A Testimony of Hearing God’s Voice in an Academic Setting

This coming Sunday Kevin Springer will be teaching on Acts 3, which happens to be a chapter detailing both the healing of a lame man and another evangelistic sermon preached by Peter (can you say, “Power Evangelism”?) This testimony was written by Dr. Gary Greig, who is a friend of Kevin’s and a co-author with Kevin on another book entitled, The Kingdom and the Power.  To view or download Gary’s paper on power evangelism (which contains some excellent small group questions) click here.

Gary writes... The way that I made it through my undergraduate and graduate school degree programs was through continual prayer and conscious dependence on the Lord—praying for wisdom and understanding in all my studies. I finished a B.A. degree at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 1990. All my studies at the Hebrew University were in Modern Hebrew, which I had to learn before entering my course of study there. When I told my academic advisor, Aviva Rosen, an older Israeli woman, that I had no family in Israel and had just had a summer to study modern Hebrew before entering the classroom where all my lectures would be in Hebrew, she exclaimed in Hebrew “My God!” And I thought, “Yes Lord, only you, God, can help me do this and succeed!” I had received prophetic words before traveling to Israel that the Lord would be with me and give me success, and I leaned hard on those prophetic promises in my prayers.

In my department of the University of Chicago, doctoral course-work and dissertation research normally took doctoral students ten years to complete, but I was able to complete the necessary course-work and research in seven years between 1983 and 1990. I say this not to praise myself. I was an average-to-above-average student all my life. I say this to demonstrate how the power of prayer and conscious dependence on God’s Spirit for all knowledge and wisdom can and should transform a Christian’s study in traditional academic degree-work, including seminary and Bible college degree-work.

Countless times, I remember praying and asking the Lord for wisdom in what I was studying, and He would prompt me to look in a certain book or journal, or He would let me stumble across the exact information I needed. Once a ruthless graduate student instructor at the University of Chicago, teaching a course in Old Egyptian (the oldest and most difficult form of ancient Egyptian), gave the class an impossible assignment to translate a very difficult Old Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription without giving us the normal references to journal articles analyzing the text. We had two days to translate the text into English and our grades (and chances for university scholarships) were depending on it. Well, my knee-jerk reaction was to pray and cry out to God for mercy in the research archives (library) of the U of C’s Oriental Institute! As I was doing so the Lord seemed to point to one volume of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology among about 100 similar volumes. The quiet prompting of the Holy Spirit was persistent, “Look at that volume!” I picked out the volume, which had perhaps 200 pages of articles, and the first page I opened to was an article analyzing and translating the very Old Egyptian hieroglyphic text that we had been assigned in the class! Needless to say, I was thanking the Lord as I shared the information with my class-mates, who were not Christians but among whom the Lord got the glory! As a result we were all ready for the next class, though our instructor had no idea how we were all so well-prepared to translate and discuss the text!

Experiences like this taught me what the Old Testament means when it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowing the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). The Lord already knows all there is to know. That is why Scripture calls Him the “Spirit of Truth” who will “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13; cf. John 14:17; 15:26; 1 John 4:6). We fail to honor the Lord, the Spirit of Truth, when we do not seek Him for all knowledge and understanding that we wish to acquire. The sin of the Garden was that Adam and Eve impatiently grabbed for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil without calling on or waiting for the Lord (Gen 3:6). They made it happen by themselves without consciously waiting for or depending on the Lord. And this is what happens in every classroom where Christian leaders in universities, colleges, seminaries, and Bible colleges—even with the best of intentions—try to figure it out for themselves, just them and their “gray matter,” apart from consciously depending on and asking the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth.

The Old and New Testaments present all teaching, education, and ministry preparation as a process of depending on God’s Spirit within a framework of mentoring modeled after the nuclear family.

Smile & Move

Biblical Community 101

I found this blog post online and thought it was an excellent overview of biblical community. This Sunday we will be taking a look at Acts 2:42-47, which is a definitive passage in the New Testament concerning the call to community for active, intentional followers of Christ.

From time to time, I’ll think a lot about biblical community. What it is in a practical sense. How I can contribute to it in my own sphere. Whether I have purposely (or inadvertinly) hampered or neglected it from time to time in my own life.

I believe that we are each wired to desire it, much like we are wired with a deep hunger for a personal relationship with God. Yet, it seems that which so many long for is seldom experienced. Why is that?

