Tag Archive - Religion

5 Steps to Being Missional

March 23, 2012 in Community Life, Concepts, Faith, Leadership, Ministry with 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, we covered some important concepts on serving as a group (click here for the article), but today, I want to go a bit more in detail on being a group that extends and lives out the love of God – a group that is, as Jesus puts it – salt and light.

“Evangelism is best done out of the context of a gospel community whose corporate life demonstrates the reality of the word that gave her life” – Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church

In this day and age, how do we tangibly tell others about the good news that has so shaped our lives? Out of love, we want to tell others about Jesus, but how do we do this in a way that doesn’t feel like we are shoving something down someone else’s throat? How do we appropriately engage others with the truth of the Gospel?

Here are five steps that will help us to better share about the wonderful hope that we have in Jesus Christ with our family, coworkers, neighbours, and friends.

1. Developing Trust

This is all about developing trusting relationships. After all, people don’t care what we have to say, unless they know that we care. This isn’t about trying to fake a trusting relationship, this is all about genuinely loving and caring for those around us so that trust is built up between us. This isn’t a bait and switch thing either, it’s simply about being a great friend. Doesn’t everyone need great friends whom they can trust and rely on? That’s what we need to do – be the best friend, coworker, neighbour, and family member that you can be. Why? Because that’s what Jesus would do, wouldn’t he?

2. Having Conversations and Living Life Together

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Religious Faith: Perspectives on Death – Part 3/6

March 6, 2012 in Concepts, Culture with 1 Comment

This third post of my series highlights one of the most recent deaths that have not only impacted Western culture, but also our global culture because of her widespread fame and music – Whitney Houston’s death.

The third perspective on death that I am going to be exploring is the religious response.

Due to Whitney Houston’s widespread fame, there have been countless tweets, blogs, and news reports regarding her death and the response of individuals to her death. For example, Jessica Simpson tweeted, “I found my voice singing Whitney Houston’s music. Today I lost my idol.” Rosie O’Donnell tweeted, “Dear God … There is a grief that can’t be spoken.” And Busta Rhymes tweeted, “Can’t believe we’ve lost another 1 of our Royalty. Sister Queen Whitney Houston. God Bless on ur journey as u now stand with the Most High.”

These are artists and celebrities, who are not known for their faith convictions, but still seemed to express their grief through a lens of faith, whether it be genuine or merely language.

Due to Whitney Houston’s Christian background, her funeral, which was broadcasted live over the Internet, was probably one of the most Gospel and faith filled funerals that many non-Christians would have ever witnessed. From Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker addressing the crowd with these words, “We are here to mourn our loss, but to celebrate her life. God is in heaven, and with him is one of our angels, Whitney Houston,” to Christian songs, Scripture, and a sermon, her funeral depicts the way many in our culture are able to process tragic death through religious faith.

Join me next time as I explore another one of our culture’s perspectives on death.

 

A New Paradigm on Serving

February 17, 2012 in Community Life, Concepts, Faith, Ministry with 0 Comments

Since we all understand “serving” differently, my goal in this post is to re-envision or redefine our understanding of serving. In a way, if our understanding of serving is a box, then instead of thinking outside of the box, I want to grab an eraser and give you a blank canvas.

So I want you take a moment and indicate where you are personally at in regards to serving and where your group is at in regards to serving on this diagram.

The fact is, our lives are filled with opportunities to serve in every moment, and most of us are serving on a regular basis, without even knowing it.

  • i.e. When you choose to do those dishes, that’s an act of service.
  • i.e. When you choose to shovel your neighbor’s sidewalk as you do your own, that’s an act of service.
  • i.e. When you wave “thank you” while you are driving, rather than giving people another gesture, that’s an act of service.

However, especially in group life, serving has become a task, rather than a regular rhythm of our groups. Serving has become a task because we myopically view serving merely as a project that we do together, in a concerted effort, rather than something that we would do ourselves. It’s unnatural for us.

Now, I’m not saying, “Don’t get together to serve.” What I am suggesting is that we admit that there are some inherent problems in service projects as we’ve come to know them.

