New Date-FEB 20
15 years ago
Saturday, May 19, 2007
what time?
I was thinking about when was the last time someone you didn't know realized that you were a creature who was in eternal being, put here for jsuta short while. I wonder if we show this to the ones we encounter much. Does the supermarket clerk get even 15 extra seconds of our time? Do we know how many grandkids the mailman has? Are we mostly just concerned with those in our bubble, moving from one urgency to the next?
Thursday, May 10, 2007
outside in
Today I've been thinking about all the times we let the outside determine the inside, instead of the reverse.. when Jesus said "the Kingdom of God is within you." what did he mean. It sounds kind of new-agey . . . . or does it? What is our source of Truth? God. Once reconciled to God, where does he reside? Within us, our spirit with His.
So why do we seek so many external validations?
Are not many largely unnecessary, when Truth is within us?
Have we grown to, or been taught to distrust this truth, to second guess it?
Probably.
What would happen if we opened the door to trust again? If we said, “Speak to me Lord, from within me”?
So why do we seek so many external validations?
Are not many largely unnecessary, when Truth is within us?
Have we grown to, or been taught to distrust this truth, to second guess it?
Probably.
What would happen if we opened the door to trust again? If we said, “Speak to me Lord, from within me”?
Monday, April 30, 2007
from around the world- other voices
From Sherman YL Kuek, OSL
Sherman is an itinerant minister and an Adjunct Lecturer in Christian Theology at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia (STM). He spends much of his time journeying with his friends in reflecting on faith, life, and culture in a profoundly theological and yet simple way. Sherman blogs on www.ShermanKuek.net.
In speaking of contextualisation, there are (rather simplistically) two trends of thought:
1) The gospel consists of a "static universal core", a series of articulations which is time insensitive and perennially unchanging. The contextualisation project is simply about enfleshing this core with a cultural facade for the facilitation of communication and understanding. The core, essentially, does not change.
2) The gospel consists of a "dynamic universal core", a series of articulations which is time sensitive and perennially changing with the development of our theological understanding. The contextualisation project, whilst being about the cultural expression of this "dynamic universal core", is also about allowing the enfleshment process to provoke us to re-examine the legitimacy and relevance of the universal core. This means that the universal core, by its sheer dynamic nature, is vulnerable to being modified, changed, eradicated, retained, or reaffirmed in accordance with that deemed necessary.
I suspect that the "emerging" people are those who are more ready to embrace the second of the two approaches, and not anyone is willing to sit well with this methodological vulnerability.
But anyone who is seriously going to engage his/her context authentically would almost immediately see that the second of the two is probably the only way by which one can be authentically contextual in his/her theological methodology.
II
This section dwells on some further sustained thoughts pertaining to the "dynamic universal core". If we posit that the dynamic universal core is "time sensitive and perennially changing with the development of our theological understanding", what reasonable sources possess legitimate ascendancy over the dynamism of the core?
It is open knowledge that the emerging people are serious about engaging with the dominant culture confronting the Christian gospel (in the West the postmodern culture, and in Asia perhaps the postcolonial ethos). First and foremost, this engagement is about the vulnerability of allowing the dominant culture to challenge the Christian gospel with serious questions regarding the adequacy, accuracy, and even the absolute rightness of the latter.
But it is probably a misunderstanding beyond proportions that these people engaging with culture are actually permitting the culture to redefine the core. It is most likely that culture raises questions which shed doubt on the perennial universality of the core, but not necessarily that culture redefines the core.
In my observation, it seems to me that whilst culture is permitted the role of the "interrogator", the contextual thinkers are going back into the Great Christian Tradition to seek solutions for these problems raised by culture. They do not claim that culture itself provides the answers. They seem to have an implicit understanding that the Great Christian Tradition itself possesses more than a sufficient wealth of wisdom to provide plausible solutions for challenges posed by culture. The Great Christian Tradition causes one to expand and deepen the core such that one realises that his definition and demarcation of the core may have been overly limited and unnecessarily fossilised.
Thus, it is not uncommon for contextual thinkers to move beyond the boundaries of their own limited traditions (i.e. their denominational / traditional boundaries and familiar scope of theological positions) towards other even older traditions in search of responses to the problems posed by culture. This explains the openness of the emerging people towards the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions and their willingness to listen to other ecclesial voices beyond that with which they are familiar. Again, this is not something deemed acceptable to every Christian thinker of every tradition. Some traditions are, by their sheer nature, implicitly closed to conversations which challenge the rudiments of their all-familiar categories.
