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2006/6/27 How things are doneOn the 30th of September 2005 a Danish newspaper called the Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammad. This was part of an ongoing debate in the newspaper about self-censorship.
But in response to the publication of these images, Muslims in Denmark and around the world took to the streets in protest. In the wake of the riots 130 people died, and millions of dollars were lost, both in economic boycotts and property damage. In all of this it's interesting to notice that the way that Islam goes about change is primarily by coercion. If you aren't a Muslim, you are still seen as subject to the Qu'ran. And it's their duty to make you submit - and this through coercision if necessary! Here is an English translation of a passage from the Qu'ran (you can see it in Arabic below):
Essentially this Sura is saying that if idolaters refuse to convert to Islam, kill them, enslave them, beseige them!
Now a Muslim commentary I read says that no, it's not really as harsh as it sounds. That it's in fact only talking about a specific period in the history of Islam, when Muslims were not being supported by certain tribes in Arabia. The commentator says that it's not really talking about how Muslims should treat people nowadays that don't agree with them.
But even in that case you already do see how Islam goes about doing things: it is through coercion. In the end, it doesn't matter if you are a willing convert or not: as long as you submit yourself to Allah!
2. Persuasion
However Christianity is very different. As Christians we know exactly what God has designed sex for. We know that a life under the Lord Jesus Christ is true freedom. Yet far from coercing people to follow Christ, Christians are to persuade and reason with people. We are to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us. Our tools are the word of God and prayer!
In Acts 2 Peter is speaking to the Jews at Pentecost, and Luke tells us that Peter used many words warning them, pleading with them to 'save themselves from this corrupt generation (Acts 2:40). But not just Peter, it's also the apostle Paul. In Acts 17, Paul went to the Synagogue in Thessalonica and for three weeks reasoned with them from the Scriptures (17:2). In Athens Paul again goes to the Synagogue and reasons with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks (17:17). In Ephesus Paul goes to the Synagogue and again reasoned with the Jews (18:19).
And so it's no surprise that we find the same thing when Paul goes to Corinth: "Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks." (Acts 18:4). When Paul writes to the Corinthians later on he admits that the way we do things is weak and foolish...
But he goes on to say that all this serves to highlight the power of God, and to glorify him alone. Because it is really God who is at work in the hearts and minds of people, bringing them to faith and repentance, and then growing them in godliness. We may plant seeds, but it is ultimately God who gives the growth (1 Cor 3:5-8)
You may feel great frustration when ministering to a Christian friend, and they just won't listen to you. At those points, 'prayer and the word of God' really will seem weak compared to the sword! And in committees you may feel tempted to coerce people towards godliness by laying down rules that they must follow. It doesn't seem enough to pray for them and persuade them towards godliness!
But Christian ministry is not done through coercion. The way to get people to be godly is not to lay down rules that they must follow - at best that only produces grudging obedience!
The biblical way is to prayerfully tell them that 'this is the loving thing to do,' 'this is the godly thing to do.' God does work powerfully in the lives of both Christians and non-Christians, and he does use our feeble efforts for his glory (Php 2:13)! But our job is to be faithful in prayer and proclamation.
And we must discipline ourselves to be content with the tools that God has given us.
[ PS: an image of the twelve comics can be found at Wikipedia. ] 2006/6/23 Leaders in forgivenessHow has the Lord forgiven you? Enormously! So we are also to forgive one another enormously! And the petty little things that people do against us really are nothing compared to how enormously we have been forgiven (see Matt 18).
1. Infants in forgiveness
But you know the most disappointing thing for me is to see in churches is not that people aren't using biblical theology. It's not that people aren't welcoming of newcomers. What I find most disappointing is that that people who have been at church for a very long time, and should know all about forgiveness, they don't know the first thing about forgiving others. Even church leaders are mere infants when it comes to forgiveness!
And so I have seen supposedly 'mature' Christians leaving a church simply because they weren't willing to forgive others who had offended them. I have seen church leaders slandering others because they weren't willing to forgive. People nursing grudges for years at a time...
2. Leaders in forgiveness
This is very sad! Because as Christian leaders we are to be leaders in forgiveness. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 Paul says that we have been given the 'ministry of reconciliation'. That is, our ministry is on about forgiveness. It's about reconciling people to God - but also to each other!
