Gabriel Salguero on How Diversity Informs Spiritual Formation

How does diversity inform spiritual formation? Simply put, Christians are broadened and deepened as they worship, study, do ministry, and share life-together in community. It is across difference where the most important of Christian virtues, love, is tested. Now this has to be beyond window-dressing of doing drive-by ministry “to” and “among” the urban poor, immigrants, and the rich, racially-ethnic diversity of the global church present in urban centers. When all these demographics form a vital part of our worship community and leadership, spiritual formation takes on a richer texture. As we listen to one another across differences, our own assumptions, prejudices, and limitations are challenged by other followers of Christ. This is precisely what Christian ecclesiology is; “unity in Christ with diversity.”

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Thursday is for Thinkers: Dhati Lewis

In the summer of 2002, we started the SIM (Saints in Motion) program where we brought six singles into our home for three weeks to share our lives with them in hopes that they would experience a holistic discipleship model (1 Thessalonians 2:8).
The Model
We based it off Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” From that scripture, we developed these four aims:

1. grow a greater devotion for the Lord
2. increase ability to study the Bible
3. develop and grow ability to communicate the hope of the Gospel
4. promote practical and tangible application.

For three weeks, we led intense discipleship that included: morning devotionals led by the members (with feedback from my wife and I afterwards), application challenges (share your faith with a coworker, serve the other SIMs members, etc.), assignments, curfew, rotating chores, communal money pot (no purchases can be made without consulting everyone), evening devotionals based on our worldviews, and conflict resolution.

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married? plan to be? then read this!

H. Norman Wright authored “So You’re Getting Married” in 1985. I picked up my copy the other day as I was researching for this blog and other areas of ministry. There, right in the first chapter, just as he begins writing Wright gives a great list that defines marriage and provides useful information to help us as we Commit to Marriage

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Humility Is The First Step To ‘Shalom’ On The Web

Think about those you like to criticize and poke fun at, be it on your blog, via captioned photos you post on Facebook, or the links you share on Twitter. They could be liberals or conservatives, Republicans or Democrats, Christians or atheists, complementarians or egalitarians, gun control advocates or Second Amendment defenders, or any other group or faction. Whatever group that might be, how often do you actually converse with people from that group in real life? How much time have you spent actually getting to know those you demonize, as opposed to indulging in caricatures put forth by people on your side of the cultural divide?

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Tenn. Church Treasurer Arrested; Allegedly Stole $160,000 to Pay for Tanning, Wedding

Crystal Dycus, 30, accepted the position as treasurer at Douglass Chapel United Methodist Church in Gallatin, Tenn., two years ago, and had access to the church’s bank accounts, credit card and certificates of deposit (CDs). During this time, she spent church funds on gas, tanning bed visits, ATM withdraws, restaurants and bills.

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Talk grows of taking Cuba off terror list

High-level US officials have concluded that Cuba should no longer be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, raising the prospect that a key obstacle to restoring diplomatic relations with the Cold War foe could soon be removed, according to top diplomats and Cuba experts.

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Drones have killed 4,700, U.S. senator says

Obama’s expanded drone war has broad popular support in the U.S., according to a poll released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. That survey found 56 percent support such strikes and 26 percent oppose them. At the same time, 53 percent worry about potential civilian casualties. But overseas it faces majority opposition, Pew found last year.

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Migration, Trade and Brutality-”Casualties of the War on the Countryside”

Because of the fact that it is not economically viable to farm coffee–because of policies tied to the cheap coffee you and I drink–families are sending their lifeblood out of Coatzóspam to look for work elsewhere.

The young women and men go to Oaxaca City, or Mexico City to look for work. They go to northern Mexico–many of them find work as migrant agricultural laborers on the vast “factory farms” in the northern Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California.

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“The missionaries brought the Bread of Life, but we choked on the packaging.”

Clearly, we American Christians had wrapped the gospel in some heavy-duty cultural packaging, in a misguided attempt to protect the Bread of Life from worldly contaminants. Our message, shrouded as it was in the trappings of WASPy Christendom, was impossible for some people to digest, suffocating the spiritual life out of people Jesus suffered and died for. Isn’t it ironic that so much of the New Testament is focused on liberating the gospel from its cultural baggage so it could truly be good news to every tongue, tribe, and nation, and yet we have the gall to call our narrow western worldview biblical; that we who worship the incarnate God are so quick to distance ourselves from the wider world around us, calling it unclean?