As Christians in the 21st century, we have access to more resources than ever. In the US we have more disposible time than our parents or grandparents. I don’t want to make this a treatise about the activities with which we fill our lives. That’s not my goal.

But I do want to underscore the fact that a lack of understanding, a misconception of just what biblical community is, often contributes to our lack of it. We settle for some lame program or strike off in a direction on our own in hopes of arriving at the fulfillment we so desparately desire. Real communit exists, and if we know what to look for and where to focus our energy, we can help foster it.
So I figured a brief reminder of what it means to be engaged in a healthy, biblical community would be in order. Perhaps we will be quickened to action...

What is Biblical Community?
Community is an interdependent group of people who are growing in their devotion to Christ, one another and the cause of the Gospel. Think of it this way. Imagine a triangle. At the pinnacle is Christ. At the two bottom points are One Another and The Gospel. Each of these three elements must be present if the community is to be healthy. The relationship is symbiotic. If we get out of balance in any area, we miss it. But as we grow in each one, we move toward each one’s goal and toward real community.

What are the Goals of Community?

• The goal of our devotion to Jesus is intimacy with Him.

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."  –John 15:4-5

• The goal of our devotion to One Another is love [remember, the vision statement for MPVCC is -- learning how to love.]
  

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."  –John 15:12-13

• The goal of our devotion to The Gospel is spiritual reproduction

"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning."  –John 15:26-27

As mentioned above, each of these must be present. Omit any one and it’s out of balance.
If we…

• Omit One Another and it’s “shoot our own” and task oriented. We may become legalistic, even in our efforts to share the Gospel.
• Omit The Gospel and it’s warm fuzzies and no real purpose. We might have a great time singing Kum ba ya, but our inward focus will eventually become our undoing.
• Omit Christ and it’s all flesh and we’re doomed before we begin. Without Jesus, it’s heresy so we might as well pack it up and go home.

What is the Value of Community?
Community offers us as Christians much meaning and fulfillment in our walk and witness. A thriving biblical community is:

• A safe place for spiritual transformation — We see others growing at different points along the way and we are both encouraged and challenged. We can take risks, learn and mess up without fear of rejection.
• Our vehicle for ministry — There are no lone rangers in ministry. None of us has all the spiritual gifts. Therefore we need each other.
• A greater power of witness — In John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. When we are part of a biblical community, we will draw others to Christ."

Well there it is. If we are to experience biblical community, I believe that we should be growing in our devotion to Christ, one another and the cause of the Gospel. I once heard discipleship defined as broken people ministering to broken people...

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• the challenge of community
• When Community Is Bad!

See the original post here.

Change is the New Normal

As we study the book of Acts it occurs to me that when the church started everything radically changed for the disciples, as well as for every person who decided to become an active intentional follower of Christ. 

The disciples were convinced that they were to become the cabinet members for the new theocracy that Jesus was going to set up on the earth.  They were hoping for condos on the Mediterranean and what they got was a call to become the servants of all.  Almost all of them would die martyrs deaths. 

Here are some quotes on CHANGE.  Think about it...

• “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” —Woodrow Wilson,
• “It is not merely that changes in our world demand new responses from us. The very foundations of society have changed.” —Craig Van Gelder
• “A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling… (we must) play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, and live by improvisation and experiment.” —Hans Kung
• “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” —Alvin Toffler


• “Uncertainty is the only thing to be sure of.”—Anthony Muh
• “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki
• “If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” —Mario Andretti
• “It is generally much easier to kill an organization than change it substantially.” —Kevin Kelly

 Have said the above there are (at least) three things that will never change:

1. God’s love never changes (see Malachi 3:6, Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 119:159, Romans 8:38)
2. God’s Word will never change (see Isaiah 40:8, Psalm 119:152, Matthew 5:24)
3. God’s purpose for my life will never change (1 Samuel 15:29, Psalm 33:11, Proverbs 19:21, Romans 8:28, Psalm 56:11, Psalm 46:1-2)

5 Core Values of the Vineyard

What defines the Vineyard as a movement?

Someone has said it's this simple phrase: "Can I pray for you right now?" These seven supernaturally natural words capture the essence of the five core values of the Vineyard movement.