The Christian faith is more than 500 years old. In fact, the memory of the Christian Church goes back beyond 2,000 years. The contextual thinker holds on to this wealth of ecclesial life and therefore understands that there is no need for theological insecurity, for he has a long, long history - a Great Story of which he is a part - consisting of multiple voices of wisdom who have come before him and who would be able to infuse wisdom and impart solutions in his endeavour to be a relevant voice within the present scheme of life. This is the reservoir of ecclesial jurors for the contextual thinker which many others fail to observe or choose to ignore all together.
For him, the challenges posed by cultural confrontations do not cause him to pander into a state of intimidation and self-preserving defensiveness, for he looks beyond himself and his restrained traditional familiarity; and behold, a world of endless possibilities is open before him as he gleans from the voices of his many Fathers who once treaded the path on which he now finds himself. Someone aptly comments (and the contextual thinker certainly mirrors it well): "It's not about the old ways, it's about the much older ways".
Sherman is an itinerant minister and an Adjunct Lecturer in Christian Theology at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia (STM). He spends much of his time journeying with his friends in reflecting on faith, life, and culture in a profoundly theological and yet simple way. Sherman blogs on www.ShermanKuek.net.
In speaking of contextualisation, there are (rather simplistically) two trends of thought:
1) The gospel consists of a "static universal core", a series of articulations which is time insensitive and perennially unchanging. The contextualisation project is simply about enfleshing this core with a cultural facade for the facilitation of communication and understanding. The core, essentially, does not change.
2) The gospel consists of a "dynamic universal core", a series of articulations which is time sensitive and perennially changing with the development of our theological understanding. The contextualisation project, whilst being about the cultural expression of this "dynamic universal core", is also about allowing the enfleshment process to provoke us to re-examine the legitimacy and relevance of the universal core. This means that the universal core, by its sheer dynamic nature, is vulnerable to being modified, changed, eradicated, retained, or reaffirmed in accordance with that deemed necessary.
I suspect that the "emerging" people are those who are more ready to embrace the second of the two approaches, and not anyone is willing to sit well with this methodological vulnerability.
But anyone who is seriously going to engage his/her context authentically would almost immediately see that the second of the two is probably the only way by which one can be authentically contextual in his/her theological methodology.
II
This section dwells on some further sustained thoughts pertaining to the "dynamic universal core". If we posit that the dynamic universal core is "time sensitive and perennially changing with the development of our theological understanding", what reasonable sources possess legitimate ascendancy over the dynamism of the core?
It is open knowledge that the emerging people are serious about engaging with the dominant culture confronting the Christian gospel (in the West the postmodern culture, and in Asia perhaps the postcolonial ethos). First and foremost, this engagement is about the vulnerability of allowing the dominant culture to challenge the Christian gospel with serious questions regarding the adequacy, accuracy, and even the absolute rightness of the latter.
But it is probably a misunderstanding beyond proportions that these people engaging with culture are actually permitting the culture to redefine the core. It is most likely that culture raises questions which shed doubt on the perennial universality of the core, but not necessarily that culture redefines the core.
In my observation, it seems to me that whilst culture is permitted the role of the "interrogator", the contextual thinkers are going back into the Great Christian Tradition to seek solutions for these problems raised by culture. They do not claim that culture itself provides the answers. They seem to have an implicit understanding that the Great Christian Tradition itself possesses more than a sufficient wealth of wisdom to provide plausible solutions for challenges posed by culture. The Great Christian Tradition causes one to expand and deepen the core such that one realises that his definition and demarcation of the core may have been overly limited and unnecessarily fossilised.
Thus, it is not uncommon for contextual thinkers to move beyond the boundaries of their own limited traditions (i.e. their denominational / traditional boundaries and familiar scope of theological positions) towards other even older traditions in search of responses to the problems posed by culture. This explains the openness of the emerging people towards the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions and their willingness to listen to other ecclesial voices beyond that with which they are familiar. Again, this is not something deemed acceptable to every Christian thinker of every tradition. Some traditions are, by their sheer nature, implicitly closed to conversations which challenge the rudiments of their all-familiar categories.