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The Apostle Paul and the heart of church planting (and pastoring)

The heart of church planting (and pastoring) is to present everyone – everyone – mature in Christ. That means the heart of God is for everyone – believers and non-believers – to grow in knowledge of him, through faith in Jesus. Church planting is not just about reaching non-believers. Church planting is not just about reaching believers. Church planting is about presenting “everyone mature in Christ.” Church planting is about proclaiming him and “warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom” and doing so by “struggling with all his energy”. In other words, church planting is not only about regeneration (i.e. new conversions). Church planting is ultimately about glorification (i.e. ultimate maturity in Christ).

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The Introverted Evangelist

Don’t let the introvert use their design as a crutch for mission. “God didn’t make me that way” is a crutch. Instead, show them what mission could look like. Find another introvert, or functional extrovert, that can aid them in steps of what mission might look like for them. Don’t just tell them; have someone model it. The introvert is an image bearer and desires to see disciples made; they just don’t know what it looks like for them. It’s not because they’re stupid, but because the church has historically modeled what it looks like to be an extrovert evangelist.

Don’t give up on the introvert. Just because they don’t live out the mission as you might, does not make them any less a child of God, nor does it make them any less of an evangelist. You’ll have to be patient with them, that’s okay, God has been patient with you your entire life and you still suck.

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7 Ways to Do a Bad Word Study

My guess is, you’ve encountered some sort of word story in the last couple of months: a Bible study, a sermon, a commentary, a quip about agape love or a defense of a biblical viewpoint you’re not sure of. But sometimes it’s hard to wade through the muck and know when you’re being short changed. How can a lay person (or pastor) know whether a word study is legitimate? Here are some bad ways to do a word study, courtesy of Dr. Jennings of Gordon Conwell and Dr. Grant Osborne of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

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The Premonition— God’s Early Warning System

From a Christian point of view, there are some things to be said about all of this. It reflects clearly enough, since there are hundreds of thousands of stories through the ages like the ones I just told, that SOMEONE knows in advance what is going to happen, and that same SOMEONE sometimes conveys knowledge of this information to persons who have a direct stake in or deep investment in the matter.

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Pregnant Teen Wins Abortion Battle

Attorneys filed a lawsuit on the teen’s behalf earlier this month arguing that her parents “are violating her federal constitutional rights to carry her child to term by coercing her to have an abortion with both verbal and physical threats and harassment.”

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Ghost writer: New app to keep you tweeting after death

‘LivesOn’ will let users pursue ‘life after death’ on their social media profiles, letting the deceased communicate with loved ones. LivesOn will keep posting after you kick the bucket, following the example of the DeadSocial platform.

Due to be launched in March, the LivesOn application will keep tweeting after you pass on. The service will utilize advanced analysis of your main Twitter feed, to carefully select appropriate subjects, likes, or articles that would have been likely to interest you, posting them on your behalf for your friends to read.

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Warehouse worker packing stress balls punched his boss in face

A man who packed stress balls for a living punched his boss in the face and threatened colleagues when he was sacked, a court heard.
Darren Baldwin, 44, hit the warehouse manager who dismissed him and then produced two knives when other staff tried to step in.

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The Explosive Growth of U.S. Megachurches

The graphic might show a slowdown of the explosive growth (from explosive to electric?) over the last two years, but Warren and I don’t think so (yet). Two years does not make a trend and the trend is quite remarkable when it comes of the number of megachurches.

For example:

• The number of megachurches in America has nearly doubled during every decade over the last half century.
• In 1960, there was 1 megachurch for every 7.5 million Americans. In 2010, there was one for every 200,000 Americans.
• There are as many megachurches today in the greater Nashville area as there were in the entire country in 1960.

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How You Can Impact an Overchurched Culture—Pt. 2

Now, let me emphasize, we need to watch out for the temptation of downplaying opportunities to share our faith. The world is full of organizations that began as beacons of light seeking to serve people and call them to Jesus… only to devolve into do-gooder organizations indistinguishable from secular charities.
The world is filled with materially affluent people who are spiritually impoverished. We should never be satisfied simply because we helped a person climb out of physical poverty and ascend a materialistic ladder. Rather, our prayer should be that all of these cups of cold water open the doors to many human hearts, so that these might receive the ultimate supplier of human needs: Jesus.

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Uncoolness, Tolerance, and Christ’s Bride, the Church

I find that the most severe critics of the church are those who grew up in it. Many of them have now left the church, and some seem proud to have done so. They like distancing themselves from “all those judgmental hypocrites,” and celebrate how amazingly tolerant they and their friends are. (They are not very tolerant of Bible-believing churches, of course, but that’s different.) If there is one thing they’re certain of, it’s that churches are uncool. And nobody wants to be uncool.

