A Quirky and Vibrant Mosaic - CTM june 2005
A Quirky and Vibrant Mosaic - Christianity Today Magazine: "The British historian David Bebbington suggests this overall summary of evangelical distinctives:
Conversionism: the belief that lives need to be transformed through a 'born again' experience.
Activism: the expression of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts.
Biblicism: a particular regard for the Bible as the ultimate authority.
Crucicentrism: a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross as making possible the redemption of humanity.
Under this overarching description, Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Orthodox can be evangelicals even while remaining within denominational structures that might shirk the term. The National Association of Evangelicals bars denominations that are members of the National Council of Churches, and yet many of those denominations have constituents who gladly call themselves evangelicals."
How Churchdiscipline died
How Discipline Died - Christianity Today Magazine: "The Protestant reformers named three 'marks by which the true church is known': the preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline to correct faults. Today, church discipline is feared as the mark of a false church, bringing to mind images of witch trials, scarlet letters, public humiliations, and damning excommunications. Does discipline itself need correction and redemption in order to be readmitted into the body of Christ? We have asked several experts from different (and sometimes contrasting) professional and theological backgrounds to explain how church discipline fell into disrepair and how it can be revived, so that the true church can fully embody the pure doctrine of the gospel once again"
Stats on megachurches, Billy Graham, and doctors' faith: Go fugure
Go Figure - Christianity Today Magazine: "
1,200 Protestant megachurches (congregations with weekly attendance above 2,000) in America.
.03 Percentage of American congregations that are megachurches.
1 in 6 Americans who say they have heard Billy Graham preach in person.
1 in 20 Non-Christian Americans who have heard Graham in person.
76% American doctors who say they believe in God.
59% American doctors who say they believe in some sort of afterlife.
55% Doctors who say their beliefs influence how they practice medicine."
Twee pijlers voor een relevante kerk: Pijler 1: Worship; Pijler 2 Serve te Community
studieverlof: "De twee belangrijke pijlers bleken te zijn: ‘worship en serve the community. Het is niet met een enkel woord in het Nederlands te vertalen, maar het komt in de buurt van ‘aanbidding/viering/gebed �n de gemeenschap/samenleving (de buurt) dienen. In onze Kerk is er vaak een terughoudendheid als het gaat om aanbidding en gebed. In de parochies die wij bezochten benadrukte men telkens weer dat dit putten uit de Bron onmisbaar is. Wat ons ook in al die ontmoetingen duidelijk werd gemaakt is dat een (wijk-)gemeente die geen diaconaal-pastorale relatie (meer) heeft met de buurt of het stadsdeel waarin zij kerk mag zijn, weg schrompelt. Diaconaal-missionair bezig zijn is voor de kerk niet iets erbij, maar noodzaak vanuit haar wezen en opdracht. Ook in Londen zijn er voorbeelden van parochies die binnenkerkelijk de pot verteerden en uiteindelijk gesloten werden, maar er zijn ook voorbeelden - die wij zagen! - van parochies die met sluiting bedreigd werden, iets (in diaconale of missionaire zin) ondernamen en weer opbloeiden!
Meestal begon het in het klein: een asielzoeker, elke zondagmorgen dronken mensen in de kerktuin, daklozen, of hardwerkende kantoorbeambten tussen de middag op straat een rustig plekje zoekend, voor wie de gemeenschap iets voor zocht te betekenen. De diverse parochies waren op heel verschillende manieren kerk in de buurt geworden. In de chique en rijke buurt zagen wij een parochie die met kunst (galerie/concerten) en artistieke liturgie kerk voor de ‘rijken’ wil zijn. In een andere wijk bleek grote behoefte te bestaan aan dagopvang voor kinderen. In de kathedraal bood men o.a. schoolklassen en de vele toeristen een educatief programma christelijk geloof (traditie en cultuur). Asielzoekers en verslaafden noemde ik reeds. Vanuit de leiding van het bisdom worden locale initiatieven gestimuleerd en zo mogelijk pastores - geschikt voor zo’n speciale bediening - aan een dergelijke parochie verbonden. In die ‘rijke’ buurt was een zeer artistiek ‘priest’ aan de kerk verbonden, hij had jaren in de showbusiness gewerkt en wist dus van wanten. In de parochie met de asielzoekers was een voorganger met weer geheel andere gaven. Daarbij - zo hield men ons voor - aap elkaar niet na, je moet als parochie n�et iets willen doen omdat dit in een andere parochie zo goed aanslaat. Het gaat erom je eigen taak en gaven te ontdekken. Verwijs door naar andere parochies voor specifieke hulp. Zo ontstaat een netwerk van ‘gespecialiseerde’ parochies met eigen kleur en dienstbetoon."