And so when our Bible study members hear us speak about those who have hurt us, they should hear what forgiveness looks like. When they see us greet someone who has offended us, they should see us modelling God's forgiveness. The gospel calls on forgiven people to be a forgiving people - and we are to be leaders in forgiveness. This is because we teach not only with our words, but our whole lives (1 Tim 4:16). "Here is the way," we say. "This is what forgiveness is like."
Unfortunately Christian leaders tend to prefer the swaggering hardness of our secular leaders. Far from loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matt 5:43-44), we only have love for those on our side. We only pray for those in our camp.
Make no mistake: forgiveness is costly. You are letting go of 'power' that you have against someone, the 'right' to get back at them. You are giving back to someone a relationship with you that they haven't had to earn. And you are doing it for free! Here is a quote from C.S Lewis:
But truly mature Christian leaders aren't content with counterfeit forms of forgiveness. They are determined to be true leaders in forgiveness!
[ PS: there won't be a post on the weekend, as I'll be away at our church's marriage enrichment retreat! ] 2006/6/21 When to forgive1. Transactional forgiveness Forgiveness and repentance do seem to go together (see previous post)! Doesn't this mean that we should withhold our forgiveness until the other person has truly repented?
After all, in Luke 17 Jesus does seem to uphold this. Don't his words imply that forgiveness is conditional on repentance? That I should wait until the other person truly repents?
Actually the context of Luke 17 is important here. You can see from verse 4 that Jesus is really talking about the person who only grudgingly forgives. Jesus is saying that we are not to grudgingly withhold forgiveness, but to be free with it. After all, we ourselves have experienced tremendous forgiveness! 2. Therapeutic forgiveness But due to human sinfulness, some people will simply refuse to repent. We might wait all we want, but they will just keep on hurtiing us. What then?
Some people resolve this question by treating forgiveness as a psychological thing. It's important for us to forgive (they say) because it helps us in our own mental health. It is important to forgive so that we can let go of things in the past, and start living for the future, released from our burdens. Otherwise (we are told) we remain weighed down with things from the past.
That may be true, but this is not really what Christian forgiveness is about. Forgiveness is not a selfish thing, driven merely by a desire for emotional wholeness!
3. Obedient forgiveness
Christian forgiveness is commanded of us because we are in relationship with God! In Colossians 3 we are told to "bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
God's command to the person who has hurt you is that they repent of their sin - that is their responsibility under God. But God's separate command to you is that you forgive - this is your responsibilty under God!
And so when you forgive, you're not doing so becasue the other person has repented - but because God has told you to do so. Nor are you doing it for your own emotional well-being - but because you are in relationship with God.
You can see that people start to think of forgiveness in conditional terms because we think of our relationships purely on the human plane. And so I forgive if they repent. I forgive because I need it.
But we forget that first and foremost we are in relationship with God! And that relationship transforms our behaviours, beliefs and practices. That relationship means that we live as transformed people in all our other relationships.
And this even includes our relationship with those who have caused us great pain.
[ PS: still more to come on forgiveness... ] 2006/6/19 Counterfeit forgivenessIn Colossians 3, Paul says, "bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
So we know all about forgiveness, right? When you visit any church you'll find people forgiving each other, just as the Lord has forgiven them, right?
Sadly, that's very far from the case. We like to think of ourselves as knowing all about forgiveness. But Christians often substitute other things in place of true Christian forgiveness - and fool ourselves that we are a forgiving person. It's like walking around in a fake Armani suit and wearing a fake Rolex, and thinking you've got the real deal. You're just kidding yourself!
So what kinds of counterfeit goods do we content ourselves with? Here are some things that masquerade as forgiveness in our relationships...
As you can see, there are a lot of things that look, feel, and smell like forgiveness - but are only shonky imitations!
It's important for Christians to get forgiveness right, because fake forgiveness is actually a denial of the gospel! We model the gospel to others by our behaviour - and when others see the kind of 'forgiveness' we exercise, they end up with a warped idea of God's forgiveness.
They might end up thinking that God's forgiveness is about God pretending to ignore our sins (thus our relationship with him isn't truly restored). Or God pretending our sins aren't all that bad (thus making a mockery of the cross). Or God requiring a payoff for forgiveness (again, meaning the cross is irrelevant). Or being conditional on our repentance (thus moving from grace-alone, to grace-plus-works).
This is serious stuff! So what's forgiveness like at your church? and more importantly, what's your forgiveness like? Are you kidding yourself with something that's merely ... a counterfeit?
