Month: May 2024

Learning in Four Dimensions

On By missionmusingsIn EducationLeave a comment

The following is a presentation that I did years ago for learning cognitively, affectively, behaviorally, and spiritually. It is loosely based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. Although it is old, I still don’t have too much of a desire to update it. I think it is still pretty valid.

A major concern I have is that in the church there is often a lack of desire to integrate the different learning modes (head, heart, hands, habit) in discipleship. Even at seminary, we only focused on the cognitive side.

Integrative Steps of Learning from Robert Munson

God as a Corrupt Judge?

On By missionmusingsIn Parables/AllegoriesLeave a comment

One of my favorite parables of Jesus is the Parable of the Unrighteous Judge… or the Unjust Judge… or the Persistent Widow. I prefer, “The Parable of the Corrupt Judge.”

It is in the Gospel of Luke 18:1-8. Below is the NIV translation of the passage.

 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Verse 1 tells us the purpose of the parable, and that is nice. We don’t have to guess or theorize. Jesus is telling us that we should continue to pray without giving up.

The parable tells us WHY we should keep praying but the first glance reason is a bit confusing. God is compared to a corrupt judge. It essentially says to the effect… “If even this corrupt judge would do what this persistent widow asks, how much MORE will God do for those who persistently pray to Him.

However, the parable/story is more than an example in how persistent asking is a good thing. That is because Jesus pulls it out of being a simple illustration and into a character study. Consider the table below:

Sympathizes withFeelings about be talked to…Form of Interaction
Corrupt JudgeHimselfAnnoyedTransactional
GodThe plight of the “elect”PleasedRelational

SYMPATHY. In the story, the Judge doesn’t care. See this in verses 4 and 5. He doesn’t care about God or what He thinks. He doesn’t care about others. He does not care about doing his job well. He does not care about much of anything, except himself. He has great sympathy as it pertains to his own well-being and comfort. He delayed responding in the hope that she would give up and go away. When she didn’t he decided to do what she wanted so that he can get some peace, and to ensure that she doesn’t ramp up the pressure and attack him.

God is shown in contrast to this. The people praying to Him for justice are chosen ones of His— those he specifically chose to bless. While people are told to keep praying, it is clear in verses 7 and 8, He will not turn His back. He will quickly respond to the plight of His chosen.

FEELINGS. In the story, the Judge seems to be annoyed, and maybe a little fearful.

God is very different. He does not appear to be annoyed— He could, in theory at least, not listen. And there is nothing that His people can do that can instill fear in Him. He appears to welcome His chosen, and He appears ready to quickly respond to their requests.

INTERACTION. In the story, the Judge’s interaction with the widow is Transactional. There is an implied deal here. The Judge will do what the widow requests, and the widow will leave him alone.

While the reasoning for God to respond is not given clearly, I would suggest that the interaction is Relational. If God is motivated by sympathy (love if you prefer), and is quick (even eager) to respond… then why is persistence sought out by God? In the story of the judge and the widow, persistence is to create annoyance, so that the judge would accept a transaction. But if God is already sympathetic and eager to help, I would suggest that God is eager for communication since communication is foundational to a relationship.

I think this last point is important. Many Christians struggle with it. I recall reading a book by Bill Bright about how fasting was the way to get God to answer one’s prayers— as if God is transactional. I recall being given a book of “Powerful Prayers.” Apparently, if one says these prayers in the right way, God will release His power to accomplish what WE want. Transactional thinking is pretty common. Read Micah 6:1-7. This describes transactional thinking. Micah 6:8 makes clear that this is NOT how God operates.

For me, at least, this parable is a great message of hope because GOD IS THOROUGHLY UNLIKE A CORRUPT JUDGE IN TERMS OF SYMPATHY, FEELINGS, AND INTERACTIONS.

Is Prayer Needed in Missions? Reflecting on the Unrighteous Judge

On By missionmusingsIn CommentaryLeave a comment

Is prayer needed in missions? I truly believe that it is needed. But I must admit that I am not sure in what ways it does. Let me suggest a few possibilities.

#1. Prayer is needed in missions because God will not bless unless he gets enough prayers to do so. This sounds rather dubious when it is first said. It sounds like God has a lot of good stuff tucked away and won’t release them unless someone prays— or maybe someone prays a lot— or maybe a lot of people pray a lot. Is that how God works? Perhaps. James 4:2 says that we have not because we ask not. Matthew 7:7 says that if we ask we will receive. Some note that a broader look at the issue of prayer in the Bible makes clear that prayer should align with God’s will. But if a prayer is in line with God’s will but then is not asked, does God withhold it. I don’t know— it sounds pretty transactional. Is God that type of patron?