Jezus als Heer in een plat land
studieverlof: "Vervolgens las ik het interessante boek van Stefan Paas: Jezus als Heer in een plat land. Hij stelt duidelijk dat missionair zijn geen hobby is, maar de kerk ertoe ‘geroepen’ is. Het hoort tot het proces van volwassenwording van de gemeente dat dit gaandeweg ontdekt wordt. In dit proces wordt ook duidelijk wat het eigene van die gemeenschap is, waarin het missionair sterke punt als een parel verborgen ligt en wacht ontdekt te worden. Het is voor ons in Vlaardingen van groot belang als wijkgemeentes ieder op zich én met elkaar dit missionaire leerproces aan te gaan!
De verbeelding van de kerk, op zoek naar een nieuw-missionaire ecclesiologie
studieverlof: "k las ook de dissertatie van Gerrit Jan van der Kolm: De verbeelding van de kerk, op zoek naar een nieuw-missionaire ecclesiologie (Boekencentrum 2001).
In zijn onderzoek heeft hij onder andere geleerd dat ‘t in het gesprek met ‘anderen’ noodzakelijk is om het eigen christelijke uitgangspunt helder aan te geven. Je geeft de ander daardoor de mogelijkheid erop te reageren. Het werkt verlammend voor een werkelijke interactie wanneer de ander niet goed weet waar jij staat. Missionair-gemeente zijn betekent in gesprek zijn met ‘anderen’, de mensen in het midden waarvan je met elkaar kerk bent.
Deze interactie met anderen in hun alledaagse werkelijkheid is essentieel voor de gemeente onderweg. In dit proces ontwikkelt zich de eigen identiteit, de anderen doen daarin dus indirect mee. Hierdoor ontstaan christelijke gemeenten met een eigen identiteit en daaraan groeien ook bestaande gemeenten. Kerk wordt geboren, groeit waar dit proces zich afspeelt."
Met anderen tot Christus: zending in een postmissionair tijdperk
studieverlof: "In het jaar 2000 schreef Bert Hoedemaker, hoogleraar Missiologie en Oecumenica, het spraakmakende boekje 'Met anderen tot Christus: zending in een postmissionair tijdperk.' Bij zending ging het meestal om ‘Christus bij anderen brengen’, Hoedemaker draait het om. Er is een grote verlegenheid ontstaan als het om zending gaat. Hoedemaker biedt een vernieuwd concept en laat zien dat wij in de ontmoeting met anderen (in onze verwarrende veelheid van culturen en religies) z�lf verrijkt worden, en daarin ook z�lf (en als Kerk) meer tot Christus komen. Het gesprek ‘met anderen’ dient dan ook hoog op de kerkelijke agenda te staan."
Uitgedaagd door de tijd
studieverlof: "In 'Uitgedaagd door de tijd, christelijke zending in een postmoderne samenleving'(Boekencentrum 2001), wordt helder gemaakt dat de zogenoemde postmoderne samenleving waarin we terecht komen zeker niet het einde voor de kerk betekent, integendeel juist veel nieuwe kansen biedt. Kerkvormen zijn altijd voor een belangrijk deel door de cultuur bepaald. In hoeverre vraagt een (ver-)andere(-nde) cultuur om andere vormen van kerk-zijn om missionair te kunnen zijn en blijven?
Het boek maakt duidelijk dat het strak georganiseerde geografisch bepaalde gemeente-model geen optie meer kan zijn. Wordt tot nu toe meeleven met andere (wijk)gemeentes oogluikend en misprijzend toegelaten, mondigheid, individualiteit en mobiliteit zijn kenmerken van de huidige cultuur en vragen om een eigentijdse kerkelijke pasvorm, dat wil zeggen: ruimte en respect voor de eigenheid van een geloofsgemeenschap."
Crafting a Message - Rick Warren
What is crafting a message?
CRAFT Step 1: Collect and Categorize
Success is the management of good ideas. Everybody has good ideas-the issue is what you do with them. Preachers must be in the habit of gathering materials and ideas for their messages. Learn four ways to collect material, including how to find relevant Bible Study verses, and how to create a simple system for collecting, filing, preserving, and retrieving information.
CRAFT Step 2: Research and Reflect
Researching is studying with your mind, the technical part of the sermon. Reflection is listening with your heart, the devotional part of the sermon. Discover resources to help you with your exegesis and learn six ways to meditate and what to do while you are meditating.
