Someone called me out on a statement in yesterday’s post:

To my way of thinking, understanding that charismata are ministries helps us see that they are always for building up the body and never merely for personal edification. That’s stated clearly in the New Testament, but seems all the more obvious when we realize that we’re looking for an activity or a ministry and not just some mysterious ability.

They rightly noted that’s saying that the Bible “clearly” says something is a dangerous practice. He said that he didn’t disagree with me, just would have like to see some citations.

He’s correct. I should have provided references. In my defense, as we’ve gone through this study we’ve been focusing on 4 passages: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. My mind flashed to statements in those chapters, which probably explains why I didn’t think to cite them. But I should have and will correct that:

1 Corinthians 12:7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Ephesians 4:11-12 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ

Ephesians 4:15-16 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace

I’ll go on to say that I think spiritual formation is too often thought of in individual terms, when it’s healthier to view it corporately. The body grows, and therein the individuals that make up that body grow as well.

The story of a body lost and a soul saved

Desperate people fighting their demons. And losing. Caring family who shared stories of Jesus.
A body lost but a soul saved. Because someone cared enough to share a Jesus story with someone.

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The Peculiarity of Early Christian Worship (or How Early Christians Managed to Offend Just about Everybody)

So, Christian worship managed to irritate just about everyone. The Romans were agitated. The Jews were upset. Christianity was seen as a subversive threat.
But, here’s the key. Christians did not, for these reasons, decided to abandon, change, or modify their worship. Despite the opposition, they stayed true to their practices and true to their Lord.

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Have Bible Quoters Replaced Bible Readers?

Here’s the end-result according to Nienhuis: “They have the capacity to recall a relevant biblical text in support of a particular doctrinal point, or in opposition to a hot spot in the cultural wars, or in hope of emotional support when times get tough. They approach the Bible as a sort of reference book, a collection of useful God-quotes that can be looked up as one would locate words in a dictionary or an entry in an encyclopedia.”
He continues: “What they are not trained to do is to read a biblical book from beginning to end, to trace its narrative arc, to discern its main themes, and to wonder how it shapes our faith lives today.”

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More churches are opening their doors to undocumented immigrants facing deportation

The sanctuary movement has its modern roots in the 1980s, when civil wars in Central America sent hundreds of thousands of political refugees into the U.S. seeking asylum.
Church leaders sheltered them and were later prosecuted and convicted, though received no jail time. The movement was revived under President Obama, who critics called the deporter-in-chief for the record-high removals that happened under his watch. And since President Trump took office, the number of churches that have joined this movement, saying they’re willing to shelter people or help do so, has grown from 400 to around 1,000.

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Give me your tired, your poor…and they will create jobs for us

First, the extent to which migrants take over the jobs of natives relates to whether migrants and natives are competing for the same jobs or not. Economists have found, however, that for the most part, migrants (low- and high-skilled) compete with other incumbent migrants, not with natives.
In fact, the same study shows that, between 1990 and 2006, immigration had a small positive effect on the wages of American-born workers, as the presence of migrants encourage natives to specialize in better jobs. Reducing immigration is not protecting the salaries of the American workers.

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Preparing For Winter

Thus, for Christian educational institutions, the way ahead may be very hard. It will not simply be a matter of budgeting without federal loans. It could easily become a matter of budgeting without not-for-profit status. That double whammy is likely to annihilate many of those institutions which refuse to accommodate themselves to the dominant sexual culture. And that means that educators may need to look to new models of pursuing their callings.

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The complicated ‘science’ of individual Communion cups

In other words, you’re more likely to contract germs on the door handle leading into church or shaking someone’s hand after the service than on the lip of a Communion cup.

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Fake wasabi

Creatures don’t like change, up or down. We like what we like.

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Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?

The most wicked foreign accent of all was British English, according to the study. From Scar to Aladdin’s Jafar, the study found that British is the foreign accent most commonly used for villains. German and Slavic accents are also common for villain voices. Henchmen or assistants to villains often spoke in dialects associated with low socioeconomic status, including working-class Eastern European dialects or regional American dialects such as “Italian-American gangster” (like when Claude in Captain Planet says ‘tuh-raining’ instead of ‘training.’) None of the villains in the sample studied seemed to speak Standard American English; when they did speak with an American accent, it was always in regional dialects associated with low socioeconomic status.