[ PS: can you suggest other forms of fake forgiveness? ] 2006/6/17 CavitationWhat is cavitation? As the screw of a submarine turns, it creates pockets of high and low pressure in the water. Low pressure areas mean that the boiling point of sea water changes. The faster a screw turns, the lower the water pressure drops - and if it drops low enough, you can actually have steam being formed along the screw's surface. As the bubbles of steam form and then collapse when they return to normal water pressure behind the sub, this causes noise that can be picked up by enemy sonar.
But not only that, cavitation also results in a loss of efficiency. You'd think that by putting on more RPM's a sub would be able to go faster and faster still. And it does ... but only up to a point. Then cavitation occurs, and you have a dramatic dropoff in efficiency - not to mention enemy torpedoes launched your way!
You sometimes see a similar thing happening in ministry. Church members being pushed to greater and greater activity, loaded up with more and more commitments. Events coming at them thick and fast throughout the year. The push for things to be bigger and more impressive every year. And it's not just church ministry: you'll also find this in para-church ministries!
All these events and commitments are well and good - but that's not really the focus of gospel ministry. Putting on events can sometimes distract people from relationships - the arena where the bulk of ministry is actually done! As people put more and more of their time in to an event, they end up with less and less time to build up others around them through their conversations. Holding others accountable. Rebuking one another in love. Now of course you need events around which people can meet and relate to one another. But the focus, you see, is different.
Not only that, it shifts the focus of attention away from the inner growth of Christians, to the outer facade of the church organisation. The focus is now on putting on many well-organised events - and not on the hidden, inner transformation of attitudes and character. Now again, we want to put on events so that people hear the word, and be challenged to grow as Christians. But the focus, the accent, the emphasis, is quite different.
Those who come from a more management background, or who are less mature as leaders, tend to focus their attention on things that they can count. Objective things that they can easily gague. Things like: the number of events held, or the number of people present. And so we think that more, or larger, will necessarily be better! It's useful to know those diagnostic numbers. But you don't want them to end up being the tests of how successful we are in our ministry. We must discipline ourselves to look for true growth in our groups.
Christian ministry is not about piling on RPM's in an impressive manner... that can sometimes work against us. It's actually about building Christians in faith, hope and love (1 Thes 1)!
[ PS: I actually won tickets to see The Hunt for Red October when it came out... ] 2006/6/15 New Testament manuscriptsSo what exactly is our New Testament based on?
You'll be happy to know that the New Testament is in fact based on a huge mass of ancient manuscripts that have been found - some very close in time to when the original gospels and letters were written! 1. Very old manuscripts
Manuscripts (literally: 'written by hand') are dated using several methods. They are radio-carbon dated, their writing styles are compared to that of other documents of known age, as are the the technical marks left on manuscripts by the copyist.
Some of the manuscripts that have been unearthed are awesomely close in time to the originals! The page pictured above is from a papyrus known as p46. This page of p46 contains Romans 11-12, and is dated about 150-200 AD. However other manuscripts are even dated to 110 AD!
This gap is quite remarkable because other ancient manuscripts usually have a very big time gap from original writing, to the earliest manuscripts discovered.
For instance while Aristotle wrote in 364-322 BC, the earliest manuscirpts of his work are dated to 1100 AD (that's a 1500 year gap). Thucydides wrote in 460-400 BC, but the earliest manuscripts of his work are dated to 900 AD (a 1300 year gap). The following graph compares famous works with the New Testament. The earliest New Testament manuscripts only have a gap of about 40 years to the original writing. Compared to what we normally expect from other documents, that gap is truly remarkable!
Obviously not all the New Testament manuscripts are dated at that 40 year point. Here is a graph outlining the numbers of New Testament manuscripts discovered to date, and what century they have been dated as (up to the 7th century only). This means that the manuscsripts we have come from an era while the original writings and events are still well within living memory. If someone simply made up stuff, others could say, "hang on, that's not what was written!" 2. Lots and lots of manuscripts
But not only that - a lot of manuscripts have been discovered. About 10% of all Greek manuscripts unearthed are actually New Testament manuscripts! Others can be everyday letters, shopping lists, or contracts. The sheer quantity of New Testament manuscripts is remarkable, especially when you compare that with what we normally have from other ancient works.
