I love a good quote. This is good because it makes one think. "When someone is honestly 55% right, that's very good and there's no use wrangling. And if someone is 60% right, it's wonderful, it's great luck, and let him thank God. But what's to be said about 75% right? Wise people say this …
Tag: christian missions
Missiological Implications of the Symbolic Understanding of Baptism
<Note: I take a more Baptist understanding of Christian baptism (although I am certainly more open-minded than some). Thus I understand baptism as primarily symbolic rather than sacramental or salvific. However, I think most all Christians would agree that there is a strong symbolic aspect to baptism. As such, hopefully there are thoughts here worthy …
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Is Asian Christian Theology One Thing or Many?
A couple of common, and related, themes in missions today are "contextualization" and "self-theologization." The first says that to make the Word of God accessible to a culture, it must be translated into that culture, not only in language but in symbology (in its many forms) as well. To accomplish this, one attempts to minimize …
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The Joy of Failure in Missions. Part II: Response
<Click Here for Part One> A. Failure has a strongly positive role... it can help us learn more about ourselves. John Maxwell in Failing Forward, lists several common reasons for failure: Poor people skills. (#1 Cause) It’s about relationships. Negative attitude. Pessimistic, half empty. Can’t see opportunities… only sees problems. Bad fit. Find what you …
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The Joy of Failure in Missions. Part 1
Image by 'PixelPlacebo' via Flickr Key Point #1. Failure Analysis is beneficial to us. My father was a mechanical engineer whose expertise was in the testing and failure analysis of roller bearings. When I was younger, I was also a mechanical engineer. When I was working on my Master's Thesis, I was testing pultruded GRP …
Honest Reflections on Balancing Academic Missiology, with the Practice of Christian Missions
One of my favorite books is "The Gospel Blimp and Other Modern Parables". It is by Joseph Bayly and has several great stories that challenge our notion of our faith. One of these stories is Ceiling Zero. In this story some people can fly (without aircraft and without balloons). But as the story goes on, …
The Power of Parables
One of the problems of not getting a real liberal arts education (most of my education is in Mechanical Engineering and military leadership), is limitations in communication and the arts. One of these is in the role of parables. When I was young going to church, parables were defined as "earthly stories with a heavenly …
In Christian Missions, Who Should be the Contextualizer of the Faith?
Christian Missions commonly today focuses on the idea that contextualization is necessary. Contextualization is the enculturation of the gospel message. A Christian 1st-century Greek did not, and should not, live like a Christian 1st-century Jew. The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 recognized unity within Christ while maintaining diversity in culture. Today, in missions we seek …
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Miscegenation and Missions, Part II
Some questions as a follow-on to Part 1 of this post topic. Does interracial or intercultural marriage lessen the foreignness of the Christian faith? In Asia and Africa the “Sword and Taxation” method of Islamic conversion had begun to falter well before that religion reached Southeast Asia. And yet some of the greatest successes of …
Miscegenation and Missions, Part I
Note: I am part of a mixed race marriage, and our children are (not surprisingly) mixed race and mixed culture. As such, I have a particular interest in mission’s attitude to racially mixed marriage and the role of race in missions in general. For those who don’t know the term, miscegenation refers to “marriage or …