obedience. I sat next to Jonathan Dodson who took better notes and blogged about them. You can read his thoughts here. Crouch's most profound point, in my opinion, had to do with uselessness. We don't like the idea of uselessness, but art itself "cannot be reduced to utility" as he said. He claimed that art is not useful, but it is better than useful. Then he connected that same idea to the fact that the church is actually a patron of the useless. Worship, community and prayer are not useful, but they are better than useful. It was a brilliant message and I look forward to his new book coming out.

Nouwen

"It is hard for me to forgive someone who has really offended me, especially when it happens more than once. I begin to doubt the sincerity of the one who asks forgiveness for a second, third, or fourth time. But God does not keep count. God just waits for our return, without resentment or desire for revenge. "
- Henri Nouwen The Road to Daybreak

I was reading Shaun Groves blog and came upon this great quote from Henri Nouwen. If you haven't ever checked out Nouwen, get the Prodigal Son and In the Name of Jesus to start.

busy, poor, tired, etc

I thought Shaun Groves post on college students was interesting. Just like his post, I totally thought of myself as tired, busy and poor in college. Today, I look back and I wasted so much time, spent money on random things and took a nap a day. Now I realize that poor is not eating hot pockets, but working as a rickshaw driver in Bangladesh. And my view of tired and busy are very different now too. The stats in his post were pretty wild. This heightens how difficult the transition is from college to the "real world."

A Robust Gospel

My friend Matt sent me this article from Christianity Today by Scot McKnight. He has 8 points about a more Robust Gospel. Today I had the awesome opportunity to share the gospel with someone who visited the Gathering. It is always amazing to be reminded what good news the gospel is in its story, its forgiveness, its reconciliation, and its compelling vision for us and for all creation. The gospel is the power of God for those who are being saved!

Redemption Stories

I am excited about our new series at the Gathering on Sunday nights starting this week March 2nd. I am particularly excited about hearing testimonies of how God is redeeming people within our community. Here is the blurb for our redemption stories:

The longing for redemption and healing is one of the most common themes of movies, music, and art. Culture communicates about the brokenness of our world and the desire for redemption. The story of the Bible is that God Himself has come to rescue and renew the creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. When God’s story of redemption intersects with our stories – the entire course of our life is changed.

Quirky Movie Taste

With the oscars coming up, I figured I should write about a few movies that I have liked this year. I have a baby, so most of my movie watching is through Netflix, so I apologize if I am behind on the times. I have learned after my last blog on a movie (Lars and the Real Girl) that I have quirky movie taste. But recently I have found many others who like these films. Obviously, there are things that I don't like about these movies (disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer), but I am drawn to movies like these because they communicate so much about our culture and also are usually in some way redemptive.

1. Juno. They take a very serious subject and at times make light of it. But the writing is pretty hilarious and Ellen Page does an incredible job. There is so much to say about this movie. I think it communicates the longing for meaning and redemption and the many places we try to find it.

2. Once. This is a story told through music in Ireland. I wonder how many people who "used" to play the guitar picked it back up after this movie. Great story and well done.

3. Reign Over Me. I always like Don Cheadle. This was a movie that I didn't hear about until I rented it. I thought it was very a very compelling story about healing for both characters.

substitute

My friend was recently confirmed as a match for a bone marrow transplant. One of his co-workers struggled with the operation because my friend was not allowed to know what kind of person would be receiving the transplant. The uncertain co-worker said, “I would have a tough time sacrificing anything for an undeserving person.” This scenario exemplifies the radical and countercultural nature of the gospel. Jesus died a criminal’s death, but that wasn’t the worst of it. He bore the wrath of God and endured the depths of the relational separation that comes with sin, yet Jesus knew no sin. He experienced death and separation in our stead, though we did not deserve it. My friend’s blood saved this person and he will never know what her character was like. Jesus’ death on the Cross saved was the only thing that could save our lives from eternal separation from God. The truth of the gospel is that we were worse off than we ever thought, but now because of Jesus we are more accepted than we ever hoped to be. This was a great reminder to me that the message of the gospel is foolishness to our culture, yet the power of God for those are saved.

New Book

I read this interview with Tim Keller on Justin Taylor's blog (called Between Two Worlds) about his book coming out in early February. I am pretty excited about this book called Reason for God and have already pre-ordered it. Check out his interview at this post.

The Call

While in East Asia I finished a great book that I have wanted to read for a while now. It is called The Call by Os Guinness. I recommend this as a thorough resource for those called to vocational ministry, business, politics, the arts, etc. I appreciate how he says that the call is first to Someone - God. The secondary call of what we do with our life then overflows from the primary call to be God's. I felt that Guinness’ simple yet profound call to dying to self, stewardship, humility, community and worship are a breath of fresh air with the slew of self-help and purpose books out there.

His thesis is simply that “calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.” This book gives good perspective for anyone who wants to see our whole life in light of the call of God.

Back from East Asia

We are back from East Asia and had an absolutely awesome time. I have so many stories and thoughts. I am a little out of it from the jet lag, but here are a few to start with. The average student had barely even heard of Jesus. That shocked me but it gave us some freedom to share the gospel without any preconceived notions. The education system has, in my opinion, not really given most of the students the freedom to think. They all answer spiritual questions the exact same. But surprisingly to me, it was very easy to talk about Jesus and share my beliefs.

On the other hand, the Christian students were a joy. Their faces lit up when you mention the name of Jesus. I had the opportunity to teach (with a translator of course) and it was such a blessing to hear how passionate they are for both their relationship with God and also about reaching their country for Jesus. In a small group that I attended, almost every student asked for prayer to see their family or their friends come to know Jesus. Their stories and their passion was such an encouragement to my faith.