It is sometimes useful to be reminded that we aren't as smart as we sometimes delude ourselves into thinking. And this has considerable bearing on ministry and on theology. What reminded me of this was two-fold. Yesterday, I was teaching Cultural Anthropology, and my students kept asking questions that I could not answer. Truthfully, most …
Month: July 2017
Can Bad News Still Point Us to the “Good News”?
I read an article recently (not sure I could figure out which one) that said that Pat Robertson of 700 Club/CBN fame would not allow testimony stories on his show where God did not answer the prayer of the testifier. Or to be more accurate, God did not do what the praying person wanted God …
Continue reading Can Bad News Still Point Us to the “Good News”?
Three Functions of Contextualization
If you want to read the article by Darrell Whiteman, you can click HERE. But grabbing some excerpts, the first purpose is as follows Contextualization attempts to communicate the Gospel in word and deed and to establish the church in ways that make sense to people within their local cultural context, presenting Christianity in such …
Encountering Theology of Mission
I recently finished reading Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues, by Craig Ott, Stephen J. Strauss, and Timothy C. Tennent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I enjoy Mission Theology, and have long been concerned that much of missions has a sort of Machiavellian quality to it (do what seems to …
What if the Ten Spies Had TOO Much Faith?
When I was young, we sang a little chorus in Sunday School. The lyrics went like this: Twelve men went to spy out Canaan, (Ten were bad and two were good) What do you think they saw in Canaan? (Ten were bad and two were good) Some saw giants, big and tall! Some saw grapes …
Perfection as Holy Defect
I am working on an article right now that considers a different metaphor for understanding the goal of "perfection" as a Christian. So this post is a bit of a scratchpad where I put down my thoughts. Commonly, the term is linked with moral holiness and holiness often is connected to the metaphor from the …
Bad Contextualization of the Gospel
I am happy to say that I don't hear this much anymore... the idea that the gospel message needs not be contextualized or made to be recognized relevant to the hearer. On occasion, one hears someone quote Isaiah 55:11, believing that God word accomplishes what it is supposed to do, despite us. So shall My …
Motivation for Missions
Reading through "Encountering Theology of Mission" by Ott, Strauss, and Tennent. In Chapter 7 they list 13 motivations for doing mission work. They divide them into two categories: Questionable Motivations and Appropriate Motivations. For me, I would like to play with the list a little bit. For me, some of the questionable motivations are poor …