Here is an overview of the five core values of the Vineyard:

1. Kingdom Theology & Practice

The Vineyard is committed to the theology and practice of the kingdom of God rooted in the vision of the Hebrew prophets and fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The movement is distinctively rooted in a renewed understanding of the centrality of the kingdom in biblical thought. We view the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Bible. From the beginning, the Vineyard has been committed to proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and to bearing witness to the "already and not yet" of the kingdom in our words and deeds through healing (physical, emotional, and social), doing justice, and delivering those held captive by evil. Since the kingdom of God is the future reign of God breaking into the present through the life and ministry of Jesus, we are a forward-leaning movement that emphasizes the ever-reforming nature of the church and engages the world in love.

2. Culturally Relevant Mission

The church exists for the sake of those who are exiled from God. We are called to bring the gospel of the kingdom to every nook and cranny of creation, faithfully translating the message of Jesus in language and forms that are relevant to diverse peoples and cultures. The Vineyard seeks to plant churches that are culturally relevant in a wide variety of settings, both locally and internationally. Each Vineyard church is encouraged to reach those in its community not already reached by existing churches. To this end, we promote a creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative approach to ministry that is faithful to Jesus and expressive of his desire to reach those who are far away from God.

3. Compassionate Ministry

We lean toward the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus, knowing we are sinners whose standing before God is utterly dependent on his mercy. This mercy can only be truly received inasmuch as we are willing to give it away. We believe that ministry in Jesus' name should be expressed in concrete ways through the local church. The poor are to be served as though we serve Jesus himself. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a church expressing the love of Christ in a local community. In fact, in all forms of ministry, compassion is a hallmark of the One who was "moved with compassion" in the face of human need. This being the age of grace and "the year of the Lord's favor" compassion should constitute the leading edge of our service to God, each other, and our broken world. With humility, we seek to avoid unauthorized judgments of others, realizing that we suffer and struggle along with the rest of humanity.

4. Reconciling Community

Jesus is reconciling people to God, to each other, and to the entire creation. He breaks down divisions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. Therefore, Vineyard churches are committed to being communities of healing, engaged in the work of reconciliation wherever sin and evil hold sway. We also seek to be diverse communities of hope that realize the power of the cross to reconcile what has been separated by sin. This requires that we move beyond our personal preferences and engage those whom we perceive to be unlike us. We must actively work to break down barriers of race, culture, gender, social class, and ethnicity. We are convinced that the church locally, nationally, and globally is meant to be a diverse community precisely because Jesus is Lord over every nation, tribe, and tongue. We are not satisfied with the status quo when it doesn't reflect this kingdom reality. Instead, we pray eagerly for the coming of God's kingdom here and now and hope to see the reconciliation that is evidence that kingdom in our midst.

5. Experiencing God

The triune God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is eager to be known and experienced by all. We believe that God is searching for the lost and longs to draw us into loving, intimate relationship with him. In Vineyard churches, we welcome God's personal presence, we seek to be attentive to his presence, and we value the passionate pursuit of his presence in order to respond in obedience to his initiatives.
We understand God's presence as a palpable reality. As we become increasingly sensitive and responsive to the Spirit's presence, we too can learn to "see what the Father is doing" and support his work with our lives. We value an approach to God's presence that is respectful both of God and others. We eschew hype and other efforts to manipulate either God's presence or the response of others to his presence. We distinguish between the Holy Spirit and the human response to the Holy Spirit, which shares in all the beauty and brokenness of our humanity. These, then, are the core values that draw us together as a movement. They are different aspects of the treasure buried in the field that is the Vineyard. The treasure, of course, is the kingdom of God embodied and brought forth by Jesus of Nazareth.

For more information on the Vineyard check out the VineyardUSA page here, or the international site here.

Thoughts on the Trinity

This Sunday we will be taking a look at Acts 2:1-41, were the Holy Spirit rushes (“like a mighty wind”) into the lives of some bewildered disciples of the ascended Christ. This moment would forever change the course of human history. The God of the universe has become available to humankind through Jesus Christ – and now the Holy Spirit. It will be helpful for us to consider the mystery, or paradox, of the Trinity…

Neither of the words “Trinity” nor “Tri-unity” appears in the Old or New Testaments, yet the concept has its basis in an understanding of scriptural teaching. Our English word “Trinity” is derived from Latin, “Trinitas,” meaning “the number three, a triad.”  This abstract noun is formed from the adjective trinus (three each, threefold, or triple),  -- just as the word unitas is the abstract noun formed from unus (one). The corresponding word in Greek means “a set of three” or “the number three.”