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Bad design in action: the false Hawaiian ballistic missile alert

Instead of selecting “DRILL – PACOM (CDW) – STATE ONLY” from what looks more like a list of headlines on The Drudge Report than a warnings & alerts menu, the operator chose “PACOM (CDW) – STATE ONLY” and sent out a real alert.
The design for this is obviously terrible. As others have noted, there are better interfaces for confirming much more trivial actions on our phones.

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How to Dramatically Improve your Public Speaking Skills

• Make every word count
• Start strong
• Know your through-line
• Rehearse like your life depends on it
• Fewer slides, better slides
• Tell stories
• What is your body saying?

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When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City
In 1939, the German American Bund organized a rally of 20,000 Nazi supporters at Madison Square Garden in New York City. When Academy Award-nominated documentarian Marshall Curry stumbled upon footage of the event in historical archives, he was flabbergasted. Together with Field of Vision, he decided to present the footage as a cautionary tale to Americans. The short film, A Night at the Garden, premieres on The Atlantic today.

My Advice to Churches: Part 5, Go Bilingual

Every church in Texas should become bilingual. Or at least give a nod to Spanish-speakers.
For example, how hard would it to be to have Spanish translations on all the PowerPoint slides for praise songs, scripture readings and announcements? Change nothing in your service, just add the Spanish on the PowerPoint slides. How hard is that?
A small change, but a quantum leap in spiritual formation in pushing against xenophobia, racism and nationalism.

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Talk to the Children When Fencing the Table

Unbelieving children who leave the worship of their church on the Lord’s Day need to know far more than they were barred from the Lord’s Supper table. They need to know why. More specifically, they need to know the gospel. During the fencing of the table, it would be wise to ask for the attention of the children and call for them to pay close attention to the practice and the teaching during the Lord’s Supper. The gospel of Jesus Christ should shine clearly and brightly from the Lord’s Table in such a way that it proclaims the Lord’s death with a joyful anticipation of his return.

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What Was the Shape of Jesus’ Cross?

The traditional “Crux Commissa” shape of Jesus’ cross is, in fact, the most reasonable inference, but to be fair, this inference is only slightly more reasonable than the “T” shaped “Crux Immissa”. The least reasonable form of crucifixion structure from the historic evidence of the Bible and the non-Biblical texts is the “Crux Simplex” described by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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Creating a Zero-Based Church Schedule

1. Most churches have too many activities and programs and ministries for their members.
2. Over the years, those churches have added many things to the calendar without subtracting many or any.
3. Attempt this exercise. Start with a blank calendar.
4. Now, fill in the calendar with only those activities you feel will really move the church forward.
5. Look at those activities that didn’t make the cut.
6. If you do this every year, your leadership will become more and more aware of how precious the resource of time is for your members.

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Stop Telling People Your Goals. Tell Them Your Plans.

Describing how I plan to run a marathon, and how I bought running shoes and joined a gym and created a training plan, certainly makes me feel good, but it also makes me feel like I’m already part of the way there … even though I haven’t trained at all.
Declaring what we want to be and how we will get there causes us to somehow feel we are farther along the path of becoming who we want to be, and therefore less motivated … even though we’ve actually done nothing but talk.

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How To Lead In 2018

I’ve culled 10 lessons from my experiences that week, which help fuel my optimism. I hope that they, along with the rest of our coverage, inspire you to embrace your own future. We never really know what’s going to happen next; but if we focus on what we can control—and our own reactions to the world around us—we can find meaning and create impact, bringing to life the dreams we all share.

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Warren Buffett Says If You Hire People on Intelligence but They Lack This Other Trait, Don’t Bother

To safeguard from hiring bad apples, throw them a curveball when they’re expecting a fastball, to catch them off guard. Ask a question like this one:

If we ever got into a bind with a client, would you be willing to tell a little white lie to help us out?

That’s what one high-level CEO routinely asks to test out a candidate’s integrity. If you are asked that question and say yes, expect a short interview and your parking stub validated early. A no indicates a high degree of integrity and a possible good hire.

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Apple Health data used as evidence in murder trial

Hussein, who owns an iPhone, declined to give authorities his passcode when arrested. However, investigators hired a local company, which was able to gain access to the device. They then searched his Apple Health data, and were able to ascertain more details about his activities that day, such as the number of steps he took and the kind of activities he was engaged in.
Authorities are particularly interested in activity registered as “climbing stairs,” which correlate with the time during which Hussein may have been dragging his victim down a river embankment, and then climbing back up again after disposing of her body. Investigators replicated these movements, and found that the Health app recorded the information in the same way as was shown on his iPhone.

