Consideration of four (4) encounters in missions. Truth, Allegiance, Love, and Power.
One of the two most popular posts on this blog is: From Power Encounter to Love Encounter In that post, I argued that the common missiological model of encounters, Truth Encounter, Allegiance Encounter, and Power Encounter, is flawed. Power Encounter, the challenging of the powers of evil with the power of God for missiological purposes …
Continue reading Power Encounter, Love Encounter, and Pandemic Love
This is May 24, three days after Harold Camping predicted the start of the Apocalypse. This is not a gloat message. Most people were not particularly surprised that Christ did not return at that time. But some were surprised and confused. This story makes me think about what direction we point people toward as missionaries. …
Continue reading What Direction Do We Point People Towards in Christian Ministry?
Many Christians downplay the practice of public confession. Christians tend to emphasize confession as personal and private. Even among those churches that practice the rite or sacrament of confession (penance), they accomplish it in a private chamber between an individual and a priest. The one who confesses need tell no one else, while the one …
Continue reading Can Confession Serve as a Missional Outreach?
Cover via Amazon Christianity was a peaceful faith for the most part for many centuries. As the church became institutionalized and nationalized, there was a tendency to link the church to the military and to coercion. With Charlemagne, the gloves came off. With his grandfather (Charles Martel) having to fight off Muslim invaders and his …
<A related, follow-on article is Power Encounter, Love Encounter, and Pandemic Love.> In Missions there is often 3 types of "encounters" discussed. Charles Kraft, in particular, has a lot in this area and include: Truth Encounter Allegiance Encounter Power Encounter St. Boniface and Power Encounter Truth Encounter is the challenge of God's truth against the …
Missionary Tom comes in and wants to start up a new ministry. Where does he go to get manned with the most competent, driven people? To other local ministries, of course! Tom has more money and so can lure the best people away from other local ministries. Maybe Tom’s group is ultimately effective, or perhaps …