Summer reading notes

While on a short break from school and the craziness of ministry life, I thought I’d focus my posts during the next couple months on quotes from various books that I’ve been wanting to read and just now have the time to do so. One of those books is Confident Witness, Changing World: Rediscovering the Gospel in North America, a collection of essays edited by Craig Van Gelder, Professor of Congregational Mission at Luther Seminary. 

This is a quote about the church from Douglas Hall’s essay titled Metamorphosis: From Christendom to Diaspora. Speaking of the reality of the North American church’s outdated identity and structure, Hall states:

We need to learn a critical and constructive theology of the church that is based on the character of Scripture and informed by the Holy Spirit, in contrast to one that is entrenched in the ecclesial conventions of Christendom. 

Where is it written that the church must be a majority? Where are we told that the dignity, order, and authority of the corpus Christi can only be maintained if the church mirrors, in its internal structure and its mission, the accepted patterns of its host culture. Where, in our biblical charter, does it stand written that the Christian religion, being the only true one, must displace and repel every other claim to truth and goodness, and get the whole human populace onto its registry.

We have been giving to God what belongs to Caesar! We have been reading our scriptures with Constantinian eyes! We have made much of the so-called Great Commission, but little of the characteristic metaphors by which our Lord described his “little flock” (Luke 12:32). And we have made almost nothing at all of his question whether, upon his return, any faith would be found on earth (Luke 18:8). We have isolated and grossly exaggerated all the triumphal language of the Bible, and have paid little attention to the fact that the cross is the center of our faith where it ought to condition the whole of our ecclesiology.

Wow! I find this quote radically eye-opening. The Church has too long been condition by the ways of a now-defunct Christendom world (one where the church sought to maintain its legitimacy and majority influence in society). I think Hall is here serving as a prophet to us today.

Filed under: Church, Theology

Hebrew and character formation

Spring quarter is now over. Three more classes down, way too many to list yet to go. What is both exciting and saddening is that I am now done with Hebrew coursework (after 9 months of intensive study). I recently spent time reflecting on how the study of the language of the Old Testament has influenced the formation of my character.  This is what I came up with:

What I must first affirm is that the actual exposure to the Scriptural text, oftentimes more robust in meaning in the original language, brings about a transformation that no doubt shapes character. However, equally impactful for me is how the study of Hebrew offers me a constant reminder of the great weight of handling the inspired Word of God. Since beginning this course, I have often been reminded of a few verses from the New Testament:

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1 NIV).

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV).

The task of shepherding the people of God through the ministry of teaching and equipping is indeed a weighty one. So, as I engaged in the study of Hebrew, I constantly asked God to grant me a heart of deep passion and eager willingness to submit to Him. I often asked Him to allow my character to “keep pace” with what I am learning in the original language. I was reminded of how blessed I am to learn the language and now feel a nearly immediate instinct to share what I learn with others. Yet when I consider sharing with others, another instinct rises to the surface: to check where I am in my journey to know and experience the God revealed through the medium of language.

Filed under: Life, School

Missional character of the early church

For a term paper in my History of Christian Mission course, I am studying the missional nature of the Church before the reign of Emperor Constantine (272-337), whose decision to legalize Christianity drastically altered the primitive and pure faith of the early church. Here are a few quotes I think speak to how the first Christians understood the faith and their mission as followers of Jesus.

Eusebius, the great Church historian, who lived from 263-339, wrote:

Then did they show themselves to the heathen in the clearest light. For the Christians were the only people who amid such terrible ills showed their fellow-feeling and humanity in their actions. Day by day some would busy themselves with attending to the dead and burying them; others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the city, and gave bread to them all.

Lucian, a Greek satirist and writer, who lived from circa 125-180, wrote this:

It is incredible to see the ardor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator (Jesus) has put into their heads that they are all brethren.

What might we learn from our ancestors? Their compassion for others is simply a “given.” No need for powerful, guilt-producing sermons from the podium. No “hunger awareness week” on their church calendar. No visit and lecture from a social justice expert. No outsourcing the work of mercy to experts. No division between gospel and social action. 

None of that. Instead, just plain-old obedience to Jesus’ command to love others before self.

Filed under: Church, Mission

Giving it all away in May

Storyville Coffee is donating all its revenue in the month of May up to $1,000,000 (yes, that is one million) to International Justice Mission. IJM rescues people victimized by modern-day slavery and restores the broken public justice structures that perpetuate this atrocity. Why would they do such a thing, especially in light of our strained economy? Here is the answer they provide on their site:

“At Storyville, coffee is about a ritual that gives us time to think, create, and dream. As we dream, we think of all those who can’t.”

So here’s what you can do:

1. Go to the Storyville website linked here. 
2. Buy a half-pound of coffee for $13.99 (includes shipping to your house).
3. Forward this post to a few of your friends so they can help.

Filed under: Justice, Life

A Good Friday prayer

Here are two portions of a powerful prayer written in 1968 by the late Henri Nouwen. I pray you’d spend a few moments today reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus for His creation and His people.

I look at your dead body on the cross. The soldiers, who have broken the legs of the two men crucified with you, do not break your legs, but one of them pierces your side with a lance, and immediately blood and water flow out. Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out. There, human and divine love have kissed, and there God and all men and women of history are reconciled. All the tears of the human race have been cried there, all pain understood and all despair touched. Together with all people of all times, I look up to you whom they have pierced, and I gradually come to know what it means to be part of your body and your blood, what it means to be human.

As I look, my eyes begin to recognize the anguish and agony of all the people for whom you gave yourself. Your broken heart becomes the heart of all of humanity, the heart of all the world. You carry them all: abandoned children, rejected wives and husbands, broken families, the homeless, refugees, prisoners, the maimed and tortured, and the thousands, yes millions, who are unloved, forgotten and left alone to die. I see their emaciated bodies, their despairing faces, their anguished looks. I see them all there, where your body is pierced and your heart is ripped apart. O compassionate Lord, your heart is broken because of all the love that is not given or received.

Filed under: Life

Did the resurrection really happen?

Filed under: Church

Audio from Ecclesia Gathering

A month ago I wrote about the Ecclesia National Gathering in Washington, DC. Though I haven’t been to many conferences, it ranks as the best I’ve ever attended. What I appreciated most was that it combined the best of the academic world with innovative and experienced church planters and pastors. Represented were men and women sincerely concerned for the future of the church in an increasingly post-Christian America and who believe strongly that the answers to our declining influence are not to be found in the arena of technique or style (better methods of attracting people). The way forward, instead, must originate in a theological shift in our understanding of the church, wherein the Kingdom of God and the Mission of God are paramount. 

I strongly urge you to visit the Ecclesia site and listen (for free) to the main session teachings. If you only listen to one, I would suggest Session 5 by Dr. Darrell Guder. In this lecture he unpacks the meaning and theology behind the word “missional.” Since the site does not provide them, I am including the session titles below. I hope this helps you choose which ones you’d like to listen to. 

1. Engaging: Missionary Strategies Then & Now
2. Organizing: Structures for Incarnational Church
3. Challenges: Barriers to Mission in the Western Context
4. Leadership: Guiding Missional Movements
5. Sending: Releasing the Lay Apostolate
6. Communication: Hearing the Good News in Context
7. Scripture: A Missional Hermeneutic

Filed under: Church, Mission, Theology