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Loving and Destroying Community

January 26, 2012 in Community Life, Concepts with 0 Comments

“People who love community always end up destroying community. People who love relationships always build community.”

- Ronald Rolheiser

Book Review: The Next Christendom – Philip Jenkins

August 22, 2011 in Books, Concepts, Culture, Ministry with 0 Comments

The following is an analytical book review of Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom.

Philip Jenkins, the author of 24 books, and 120 book chapters and refereed articles, has been on the faculty of Pennsylvania State University since 1980, and in 2007, he was appointed as the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History and Religious Studies. He completed his undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral work all at the University of Cambridge, but it is not his work in global Christianity that got him on the faculty of Penn State. He began as an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in 1980. In fact, his early work consists of history, criminology, and pedophilia. It was not until his publication of The Next Christendom that his reputation as an expert on global Christianity came to the forefront. Since then, he has spoken widely around this topic of global Christianity (http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/vita.htm).

The thesis of this book is that the center of Christianity has shifted southward to Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Location 36). As a result, in spite of the seeming decline of Christianity in the western world, Christianity is actually growing and flourishing in most areas around the world (Location 992).

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Book Review: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission – Lesslie Newbigin

August 14, 2011 in Books, Church Planting, Community Life, Concepts, Culture, Ministry with 0 Comments

The following is an analytical review on Newbigin, Lesslie. 1995 The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission Revised Edition. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.

 

Leslie Newbigin (1909-1998) was a theological missiologist/missionary and a missiological theologian. There are over six decades worth of his writings on mission theology and practice. Thus, he is considered to have had one of the greatest influences on the theology of mission in the twentieth century. Furthermore, Newbigin was a scholar practitioner since his works were always rooted in his living relationship with Jesus Christ; after all, he modeled what he wrote. He was also a Western missionary to India from 1936-1974, and upon returning to Great Britain, his missionary focus turned to the West (Shenk 1998).

The thesis of this book is that Christian mission is an open secret. It is open in the sense that the gospel is proclaimed to all without any boundaries, but it is a secret in that “it is manifest only to the eyes of faith” (Location 2556). As a result, mission cannot be relegated as a side task of the church, but it is the central calling and purpose of the church, yet the church does not own the mission, the mission is God’s (Location 256). Newbigin’s prophetic call to the church is for it to reemphasize its missionary character “to bring all things to their true end in the glory of the triune God” (Location 2556).

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Book Review: The Mission of God – Christopher Wright

August 8, 2011 in Books, Church Planting, Ministry with 0 Comments

This is an analytical book review of Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative.

Rev. Dr. Christopher Wright’s passion is bringing life to the “relevance of the Old Testament to Christian mission and ethics.” In addition to his current role as the Director over Langham Partnership International after John Stott’s death, he has experience as a High School teacher, theological professor, and as an ordained minister with the Anglican Church of England.

The Mission of God is a magnum opus describing the mission of God. In other words, the thesis of this book is not only that Christian mission is firmly grounded in Scripture, but also that Scripture is most accurately read through a hermeneutical framework that is centered on the mission of God (Wright 2006, 26). In other words, “God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in Genesis 11 and the healing of the nations in Revelation 22” (455).

Wright navigates readers through his comprehensive study of the mission of God by dividing his book into four parts: The Bible and Mission, The God of Mission, The People of Mission, and The Arena of Mission. In the first part, Wright describes what a missiological hermeneutic of the Bible entails. He argues that individuals need to understand the Bible’s grand metanarrative, and also that the proper way to read the Bible is messianically and missionally (31). In the second part, Wright unpacks the identity, uniqueness, and universality of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ and the ensuing implications for mission (27). He finishes the section by paying attention to the opposition of the mission of God – idols and gods. In the third part, one discovers that the primary agent of the mission of God is the people of God. This is noticeable by examining the biblical covenants and the narrative of Scripture. Wright finishes his magnum opus by concentrating on the Arena of Mission – the earth, humans, and all culture and nations.

There have only been a few books that I have read and come away with a sense of awe, humility, and a passion to reread it and act on what I have read – The Mission of God is the most recent.

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