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)
God's offer to us to share his blessing with others is how we find our deepest sense of personal meaning and satisfaction. Jesus said it this way: "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35). This wasn't a call to drudgery and painful sacrifice as much as it was Jesus' way of saying, "Sir, catch a clue. If you really want to have a blast, then free up some time and money and go bring a smile to someone's face. Relieve someone's pressure. Surprise someone with a gift." Jesus mentions blessing as giving sight to the blind, captives being set free, debts being paid off, food for the hungry, friends for the lonely, meaningful employment for the discouraged and self-doubting, rest for the weary, and anything else that could be felt or touched on terra firma. The Tangible Kingdom! Blessing wasn't just nice things you said to make people forget about their problems. It was actually doing something about their problems.
p142-143, "The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community" (Halter & Smay; Jossey-Bass, 2008)
…everyone starts pressing the few young couples in the church to procreate so there will be babies in the nursery.
…people want to know the plans for the new program to get the neighborhood kids “in the church.”
…when a person needs some money, you respond, “The benevolance committee isn’t here right now.”
…you’re afraid of small groups in homes because you don’t know how to collect the offering.
I'm two chapters in to a new book, "." Editorial review: There is a stirring among churchgoers. Many are looking at how the Christian faith is being played out, wondering if somehow we’re missing the point. What if there is more to our faith than just getting our souls into heaven? What if there is a power in the gospel that’s been kept under lock and key because of our culture-controlled church? If we placed our beliefs and their origins under the microscope, what would we see?
So there’s the ancient Jewish way of missing the point (thinking salvation is only about politics in the here and now) and the modern Christian way of missing the point (thinking salvation is only about escaping hell after you die). There’s another approach: that salvation means being rescued from fruitless ways of life here and now, to share in God’s saving love for all creation, in an adventure called the kingdom of God, the point of which you definitely don’t want to miss. Plus, of course, the wonderful gift of assurance that you will not perish after this life, but will be forever with the Lord.
Activists Face Legal Challenges for Feeding the Homeless
From by Alan Clapsaddle 03-10-2009
Jim Wallis wrote a great post last week entitled “.” Unfortunately, sharing food with ‘the least of these’ is again drawing the ire of those uncomfortable looking at those dealing with homeless and poverty.
from by
The word is everywhere, but where did it come from and what does it really mean?
It has become increasingly difficult to open a ministry book or attend a church conference and not be accosted by the word missional. A quick search on Google uncovers the presence of "missional communities," "missional leaders," "missional worship," even "missional seating," and "missional coffee." Today, everyone wants to be missional. Can you think of a single pastor who is proudly anti-missional?
A few years back, Emily Sagor’s extended family got bored with the practice of drawing names from a hat and giving a token gift to that aunt or this cousin. “It was somewhat unfulfilling because you would ask what they wanted, then buy that thing,” says Emily.
The new ritual is much more popular. In September or October, nominations are collected for charities about which family members care deeply. Each person who nominates a charity explains what it does. Then the family votes and the winning charity is announced. Checks flow to Emily’s aunt, who writes one big check to the organization in the name of the whole family.
Emily says the “winning” charities have included a hospice that sent a volunteer “to help my grandmother’s last few months of life.” This new holiday gift-giving strategy has produced some unexpected rewards: “Each year, we end up not only learning about organizations that are worth our attention, but we also learn more about each other and what matters to each of us,” explains Emily.
Cox, M. (2008). New Strategy for Charitable Gifts. Whose Birthday is it, Anyway? Ideas for a Christ-Centered Holiday 2008, 25.
from www.cpjustice.org/content/election-series-no-8
McCain, Obama, and America’s Two Exodus Stories
There are deeper currents carrying the presidential campaign toward Election Day. We aren’t necessarily conscious of them when we listen to the debates, the stump speeches, and the results of daily tracking polls, but they are there in a big way.
“The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
–Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV)
from http://onlywonder.com/2008/10/10/wilderness-opportunities/#comment-920
The call of Abram in the book of Genesis has always fascinated me. Here was a man who was firmly established in his world, a gentleman rancher up in the north country, with no special attributes, who is suddenly and without warming yanked from his security into a different way of being. While it is certainly possible that Abram had already been a nomadic herder, the story that we have in scripture presents him as a settler, one of those who had given up being on the move to focus on the acquisition of property. And then, Yahweh comes along and says “Your blessing isn’t in being settled, but rather being on the move.
too many of us have our identities wrapped up in the measurable outcomes of our work rather than in the life-giving love of the Christ we proclaim