For instance, we only have five copies of Aristotle's writings. Ten copies of Julius Caesar. Eight copies of Heroditus. Twenty copies of Tacitus. Homer's Illiad is a big favourite, and there are about 650 copies that have been found. But compared to these other writings, over five thousand manuscripts of the New Testament have been found!
Here is a graph where I've compared some ancient writings, and the number of manuscripts that have been discovered.
Even though we don't have the original manuscripts written by Paul or Luke, the tremendous amount of manuscripts available help us to know with a great deal of certainty what he did in fact write. Once in a while a manuscript will have a slight difference (eg. spelling error, change in tense, missing word). But by comparing with the many other manuscripts that have been found (especially the earlier ones), it's often clear what was originally written.
3. Where can I see manuscripts for myself?
It's pretty hard to get access to these manuscripts - they are fragile and irreplaceable! They are stored in various libraries and collections, but one of them is the University of Michigan. They hold parts of papyrus p46 (other parts of it are stored in Dublin). The University of Michigan has a searchable database here that allows you to look at the manuscripts in their collection. Plug in 6238 for the inventory number, and you can look at their pages of p46!
So don't worry: you can have great confidence in your New Testament. We may not have the original manuscripts, but the ones we have are remarkably close in time, and we have a wealth of manuscripts with which to compare!
[ PS: there is actually a whole science to looking at differences in manuscripts called 'textual criticism', that you learn at Bible college... ] 2006/6/13 Patience in ministryBut what exactly will that mean for us? Will it spur us up into feverish activity? Will it make us go into overdrive in Chrsitian ministry?
In 2 Timothy Paul has the return of Christ at the foremost of his thinking. However the way Paul expects this to work itself out in Timothy's life is surprisingly different...
The return of the Lord Jesus Christ leads to faithful ministry. But it's faithul ministry that is patient! So if you're a Christian leader with your eyes set on Christ's return, this will actually lead to patience in your ministry.
This particularly means being patient upwards - with people that you are accountable to as a leader.
You will not be in a mad rush to see change happen. You will not be consumed with frustration when people say 'no' to your ideas. Instead, you will know that there ministry is long-term. And so you can afford to wait for next year - or the year after. You will have a long term perspective.
This will mean being patient with your deacons, with your team leader, with the senior minister of your church. Maybe even being patient with your English pastor!
One of the causes of ministry burnout in the first few years out of Bible college is impatience in ministry. They clearly see what needs to change, but things aren't changing as quickly as they'd expect! But Christian ministry is long term ministry. So be the model of patience when you relate upwards. Let your theology give you a long term perspective in those relationships!
But you also need to have patience when you relate downwards and sideways as well. And by downwards I mean the people that you lead: the people in your Bible study group or your ministry. Perhaps someone in your group is uncooperative, or disrespectful - it seems that your teaching just goes in one ear, and out the other. Or maybe your ministry seems difficult and unrewarding - not as glamorous and exciting as some other ministries! And oh, how you long to drop this ministry! To get on with something more fulfilling, more glamorous. To dump this ministry, and join other people who seem to be doing more rewarding things.
If you are patient in an easy ministry, it's a sign of nothing: anyone can do that. But if you are patient in a hard ministry, that is a sign of your character as a Christian.
But not only are we to be patient when we relate upwards or downwards, we are also to relate sideways as well!
The people who are sideways are the people you work side-by-side with in ministry. They are your peers: your fellow Bible study leaders and co-leaders. And you might be the very model of patience in their upwards and downwards relationships, at the very same time you can be full of impatience when you relate to your fellow leaders. This comes out in being frustrated by them, dismissive of them, even rude to them!
If you are impatient with your fellow leaders, this will mean not respecting them as persons. Perhaps they don't come up to the same high standards that you have attained, and so you become proud and impatient. And sometimes this attitude shows itself in our actions and body language: we sit separately from them; we drag our heels along to the team meetings.
In Christian ministry we deal with people, not with machines. When people grow as Christians they don't do so in giant leaps. Intsead, they grow slowly and gradually. We need to have patience when we relate to people - whether we relate to them upwards, downwards, or sideways.
The sad thing is that nowadays impatience in ministry has grown to be a kind of virtue among those in ministry. If you are patient, people tend to think that you are soft. That you are too tolerant of problems around you. Maybe even blind to deficiencies in people. And so it seems far better to be breathtakingly impatient!
