I was reading a dissertation I happen to like ("Pastoral Variables In Psychotherapy: Aa Instrument For Assessment" by David C. Stancil), I found some research he had done on the issue of despair and the related issue of hopelessness. I want to hit on a few things from that work. Stancil refers to Irving Yalom …
Category: Encounters in Mission
Consideration of four (4) encounters in missions. Truth, Allegiance, Love, and Power.
Dialogue Lessons from Westboro
I was watching a TED Talk of Megan Phelps-Roper. She was raised up in Westboro Baptist Church, a small church in the United States known for its "hate speech." Now I know sometimes people use the term "hate speech" pretty loosely, but I think most anyone would say that Westboro's words and actions would fit …
Advice for Undertrained Missionaries like John Chau | by Jackson Wu
Please click on the link below to Jackson Wu's blog. (If you don't want to read my comments.... then click here now Advice for undertrained missionaries like John Chau | Jackson Wu). It has a great article on the recent situation regarding John Chau, and his ill-fated contact with the North Sentinalese. Actually, it is …
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Interreligious Listening at the Mosque
Each year in my Dialogue with Asian Relgions class, I have my students visit a local mosque. I also have them visit the Sikh temple and the Budhist temple. And sometimes other places are visited. The Sikh temple has been the favorite so far. But I especially want them to visit the mosque and the …
Dreaming Small in a “post-Christendom” World
I am reading through the dissertation of one of my students when I was struck by a quote. She quoted Ed Stetzer who was in turn quoting Douglas John Hall. “Our Lord's metaphors for his community of witness were all of them modest ones: a little salt, a little yeast, a little light. Christendom tried …
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A Lot Like Lot
This post makes the, controversial (?), suggestion that Lot lacked cultural flexibility, and that this led to his downfall. If curious, please read on. I was teaching a little seminar on Missionary Anthropology in Hong Kong a couple of days ago. I was talking about levels of acculturation--- the fact that we often go through …
Reaching the Elders
Joanne Shetler, a Wycliffe Bible Translator, in her book "And the Word Came with Power," says on page 108 "Balangaos had always had village elders, older men informally chosen by group consensus to guide them. I usually sought these older people to work with me on translation; their status and their experience were invaluable. In …
A Language of Foolishness
I have been reading a couple of books on Pastoral Theology. One is a classic: "The Minister as a Diagnostician" by Paul Pruyser. The other is "The Word of God and Pastoral Care" by Howard Stone. Both of these books note a problem with chaplains and other ministers. The problem is the rejection of theological …
Dialogue and Different Faiths
In "Acts of Faith," Eboo Patel (2007), founder and director of the Interfaith Youth Core, reflects on the issue of religious diversity. Mirroring W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous statement that “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line,” Patel suggests that “the twenty-first century will be shaped by the …