I don’t think so…. but maybe a better way of looking at it is in the Parable of the Unrighteous Judge. This is in Luke 18:1-8. God is compared favorably with an unrighteous judge. The judge cares nothing for the woman and cares nothing for justice. His only reason for assisting is transactional. The woman wants justice, and the judge wants peace. If he grants justice, she will grant peace. God is somewhat similar in that he will give justice to the elect (precious chosen ones) who call out to Him day and night. However, there is a key difference. The judge does it as a transaction. God does it due to who He is (loving and just) and who is asking (those precious to Him).

#2. Prayer is needed because it changes us. This is a classic alternative, especially for those that feel that the sovereignty of God suggests that God does not, or maybe cannot change his actions about anything. I think that takes things too far, but certainly, prayer is good for us. I believe it is emotionally, mentally, and spiritually therapeutic. However, if that was all it was, it would act no more than as a form of self-therapy. Its value would not depend on whether God even existed, much less listened.

Bringing Luke 18:1-8 into it again, there is nothing about that parable that relates to this. There is no suggestion that the woman becomes accepting of the injustice against her… or even that she should. In the latter part of the parable, there is likewise no such call for the elect to “get used to injustice. This possibility seems inadequate.

#3. Prayer is needed because it builds human relationships. When supporters pray for missions, they are thinking about missions, missionaries, mission fields, and unreached peoples. People who pray also support in other ways. Again, however, if that was all it was, it would be no more than a form of advertising.

This is a good possibility. It does not, however, relate much to the parable. That being said, one can certain imagine the parable where her pleas unheeded by the judge led to others coming to her side and adding to the cacophony that drives the judge to act. One could even imagine the judge calling soldiers to drive away the woman… but the soldiers gain sympathy for her based on her words and then help her out.

#4. Prayer is needed because it builds a relationship with God. Relationships are built on communication.

This seems to go along with the parable pretty well. God answers the prayers of the elect for three reasons it seems: (a) Who God is, (b) Our relationship with Him, (c) Our communication with Him. Answered prayer is not transactional… it is relational.

So is prayer needed in missions? Yes, but I don’t think we can put it into a formula. I recall Bill Bright writing a book about how fasting is the “secret” to get God to do what you want Him to do. I must admit that I lost a fair amount of respect for him in that book (not that this knowledge would concern him even if he had still been alive).

We don’t have a secret method to get God’s blessings. But prayer does change things:

A. Prayer changes us…. conforming ourselves to God who knows best.

B. Prayer builds relationships with others…. People support what they pray for.

C. Prayer closes the loop on our relationship with God, communicating with Him based on who He is, and or needs to receive what is best for us.

Do I believe in prayer as a mission strategy— tearing down strongholds, binding the strong man, tearing down barriers to the gospel. Let’s just say I have my doubts. Of course, we know from Mark 9:24ff that God blesses those who doubt as well.

Does Video Communication and the Internet Make International Missions Unnecessary?

On By missionmusingsIn Missions as VocationLeave a comment

Most real-world “Yes/No” questions have three good answers (in my view):

  • Yes, but…
  • No, but…
  • I don’t know, but here are some of my thoughts…

For the question above, the correct answer is “No, but…” and that answers fills out into ‘No, but it is a helpful tool.” Here are a few points in this.