But patience is not a weak thing... Consider the apostle Paul as he travels around the ancient world. Consider the apostle Paul, braving riots, forging ahead into uncharted territory. And yet the apostle Paul considers himself a patient man! In 2 Timothy Paul says, "you, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance." Now patience doesn't mean that you are happy to leave things just the way things are. That everything should just stay the same. No, we work hard to present everyone perfect in Christ! We press on towards the goal! But when it comes to relating to one another, we are to be a people marked by patience.
You can also consider the different stages that you will go through in each of those three relationships (see diagram below). When you start off in relationship with them, you probably couldn't care less about them - you were indifferent to them. You can imagine this being the case with someone who has just joined a leadership team. They are new to the ropes, and are just focussing on their own performance, so aren't so concerned with how others around them are going.
But then after a few years, they grow in their own confidence and ability - and they begin looking around at the leaders around them. Some are not as experienced as them, and lack their flair for writing Bible studies. And so this leader can become impatient with the other leaders. But impatience is just a mark of a different kind of immaturity. As that Christian grows into maturity, they will also become patient with others. Patience is a mark of Christian maturity!
A helpful thing to do is to consider the different relationships that you have: upwards, downwards, and sidewards. And then honestly consider where you are at in each of those directions. Are you indifferent to people above you? impatient with them? or are you patient? How about in the other directions?
In Colossians 3 Paul tells us to what kind of clothing we should put on as God’s holy people. He says,
12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Mature Christian leaders are not impatient: they clothe themselves with patience!
[ PS: there is, of course, another part of the circle diagram that I haven't yet explained - more on that later! ] 2006/6/11 The challenge of children's ministryFor myself, I taught year 5-6 Sunday School for a year. Then I moved on to high school ministry for three years. Then I moved on to uni age ministry, then young workers and young families... And I'm sure mine is not the only such story out there!
A common misconception is that it's relatively easy to do children's ministry. After that, youth ministry is a little more challenging. And then after that, adults and young adults' ministry is the most challenging of the lot.
The unconscious reasoning behind this is that as people grow up, they are capable of understanding greater and greater levels of complexity. They can handle abstract reasoning. They can draw on a wealth of accumulated knowledge. They can pay attention for longer periods of time. In short, they can handle more!
And as a result, we let our new leaders cut their teeth in children's ministry where (we think) they only have to teach simply. And we move our more mature leaders towards leading the adult and young adult groups where (we think) they can teach more complex material.
But in reality the order of difficulty is actually reversed. It's actually easier to do adults and young adults ministry. After that, youth ministry is a little more difficult. And then most difficult of all is children's ministry!
This is because it actually takes a great deal of skill and theological understanding to convey the doctrines of the Bible to children - much more skill than is needed to do the same for an adult. Because not only do you have to understand the material well, you also have to explain it simply and faithfully. Anyone can take a complex doctrine, and present it in a complex way for adults to work their minds around. But it takes real understanding and skill to take a complex doctrine and simplify it in such a way that even a child can accurately understand it!
This morning I was talking to a couple of Sunday School teachers (Amy and Jon) who had just been teaching their kids about the doctrine of the Trinity. Now there's a complex doctrine! How can three persons be one God? And how do you explain the doctrine of the Trinity without using words like 'substance', 'mutual indwelling' or 'perichoresis'?
It's terribly easy to simplify ... and end up into heresy. But it's very challenging to simplify ... and end up with sound teaching! You can imagine that Amy and Jon, in their attempts to explain the Trinity simply, could very easily have ended up teaching modalism, or Arianism, or even tritheism. A good Sunday School teacher needs real theological discernment to know where the pitfalls are!
And then they need the skills to explain that doctrine simply and clearly (see table)... otherwise that understanding is wasted, and the child goes away confused!
Children's ministry might seem easier because of all the pre-packaged Sunday School material around. Not all of them are good though, and Fiona our children's worker sorts through a lot of the available programmes to find sound ones. But even then, a good set will have some 'off' weeks. And so even with pre-packaged material, a Sunday School teacher will need their wits about them to identify 'off' teaching, and either adjust, or completely rewrite the material.
But even aside from the whole issue of pre-packaged material, your teaching opportunities are not limited to the formal teaching segments. As you chat with the kids before and after the class, they may ask you all manner of things: does God send rain, why is there is a drought, does God wears shoes... Your doctrine needs to be on-target, on-tap, and easily understandable! So don't look down on those doing children's ministry - they're doing an essential ministry, and one which presents significant communication challenges! And if you are involved in children's ministry, don't leave your doctrine behind when you prepare for your lessons. Your doctrine needs to be sharp when you walk into that classroom!
