Barna on struggles- not good news

clipped from www.ministrytodaymag.com "Many of the same people who claim that their faith is very important to them and that they are absolutely committed to Christianity also say that they face no spiritual challenges in life,” Barna says. "Americans focus on what they consider to be the most important matters; faith maturity is not one of them.” So how do we avoid fostering a faith that only knows how to drive one way down Easy Street? It's beginning to sound like a broken record (check out our previous blog), but it's as simple as relationship. Person-to-person ministry that challenges an individual and, at times, even gets in his or her face with biblical truth. "Ministry is most effective when it addresses the specific needs of each person on a one-to-one or few-to-one basis," Barna says, echoing the point. "The data underscore the importance of people knowing and ministering to each other in a very direct and personal way, recognizing the uniqueness of every person and their journey."

A Thomas Merton Prayer

clipped from nextreformation.com MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. - Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude” Abbey of Gethsemani

C.S. Lewis and conceit

Quote provided by inwardoutward.org....

clipped from www.inwardoutward.org By C. S. Lewis When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and wouldn�t go to the churches and Gospel Halls; I disliked very much their hymns which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren�t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit. Source: Surprised By Joy

More questions...are we in trouble?

Another "Letters to Emerging Christians" from Scot Mcknight's blog....go to the page and read the comments as well.......

clipped from www.jesuscreed.org I’ve been struggling with some similarities that I have seen with several Hebrew Scripture passages and our current church culture. My struggle is that I read Isaiah 58 or Amos 5:21-24 (among others) and I see a people that is obsessed with worship, traditions, going through the motions. I then see God’s displeasure with outward displays of worship and His urgent desire for us to seek justice. What I cannot shake is this feeling that God views many of our American churches today in this way. With the obsession with musical worship, programs, churches run as businesses and so on, I get this sense that we are in danger of looking like the ancient, unfaithful Israelites (with the exception that we are not being threatened with imminent doom).

Henri Nouwen on substituting love

I am beginning to think that every new Christian should read Nouwen....he is climbing up there with C.S. Lewis in my opinion as essential Christian thinkers. This Nouwen quote is courtesy of inward/outward.

clipped from www.inwardoutward.org What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life…. The long painful history of the Church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led…. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.

You want to see a butterfly? A poke on tract evangelism

I used to own tracts, but I never liked them. Even as a kid, I though they were cheesy. As I grew older, and several complete strangers gave me a tract on the street, I got a very sour taste when I encountered them, because it felt so impersonal and cold. Most people that gave me a tract didn't even ask me my name- it was as if they were filling a quota over actually connecting with me. Here's a little humor on the the topic from The Core Blog...

clipped from www.thecoredowntown.com Here... I've got one smashed in this book somewhere... aha! Here it is! A pipevine swallowtail... very rare. Yes, I realize the colors are a little dull... it is dead after all. But this way you can look closely at it... study it. You can turn it over in your fingers and catalog its parts and know everything you need to know about a butterfly, with none of that silly running around in a meadow to worry about! You wanna see Jesus? Hmm... oh yes! Here's a tract.

Emerging Wednesday- Christianity and social justice in a postmodern world

Vanguard Church discusses some of the issues facing the church in the field of social justice-- specifically, how should the church converse with postmodern people in regards to social justice? Here a few snippets that grabbed me.

clipped from vanguardchurch.blogspot.com Ministry that is properly situated to reach postmoderns embraces postmodern ideas about evil. We affirm the “will to power” that points out that we human beings (both individually and in our institutions) consistently abuse power in order to oppress others and to further our own agendas. We affirm that we should be careful not to trust others too far. We affirm that Auschwitz and brutal World Wars and even current empirical power grabs by the governments of the West prove that our supposed morality is questionable at best. We affirm that even those who are religious are not immune to the bent human need for power A Christian movement that displays the grace of Jesus Christ in righting injustices speaks to the postmodern heart and mind. It says that God knows that the world is not the way it should be. It says that God is indeed doing something about it. It says that the ultimate solution to these problems is God…God hanging on a cross.

