What if your kids could open a window into the lives of the world's poorest children? Would it affect the way they think and live? Quest For Compassion is an interactive journey into four distant villages. Your kids will explore fun games while discovering some of the stark realities of the developing world. They'll learn things they never knew, keep a prayer journal, read Bible verses on poverty, and much more. Visit today.
Instead of emphasizing your differences and the unique merits of your particular "brand" of Christianity, help us together to rediscover a "big tent" Christianity, one that emphasizes the gospel of hope that we share and not the historical differences that have divided us.
We, the ordinary people in churches, do not need a new Creed or manifesto. We need to hear in visionary terms how the core message of the Christian tradition can still speak powerfully to our world. More and more of us are pragmatic idealists. We are not interested in detailed doctrinal disputes, in negative campaigning on behalf of traditional theological distinctions, in intolerance and exclusivity. We want relevance. But we are also quick to recognize when content evaporates and churches serve up nothing more than re-warmed values of the surrounding culture, accompanied by the remnants of traditional Christian practice.
Listen to us also! We really believe that Jesus' message continues to be relevant to our contemporary culture, that it has something powerful to offer to a world in crisis. We believe in a gospel that is neither conservative, in the sense of exclusivist and reactionary, nor liberal, in the sense that it forsakes all content, despenses with God, and merely covers over pop psychology or political correctness with a thin veneer of vaguely Christian language. Lead us in finding and formulating a middle way between these extremes, since we believe that the heart of Christianity lies here!
from: "Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society", Philip Clayton, Fortress Press, 2010
The sky was just turning dark as I pulled up to the bridge where we were supposed to meet. As I turned off the engine and opened the door several heads peeked out from under the bridge. A parade of sorts began to meander over. We greeted each other as we do each time we meet—gratitude and thankfulness dripping from their tongues. Two of them could not make the 25-foot walk to the car without help, too inebriated from another rainy day spent masking the pain of their predicament. The seven individuals now climbing into my 10-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser are all homeless.
Join Not For Sale this Spring as we gather in & Ottawa, to ask our legislators to re-Abolish modern-day slavery.
Being a modern-day Abolitionist means advocating for stronger legislation against human trafficking, as well as protection and care for survivors. These two-day events will combine advocacy training, networking, and meetings with your elected representatives as you give a voice to those in captivity.
Be a part of the movement this March. Help us send a message to your elected officials that ending global slavery should be a priority!
Washington, DC
March 1-2, 2010
Ottawa, Canada
March 2-3, 2010
Visit
to learn more & register TODAY!
Space is limited! Check in for more details online as the date approaches...
This radical Christian’s ministry for the poor, The Simple Way, has gotten him in some trouble with his fellow Evangelicals. We asked him to address those who don’t believe.
By Shane Claiborne
To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.
Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.
Twenty-one months ago I was a youth pastor at a church, and then the elders voted to close the doors. The rent was too high, the tithes too low, and we couldn’t see an alternative. Attendance had been declining for several years and there was no easy way out. My idea was to keep the church together. To this day, aside from me and my wife, two remain from that church. The seeds of .
Read the rest .
A friend emailed me the following story this week.
A few years ago a female student wanted to visit with me about some difficulties she was having, mainly with her family life. As is my practice, we walked around campus as we talked.
After talking for some time about her family situation we turned to other areas of her life. When she reached spiritual matters we had the following exchange:
“I need to spend more time working on my relationship with God.”
I responded, “Why would you want to do that?”
Startled she says, “What do you mean?”
“Well, why would you want to spend any time at all on working on your relationship with God?”
“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”
“Let me answer by asking you a question. Can you think of anyone, right now, to whom you need to apologize? Anyone you’ve wronged?”
She thinks and answers, “Yes.”
“Well, why don’t you give them a call today and ask for their forgiveness. That might be a better use of your time than working on your relationship with God.”
THE QUESTION THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
-by David Ryser.
A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a school of ministry. My students were hungry for God, and I was constantly searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with Jesus and to become voices for revival in the Church. I came across a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this:
Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.
In Hebrews 10:24-25, we have the only direct encouragement for people to gather: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another." We must realize that this was not a plea for people to get their lazy fannies out of bed, put their Sunday paper down, postpone their family trip out to the lake, put on their Sunday best, and get to church. It was an encouragement for early Christians who feared for their lives, who were hiding in dark alleys, who were seeing their friends killed, and who weren't gathering because of great persecution. It was a plea for people to defy their fears and draw together with others who were living life in the margins of society, who were on a common mission, and who were in desperate need of being encouraged by the stories of others whose lives were in peril because of the gospel. People were naturally dispersed because of mission, and the gathering was their way to hear the faithful stories of others.
p168 "The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community" (Halter & Smay; Jossey-Bass, 2008)