  1. Some types of missions requires physical or direct social interaction. Planting a church in an international or cross-cultural setting, pretty much requires boots on the ground. One may be able to evangelize online (with some people at least). One may be able to disciple online (some people). However, (ignoring cyber-churches), church planting is intensely personal and interactive. I did “pastor” a church in the Philippines completely online for several months due to the pandemic. However, most of that time I was in the Philippines, not my home country. And to say that I was pastoring the church is a bit of a stretch. It is better to say I was maintaining it. Of course, church planting is something quite different. Doing doing medical missions is very hands-on, along with most social ministries.
  2. Even ministries that can be done online is aided by face-to-face. I do a lot of work online. The area that my wife and I focus on in Missions is “Leadership Development.” Another term, one I like less, is “Ministerial Training.” This is an area where online communication, both audio and video. I teach some courses online. My wife does some counseling online. I can supervise theses and dissertations online. We can hold organizational meetings online. We travel back and forth between the US and Philippines. It is nice that we can continue a course even after crossing an ocean. But there is a cost. Most prefer face-to-face or hybrid training… unless the circumstances make it too awkward. There is always some loss in communication. I learned this working at Northrop-Grumman many years ago. We would send emails to people on the other side of the country. We would have phone calls. We would even have audio or video-conferencing (when that was still a fairly novel thing). We found that when things were important, people from different sides REALLY NEED TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM. Also, in trainings, some methods like group work are hindered by the physical disconnection.
  3. It is hard to be bi-cultural when one lives mono-culturally. I am not a master of being bi-cultural. I live in one of the most English-friendly and American-friendly cities in Asia, serving as teacher in a school that uses English exclusively. The city is very cosmopolitan/globalistic— a bit of a melting pot or tossed salad of cultures. Nevertheless, when I see mono-cultural Americans come here to Baguio, very often (although not always) I realize how I have connected with my two homes— Philippines and the United States. This bi-cultural bridge helps greatly in mission work. Those who are raised monoculturally tend to see the world in an extremely distorted way. That is absolutely a problem.
  4. The concept of “The Ministry of Presence” is real. In some sense you cannot show that you truly care unless you are willing to relocate yourself. Jesus, Philip the Evangelist, Barnabas, and Paul showed that they cared by going to the people they were trying to reach. Paul and Luke, especially, wrote a lot. But talk, in any form, is a bit cheap in comparison to presence. If you want to convince someone you care—- you show up.

So the answer is, “No. Video communication and the Internet does NOT make International missions unnecessary, BUT it is a useful tool.” Done right, it can enhance or fill in the gaps in ministry that happens when one is limited to being present.

Reflections on Sci-fi Aliens and the Incarnation (Part 3)

On By missionmusingsIn Uncategorized1 Comment

This is the final part of a three-part series. to start earlier, you can go to PART ONE or PART TWO.

Those of the Abrahamic Faiths have often struggled in their visualization of God. I will not pretend to have expertise of other faiths (including my own). With the Abrahamic Faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) God is not imagined with statue or representational symbol. There is value in this. In Greek paganism, Zeus was represented as an idealized man (physically). This not surprisingly led to assigning human pettiness and flaws. The inability to express God visually has value, as well as recognizing our inability to express God fully in word (ineffability). But there are problems with this as well.

The first problem, in my thinking, is that God can easily become too much of an abstraction. God becomes described by what he is not (apophatic or via negativa). In some circles, especially Muslim, but sometimes Christian, things get so far as to suggest that even describing God with attributes is wrong. For Christians, this is a problem. The Bible makes it pretty evident that God is seeking to have a relationship with mankind— creating paradise as a return to paradise— harmony between God, Man, and Creation. But can humans relate to an abstraction? Such a god so represented (or not represented) is too alien for us to relate to.

The second problem is related to the first. If we cannot have a relationship to God, the best we can have is an ideology and an ethics. That leaves, I believe, a hole in our souls— that ends up being filled by rules and horizontal relationships.

But, if God seeks to have a relationship with us, God must represent Godself to us in a way that we can relate to and understand.

To me this is the primary reason for the Incarnation (enfleshment or embodiment) of Christ. God as thunder on the mountain or the unseen sender of heralds, will not suffice. God as the outsider (from our perspective) chose to enter as alien in a manner that we could understand and relate to. This is essentially what the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews says,

Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs. Hebrews 1:1-4 (HCSB)

Part way through this section it is clear that Jesus came for purification for sins, and some would say that is the one and only reason that God came to us as a man. Like saves like. While there may be some truth to this, I am not sure that we know enough to say that God could not have chose some other way. And frankly, this passage seems to point to something different.

God came as Jesus as the message of God and the radiance of His glory and exact expression of His nature. In other words, God chose to represent Godself in a manner that we can understand who God, relate to God, and understand what God has to say.

Much like a sci-fi alien we cannot heart and the mind of God through God’s representation only in the abstract. God represented Godself as Man for Man’s sake not God’s own. We cannot understand God otherwise.