CRAFT Step 3: Apply and Arrange
The biggest question on person's mind when listening to a sermon is, 'how does this apply to me?' Application answers two questions: So What? And Now What? If your preaching does not answer these two questions, you are not leading your members toward application. Scripture should determine the substance of your message but the way people hear and learn should determine the style of your message. Learn the three ways to apply scripture, how to challenge the congregation and the individual, how to turn your messages from information to application, and nine ideas how to arrange a message outline for maximum impact.
CRAFT Step 4: Fashion and Flavor
How do you choose just the right words? The key is to become a wordsmith, one who is constantly looking at how specific words turn truth into applicable life-changing concepts. Learn about three 'flavor enhances' as well as how to season your messages with illustrations, quotes, humor, Video clips, testimonies, drama, and interviews.
CRAFT Step 5: Trim and Tie Together
There's an art to trimming content to make your messages most effective. Preaching is like flying a plane. The flight may be smooth but unless you know how to take off and land, you're in trouble. Learn how to cut content and tie together the introduction, conclusion, and transitions to the purpose of your message. You'll also learn new ways to make a call for commitment and how to give an invitation."
Welcoming the Stranger - Christianity Today Magazine
LET ALL GUESTS who arrive be received like Christ, for he is going to say, 'I came as a guest, and you received me.'
Rule of St. Benedict
A STORY said to originate in a Russian Orthodox monastery has an older monk telling a younger one: 'I have finally learned to accept people as they are. Whatever they are in the world, a prostitute, a prime minister, it is all the same to me. But sometimes I see a stranger coming up the road, and I say, 'Oh, Jesus Christ, is it you again?''
Kathleen Norris, Dakota
FOR THE LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who … defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 10:17-18
BE KIND, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
Philo of Alexandria, quoted in Dan Wakefield, How Do We Know When It's God?
TO OPEN UP and become sensitive to God's own mission could also mean that we begin to recognize the strangers as messengers, sent to us with a particular message, and that, therefore, before we dare preach to them we ought to listen to their stories.
Gerhard Hoffmanin in International Review of Mission
I BELIEVE we are still here to help men and women to learn to live as each other's guests. We are guests of this life. We are guests of this planet, and we are almost destroying it. … People should learn a new language, a new way of life, learn to be guests and let others be their guest.
George Steiner, literary critic, quoted in personal correspondence by humanitarian-aid executive Tom Getman
THE SCOPE of who it is that God means to invite to the feast, you see, is not ours to define. We are not put in charge of the guest list.
Don C. Skinner, A Passage through Sacred History
IN AN ERA when many of us feel that time is our scarcest resource, hospitality falters. … 'In a fast-food culture,' a wise Benedictine monk observes, 'you have to remind yourself that some things cannot be done quickly. Hospitality takes time.'
Dorothy C. Bass, Receiving the Day
THAT IS our vocation: to convert … the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
YOUR WHOLE LIFE through you … seek the face you've lost in strangers' faces.
Frederick Buechner, Godric
Welcoming the Stranger - Christianity Today Magazine: "Welcoming the Stranger
Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman |posted 02/22/2005 09:30 a.m.
Copyright � 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
March 2005, Vol. 49, No. 3, Page 74
"
Discovering God - Christianity Today Magazine
I AM GROWING accustomed to the grace of gradual illumination, so it is a delight and no real surprise when I see God's messages to me in the scattered rainbows on my wall at sunrise.
LUCI SHAW in Weavings
IF WE CANNOT see God in the commonalities that constitute daily life, we would not recognize Christ if he walked into the room and sat down beside us.
DON C. SKINNER, A Passage through Sacred History
GENERALIZATION is the death of art. It's in the details where God resides.
ARTHUR MILLER, quoted in Frances M. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture
THE ONE WHO IS going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and (lifting up his own mind, as to a mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible) believe that the divine is there where the understanding does not reach.
GREGORY OF NYSSA, The Life of Moses
GOD, OF YOUR GOODNESS, give me yourself, for you are enough for me, and I can ask nothing less which can pay you full worship. And if I ask anything less, always I am in want, but only in you do I have everything.
JULIAN OF NORWICH, Showings
LAST NIGHT in the wee hours a thought came to me, to trust God beyond my own understanding of God. … The very next day and the day after I shared the thought with the young people I was teaching, and then I shared it with two friends my own age, and one said to trust God beyond our own understanding is what is required of us in dying, for our own understanding cannot penetrate the veil of death.