The Christian faith is more than 500 years old. In fact, the memory of the Christian Church goes back beyond 2,000 years. The contextual thinker holds on to this wealth of ecclesial life and therefore understands that there is no need for theological insecurity, for he has a long, long history - a Great Story of which he is a part - consisting of multiple voices of wisdom who have come before him and who would be able to infuse wisdom and impart solutions in his endeavour to be a relevant voice within the present scheme of life. This is the reservoir of ecclesial jurors for the contextual thinker which many others fail to observe or choose to ignore all together.
For him, the challenges posed by cultural confrontations do not cause him to pander into a state of intimidation and self-preserving defensiveness, for he looks beyond himself and his restrained traditional familiarity; and behold, a world of endless possibilities is open before him as he gleans from the voices of his many Fathers who once treaded the path on which he now finds himself. Someone aptly comments (and the contextual thinker certainly mirrors it well): "It's not about the old ways, it's about the much older ways".
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Maybe it doesn't matter
Maybe the check list of do's and don't doesn't matter like we've been taught. Maybe God isn't shaking his head in disapproval when we miss ' quiet time". Maybe someone sitting in a wheel chair, helpless means as much to God as Billy Graham, or some other Christian big name. Maybe we trying for all the wrong things.
Trying isn't what it's all about, but we keep doing it. Can Christians emerge beyond the feeble religion they've created to satisfy themselves?
Trying isn't what it's all about, but we keep doing it. Can Christians emerge beyond the feeble religion they've created to satisfy themselves?
Thursday, April 19, 2007
misunderstood
I heard a guy at seminary conclude that emerging church was great for bringing younger people into the church, but they have some doctrine and things wrong. It was as if he thought some concrete idea was agreed upon. Most people are only contributing to a conversation. They are takinga crack at things in their own way. It's all a work in progress, and each experience varies from case to case. But that's not the perception.
How do you convince people a "movement" is a movement unlike any movement they have ever seen, with different rules and looks?
How do you convince people a "movement" is a movement unlike any movement they have ever seen, with different rules and looks?
Friday, April 13, 2007
POWs
edited from Spiritual ethoughts Monthly installment lisadelay.com
Sometimes I wonder if non-believers think that Christianity is “no fun”, or in most ways unappealing, because instead of living the abundant life Jesus brought from heaven to earth, Christians have become Prisoners of War in our battle of Good and Evil. Do Christians seem a bit dull? Do they seem sort of nasty? Do they seem like whiners? Do they pick on each other? Do they, and do you, down deep in your heart secretly wish for more? We’ve sort of been captured.
It’s not that we’ve become prisoners because our enemy is more powerful, but we’ve willing walking into a prison camp of sorts. Or more likely, we’ve subtly slipped into a cell of lethargy. For some, this happens in the same way a coal chills as it is separated the warmth of live briquettes. It boils down to authentic accountability. The masks stay on, and so no one knows the real struggles. Sometimes we are simply prisoners in a chamber where the doors are already wide open. We merely stay where we are most comfortable.
Regardless of the manner in which it happens, from time to time, the abundant life is not the life we live. Troubles crowd in, doubt sways us, business steals us away, illness plagues us, sin besets us, people hurt us, or in some other ways we lose focus. Some way we miss that our source of life abundant is the only sate for our thirst. Jesus, our Living Water, is the Fountain we must ingest frequently, daily. We don’t do it to satisfy a checklist, but to quench ourselves. To live.
It’s no wonder so many Christians are Missing in Action, or Prisoners of War. We strive so hard to keep a grip on all the moving parts of our lives, and the whole time, we slip into the dehydrated, mundane, un-abundant, and too-thirsty-too-soon-life without the best water.
I know this is the bigger war at stake. It is the more common one. The one between Good and Evil is fought in the skirmishes on the battlefields of Self firstly, and most frequently. These often-overlooked tussles lead to the bigger theaters of combat, which are the powerful choices, the ones that can bring true destruction or restoration in one's life. Victory in the small continual contests are really the only way we can avoid having to fight and lose the worst wars. We were never meant to be prisoners. Jesus came to set us free. We can be free indeed.
Sometimes I wonder if non-believers think that Christianity is “no fun”, or in most ways unappealing, because instead of living the abundant life Jesus brought from heaven to earth, Christians have become Prisoners of War in our battle of Good and Evil. Do Christians seem a bit dull? Do they seem sort of nasty? Do they seem like whiners? Do they pick on each other? Do they, and do you, down deep in your heart secretly wish for more? We’ve sort of been captured.
