I don't normally write reviews, and this really isn't one... more of an interaction perhaps. But before, I do, I will give a wee bit of background Two months ago, I found the book Embracing Shared Ministry: Power and Status in the Early Church and Why It Matters Today by Joseph H. Hellerman. I found …
Continue reading “Embracing Shared Ministry”– a Review of Sorts
I have made a few changes/updates to an old presentation... so here it is for you consideration.
Doodling a bit with the role of Missionaries. I am generally unhappy with most common definitions for missionaries. Many of the definitions seem to do little more than promote a certain bias, rather than inform. Unfortunately, because my way of thinking about missionaries, and missions generally, is rather broad, my view of both terms can …
http://www.themissionsblog.org/14-worst-types-of-missionary-newsletters/ I have been guilty of several of these at one time or another. Frankly, the article makes me feel good that I don't struggle alone. However... a bad newsletter sucks the life out of the excitement of God's work in the world... so, it still is not excusable.
How does one do interfaith dialoguing? From the John Hick camp comes the idea that both must relativize their own beliefs. That is difficult to do in practice, and hardly seems appropriate for many--- suggesting a sort of virtue in weak convictions. A better, in my mind, view comes from an article (written in Afrikaans, …
My students were doing presentations for Missionary Member Care Class. One, Michael, was presenting the findings of ReMAP... a study of (Christian) missionary attrition. All of my students come from New Sending Countries (2/3 World) from the standpoint of the ReMAP study. When one looks at reasons for attrition of missionaries from Old Sending Countries …
Some Americans should never be allowed to leave the country… Source: Turbulence — Medium
Been teaching a class on Missionary Member Care. I have enjoyed it--- I make no promise that my 12 students share that opinion. After the student group presentation of Missionary Member Care in the light of the Carey Mission (especially as it relates to William Carey, John Thomas, Dorothy Carey, and Felix Carey), we had …
Been doing various presentations/seminars on Kintsukuroi (golden repair) as a metaphor of being beautifully broken. I expanded this to include other images of "holy defect" the idea that God does NOT desire in us some unattainable, and frankly unidentifiable, perfection. Rather, God's glory is demonstrated most, and we are most effective ministerially, with demonstration of …
Defects are not always bad. Defects, after all, simply are things that show variance from someone's idea of perfection. But perfection is not only unattainable... it is also unidentifiable. Plato's idealized forms don't really exist... here or anywhere else. But what do I mean by "Holy Defect." This doesn't mean "defective holiness." Rather, I am …