Meanwhile, people like Steve and me who grew up outside of churches, in families without Christ, are not so quick to throw out the baby of Christ’s bride with the bathwater of uncoolness.

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Handing Off Ministry to Others…Valuing Development Over Dependence

One of my goals in ministry is to develop people well enough that if I got hit by a truck tomorrow that things could continue on without me. Ministries that fully depend on my presence will never grow bigger than my own skill set and availability. Empowering and equipping others to take on pieces of ministry and sending them to go and do it is essential to effective ministry. It is not expedient on the front end but it is necessary for ministry to be done by community and not done in isolation. That means ministry shifts from being done to people to being done with people and by people. Maybe the next stage of your ministry is development rather than dependence.

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‘Ser’ or Not to Be

I have many close friends who are excellent doctors, but they’ve had to work for years as waiters in restaurants or as attendants in gas stations or cleaning seafood or scrubbing floors. Nevertheless, their wages are higher than these would be as doctors in their home countries.

An old and good friend recently told me that it’s very difficult to choose between saving lives as a medical doctor in Cuba and riding on a public bus, eating and dressing poorly and knowing that with your savings (which never amount to anything) will never allow you to afford a plane ticket to travel anywhere in the world.

She contrasts this to being a simple worker who (e)migrates to a country where they can own a car, dress and eat decently, and pay for a vacation in other places.

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Sniper Posts Pic of Child in Crosshairs

“There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case,” wrote Palestinian activist Ali Abuminah who runs the site Electronic Intifada and drew much of the attention to the photo. “The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets.”

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Act Like a Business, Expect Customers

Churches behave like businesses but act surprised when people in their congregations behave like consumers…
Jesus did not come to earth to establish a social institution—although a social institution is one way to express the church. He didn’t come to make us cooler, more successful, more efficient or popular. He came to draw all people to God—and to be the pathway that will take us there. Following that pathway, and calling to others to join us, is possibly the most organic process imaginable. The church is not a business—it’s the church. It’s unique. It doesn’t really make sense to pattern ourselves after anything.

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A Church That Listens

I believe that God still speaks today. In fact, I think he is speaking all the time through his word, through nature, through our neighbors, friends, and enemies. I believe he speaks to us through a wide variety of cultural expressions. The problem is not that God is silent, the problem is that we just aren’t listening.

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The 2012 Preaching Survey of the Year’s Best Books for Preachers

Ten Books Every Preacher Should Read

1. The Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas E. Bergler (Eerdmans)
2. Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church by Gregg R. Allison (Crossway)
3. Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction by Jonathan T. Pennington (Baker Academic)
4. Christ-Centered Biblical Theology: Hermeneutical Foundations and Principles by Graeme Goldsworthy (InterVarsity Press)
5. Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD by Peter Brown (Princeton University Press)
6. Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 by Charles Murray (Crown Forum)
7. The Intolerance of Tolerance by D.A. Carson (Eerdmans)
8. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat (Free Press)
9. God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology by Gerald Bray (Crossway)
10. Delighting in the Trinity: an Introduction to the Christian Faith by Michael Reeves (InterVarsity Press)

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Top 5 Elements for a Church Site

Who: Who are you?
What: What do you stand for, what is your church doing to communicate the love of Jesus?
When: When do you meet?
Where: Just as important as when you meet, where you meet.
How: How can someone get engaged with the church?

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1 Corinthians 13 Young Adult Remix

If you want to reach 20 Somethings, here is the key – Love them and let them know it. You may not have all the “right” programs (as if there is a giant cookie cutter you can press into your congregation and make it work). Your worship may not be flashy. Your members may be aging. The nursery may be empty. You may not know all the right things to say, the questions to ask or be up on all the latest cultural trends, viral videos or newest songs…but if you can just have a heart for this generation and reach out to them in love…embrace them and give them space to explore faith in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way…you will be amazed what will happen.

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Competitive Individualism

Loneliness. I have never forgotten Landon Saunders’ statement in 1979 that the average person has not one close friend. I was shocked; tempted to doubt. Yet, as I work through the rubble of the injured, this appears to be accurate.

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Play To Win

The pressure to make the kick increases with each round. Imagine taking the fifth penalty shot for a professional team. Which situation would you prefer?

• Your team is down by one, and you have to make it to tie; if you miss, your team will lose.
• Your team is tied, and you do not have to make it, but if you do make it, you will win.

According to the research of Geir Jordet and Ester Hartman, in which missing the kick will cause the kicker’s team to lose, professional kickers succeed on those shots only 62% of the time and when making the goal will result in a win, kickers for it, and they find the net 92% of the time. It is the same kick, the same twelve yards every time, but there is a 30% gap in the success rate.