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Stranger pays for Arizona girl’s birthday cake in memory of her late daughter

Kyle Jauregui took to Twitter to thank to a stranger who paid for his sister Madison’s birthday cake.
Jauregui posted a picture showing a card from the stranger that revealed how this random act of kindness served a purpose for one grieving mother, Ashley Santi.
Santi’s infant daughter died in 2008 and as a way to honor her daughter, Santi decided to pay for a birthday cake on her daughter’s birthday.

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On Being a Christian Woman in the Year of Our Lord, 2018

I’ll end with two practical concerns I have with the pendulum swing I see in some of the public sphere of conservative Christendom that’s been trickling down locally.

1. It makes advancement mainly a function of women teaching and (accidentally?) devalues all the other ways women serve as an essential part of the body. It’s like we want all women to be teachers. I understand why the focus is on women teaching, because that’s the area that some are slower to embrace–feels risky, like a woman might overstep the bounds. But, in the same way I think men can be devalued when they aren’t teachers or pastors, I think the same thing is happening with women and we should avoid this silliness at all costs. You don’t have to be an up-front teacher in order to be a spiritual mother. A female on a stage speaking to a group is not essential to thriving spiritual mothering or the fulfillment of a woman’s role in the local body. A woman teacher is no more effective or influential in God’s economy because she’s been given a microphone.
2. Our swing is in tandem with the current swing of liberal and unorthodox Christians as well as with the world, albeit on a different scale. This doesn’t make it all wrong, but it’s something to note. When the world is swinging into transgenderism and gender queer identity, and the liberal church is swinging into ordination of women and self-identified gay Christians, the conservative swing toward a disproportionate valuing of the stage/platform as the most important place for women to serve may seem minor, but we should pay attention to it. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater––there are important things to learn in this pendulum swing, good and right actions to take. There are many faithful upfront women teachers that I love and have learned a ton from–I want their number to increase! But maybe the most important lesson is that the pendulum needs to be smashed with God’s word.

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Recalibrate: 10 Steps Every Church Must Take This Year, Or Be Dead In A Decade

1. Reestablish The Biblical Essentials
2. Emphasize Discipleship And Leadership Training
3. Reduce Your Overhead
4. Rethink Your Building
5. Work With Strategic Partners
6. Engage Your Community
7. Emphasize Jesus Over Tradition (or Denominations, or Buildings, or Politics, or…)
8. Restructure What Needs To Be Restructured
9. Make Disciples, Not Just Converts
10. Figure Out Why Your Congregation Should Survive

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Design Should Matter More to Christians

As creative Christians, we need to be especially attentive to all facets of our work: design, form, content, function. Does our work bear witness to the goodness of Jesus, and particularly to the sacrifice and humility He embodied for us?
Yes, this is a high bar, and yes, we will repeatedly fail, but more important than succeeding or failing is our willingness to be disciples, always to be learning, growing and maturing.

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Stones

“Let him who without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Back to my note. My note is connected to this story. My note reminds me that their are broken people whom the world and many times the church continue to tear down. My note says, “BE A STONE CATCHER.”

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Money Matters: Practical Tips for Fund-raising

• Prioritize Relationships Over Resources
• Tackle the Fear of Fund-raising
• Have a Compelling Vision
• Buy In and Gain Some Early Wins
• Segment Your Contacts
• Say Thank-You Quickly; Say Thank-You Often

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Your theory

We can fall into a few traps with our theories about humans:

1. We can come to believe that they are ironclad guarantees, not merely our best guess about the future.
2. We can refuse to understand the mechanics behind a theory and instead accept the word of an authority figure. If we fail to do the math on our own, we lose agency and the ability to develop an even more nuanced understanding of how the world works.
3. We can become superstitious, ignoring evidence that runs counter to our theory and instead doubling down on random causes and their unrelated effects.
4. We can hesitate to verbalize our theories, afraid to share them with others, particularly those we deem as higher in authority or status.
5. We can go to our jobs and do all four of these things at once.

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Meet the Man Who’s Prevented Over 300 Suicides At China’s Yangtze River Bridge

Featured on NPR and written about in GQ, Chen has contributed to over 300 suicide preventions since 2003. Sometimes that means talking people out of jumping off the bridge, and sometimes that means catching them after they leap.