[ PS: we are looking for a new children's worker here at NDCCCS to replace Fiona Singline. If you're interested in the position, or know anyone who who may be, contact us! ] 2006/6/9 Eyes on the end!But before the master goes away, he gives charge of his household to a trusted servant. It will be this man's job to give out food to the servants at the proper time.
And then he goes off - for a very long time. Such a long time that the servant decides the master's not really coming back. And so far from looking after the other servants, he begins to beat and abuse his fellow servants! Far from looking after the master's things, he gets drunk on the master's wine!
In a modern world filled with its comforts and conveniences, it can be very easy for Christians to have their eyes set on the present. After all, the things of this world are very engaging. They are very tangible and immediate. It doesn't really encourage us to look forward to something greater that lies beyond this age.
This is very different from previous ages, where the very hardness of life spurred earlier Christians to look with longing for the kingdom. Even in the post-war generation, though they experienced an explosion of material comforts, Christians looked forward to the end with a clarity unknown in our day. The ever-present fear of nuclear armageddon in the cold war era made sure of that!
But in our age, the present has by and large taken over. And so those in Christian ministry are always in danger of living - and ministering - for the present. For trading long-term kingdom gains, for short-term local church expansion. For trading the glad welcome of the Father, for the acclaim and appreciation of our fellow Christians.
They might seem the same, but while one is future-directed, and waits for its consumation and reward from the end, the other is really only looking for its reward in the here-and-now. For the payoffs we will get at the next leaders' meeting. Or the results that'll be evident by the end of the year. Don't get me wrong: this is not to say that we shouldn't have measurable goals, or plan for the future! But Christian ministry is fundamentally long-term ministry.
In some ministries you won't see the fruit of our ministry for many years to come. If you are doing primary school or high school ministry, you can find that this is particualrly the case. Week in and week out it's hard work, but you don't see them growing in leaps and bounds. Some other ministries are simply not glamorous or enjoyable. They don't get us the same kind of respect that other ministries do.
And so we feel like dumping these ministries and moving on to something else. They aren't immediately rewarding to us - we don't get the here-and-now payoff of:
But if we end up chasing those things first and foremost, the very character of our ministry will shift from biblical Christian ministry.
In Matthew 24 Jesus continues on. And in the story, while the servant is carrying on, the master does return home - just as he promised. But as he steps into his house, what does he find? What has his servant been applying himself to?
Christian ministers are those with their eyes fixed on the end. They don't judge the worth of things by present circumstances. They will not look for immediate rewards. Instead, they look with longing to the future.
Here are some important questions to consider for yourself. They will reveal where you are at:
Mature Christian leaders are driven by their theology. They have a long-range view of the future. Their eyes are fixed, not on present rewards, but on the end! [ PS: more about patience in ministry in a short while... ] 2006/6/7 What's going on in the world today?Flick on your TV, and you can easily check out what's going on nationally and internationally through the eyes of the secular media. Things like: what politicians are doing. Who's invading who. The latest hijinks of Holywood celebrities...
These are useful things to know about. It helps us engage with the world, and gives us clues for what to pray for.
But what about news from a Christian perspective? Or news that focusses on the work of the gospel? When people become Christians, the secular media don't necessarily think it's newsworthy - but we think it's a big deal! 1. Websites
Here are some websites worth checking out...
2. Feeds for mobile devices
Those of you who have a PDA might like to download news to read on the train. If you have a Palm OS device (like I do), you have the option of AvantGo (adware) or Plucker + Sunrise (freeware). But once you've got that on your handheld, what's available?
Here are some feeds that I read:
...and of course, this blog also has its own RSS feed (the orange icon at the very bottom of the page, or right click here to copy the URL). Use it to get this blog onto your PDA!
[ PS: come across other good reads? Post a link here! ] 2006/6/5 Would Jesus have recycled?"Save the whales," we are told. "Recycle." "Switch to renewable energy sources."
Ever since the industrial revolution, humans have been churning huge quantities of pollution into our environment. If we change our consumption, change the amount of non renewables in our energy mix, and get serious about recycling, we are told, maybe we can fix this mess!
