When I was young, David was a larger-than-life character in the Bible-- the killer of lion, bear, giant, and "his ten thousands." He was a shepherd boy who became a king, and "the writer of the Psalms." But then came a time of reassessment. Much of the Biblical record of David's later life was pretty …
Month: May 2017
HCICD — Holistic Church-Initiated Comdev
Years ago when I was looking into a topic for my dissertation, I wanted to study, utilizing grounded theory, HOLISTIC CHURCH-INITIATED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, in the Philippines. In the end, I dropped it. I switched to studying Christian medical missions events here in the Philippines. The main reason for this was that I had trouble finding …
Can a Really Committed Missionary Burn Out?
"Burn Out" (or "Burnout" if you prefer) is a common problem for ministers-- often leading to them either DROPPING OUT or ACTING OUT. As to the question above, the answer given by Ronald Kotesky (www.missionarycare.com), a Member Care Consultant for missionaries, seems more than adequate. Actually it can be found in his brochure, "What Missionaries …
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What Cognitive Science Teaches about Contextualization
Article by Jackson Wu, referencing John Sanders book "Theology in the Flesh." “Cognitive science” and “contextualization” –– two things that sound complicated but shape everything we do in ministry. In Theology in the Flesh, John Sanders explains the concept of “framing” with this sentence: “We never open our presents until the morning.” For most Americans, …
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Addiction and Abuse Cycles
Sometimes it is fun to try to connect together two things that appear a bit similar, I was thinking about two cycles: Addiction Cycle and Abuse Cycle. I don't know whether the connection makes sense, but I find it useful to think about at least. The following is the classic Addiction Cycle. A person feels …
Contextualized Evangelical Theology?
How does one contextualize theology while still being Evangelical. I struggle with this a bit. On one side, I believe that good context theology must have two invariants: (1) It must be true to God's revelation. (2) It must be relevant to the culture it is meant to be contextualized to. The failure to meet …
Five Marks of Mission
I was looking at the Five Marks of Mission (of the Anglican Communion) as well as Five Purposes of Church, as described by Rick Warren in Purpose-Driven Church. The Five Marks of Mission are: To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom To teach, baptize and nurture new believers To respond to human need by loving service …
Ministers, Boundaries, and Sex
A statistical research by FASICLD (Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development) in 1998 interviewed 1050 pastors It showed that about 30% of the pastors surveyed had (or are having) a sexually inappropriate encounter or relationship with a parishioner. Other studies are commonly lower like around 10%, and one done in 2016 showed it …
Imperfect Instrument: Bob Pierce (CT Article)
This article is from 2005 on the life of Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision and Samaritan's Purse. To some, he is a great example of one who is on fire for Christ. To me he is a cautionary tale of one who sacrificed his family and his "fire" caused him to burn out. Which …
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