It’s not that we’ve become prisoners because our enemy is more powerful, but we’ve willing walking into a prison camp of sorts. Or more likely, we’ve subtly slipped into a cell of lethargy. For some, this happens in the same way a coal chills as it is separated the warmth of live briquettes. It boils down to authentic accountability. The masks stay on, and so no one knows the real struggles. Sometimes we are simply prisoners in a chamber where the doors are already wide open. We merely stay where we are most comfortable.
Regardless of the manner in which it happens, from time to time, the abundant life is not the life we live. Troubles crowd in, doubt sways us, business steals us away, illness plagues us, sin besets us, people hurt us, or in some other ways we lose focus. Some way we miss that our source of life abundant is the only sate for our thirst. Jesus, our Living Water, is the Fountain we must ingest frequently, daily. We don’t do it to satisfy a checklist, but to quench ourselves. To live.
It’s no wonder so many Christians are Missing in Action, or Prisoners of War. We strive so hard to keep a grip on all the moving parts of our lives, and the whole time, we slip into the dehydrated, mundane, un-abundant, and too-thirsty-too-soon-life without the best water.
I know this is the bigger war at stake. It is the more common one. The one between Good and Evil is fought in the skirmishes on the battlefields of Self firstly, and most frequently. These often-overlooked tussles lead to the bigger theaters of combat, which are the powerful choices, the ones that can bring true destruction or restoration in one's life. Victory in the small continual contests are really the only way we can avoid having to fight and lose the worst wars. We were never meant to be prisoners. Jesus came to set us free. We can be free indeed.
Monday, March 26, 2007
fingers of God
What if today, you thoughts of your fingers as God's figures, and what them type for him?
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
excerpt... (my article at theooze.com
As we get to be true friends, we start to know each other. Let me tell you, no one is normal. The next phase of a deepening friendship is the “reality phase”. It’s when you realize the friend you have has problems. They have a terrible temper or jealousy troubles. They are way too sensitive, or inconsiderate, or gossip, or get annoyed at trivial things. Or they have the worst problem of all– they see you as having problems. Which, of course, seems impossible at first. You start to resent them or become confused. It’s frustrating and increasingly complicated. The illusion of the perfect friendship begins to die or become real, which in this world is the same thing. The dream is dying, but like a seed dies and births new life the dream of idealized friendship dies and give birth to a flesh and blood relationship. And then you have a choice to make.
You have to decide if you want to be gracious or selfish. That is harder than it sounds, and most of us don’t even realize that it is this particular choice at stake. Many of us go for it. We try to work with what we’ve got. Some of us, who have more mistrust, or have been wounded, well, we get scared. Some of us, at this point, sort of run off. Or we disconnect a bit. They might not notice it, but we know what we’re doing. It’s a built in safety feature. It doesn’t give us any practice at grace, but it makes us feel better for a while.
It makes us feel better until we realize what we’ve given up. We’ve forfeited something that the core of our heart desires so badly. We yearn deep from that place to be known and loved. We hunger to experience grace. We’ve given it up because we don’t think it’ll work out right. We’ll get hurt again. Things will go badly. So we get stuck.
The “reality phase” is a real bummer. But if we push through it suitably and determine to learn something, we can end up better than we started. We can have deep friendships so long as we can regularly negotiate a gracious environment. If we are intentional about it, things will go so much better. Again, easier said than done.
Beyond our close friendships, I believe, we can have a couple “core people” that we let in even closer. I don’t think these “core people” should just be anybody. This group should be small in number, fairly mature people, mostly kindhearted, and worthy of our trust, but we can’t think they’ll be perfect either. Nobody will be that.
I didn’t have this all thought out at the time, but in the concert line with my friends, I thought it was worth the risk to reveal what they would be getting into. Finally, after a good bit of internal angst, I said to them, “If you really got to know me you wouldn’t like me.”
This, of course, was met with what I expected. “That’s not true.” And “That’s really sad that you would think that.” And “We already know you, and we love you.” And “There isn’t anything that would make us not like you.” And all the things people say before they realize they’ve been friends inadvertently with "the Devil". I didn’t believe them for a second. But I wanted to.