But while the amount of damaging substances we pump into the biosphere has increased tremendously since industrialisation, there is a way in which the whole of creation has already been significantly crippled... And it's of such significance that our modern environmental messes only compare as minor scratches!
2. The ancient environmental mess
See the land was meant to be a garden, a place of abundance, and richness and fruitfulness. A place that easily supported and nurtured the humans in the garden!
But the curse took all that away from the land: no longer could it be fruitful and abundant and rich! No longer could it easily support human life! Only through painful toil (v.17) would it grudgingly give up food. Only by the sweat of the man's brow (v.19) will he eat. Instead of abundantly producing all manner of fruit, it ends up producing thorns and thistles and all kinds of weeds (v.18).
When environmentalists come onto the scene, they get upset at the damage humans are causing on a daily basis. But that's because they have no clue about the original potential of creation! The Bible tells us that even before industrialisation, creation's potential was frustrated.
Here is how Paul puts it in Romans 8:
3. The environment's great hope
But in the pages of the Old Testament there's also a promise that one day God would come and renew the earth. There will one day come a time when wolves and lambs will lie down together. Where children can play with cobras (Isa 11:6-9) - a new heavens and a new earth!
Paul tells us that the whole of creation is actually longing for a day when it will be released from this frustration. A day when it can get on and be the fruitful garden God always intended it to be.
And interestingly, when Jesus walked this earth, we got just a little glimpse of what that might be like. When he was here, disease fled from him! The wind and the waves no longer threatened human life! And food and wine flowed easily...
[ PS: parts of this are drawn from yesterday's talk on Romans 8 - you can find the text of it here. ] 2006/6/3 What's with those other 'gospels'?That certain gospels were left out because they went against a politically expedient revision of history. And that others were included because they propped up the official view.
You've read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You know about them - but what's with those other gospels? Where did they come from? Who wrote them, and what do they say?
1. About Voodoo
But before we get to those gospels, consider Voodoo, the folk religion of Haiti...
As slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas, they brought their religious beliefs across the seas along with them. And as they began life in places such as Haiti, the animist religions from Africa began to intermingle with the Roman Catholicism of their new masters. The result of that intermingling is what is now called Voodoo!
This intermingling is a process called syncretism. It's when the gospel is partially incorporated into the existing belief structure of a people group, leading to something that isn't really Christianity at all! And it's a danger that modern missionaries are always wary of.
2. About Gnosticism
But the same process was also at work in the ancient world. The ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato had a strong hold on the ancient world before the birth of Jesus Christ. Plato's philosophical ideas, which became known as Platonism, taught that there was a big difference between the perfect world of forms (or ideas), and the imperfect world of physical reality. It meant that while people's lives were hard and brutal, they could escape to the perfect world of ideas through philosophy and mathematics.
All of this is going on before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and before the apostles began proclaiming the gospel throughout the ancient world. As they did so, many became Christians - but sometimes people only took bits and pieces of Christianity, and added that to their existing belief structure of Platonism.
As with Voodoo, this is syncretism. And when you mix Platonism with Christianity, what you end up with is something called Gnosticism (pronounced with a silent 'g').
And because it resonated a lot with what people believed beforehand, Gnosticism really took off in the ancient world. It was a heresy that the early church battled with for many centuries as they sought to preserve true Christianity.
Gnostics believed that a holy and perfect God couldn't have created matter himself. After all, matter was evil and imperfect! How could a holy and perfect God sully his own hands by creating matter? And so Gnostics believed that God created lesser gods, who created lesser gods, who created even lesser gods - and ultimately, right at the bottom of that chain, a minor god (the 'demi-urge') created material things.
Salvation for Gnostics was not so much about being right with God - it was about escaping from the world of imperfect matter and ascending to the perfect spiritual world. And the way of salvation was not through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ - but through receiving secret, mystical knowledge ('gnosis').
3. About the Gnostic gospels
The Gnostics developed their own literature, and almost all of these other 'gospels' fall into this category. These writings can be easily found by searching for them on the Internet, but here are some links to ones you may have heard about:
Some of them are quite long, but even a casual reading of them will give you a sense of their Gnostic character.
In the Gospel of Mary for instance, the disciples are upset because Mary gets given special, mystical knowledge from Jesus - knowledge about how a soul ascends from the lower forms, though to the upper reaches of reality. Similarly, the Gospel of Judas depicts Jesus explaining the many intermediaries (72 'luminaries') between God and material beings. The Gospel of Philip adds knowledge ('gnosis') to the Pauline triad of faith, hope and love. And the Gospel of Thomas portrays a powerful and fairly cruel Jesus who plays mean tricks on his friends...
