I have a couple of acquaintances (truthfully, not close to me). One of them is an Evangelical Christian who is dabbling in a neo-pagan religion. The other, also an Evangelical Christian, is already decided to join a classic doomsday-type authoritarian cult. Christian Missions is, of course, more focused on bringing those outside of the fold …
Month: May 2013
The Joy of Being Understood
I have been teaching a two-week course on Missionary Member Care. That is a broad topic and can focus on logistics, or life cycle, or fund-raising, or whatever. However, in part since I am an administrator of a Counseling Center, I have focused on the psycho-emotio-spiritual aspects or struggles in missions. One assignment I gave …
Religious Exoticism and Human Need
I have noticed, as I am sure almost everyone else has noticed at times, that there are people who will suddenly latch onto some odd religious group. When I say "odd" I mean one that is greatly divergent from the common faith system in a region. Sometimes, I think this is religious exoticism. That is, …
Biblical Maternal Images for God
This article discusses the use of Feminine or Maternal images or metaphors for God. Many get uncomfortable with this. For me, I think we need to separate between metaphors that help us understand something about God, and the potential reification of such symbols. The "Goddess Worship" cults that are on the periphery of Christianity seems …
Parable: The Recycling God.
Jonah and Barnabas had been attending church for several weeks together. Barnabas has been an active part of the church, while Jonah was a relatively young believer... although he was in fact fairly old. Barnabas had rightly gained a reputation as one who was effective in discipling new believers. Jonah certainly exhibited rough traits that …
A Disorganized Faith, and Primal Christianity
“In 1832-33, when the ship the Beagle anchored off the coast of the Argentine Patagonia, Charles Darwin, the eminent biologist, observed for a period the indigenous peoples and concluded that they had no religious impulses. His reasoning was simple. The Patagonians manifested no apparent religious patterns, they practiced no visible or regular religious rites, they …
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Evangelism thoughts: “Savior Salvation” and “Fallen from Grace”
Apparently (unless something changes), I am going to be teaching a class in Evangelism at seminary. It seems strange that I would do this, since I am invariably awkward when I do evangelism. I suppose part of it is that I like to dwell on the complexities and paradoxes in life (including salvation). This interest …
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