I didn’t believe it, I think, because I know how much of a wreck people are. I know how flawed I am. And in life people leave. They move away or go away. They move on, get fed up. They were hoping you’d be pre-packaged good times, and easy to deal with. They want the perfectly healthy friend, just like I hope to have. The friend that is always there, and always kind, and always supportive. Just like the person you barely know is. The people we don’t know make the best friends, right?
This of course is a lie. A person who barely knows you is an acquaintance. They make only a certain kind of friend. They can be helpful, and nurturing, but a friend, is someone who knows all about your crap, and is still okay with you. They love you and speak truth into your life. They help correct you in a very loving way, not to get you back, or hurt you, but to make you a better person. They are selfless like that. And if you don’t change when and how they want you to they still accept and love you. And you, being a person who is their real friend, do the same.
An acquaintance doesn’t need to operate in an environment of grace. Grace is medicine for desperate times. Grace steps in when illusion and superficiality ends. It’s the thing we need most in the “reality phases” of our lives. Grace defined as unearned favor, is really what deep friendships are all about.
This is why I think it’s much easier to read someone the Four Spiritual Laws and coach them in the sinner’s prayer than actually get involved in their life and be Jesus to them. We have enough trouble doing this with our best friends, doing that with the lost? Are you kidding? That would take the Holy Spirit. Who has time for that? I’m exhausted– show grace? Please!
Isn’t it funny, that this is exactly what we are to do? Not funny, just ironic, I guess. We are supposed to be letting the Spirit heal us, and function through us. We are created to be, or become, gracious and non superficial. When weren’t not,things get messed up. They feel unloved. We feel unloved. And we both feel too overwhelmed to be embodiments of grace. So much of the time, we spend our own energy to work this all out. But God’s power is right at our disposal.
You have to decide if you want to be gracious or selfish. That is harder than it sounds, and most of us don’t even realize that it is this particular choice at stake. Many of us go for it. We try to work with what we’ve got. Some of us, who have more mistrust, or have been wounded, well, we get scared. Some of us, at this point, sort of run off. Or we disconnect a bit. They might not notice it, but we know what we’re doing. It’s a built in safety feature. It doesn’t give us any practice at grace, but it makes us feel better for a while.
It makes us feel better until we realize what we’ve given up. We’ve forfeited something that the core of our heart desires so badly. We yearn deep from that place to be known and loved. We hunger to experience grace. We’ve given it up because we don’t think it’ll work out right. We’ll get hurt again. Things will go badly. So we get stuck.
The “reality phase” is a real bummer. But if we push through it suitably and determine to learn something, we can end up better than we started. We can have deep friendships so long as we can regularly negotiate a gracious environment. If we are intentional about it, things will go so much better. Again, easier said than done.
Beyond our close friendships, I believe, we can have a couple “core people” that we let in even closer. I don’t think these “core people” should just be anybody. This group should be small in number, fairly mature people, mostly kindhearted, and worthy of our trust, but we can’t think they’ll be perfect either. Nobody will be that.
I didn’t have this all thought out at the time, but in the concert line with my friends, I thought it was worth the risk to reveal what they would be getting into. Finally, after a good bit of internal angst, I said to them, “If you really got to know me you wouldn’t like me.”
This, of course, was met with what I expected. “That’s not true.” And “That’s really sad that you would think that.” And “We already know you, and we love you.” And “There isn’t anything that would make us not like you.” And all the things people say before they realize they’ve been friends inadvertently with "the Devil". I didn’t believe them for a second. But I wanted to.
I didn’t believe it, I think, because I know how much of a wreck people are. I know how flawed I am. And in life people leave. They move away or go away. They move on, get fed up. They were hoping you’d be pre-packaged good times, and easy to deal with. They want the perfectly healthy friend, just like I hope to have. The friend that is always there, and always kind, and always supportive. Just like the person you barely know is. The people we don’t know make the best friends, right?
This of course is a lie. A person who barely knows you is an acquaintance. They make only a certain kind of friend. They can be helpful, and nurturing, but a friend, is someone who knows all about your crap, and is still okay with you. They love you and speak truth into your life. They help correct you in a very loving way, not to get you back, or hurt you, but to make you a better person. They are selfless like that. And if you don’t change when and how they want you to they still accept and love you. And you, being a person who is their real friend, do the same.
An acquaintance doesn’t need to operate in an environment of grace. Grace is medicine for desperate times. Grace steps in when illusion and superficiality ends. It’s the thing we need most in the “reality phases” of our lives. Grace defined as unearned favor, is really what deep friendships are all about.