And God coming as man did not do so as Mr. Manhattan or Kal el. Mr. Manhattan was a human who was transformed into a near god-like being and in so doing became more an more disconnected to humanity— becoming more alien. Kal el, was an alien who was raised up on earth looking so much like humans and enculturated so effectively as human that he became Superman, rather than Superalien. It is interesting that in more recent years, the comic writers of Superman have explored his alienness more and disconnection from humanity.

God did not display Godself as Mr. Manhattan (Adoptionism— losing humanity in the process) or as Kal el (alien living with us but not truly of us). Rather God came as God AND as Man.

Perhaps God could have come literally as a Sheep— a lamb without spot or blemish. That would line up well with the Jewish understanding of blood atonement. But if God did so, we would struggle, since we cannot relate to God through a sheep. God could have come in the form of Man… but primarily as a King or Conqueror. That might work. It may not even be wrong. However, God chose to (according to Philippians 2) represent Godself as a servant, as an example to us. Jesus came to serve, not be served, providing a model for us to practice with others.

Sci-fi writers understand that what is alien to us needs to be represented in a way to bridge the gap. We are pretty unable to bridge the gap. The form and the symbols of the alien in the encounter is critical. God understood this as well. and chose to represent/reveal Godself primarily in Jesus— loving God revealed in human form and expressed as a teacher/servant/sacrifice.

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. —Colossians 1:15-19 (NIV)

Reflections on Sci-fi Aliens and the Incarnation (Part Two)

On By missionmusingsIn Commentary, Contextualization, cultural anthropology2 Comments

If you missed Part One. you can CLICK HERE.

I have been slow in getting to the Incarnation of Christ, but I will delay it a bit longer. Consider a change of perspective. If you were a being visiting an alien world full of… well… aliens, how would you want to present yourself. You have a few choices.

Option 1. Perhaps you would want to instill fear. If you want to conquer their world, or at least gain a certain hegemony or economic concessions, you might want to present yourself in such a way as to show yourself as powerful, dangerous, scary. In the Bible, the revealing of God to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai may perhaps be seen in this way. God is powerful, separated, and deserving of fear and reverence.

Option 2. Perhaps you would want to instill awe or worship. One might think of the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” One might watch the movie and see it as an attempt by an alien species to make peaceful contact with humans. However, while it may be peaceful, the place, time, and context of the encounter is completely controlled by the aliens, and the encounter clearly is meant to demonstrate their awesomeness, otherness, and superiority. A humorous variation on this is the Far Side cartoon that has first encounter with aliens where an alien is seen on the ground clearly having tripped and tumbled down the gangway of the space craft. One of the aliens at the top of the gangway says to another, “Wonderful! Just Wonderful! … So much for instilling them with a sense of awe.” Perhaps the theophany n Isaiah 6 is closer to this. God is shown in high majesty. While fear may be a reasonable response, the encounter feels more like awe and reverence as the goal rather than fear and reverence.

Option 3. Perhaps you would want to make a connection of familiarity. If you have features that look similar to the beings on this world, your job is somewhat easy in this. If you have the ability to look different, such as if you are a shape-shifter, you might consider changing your appearance to look like them. If you are not able to look like them, a possible solution would be to have a representative who looks more like those one is trying to reach. If no such representative is available, perhaps a “robot” or android could be used. In the Bible, God has at times reached out in a visual way through representatives. Sometimes, these were prophets (fellow humans) or angelic messengers. Genesis speaks of God walking with Adam and Eve in Eden before the Fall. We are not sure of what form this took, but it is pretty clear that they felt comforted by God’s presence, until they disobeyed. Apparently sometimes these angels look so much like humans, their extraterrestrial origin is not immediately recognized. Obviously, the incarnation of Christ could also be seen (in a general sense) as part of this option.

Of course, the physical form is helpful, but the accessories or symbols are necessary as well. This goes back to the “world of hats” trope. The hat, or uniform, or associated paraphernalia will be interpreted just as much as the physical form. If one comes to a new planet with things that look like weapons, this will be interpreted differently than if one comes with gifts. Of course, symbols can be misinterpreted, either by accident or by intention. One is reminded of the Twilight Zone episode where aliens come to earth with a book that says “To Serve Man”— something that sounds benevolent. Later, it was discovered that the book was a cookbook— far more malevolent than benevolent. Philippians 2 reminds us that Jesus did not only come incarnated— as human, but also as a servant— a benevolent role.

Okay, we are talking somewhat more about the Incarnation. The third, final post will draw these two posts into the issue of God with us. To go to the third post, CLICK HERE.