Tertullian, a Latin theologian of North African decent, who wrote in the early third century, is credited with first using the words “Trinity,”  “person,” and “substance”  to explain that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “one in essence – not one in Person.”

About a century later, in 325, the First Council of Nicaea established the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodoxy and adopted the Nicene Creed that described Christ as, “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

The concept of the Trinity was introduced by Jesus Christ himself,  in Matthew 28:19-20:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

Jesus not only defines the Trinity, but appears to indicate that there is one name that encompasses the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Timothy Keller in his remarkable book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism describes the inner workings of the Trinity as a dance into which we are invited. Imagine that – the God and Creator of the universe invites us into this dance of perfect unity and love. How could anyone resist such love? Keller says, “Christianity, alone among the world’s faiths, teaches that God is triune and the trinity means that God is, in essence, relational. That is why we were created, to be in a relationship and a community with God and that the ultimate end of creation is union in love between God and his loving creatures.” Keller goes on to say, “we were made to center our lives upon him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting and resembling him. This is the dance of God, and we lost the dance when we became stationary, self-centered, self-absorbed and consumed with the “endless, unsmiling concentration on our needs, wants, treatment, ego, and record.” But Christ died for us and in his dying, invited us back into the dance. And if we accept the invitation, we can put our lives on a whole new foundation, making him the center and stop trying to be our own Savior and Lord.”

Finally, in his resent book, Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne states that, “community is what we are created for. We are made in the image of God who is community, a plurality of oneness. When the first human was made, things were not good until there were two, helping one another. The biblical story is the story of community” (pg 134).

For a more scholarly yet conversant treatment of the Trinity, read Jonathan Edwards’ unpublished essay on the Trinity. You can find it here.

The pic above is entitled, The Holy Trinity (The Hospitality of Abraham) and is a famous icon by the Russian artist, Andrei Rublev c. 1360-1430.  Icon is a Greek word that means “image.” Throughout Christian history, especially during the time when literacy was not an opportunity for all, icons were used to teach or inspire common people telling the stories of the faith. To watch a clip of how and why icons are made click here.

Celebrating SHAVUOT (or Pentecost)

This Sunday we will be studying Acts 2:1-40. Here's a bit of back ground...

There are three major festivals of Israel on the sacred calendar of to be observed as "a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings." (Leviticus 23:14, 21, 41; Deuteronomy 16:16,17)

They are:

1. Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread
2. The Feast of Weeks - also called "Pentecost," a Greek translation of the Hebrew words meaning, the "fiftieth day" when the Festival was celebrated (Lev. 23:15,16).
3. Feast of Tabernacles

Passover marked the first spring harvest. The first fruits of a sheaf or "omer" of barley was required by the Torah to be presented before the LORD in the House of God, as a thanksgiving "wave offering." (Lev. 23:10,11)

From the next day, seven weeks or forty-nine days were counted to wheat harvest. (Lev. 23:10:11)

On the "fiftieth day" - "Pentecost" or "Shavuot" - another harvest thanksgiving service was observed in the House of God. This time, from the firstfruits of wheat harvest, "two loaves of bread baked with leaven were waved before the LORD," in the act of thanksgiving." (Lev. 23:16-20). These three festivals marked Israel's history in the process of their redemption. These festivals were also prophetic and typological of the greater redemption which would come through Jesus Christ the Messiah.

  Below is a dramatic scripture reading of the Pentecost story from Acts 2 from The Message. It's almost 3 minutes...

The Ascension of Jesus

The pic is The Ascension by Rembrandt (1636).

The ascension of Jesus is the final component of the 5-fold Christ Event, which also includes the virgin birth, miraculous ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Christ Event established the kingdom of God on the earth – and the kingdom will be consummated at Christ’s second coming. You and I live in the in-between time. This is a very important theological perspective and a Vineyard core value. More Sunday…

We won’t be spending too much time on this Sunday, so I thought I’d offer this article from Theopedia…

Also known as the exaltation of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus is well attested in the New Testament. It describes Jesus' ascent upward into heaven after spending 40 days on the earth. The ascension takes place after his resurrection (John 20:17; Acts 1:3). Luke gives the best account, stating that "he left them and was taken up into heaven" (Luke 24:51). In Acts Luke adds that, "...he was taken up to heaven" (Acts 1:2) and that, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). When Jesus actually ascended, "he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight" (Acts 1:9).