This is why I think it’s much easier to read someone the Four Spiritual Laws and coach them in the sinner’s prayer than actually get involved in their life and be Jesus to them. We have enough trouble doing this with our best friends, doing that with the lost? Are you kidding? That would take the Holy Spirit. Who has time for that? I’m exhausted– show grace? Please!
Isn’t it funny, that this is exactly what we are to do? Not funny, just ironic, I guess. We are supposed to be letting the Spirit heal us, and function through us. We are created to be, or become, gracious and non superficial. When weren’t not,things get messed up. They feel unloved. We feel unloved. And we both feel too overwhelmed to be embodiments of grace. So much of the time, we spend our own energy to work this all out. But God’s power is right at our disposal.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Audio online
My website now contains a good sized audio excerpt of my upcoming book.(visit wit4life.com)
Interest from a good number of big name publishers is beginning. More deatils will be forthcoming, when prudently appropriate.
Interest from a good number of big name publishers is beginning. More deatils will be forthcoming, when prudently appropriate.
Friday, January 19, 2007
article on The Ooze
Out FEB 15- visit theooze.com for my article "Grace-filled Relationships: Yuck What a Mess"
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Get wired
I'm in development talk to host my own podcast show on wireparish.com. What a great outfit they have. You can hear lots of authors, professors, thinkers, and pastors cheaper than buying a book. I'm hoping to be the MP3 Oprah of my generation.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Missional Church or just churchy?
Does your church pray for the lost?
How does it show the community God's love in a tangible way?
Is your congregation more concerned with maintaining its programs and budgets for things church members can enjoy, or is the heart of your church all about sharing the love and message of God.
Most churches lack greatly in the missional department. That is, they become insular, incestuous if you will. They keep to themselves a good deal. Far too much, really.
Becoming a family with other Believers means we're a different kind of family. We're strange in that we want more family members, and outsiders are just PRE-family members. Sometimes this idea gets lost on us. Sometimes we have our sights on other things, churchy things. Member privileges.
I really enjoyed the podcast about starting to be a more missional church through prayer and community prayer opportunities by Reggie McNeal from wireparish.com. Hope you can hear it too.
How does it show the community God's love in a tangible way?
Is your congregation more concerned with maintaining its programs and budgets for things church members can enjoy, or is the heart of your church all about sharing the love and message of God.
Most churches lack greatly in the missional department. That is, they become insular, incestuous if you will. They keep to themselves a good deal. Far too much, really.
Becoming a family with other Believers means we're a different kind of family. We're strange in that we want more family members, and outsiders are just PRE-family members. Sometimes this idea gets lost on us. Sometimes we have our sights on other things, churchy things. Member privileges.
I really enjoyed the podcast about starting to be a more missional church through prayer and community prayer opportunities by Reggie McNeal from wireparish.com. Hope you can hear it too.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Tribes
It occurs to me, so much recently, the need for the tribal in postmodern culture and interactions, and therefore a must in Christianity. This need seems to be true despite varied personalities, and dispositions. One doesn’t merely need a tribe because one is gregarious and outgoing.
Tribe is meant here as Dictionary.com describes it in the 8th, but more like the 9th definition.
8. a class or set of persons, esp. one with strong common traits or interests.
9. a large family.
Whether persons possess introverted or extroverted qualities, the need for tribal-style belonging is incredibly strong. Social interactions are increasingly dependent on this cultural binding, like a kind of glue in the fabric of new societal norms. It’s “the café factor” if you will. The pub, the water hole, the hub, of cultural life. But not merely to be a commons area, but in fact, a “home”. In my observations, family or tribal elements are qualities of emergent-like groups springing up around the country, and within subgroups in certain mainline churches.
It’s important to realize what “needing a tribe” means. It is not merely an association, or fraternal tendency. The need for tribal belonging is what a generation babysat by the television, shuffled from parent to parent, and picking up and moving every few years in modern society, craves. They crave family as it is intended to be, for humans existing as relational creatures. I contend it is crucial for spiritual maturity, and even belief. More than any other recent era, the need to belong before one believes is a prevailing experiential phenomenon.
If our bodies of Believers cannot or do not make tribal belonging available to outsiders, they will end up in a generation or two, as part of the history of Christendom. The history that involves an imploded city on a hill that became only an incestuous (if you will) fortress against any outside it’s wall. These will cease to be desirable to the spiritually thirsty. Those who offer tribe, then, offer life. The life is perhaps then, family life.
