This is the best and shortest description of what it means to be emerging vs. emergent that I know of. If you care about the church, and recognize that there is a rift between traditional church and many so-called post-moderns, then this is a helpful read.
Would the Real Emerger Please Stand Up?
(HT: Reclaiming the Mind Ministries)
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2008
Friday, September 21, 2007
Apparently the Lion is not the king of the jungle anymore...
Be careful, some background language...
(HT: Mom)
(HT: Mom)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Just Showed Up For My Own Life
Our church hosts what they call “First Friday Films,” which happens (usually) on the first Friday of every month. A documentary film with a global message is typically shown and then discussed from a Christian standpoint. This gives people who attend the opportunity to see things outside their bubble and then discuss global issues within a gospel context.
Tonight (obviously not a first Friday) John Gyovai, president of MediaServe International, a non-profit ministry birthed at Bethlehem, hosted a Nomad Show movie based on Sara Groves’ trips to Louisiana and Rwanda. "Just Showed Up For My Own Life" documents her trip to Louisiana (for Katrina relief efforts), and her trip to Rwanda. Both of these experiences expanded her learning about the world and to allowed her to be impacted by the horror of the genocide that took place there in 1994. The trip to Rwanda also connected Sara with Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission.
Wendy and I have been fans of Sara Groves for years and own all of her CDs. Sara, who lives in Minneapolis was at the screening and spent time answering questions. Our kids were able to talk with her and get her autograph. Her last album, which found its culmination in these trips was titled, “Add to the Beauty.” Her point is that as Christians, we should be adding to the beauty in this world as we are salt and light.
Our goal tonight was not simply to promote another musician to the kids, but for them to see that whatever we do in life, it should have a gospel purpose. This life is not about us, it is about God, and if that means delivering a tour bus full of diapers to a church in Louisiana or traveling with Gary Haugen of IJM to Rwanda, then to God be the glory. Or, if it means picking up your family and moving to the mid-west to learn the Word of God in order to fulfill a calling to preach, then to God be the glory.
Again, we are thankful for the opportunities that God has given us here in Minneapolis, often through Bethlehem, to open our kids’ eyes to more than the Disneyland of America has to offer.
Tonight (obviously not a first Friday) John Gyovai, president of MediaServe International, a non-profit ministry birthed at Bethlehem, hosted a Nomad Show movie based on Sara Groves’ trips to Louisiana and Rwanda. "Just Showed Up For My Own Life" documents her trip to Louisiana (for Katrina relief efforts), and her trip to Rwanda. Both of these experiences expanded her learning about the world and to allowed her to be impacted by the horror of the genocide that took place there in 1994. The trip to Rwanda also connected Sara with Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission.
Wendy and I have been fans of Sara Groves for years and own all of her CDs. Sara, who lives in Minneapolis was at the screening and spent time answering questions. Our kids were able to talk with her and get her autograph. Her last album, which found its culmination in these trips was titled, “Add to the Beauty.” Her point is that as Christians, we should be adding to the beauty in this world as we are salt and light.
Our goal tonight was not simply to promote another musician to the kids, but for them to see that whatever we do in life, it should have a gospel purpose. This life is not about us, it is about God, and if that means delivering a tour bus full of diapers to a church in Louisiana or traveling with Gary Haugen of IJM to Rwanda, then to God be the glory. Or, if it means picking up your family and moving to the mid-west to learn the Word of God in order to fulfill a calling to preach, then to God be the glory.
Again, we are thankful for the opportunities that God has given us here in Minneapolis, often through Bethlehem, to open our kids’ eyes to more than the Disneyland of America has to offer.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Social Justice?
When most of us think of social justice we think of Darfur or human trafficking or the right-to-life. However, I wonder if this article shows another form of social justice...
Key quote: "I went to my trailer for about 15 minutes and I thought, there's people dying every day. A lot of worse things are happening in the world."
