I rather liked the chart in Patrick Johnstone's book "The Church is Bigger than you Think: The Unfinished Work of World Evangelization." The chart shows the major mission movements from the beginning of the church age until the 21st century. Curiously, I couldn't find ANYTHING on the Internet that was remotely useful in this area. …
Year: 2014
The Most Common Factor in Declining Churches
The Most Common Factor in Declining Churches.
Missions History of the East– Can These Bones Live?
Occasionally I get to teach Missions History, and one time I was able to teach Church History. As I reflect on these topics, I am struck again by the shocking lack of respect given to the missions movement(s) of the Eastern Church in the first millennium (primarily) and to a lesser extent in the second …
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Kintsukuroi Faith: Beautifully Broken. Part 2
You may want to look at Part 1 of this Post Pottery is big in the Bible. No surprise since pottery was highly useful (as it is now) and was pretty high tech. Having taken a class in high temperature materials back in my mechanical engineering days, I can confirm that pottery-making/ceramics is still high-tech. …
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Kintsukuroi Faith: Beautifully Broken. Part I
Kintsukuroi is a Japenese word for "Golden Repair." It is related to another Japanese term,Kintsugi ("Golden joinery"). It refers to pottery repair. The repair has two purposes: a. To restore something that is both physically and functionally broken. b. To increase beauty by enhancing the break lines rather than seeking to hid them. Before applying …
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“The Customs of Heaven” Quote of James Martineau
"The universe, open to the eye to-day, looks as it did a thousand years ago: and the morning hymn of Milton does but tell the beauty with which our own familiar sun dressed the earliest fields and gardens of the world. We see what all our fathers saw. And if we cannot find God in …
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The Devil and the First Church of Job’s Friends
The Philippines gets bombarded with all sorts of theories as to what is “Christian” when it comes to psychology, pastoral care, and counseling. In truth, anybody from the West (or East) with the ability to make words with their mouth eventually comes to the Philippines to share their lack of insight with others. During the …
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Learning Nothing from the Past in Three Beautiful Ways
I will be teaching "History of Missions" again this coming term at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary (www.pbts.net.ph). It is one of my favorite classes. I have yet to figure out how to get my students to share that interest. I don't really want to fall into the "just show another video" mode. This uninteresting fact …
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Dale Carnegie and the Gospel
My dad used to like to say "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." This bit of wisdom is something lost on Christians often. It seems to me that many of us have been seduced by the false promises of argument. My son, Joel, was on the debate team at …
Theostorying: Reflecting on my Reflections
I wrote a little book called "Theo-storying: Reflections on God, Narrative, and Culture." It wasn't for formal publication. It was just an exercise in my own theological reflections. I put it up on this site (under "My Books") and on Scribd. I reread it in the last couple of days and was pleasantly surprised that …