Emerging Wednesday- Christ's strategy

A portion of a great series from Signs of Emergence about Christ's "strategy" in regards to how he carried out his mission and vision. I thought this would be something a little Easter-y but something different.

clipped from kester.typepad.com what Christ is doing when he stays silent at his trial is refusing to even enter the game that the strategists plotting against him have set up. It is as if he deliberately loses, because by losing he is totally subverting the very idea of the game. And this is where Paul and Judas go terribly wrong. Presented with amazing opportunities to 'do something for Jesus', they fall into strategy, they throw their chips in and enter the game. Why didn't Paul imitate Christ and keep his mouth shut? Because his strategy was always to get taken to Rome, and to take part in a 'power play' with Caesar. On the cross the religious leaders taunted Jesus - if he's so powerful, why doesn't he save himself? This was the final temptation Jesus faced, the same one the devil ended with in the desert: take part in the power play. Jesus emptied himself of all that power, emptied himself of strategies, because he had to be emptied of the Self - the Self that pretends that it is powerful and influential.

How often do we go with Jesus' strategy, and how often do we follow Paul and Judas? I shudder at the thought of what we would find if we polled it.....

An atheist's experience

This is a quote from an atheist that visited 30 churches to study what impressions they would leave him with. Look at what he was left with....

clipped from www.internetmonk.com Clearly, most churches have aligned themselves against non-religious people. By adopting this stance, Christians have turned off the people I would think they want to connect with. The combative stance I’ve observed is an approach that causes people to become apathetic—and even antagonistic—toward religion as a whole. Many evangelical pastors seem to perceive just about everything to be a threat against Christianity. Evolution is a threat. Gay marriage is a threat. A swear word uttered accidentally on television is a threat. Democrats are a threat. I don’t see how any of these things pose a threat against Christianity. If someone disagrees with you about politics or social issues or the matter of origins, isn’t that just democracy and free speech in action? Why do Christians feel so threatened? You need to spread the message of Christianity—the message being what Christianity stands for—loving each other, helping the people around you. Those are things everyone can get on board with.

Emerging Wednesday- a sad definition

What is a Christian? This clip is from Ryan Wiksell's blog, asking not what we Christians would define ourselves as, but what we may have allowed the world to define us as. Read on....

clipped from www.thecoredowntown.com Christian: (n) An adherent to the western religious paradigm known as Christianity, identified by numerous cultural indicators, including: mandatory attendance at weekly religious performances, neat and tidy appearance, chipper attitude, straight-ticket Republican loyalty, big house less than 25 years old in an excellent school district, well-dressed and well-behaved children, homogenous circle of friends, SUV or minivan ownership, abstention from alcohol, tobacco and crude speech, upwardly mobile, and others of the like. Common usage: “I can’t let my family find out that my boyfriend got me pregnant; they’re Christians.” “I don’t want to work Sundays anymore; Christians are the worst tippers.” “Christians think that they can start a war, and God is always on their side.” (Source: The Non-Christian Worldview Dictionary.)

Emerging Wednesday- what it heresy? apostasy? schism?

Just about everyone throws around words without knowing what they really mean-- especially religious folks. In reading all about the emerging movement, and theology in general, it's amazing how quickly the words heretic, apostasy, and schism are so commonly invoked. But what do they mean? Well, here you go.

clipped from kenn.typepad.com

APOSTASY, the most grievous of the three, is a complete and utter rejection of the faith (“denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ”). That is clearly not the aim or purpose of the emergent church movement as I read them.

SCHISM means separating from the universal Church because of unwillingness to be constrained by unity. I think the emergent movement might be guilty on this count, but so is Calvary Chapel, and most of the Christian church. More on that some other time.

HERESY is an intentional or rejection of an essential element of the faith as outlined in the three creeds (Apostle’s, Nicene, Athanasian) embraced by all four streams of the universal Church (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican). False doctrine and heresy are synonyms.