More on what trbial belonging is coming soon...
Tribe is meant here as Dictionary.com describes it in the 8th, but more like the 9th definition.
8. a class or set of persons, esp. one with strong common traits or interests.
9. a large family.
Whether persons possess introverted or extroverted qualities, the need for tribal-style belonging is incredibly strong. Social interactions are increasingly dependent on this cultural binding, like a kind of glue in the fabric of new societal norms. It’s “the café factor” if you will. The pub, the water hole, the hub, of cultural life. But not merely to be a commons area, but in fact, a “home”. In my observations, family or tribal elements are qualities of emergent-like groups springing up around the country, and within subgroups in certain mainline churches.
It’s important to realize what “needing a tribe” means. It is not merely an association, or fraternal tendency. The need for tribal belonging is what a generation babysat by the television, shuffled from parent to parent, and picking up and moving every few years in modern society, craves. They crave family as it is intended to be, for humans existing as relational creatures. I contend it is crucial for spiritual maturity, and even belief. More than any other recent era, the need to belong before one believes is a prevailing experiential phenomenon.
If our bodies of Believers cannot or do not make tribal belonging available to outsiders, they will end up in a generation or two, as part of the history of Christendom. The history that involves an imploded city on a hill that became only an incestuous (if you will) fortress against any outside it’s wall. These will cease to be desirable to the spiritually thirsty. Those who offer tribe, then, offer life. The life is perhaps then, family life.
More on what trbial belonging is coming soon...
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Emerging Christmas Traditions?
This year retails stores will see a boost in sales. Folks will purchase many gifts for the season. PlayStation 3 game systems will sell for over a grand, but how are we doing as Christians at Christmas? Are emergent Christians, and other authentic Christians, making a dent in any social causes, local, national, or international? Do Christian even give a crap? Or do we just care about what finds it way under our trees- The lovely blood diamond jewelry, or the kitchen appliance we don’t really need. Or, are we thinking about if the kids are getting what they asked Santa for?
It’s really sort of sickening that we are consumed by stuff, and our many resources are used to get more stuff, when people down, in Darfur, for instance, are dying in the worst genocide since the Rwanda ordeal.
Where are the Christians in these things? Are they all shopping? Does George Clooney have to do this “dirty work” for us? There’s nothing like gratuitous excess to get some bah humbug out of me at this time of year. I’m not saying gifts are bad. I’m just saying, when will enough be enough. When as Christians we can start caring about the hurting and dying people out there, more than the self-righteous movie stars seem to care about them? The “least of these” don’t even get a second thought, as we scarf down cookies, tear open gifts, and conduct our shopping marathons for Jesus’ birthday. Yuck.
If you’ve helped the poor or hurting this season, drop a comment and tell us about this kind of MEANINGFUL holiday tradition, I’d love to hear about it. If you haven’t, why on earth not?
It’s really sort of sickening that we are consumed by stuff, and our many resources are used to get more stuff, when people down, in Darfur, for instance, are dying in the worst genocide since the Rwanda ordeal.
Where are the Christians in these things? Are they all shopping? Does George Clooney have to do this “dirty work” for us? There’s nothing like gratuitous excess to get some bah humbug out of me at this time of year. I’m not saying gifts are bad. I’m just saying, when will enough be enough. When as Christians we can start caring about the hurting and dying people out there, more than the self-righteous movie stars seem to care about them? The “least of these” don’t even get a second thought, as we scarf down cookies, tear open gifts, and conduct our shopping marathons for Jesus’ birthday. Yuck.
If you’ve helped the poor or hurting this season, drop a comment and tell us about this kind of MEANINGFUL holiday tradition, I’d love to hear about it. If you haven’t, why on earth not?