JOHN S. DUNNE, A Journey with God in Time: A Spiritual Quest
I WILL ALWAYS regard it as an example of God's great mercy and inexhaustible creativity that so unpromising a creature [as I] might begin to turn her life to the good. And not only that: the very things that had gotten me into such irredeemable messes were the instruments of my conversion.
KATHLEEN NORRIS, The Virgin of Bennington
THE GOSPEL message says: 'You don't live in a mechanistic world ruled by necessity; you don't live in a random world ruled by chance; you live in a world ruled by the God of Exodus and Easter. He will do things in you that neither you nor your friends would have supposed possible. …'
EUGENE H. PETERSON, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work
'YOU DON'T have to prove anything,' my mother said. 'Just be ready for what God sends.'
WILLIAM STAFFORD, from poem Are You Mr. William Stafford?
Discovering God - Christianity Today Magazine: "Discovering God
Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind.
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman | posted 04/07/2005 09:00 a.m.
Copyright � 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
April 2005, Vol. 49, No. 4, Page 92"
Faith and Freedom - Quotes
THE CHURCH must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, never its tool.
Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
CONGRESS SHALL make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …
U.S. Constitution, First Amendment
WE COULDN'T GET the First Amendment passed today, especially the freedom of religion clause.
Charles Overby, speech to Associated Church Press (April 25, 2005)
THE CONSTITUTION guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, speech to Detroit church (August 28, 2000)
IS IT NOT TRUE that persecution against persons exercising their liberty of conscience reduces the honor of God? Does it not also defile the Christian religion, violate the authority of Scripture, and go against the principles of common reason? Finally, does it not destroy the well-being of government itself?
William Penn, The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience
WE MUST obey God rather than human authority.
Peter, Acts 5:29b
DEPRIVED as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now … behold a government erected by the majesty of the people—a government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance.
Moses Seixas, president of the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, in a 1790 letter to President George Washington
I DON'T WANT to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.
Billy Graham in Parade (1981)
THE SEPARATION of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. In fact, America's social fabric depends on such values and vision to shape our politics—a dependence the founders recognized. … God is always personal, but never private.
Jim Wallis, God's Politics
THAT CANNOT be a true religion which needs carnal weapons to uphold it.
Roger Williams, The Bloody Tenet of Persecution
Faith and Freedom - Christianity Today Magazine: "Faith and Freedom
Quotations to stir the heart and mind.
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman | posted 07/11/2005 09:30 a.m.
Copyright � 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
July 2005, Vol. 49, No. 7, Page 48"
The Jesus Creed
We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.
He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.
He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit.
We have confidence in Jesus
Who taught in word and example,
Sign and wonder.
He preached parables of the kingdom of God
On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,
At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,
By day and by night.
He taught the way of love for God and neighbor,
For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.
We have confidence in Jesus,
Who called disciples, led them,
Gave them new names and new purpose
And sent them out to preach good news.
He washed their feet as a servant.
He walked with them, ate with them,
Called them friends,
Rebuked them, encouraged them,
Promised to leave and then return,
And promised to be with them always.
He taught them to pray.
He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,
Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,
Wept in a garden,
And prayed, “Not my will but your will be done.”
He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.
We have confidence in Jesus,
So we follow him, learn his ways,
Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.
We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,
As a branch in a vine.
We have not seen him, but we love him.
His words are to us words of life eternal,
And to know him is to know the true and living God.
We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.
Amen.
Brian McLaren: The Jesus Creed: "The Jesus Creed
U2 - song: Love And Peace Or Else
Lay down
Lay down
Lay your sweet lovely on the ground
Lay your love on the track
We're gonna break the monster's back
Yes we are...
Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother
You don't have time
For a jealous lover
I don't know if I can take it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart you can break it
I need some release, release, release
We need
Love and peace
Love and peace
Lay down
Lay down your guns
All your daughters of Zion
All your Abraham sons
I don't know if I can make it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart and you can break it
I need some release, release, release
We need
Love and peace
Love and peace
Baby don't fight
We can talk this thing through
It's not a big problem
It's just me and you
You can call or I'll phone
The TV is still on
But the sound is turned down
And the troops on the ground
Are about to dig in
And I wonder where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Love and peace
Ontspan...
If you want to last over the long haul of ministry, you have to learn how to recharge yourself spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally.
Here's an easy formula to remember:
- Divert daily,
- withdraw weekly,
- abandon annually.
Know what relaxes you and what recharges you -- and do it."
Rick Warren