Generally, they are very different in both character and doctrine from the New Testament. And that's because they're not actually Christian, but Gnostic writings! Sure, they make use of Jesus in their writings. But these gospels have about as much in common with Christianity as Voodoo has with Roman Catholicism!
[ PS: syncretism is still a problem today in some fledgling churches - so pray for wisdom for missionaries at the coal face! ] 2006/6/1 Ask aroundThis was a probably the top question asked at a recent meeting of people thinking about taking the next step into full time ministry.
"I know what kinds of things are needed for someone heading off for full time ministry (see earlier post) - but how do I really know if I myself have what it takes?"
This is the problem of having imperfect knowledge about yourself.
You may think you're pretty good at writing studies - but are you really any good? People might say you're a great speaker - but is that really the case?
1. The Johari window
This diagram is known as the Johari window (named after Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham). The Johari window divides reality about yourself into four categories - those things that are open (known both to you and others), those things that are hidden (known to yourself but not to others), those things to which you are blind (not known to yourself but known to others), and those things that are unknown (not known to either yourself nor others).
The Johari window is a useful tool in helping us make decisions about full time ministry. How so? Well, what you want to do is find out if what you think about yourself is really true. See you may be the kind of person who thinks very highly of yourself. You think you're hot stuff - but others may not agree! Conversely, you might be the kind of person that is full of self-doubt. You're pretty sure that people aren't so encouraged by you - but again, others may not agree! What you want to do is find out more information about yourself, for a more complete picture. To find out as much as possible the things about yourself that aren't known to you (the area marked in red).
So how do you go about doing that? There are two ways...
2. Feedback
The first way is to ask for feedback about yourself. By this you discover more about what other people see about you - things you hadn't realised, or were blind to. And in the process of getting feedback, you also learn things from that 'unknown' quadrant - you pick up on things that you hadn't previously noticed about your own self.
When you ask for feedback though, make sure you ask lots of different kinds of people. Don't just ask your ministry colleagues and those who are close to you and gung-ho about full time ministry. Make sure you also speak to those who receive your ministry. Speak to people who are older than you. Talk to your minister, and ministers from other churches. You can even ask your parents!
These different groups may not necessarily tell you things that you'd like to hear - but now's the time to hear the difficult as well as the pleasing. If you only hear from like-minded people, you are putting yourself in danger of not benefitting from the observations of other people. Even if they're not all that positive about you moving into full time ministry, they may still reveal something about yourself that you hadn't noticed beforehand - things that you were blind to.
When you speak to different kinds of people, make sure you make a particular note of talking to people who really do know what they're talking about. If you're thinking of full time ministry, make sure you talk to someone who knows what it takes to be in ministry long term. Want to find out about your preaching? Don't just ask your pals about it - talk to someone who does it all of the time (like your minister)! They are in a position to say things that can be very valuable to you.
When you speak to people who care for you, they will often not want to hurt you and say negative things to you - because they treasure your relationship with them. However you don't want to just hear the good, you also need to hear the bad. So particularly when you talk with your friends, you need to give them permission to be negative. Ask them what things about your character trouble them. What areas they think are particularly weak - you need to hear these things.
And when you get feedback from people, ask for specifics - this will help you to know how much weight to give to their comments. Yes, they may say that your studies are awesoome - but which studies? what exactly about them was good? was it just a few, or all of 'em? And conversely, if they are dubious about your stability as a leader - what makes them think that? how often have they seen troubling things?
3. Disclosure
There is also another way to discover more about the unknown quadrant - and that is through self-disclosure. As you tell people more about yourself (ie. as things move from the 'hidden' quadrant to the 'open' quadrant) you will find that people will be in an even better position to give you feedback on yourself. As you share with them your struggles, fear and dreams, this will mean that they are better able to notice things about you. Things that they can then share with you.
The decision to go into full time ministry should not be taken lightly. It involves a serious investment of time and money - both on your part as well as on others. And because of the limited resources of God's people, we need to make careful and wise decisions. This, from the book of Proverbs...
[ PS: parents, even Christian parents, can often be the least encouraging about full time ministry. Even so, they can still provide useful insights about yourself... ] |
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