Thesis: Vision from the top. Round 3. The Bible is all about vision from the top. God spoke to Moses, and protected him from others that sought to impose their own visions. God sets up and takes down kings. God speaks to the prophets. The people are supposed to submit to authority in both church …
Month: September 2013
Visions and Missions, Part 1 of 2
<Note: I am using a looser definition of "vision" than some would like. I am not assuming vision necessarily means "vision from God." After all, those of us on the outside of the experience cannot say for sure that a positive view of the future is from God, or self or somewhere else.> No, despite …
Some Thoughts on Culture, Communication, and Missions. Part 4
Taking the ideas of Part 1 through 3 further (see links below), I would like to extend it to Incarnational Missions. See the figure below (Figure 6) Figure 6. Incarnational Missions Modification In this case N, S, and C stay the same (natural world, society, and culture respectively). P again is the people group in …
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What do you have going for you?
I used to be big on Spiritual Gifts. I got training in them, read books on them, and led training on them. I have kind of dumped that to a large extent. Reasons? 1. So much of doctrine of Spiritual Gifts is simply made up. How many spiritual gifts are there? When do you get …
Contextualized Local Theology Quote
"Theology is always done with a 'backpack.' In this backpack we find all the things that our family and friends, our culture and tradition, our training and experience have packed for us. We have packed only a few things ourselves. We hardly know about all the things we carry. No question: it is a mess. …
Three Views of Missions
I love teaching Missions. As a missions professor, I don't have to be an expert in Biblical Studies. I don't have to be an expert in Theology. That's a shame since Missions should have strong Biblical and Theological underpinnings. Still, it is a bit freeing that expectations of others is low in these areas. Additionally, …
Don’t Pay Back… Pay Forward.
Suppose I needed to contact people but I had no load on my phone. It's a problem because it is an emergency. Perhaps someone would come by and share a load with me, or give me money to get a phone card. I would be grateful but now I am in debt. So I offer …
Habakkuk and Faith Community Accountability
I really like the Book of Habakkuk... a book that is hardly known by many Bible readers. For those who don't know, here is a very loose paraphrase of the book in conversant form: Habbakuk: "God. I keep praying and praying, but you don't listen. Your people are living lives of violence and injustice. When …
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