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Pa satellite broadcasts
Hope Community E.C. Church, Fogelsville, invites you to share in the following CCN.tv satellite broadcasts:
Tuesday, December 5, 7:30-8:30 p.m., “Non Commercial Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” with Donald Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” – this broadcast examines the ways commercial culture affects Christian spirituality
Thursday, December 7, 11:30 am-1:00 pm, “Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders” (Dr. Earl Creps, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary director of Doctor of Ministry program shows how God reshapes the interior world to form a missional heart (pastors and ministry leaders should attend)
a very special broadcast, part of a once a month series, Thursday, December 7, 7:30-8:30 pm, “Beyond the Cosmos: Origin of the Universe”, with Dr. Hugh Ross, as he shows how discoveries in extra-dimensional realities support some of the Bible’s paradoxes, i.e., how God can listen to all our prayers at the same time, how can God be both singular and plural, and how can God foreknow and yet grant free will.
church site: www.wearehopechurch.org
phone 610-285-6967
Pastors are invited, and for appropriate broadcasts, so are lay participants from area church to share in these broadcasts freely. If you know you are coming, please give us an idea, so we can “turn the lights on and have the coffee ready.” For further detail about the broadcasts, check the CNN.tv website for further information about the broadcast schedule.
Tuesday, December 5, 7:30-8:30 p.m., “Non Commercial Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” with Donald Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” – this broadcast examines the ways commercial culture affects Christian spirituality
Thursday, December 7, 11:30 am-1:00 pm, “Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders” (Dr. Earl Creps, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary director of Doctor of Ministry program shows how God reshapes the interior world to form a missional heart (pastors and ministry leaders should attend)
a very special broadcast, part of a once a month series, Thursday, December 7, 7:30-8:30 pm, “Beyond the Cosmos: Origin of the Universe”, with Dr. Hugh Ross, as he shows how discoveries in extra-dimensional realities support some of the Bible’s paradoxes, i.e., how God can listen to all our prayers at the same time, how can God be both singular and plural, and how can God foreknow and yet grant free will.
church site: www.wearehopechurch.org
phone 610-285-6967
Pastors are invited, and for appropriate broadcasts, so are lay participants from area church to share in these broadcasts freely. If you know you are coming, please give us an idea, so we can “turn the lights on and have the coffee ready.” For further detail about the broadcasts, check the CNN.tv website for further information about the broadcast schedule.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Quick thought
The amazing thing about Jesus, and therefore God, it that he was always taking human contrivances, and turning them upside down to show us the Higher Way.
Humility is oddly that higher way.
The sooner we get this the better. Possibly, the less we are in the mold of what the world values... being gorgeous or macho, having money, being independent, having a awesome job, etc., the more likely we are to “get it”, that is, understand what Jesus main message was… “be like me”.
Humility is oddly that higher way.
The sooner we get this the better. Possibly, the less we are in the mold of what the world values... being gorgeous or macho, having money, being independent, having a awesome job, etc., the more likely we are to “get it”, that is, understand what Jesus main message was… “be like me”.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Why do we worship?
I'm writing an article right now about prayer and the tempests of life.
It strike me in our postmodern world, the excruciating selfishness of our paradigm. So often we pray for needs. How little we tell God who he is. He is more than worthy of our worship and praise. We worship him in prayer, song, and just living with him in the forefront of our minds, because, to put it simply, HE IS GOD.
Here is a wee excerpt of an upcoming article. (read in progress)
Prayers of worship, praise, and thanksgiving are not something we do just to make ourselves feel better. They are done because God is worthy of these prayers. The beautiful byproduct of these messages to God, are blessing he pours out on us. At the very least these blessings bestow a correct perspective. And what a gift that is. God is the center of the universe– we are not. Our problems may seem to be the prevailing reality. In fact, they are merely a facet of our existence. The transcendent reality of our eternal God overarches all our storms. All is under his dominion. Prayers of worship, praise, and thanksgiving, place God is his rightful place in our mind, setting all the seas of our lives in proper order, and perspective.
It strike me in our postmodern world, the excruciating selfishness of our paradigm. So often we pray for needs. How little we tell God who he is. He is more than worthy of our worship and praise. We worship him in prayer, song, and just living with him in the forefront of our minds, because, to put it simply, HE IS GOD.
Here is a wee excerpt of an upcoming article. (read in progress)
Prayers of worship, praise, and thanksgiving are not something we do just to make ourselves feel better. They are done because God is worthy of these prayers. The beautiful byproduct of these messages to God, are blessing he pours out on us. At the very least these blessings bestow a correct perspective. And what a gift that is. God is the center of the universe– we are not. Our problems may seem to be the prevailing reality. In fact, they are merely a facet of our existence. The transcendent reality of our eternal God overarches all our storms. All is under his dominion. Prayers of worship, praise, and thanksgiving, place God is his rightful place in our mind, setting all the seas of our lives in proper order, and perspective.
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