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SPLC to get Sarah Palin treatment any day now

So yesterday, Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty to three criminal counts involving his August 2012 attack on the Washington D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council. He told the FBI that he picked his target from a “hate map“ (!) on the web site of the Southern Poverty Law Center. That’s the liberal group that is frequently used as a legitimate source in news reports (I sort of thought they jumped the shark when they identified “pick-up artists” as hate groups but this Reason archive might be worth a read for developing a tad of skepticism of their treatment by the media).

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Model Cameron Russell: I get what I don’t deserve

I am not a uniquely accomplished 25-year-old. I’ve modeled for 10 years and I took six years to finish my undergraduate degree part-time, graduating this past June with honors from Columbia University. If I ever had needed to put together a CV it would be quite short. Like many young people I’d highlight my desire to work hard.
But hard work is not why I have been successful as a model. I’m not saying I’m lazy. But the most important part of my job is to show up with a 23-inch waist, looking young, feminine and white. This shouldn’t really shock anyone. Models are chosen solely based on looks. But what was shocking to me is that when I spoke, the way I look catapulted what I had to say on to the front page.
Even if I did give a good talk, is what I have to say more important and interesting than what Colin Powell said? (He spoke at the same event and his talk has about a quarter of the view count.)

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Thanks to ‘Lincoln,’ Mississippi Has Finally Definitely Ratified the Thirteenth Amendment

A middle-aged recent immigrant from India recently set into motion a series of events that eventually led to Mississippi finally ratifying the Constitutional amendment banning slavery. The rousing finale of the movie Lincoln served as inspiration. It sounds like a joke, but it’s true. And even though it’s been nearly 150 years since that fateful day in the Capitol in 1864, Mississippi’s becoming the final state to officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment serves as the final punctuation mark on a dark chapter in American history.

Toward A Theology Of Guns: A Christian’s Perspective, Pt. 1

While many of the talking heads in the media are beginning to call for more “conversations” about guns and gun control these days, as a Christian, I believe it is time for those who consider themselves followers of Jesus to stop hiding behind secular governmental laws and institutions and to start working towards a “theology of guns.” Indeed, the all-too-frequent appeals made by those who supposedly align themselves with Jesus to the American Constitution rather than the Bible, should raise some red flags. When it is not Scripture that is being held as the gold standard of how we should think and live and conduct ourselves in this world but rather, a secular document, then we have a problem.

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Guns and Jesus in America

Bottom line; own a gun, own multiple guns, but let’s avoid the risk of harming the influence of the church and Christ by viscerally and publicly defending our “rights” to certain weapons, stigmatizing the church, and harming our influence and Christian witness in the process.

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Saturday Night Worship?

Don’t go merely out of sense of duty and obligation. Go to celebrate God’s grace that comes by the death of Jesus — and eat and drink together as a product of that grace with a love and a fellowship so intense that a lost world is drawn to the table with you. Powerfully proclaim Jesus by being part of a community that loves one another with an intensity so bright that you can’t stay apart and you eat and drink together as family.

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Can We Justify God?

I’m tired of defending him. Does God really need my feeble, finite, and fallible arguments in his defense? Perhaps some need to hear a defense—maybe it would help, but I also know it is woefully inadequate at many levels. God does not need my defense as much as God needs to encounter people in their crises. My arguments will not make the difference; only God’s presence will.

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Distracted

Did you read about the case of poor Sabine Moreau? She set out one morning to pick up a friend at a train station in Brussels, Belgium, about 90 miles from Moreau’s home in Hainault Erquelinnes.
Not knowing the way, Moreau set her GPS and faithfully followed the instructions.
For nearly 2 days.
810 miles out of her way.

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Love game: Toledo’s Ben Pike ends football career to assist ill fiancee

Pike, a Mentor High School product, has one more year of eligibility left at Toledo, one more season he could build upon what had been the best of his career as a defensive lineman in 2012. But the 22-year-old will graduate in May and take his education degree with him to St. Louis. He still plans to marry the love of his life June 15, and will be by Barrett’s side each day through a bone marrow transplant and recovery from leukemia.

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The Beards of Ministry

The ministry beard has a long and glorious history among preachers, theologians, and everyday men of the cloth. A skilled observer can identify nuances of theology, polity, and diet from a pastor’s beard. Now you can too! A carefully groomed beard can make a powerful spiritual statement, and we’re here to interpret for you.

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Bunnies taking toll on cars at Denver airport

Silly rabbits.
The furry creatures are wreaking havoc on cars parked at Denver International Airport by eating spark plug cables and other wiring.