Most references in Scripture speak of Jesus' ascended status and do not actually mention how he came to be in heaven. These passages speak more of Jesus' "exalted state", that is, his present status in heaven after the experience of his ascension. Most notably is the quotation of Psalm 110:1, “sitting at the right hand of God.” This is the most quoted OT text in the NT. Mark places the use of this Psalm in the very teachings of Jesus (Mark 12:35-37; 14:62). Furthermore, Paul gives reference to Jesus' exalted state in Philippians 2:8-11, stating in verses 9-11 that "...God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Elsewhere, Paul makes reference to Christ being "taken up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). Other passages attest the very same about Jesus and give suggestion to his ascension into heaven (cf. John 6:62, 13:1-3, 16:5 & 28, 20:17; Acts 2:32-33; Hebrews 4:14, 9:24; 1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 1:12-18, 3:21).

Being Intentional About Growing

As summer runs its course and the school year starts here are some questions that will help each one of us to consider how to best spend our time…

1. What weekly commitments do I find replenishing and which do I find depleting?
2. What do I need to stop doing?
3. Whose approval means the most to me? Why?
4. Are my priorities honoring my life in Christ? If Jesus was living my life, would he commit himself to the same weekly things I am?
5. I know spiritual growth doesn't just happen- so, how am I going to intentionally invest in my spiritual growth this year?
6. How and when am I going to spend time with my family or closest friends each week this year?
7. Who will mentor me this year?
8. Who will I mentor this year?
9. Who am I going to “do life” with this year? (a community question)
10. How and when will I exercise in order to stay, or get, physically fit this year?
11. How will I grow stronger in Christ & stay closely connected to his family, this year?

Some thoughts on growing stronger in Christ this school year:

1. Regular time with God reading the Scriptures and continuing to learn how to listen.
2. A regular time with same-sex friends sharing and supporting each other.
3. A weekly time with my church family worshiping God together on Sundays.
4. A regular weekly time volunteering and serving others.

May God lead you to set your priorities and schedule your life in ways that bring glory and honor to His name!

Why Study Acts?

The picture above is the Cenacle, or "Upper Room," and is the last standing portion of a Byzantine and Crusader Church ("Hagia Sion") heir to the primitive Apostolic Church (Acts 2-15). The Last Supper (Lk 22:7-38), the gathering place for the 120 (Acts 1:13), and the and Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13).

This Sunday we begin our study of the Book of Acts. There is a study-guide available for download. The intro to Acts and three studies of the first two chapters can be found on our website - click here. We will be adding to the study-guide in coming days and weeks. With the study guide I'm hoping to get as many people as possible to follow along during the series - and to make it easier for small groups to follow - and to encourage potential small group facilitators to step-up and start a group.

So, this begs the question: Why study Acts? Here's three quick reasons...

• To take a fresh look at the establishment of God’s kingdom and spread of the early church. (In his book, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, Alan Hirsch calculates that the early church grew from 25,000 in 100AD to about 20,000,000 by 310AD!)
• To examine the holy passions and their out-workings which marked that church
• To consider how these might relate to our church situation today.

 John Piper (pastor, author, and theologian) sums up the purpose of Acts well - he says,

"More and more I believe that this book is in the NT to prevent the church from coasting to a standstill and entering a maintenance mode with all the inner wheels working but going nowhere, out-reaching into no new people groups or seeing no new ventures or no new exploits for the kingdom. The Book of Acts is a constant indictment of mere maintenance Christianity. It's a constant goad and encouragement and stimulation to fan the flame of our part in God’s purpose - "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10).

This Sunday I'd like to engage in a bit of what I call "sanctified conjecture." Are there clues to what went on during those 10 days the 120 disciples spent in the upper room?  I think there are. Additionally, there's a phrase in Acts 1 (and used throughout the book) that has really lost its meaning in our English translation. These, and other thoughts, will have an impact on what Acts 2:1 actually means: "And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place."

