Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Western Church

Book Review: Life on the Vine by Philip D. Kenneson

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Philip D. Kenneson’s Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit stands as a powerful message to the Church, especially the North American church. In addition to preaching the word, Kenneson emphasizes the importance of the church living out the word by bearing the fruit of the Spirit. After all, there needs to be a greater harvest of the Spirit’s fruit in order to continue to advance God’s mission in the world, not because it will make God love us more or because our salvation is at stake (Chapter 1, Location 130). Every fruit of the Spirit finds its origins in the character of God. As a result, Christians become more human and are shaped more into the image of God as the fruit of the Spirit is developed in their lives. As much as cultivating the fruit of the Spirit is something that needs to be done individually in every Christian’s life, the single most important venue for this to take place in is one’s local church where one can practice living out the fruit of the Spirit in relation to God and others.

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The Perception of Contextualization – A Response to MissionShift

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I am part of a group of bloggers, who received a free copy of MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium, edited by David Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer, in order to participate in a discussion on Ed Stetzer’s website.

I am responding to Paul Hiebert’s Essay entitled, “The Gospel in Human Contexts: Changing Perceptions of Contextualization.” Here is the summary of his thesis provided in MissionShift.

Thesis: The purpose of this essay is to offer some discussion of the state of “Contextualization” as a critical aspect of missions, and of the changing perceptions of contextualization among missionaries and missions scholars. Any analysis of the current status of the Christian mission in the world must take social, historical, personal, and other contexts into account, and examine the relationships between the different contexts in which the people we serve live. In this sense this essay addresses the PRESENT of what has traditionally been termed “missions.”

I am not monocultural – never was and never have been. I’m multicultural by birth: I am Canadian and I am also Korean – I’m Korean-Canadian. I agree with Hiebert when he suggests that individuals like me “are aware of cultural differences and have learned to negotiate between two worlds in daily living.” However, I disagree with him when he suggests that individuals like me “often do not stop to consciously examine these contexts, how they shape their thinking, or the deep differences between them.” Perhaps I’m different in that I am always constantly wrestling with my Korean and Canadian cultural differences – perhaps this is because I believe that I am a ligament in the Body of Christ.

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The Future of Seminary

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I’ve been wrestling with the effectiveness of traditional seminary programs for engaging postmodern culture with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before I share my thoughts on the subject, I thought I’d just throw this quote out to see what you think.

It comes from Steve Ogne’s and Tim Roehl’s Transformissional Coaching

“Neither seminary nor seminar will prepare us to do ministry in the postmodern future. We believe that ministry equipping for transformissional church leaders will be just in time, on the job, on the Internet, in the church, and in the trenches.”

What do you think?


Follow up (Jan 19, 2011) – After writing this post, I thought I’d follow up with where I’m at now – Check out my post “Why I ditched the M.Div…and am still a pastor.”

What are the two biggest struggles facing the churches in your context?

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Here’s my answer, what’s yours?

Rather than being a powerful force of Kingdom counter-culture, the churches in my context have assimilated into this consumeristic North American culture. In an attempt to reach more people with the gospel, churches have lowered the bar of commitment and incorrectly redefined what it means to be a Christian. Sure, maybe lowering the bar of commitment brings more people into the church, but as a backlash, this has created a culture of consumerism within the church. That is why churches are constantly facing a shortage of volunteers, a resistance to involvement in community, and a lack of giving. This consumeristic tendency is producing Christians who just want to receive, receive, and receive, instead of balancing the rhythms of receiving and giving. This is fundamentally wrong in so many ways; after all, did not Jesus come to the earth to serve, instead of be served (Matt 20:28)? And after being saved by grace, aren’t Christians called to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for them to do (Eph 2:8-10)?

In addition to consumerism, I believe that the second biggest struggle that churches in my context are facing is individualism. Rather than viewing loving others as a natural outflow of loving God (Matt 22:37-40), many Christians are choosing to compartmentalize their faith from their everyday life. The result of this is the astounding possibility that one’s neighbors or coworkers could be Christian, but one may never even know it. Now I am not suggesting that Christians go and preach the gospel to all their neighbors and coworkers just to make a statement about their faith, but I am suggesting that a true follower of Jesus should be living a life that is so integrated and whole, that others are able to notice something different about them. For a Christian, faith and life go hand in hand – loving God and loving others are one in the same thing.

No such thing as a "Lay" Christian

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So often, Christians create faux-categories to justify and rationalize their laziness and desire to compartmentalize their faith. We think that there are certain Christians who are “called” to be pastors, and others who are “called” to be missionaries, but what about everyone else? Well, if you’re not “called” to be a pastor or a missionary, then I guess you just fall into a third category called – “lay” Christian…where you just go to church on Sunday, sing some songs, listen to someone preach, and then go home.

When you search the New Testament, there is no such thing as a “lay” Christian. Sure, different people have different roles, but there is no such thing as a “lay” Christian as we know it today. It’s a false category! [Read more…] about No such thing as a "Lay" Christian