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Vending Machine Provides Free Food, Socks, and Toiletries to Homeless People

As Fast Company reports, Action Hunger has installed a vending machine inside the entrance of a Nottingham, UK shopping center stocked with contents meant exclusively for homeless consumers. To use it, visitors must have a card they can pick up from the local homeless center. Once their status has been confirmed, they’re given free access to fruit, sandwiches, socks, water, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and other basics. The can use the card up to three times a day and cardholders must check in with the participating shelter once a week to keep using it.

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How paying for a Cuban sandwich with Venmo could get your account frozen

The next time your friend offers to pay for lunch and split the bill via Venmo, an online money transaction service, pause for a minute before hitting pay.
Does your caption contain the words “Cuba” or “Havana”? Unless you like having your account frozen, it might be worth a rewrite.

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17 striking findings from 2017

1. Partisan divides dwarf demographic differences on key political values.
2. Donald Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States.
3. About four-in-ten Americans say they live in a gun-owning household, while three-in-ten say they personally own a gun.
4. Democrats and Republicans disagree now more than ever on the news media’s “watchdog” role.
5. Muslims are projected to be the world’s fastest-growing major religious group in the decades ahead.
6. In the U.S., Hispanic identity fades across generations as distance from immigrant roots grows.
7. Americans see fundamental differences between men and women, but men and women have different views on the cause of these differences.
8. Many Americans expect certain professions to be dominated by automation in their lifetime – but few see their own jobs at risk.
9. The share of Republicans who hold negative views of the effect of colleges and universities on the country has grown significantly since 2015.
10. Immigrants are projected to play the primary role in the growth of the American working-age population in the coming decades.
11. News stories about President Trump’s first 60 days in office offered far more negative assessments than they did of prior administrations.
12. In the past 10 years, the share of U.S. adults living without a spouse or partner has increased.
13. About half of 2.2 million people who sought asylum in Europe during the 2015 and 2016 refugee surge were still in limbo at the end of 2016 and did not know if they would be allowed to stay.
14. About eight-in-ten Americans say they understand the risks and challenges of police work, but 86% of police say the public does not understand.
15. About six-in-ten Americans ages 18 to 29 say the primary way they watch television now is with streaming services on the internet.
16. Views on whether whites benefit from societal advantages that blacks do not have are split sharply along racial and partisan lines.
17. Science knowledge is closely related to expectations for harm from climate change among Democrats, but not among Republicans.

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Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society

Palihapitiya’s criticisms were aimed not only at Facebook, but the wider online ecosystem. “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he said, referring to online interactions driven by “hearts, likes, thumbs-up.” “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”

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Some Implications of Being Pro ALL Life

• Abortion isn’t the only political issue that matters.
• Criminals are human beings too.
• Citizenship doesn’t make someone less valuable.

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What a Stupid Bumper Sticker Can Tell Us About American Christianity

In our time of political religion, passionate intensity is reserved for the “important matters,” which are inevitably political. Who cares if one misses the point of the Bible, as long as the message props up the slogan? Often even the “theological” debates Christians engage in, mostly now via social media, aren’t actually about God or the gospel, but about the identity politics of seeing “our side” as better than some other group. In those debates, what is being defended is not Christ and his church but “Christians”—sociologically and politically defined.

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Evangelical rebel Jen Hatmaker deserved more from Politico than a puff piece

Women like Hatmaker have long benefited from the female evangelical star system for many years; a system that made little room for the divorced, the widowed, the childless and the never-married. Instead, she was hitched to a pastor and they had five kids. That is evangelical heaven.
I’m not saying Hatmaker doesn’t deserve her place in the sun. Her recent column on family members who sabotage holiday celebrations was dead-on terms of what adoptive and foster parents experience all the time.
But here’s a woman who got her own reality show back in 2014. Let’s not talk about white male privilege while ignoring Hatmaker’s very obvious privilege.

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Happy Trump-idays! The real reason for so much winning and saying ‘Merry Christmas’ this season

But personally, I identified with the response of Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, to Trump’s tweet: “So, was this a thing that I missed? Were some of you really ashamed of saying Merry Christmas before the election? Or afraid to? Teach me — are you proud and more bold now? What?” (See Stetzer’s Twitter timeline for some excellent feedback that he received.)

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Six Secrets Of People Who Keep Their New Year’s Resolutions

• Their resolutions revolve around small changes
• They write down the resolution every day
• They have a strong “why”
• Their resolutions benefit others
• They seek accountability
• They make failure difficult

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