Following are some themes that we will be paying attention to in the coming weeks:

1. The work of the Holy Spirit  
2. The missional witness of the church
3. The expansion of the kingdom of God
4. Spiritual Gifts 
5. Spiritual Formation
6. Church leadership 
7. Church polity (or government) 
8. The transition from a Jewish church to a Gentile church

Discipleship is Evangelism

This is from a series of articles by S. Michael Craven, a Christian Post guest columnist. He makes some excellent points regarding the implications of the gospel of the kingdom - which we will be looking at in our study of Acts. It's time to get back to the basics - authentic kingdom must include BOTH the words and the works of Jesus...

Thus far in my series on reevangelizing the church I have addressed the problem of gospel reductionism, a condition that has reduced the gospel to nothing more than the privatized plan of salvation. In response, I have sought to recover the broader historical understanding and implications of the gospel of the kingdom and, in light of this, explain how the church should best express this gospel. I have offered a threefold approach for expressing the gospel of the kingdom that is drawn from Scripture:

1. I have written that the church must first manifest this good news of the kingdom by demonstrating what life looks like under the reign of God within a distinct community: the church, a community characterized by its radical love for one another (see John 13:34, 35; John 17). 
2. Second, this unique community manifests the gospel by serving the world through acts of service, compassion, and mercy, working to reverse and/or mitigate the effects of sin (see Matt. 5:16, 22:39; Eph. 2:10; James 2:14–26).
3. I now turn to the third and final aspect: proclamation of the gospel. How and what do we tell others about Jesus and this kingdom that has come into the world? The modern approach to this question seems to have gravitated, almost exclusively, toward highly simplistic and formulaic expressions of the gospel story. What I mean is that we have tried to condense the gospel to the most basic “facts” about Jesus, formulate simplistic mediums or tools for the conveyance of these facts, and then send folks out among strangers in an organized and frequently impersonal fashion.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the Lord can’t use these means to accomplish his ends. He can and often does. However, the commission that we were given by Jesus (and that which we should take as our guide) was to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19, 20, ESV). Clearly, the process of making disciples involves more than simply sharing some propositions about Jesus.

To read the whole article click here.

The Nines - An Online Leadership Conference

Check it out...Leadership Network asked some of the church's best communicators: "If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of people, what is the one thing that you would tell them? (It's free.)


The Nines from Todd Rhoades on Vimeo.

Rendering to Caesar, Surrendering to God

I’ve been rereading Resident Aliens. It’s a difficult and challenging read – tough words are spoken to the Western Church.  Recently I came across this article from The Center of Christian Ethics at Baylor University (2003) by Keith Putt.

It’s a review of two books -- Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989; 175 pp.) and Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in a Fallen World by Robert P. Kraynak (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001, 334 pp.)

Putt says: We cannot reduce Christian faithfulness to any political, cultural, or social program, since inevitably these fail to realize fully God’s justice, grace, and promise. How should the church maintain its prophetic, alien voice in our culture, given society’s significant commitment to liberal, capitalist democracy? 

We must be wary of allying Christian faith too intimately with culture and politics. Our faithfulness should not be reduced to any particular political, cultural, or social program, since inevitably these will fail to realize fully God’s justice, grace, and promise. As Christians we perennially struggle with the tension between relevance and identity. Christ placed the church in the world and commissioned it to go forth into the world in order to disseminate the good news of salvation; consequently, the church must strive to be relevant to whatever culture it inhabits so as to gain a hearing and, thereby, fulfill Christ’s mission. Yet, in the need for relevancy, the church must never compromise its identity; it must distinguish itself as different from the world for the purpose of maintaining a prophetic or critical edge. For how can the church denounce any evil, violence, or oppression resident in society, if it is so immersed in the secular that its voice sounds like every other worldly voice? How can the church speak against sin, if it partners with those earthly principalities and powers that propagate sin?

To read the entire article click here.

Nurturing Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love on nurturing creativity. She makes a good case for the idea that greatness comes from without and not from within - and the idea of just showing up. While I haven't read the book and don't know the details of her belief system (click here to go to an elegantly stated critique of her book), I do think we can learn from her passion and authenticity. (FYI, it's an 18 minute video.) I would like us to be to be able learn from others about the important issues of our day and always be willing to ask the questions:  What is redemptive?  And, How will this help me to contextualize God's good news in my current cultural context?

Finally, I'm a HUGE fan of the TED talks. It began in 1984 as a conference bringing people together from three worlds: technology, entertainment, and design. Since then its scope has become ever broader, bringing together some of the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Check it out here.