Key quote: "I went to my trailer for about 15 minutes and I thought, there's people dying every day. A lot of worse things are happening in the world."
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Social Justice
Proverbs 24:10-12 says:
When we arrived at 2:00 PM today it was 25 degrees. It dropped to 23 degrees by the time we left. We marched around the capital lawns for about a half hour to the sound of "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes. At 2:30, we gathered on the courthouse steps, sang Amazing Grace (6,000 people!) and then heard speeches from various officials. The suprise speaker was the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty. It is a good thing to know that our Governor is very much pro-life, and cares deeply for the un-born.
It is our prayer, as parents, that our kids can see what is truly important. In the last two years, we have tried to show them that money and houses and cars and jewelry and stuff is not what matters. Only Jesus Christ matters. And as followers of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to love others.
When Jesus was asked by a lawyer who was his neighbor, Jesus told a famous parable. The lawyer was trying to test Jesus. Jesus turned the tables on the lawyer and never answered his question. Instead Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" The lawyer answered, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise" (Luke 10:25-37).
The question then is whether we, as 21st Century Christians, can apply this to a 21st Century problem. The question is not whether unborn babies are our neighbors. Jesus refused to answer that question. The answer is obviously yes. Of course unborn babies are our neighbors, just as much as the man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road was.
The question that is of utmost importance is, "Who proved to BE a neighbor?" With 33 years gone by and 46 million babies murdered, who has proved to be a neighbor? Unfortunately, the answer is not me. Until today's miniscule step, I have never been a vocal neighbor to unborn children. Certainly we have given to our local Crisis Pregnancy Center, but anyone can give money. We can also march. Maybe marching isn't for you. Fine. But can you pray? Can you pray that the sovereign God of the Universe would so move that the legal right to abortion is abolished? And then pray how you can be a neighbor in a more bold way.
For, as Proverbs says, "Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?"
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.On the 33rd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade supreme court decision, this passage of Scripture has increased significance. God is a God who wants his children to rescue those who are being taken away to death, he wants for us to hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Therefore, our family did something we have never done before. All six of us, along with about 300 people from our church, and about 6,000 people from the Twin Cities, marched on the Minnesota state capital today in protest of the current laws that allow legalized abortion.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?
When we arrived at 2:00 PM today it was 25 degrees. It dropped to 23 degrees by the time we left. We marched around the capital lawns for about a half hour to the sound of "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes. At 2:30, we gathered on the courthouse steps, sang Amazing Grace (6,000 people!) and then heard speeches from various officials. The suprise speaker was the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty. It is a good thing to know that our Governor is very much pro-life, and cares deeply for the un-born.
It is our prayer, as parents, that our kids can see what is truly important. In the last two years, we have tried to show them that money and houses and cars and jewelry and stuff is not what matters. Only Jesus Christ matters. And as followers of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to love others.
When Jesus was asked by a lawyer who was his neighbor, Jesus told a famous parable. The lawyer was trying to test Jesus. Jesus turned the tables on the lawyer and never answered his question. Instead Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" The lawyer answered, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise" (Luke 10:25-37).
The question then is whether we, as 21st Century Christians, can apply this to a 21st Century problem. The question is not whether unborn babies are our neighbors. Jesus refused to answer that question. The answer is obviously yes. Of course unborn babies are our neighbors, just as much as the man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road was.
The question that is of utmost importance is, "Who proved to BE a neighbor?" With 33 years gone by and 46 million babies murdered, who has proved to be a neighbor? Unfortunately, the answer is not me. Until today's miniscule step, I have never been a vocal neighbor to unborn children. Certainly we have given to our local Crisis Pregnancy Center, but anyone can give money. We can also march. Maybe marching isn't for you. Fine. But can you pray? Can you pray that the sovereign God of the Universe would so move that the legal right to abortion is abolished? And then pray how you can be a neighbor in a more bold way.
For, as Proverbs says, "Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?"
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