For the last couple of months, we have been praying about what Hesed Now should do as a practical ministry . Yes, we have materials, a podcast, and have helped a lot of churches with resources, but we have really prayed hard about having a practical and tangible way of showing hesed to those around us. In comes Brett and Emily Mills who have a ministry called Jesus Said Love. They are worship leaders who live in Waco, but they also have a ministry to strippers. Instead of building a well in Africa (which is obviously good), we have chosen to support this ministry because it is local and it reaches one of the major "unreached people groups" within the borders of our own country. So, some practical ways you can support Hesed Now and this outreach ministry is to buy the "Jesus Said Love" or "Jesus Loves Strippers" (you'll get some looks with this one) shirts. You can also support Hesed Now by donating to their ministry, because this will be a ministry we will support in the coming months. If you want to know more about this ministry, watch the video on our blog or go to www.jesussaidlove.com. And don't forget to check out the shirts on our t-shirt page.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Oprah's Doctor on Theology by Brady
A few weeks ago my wife tricked me into doing something I thoroughly despise: watching Oprah. It was an episode with all males in the audience and she gave over her stage for the first time to “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, who I think is a frequent guest on her show. I thought it was interesting that she would give her stage over to a doctor, which I have written about before doctors being the new priests in white robes instead of black ones. But that is not what I found fascinating in the show. Towards the middle of the program, Dr. Oz said something along the lines of, “We have the knowledge to cure almost all diseases, but it takes a transfer into daily life.” What he was implying is that if you would eat healthy, exercise daily, get enough rest consistently, not smoke, and get regular checkups, that we would live longer lives and be able to curb the onset of almost all diseases in the world today.
What he was essentially saying is that you can have all of the knowledge in the world, but unless there is a change in your life, it won’t matter a bit. Now I must admit I am a fan of people getting properly trained and educated before they become working professionals. I think it is funny that we would never go to see a doctor that did not complete their entire training process, but we will get spiritual direction and diagnoses from anyone and everyone. My vocation is especially guilty of putting undertrained and undereducated people in charge of a group of people without batting an eye. Some of these cases are ok when people are leading small groups or other areas such as these. I would compare this to your mom being able to take care of you when you are sick as a child or when you fall down and get hurt. What you would not do though is want a parent performing major surgery or even regular checkups on their kids. This is the same in ministry.
In fact, I read a book for class the other day that was debating whether you should pay a minister more nor not based on the level of degree which they have completed. The book concluded that you should not, and I was losing my mind about it. Only in ministry would an organization not pay more based on a degree when you are trained in so many essential areas during seminary. So as you can see, I am obviously a fan of edu-ma-cation.
But with that being stated, there is a tendency in our Information Age that says knowledge is the answer. The internet has revolutionized the way we see our world around us. Suddenly everyone is an expert on every subject. It is pretty annoying to sit in class with laptops when a professor mentions something in passing, a student Googles it and then corrects the professor. Education and knowledge, as useful as it can be, without values seems rather to make man a more clever devil. But hopefully the Postmodern era will prove yet again that we cannot fix the mess we’re in with more of anything produced by man.
The Modern era brought a hope that technology would eventually progress to a point where we could achieve our own return the Garden of Eden. But we all watched I-Robot and had our dreams shattered of this idea. But now it seems that the Postmodern era is putting the emphasis which was once on technology, now more on education. “If we can just educate about AIDS, then we can get rid of it.” I would say American’s are pretty educated and yet we still have thousands of people every year who are new carriers of the horrible disease.
I am all for making the world a better place and actually working to see this happen. I 100% affirm a holistic view of salvation that says the complete person must be redeemed by Christ, as opposed to handing out a 4-spiritual laws and my duty is done type of salvation. But even with that, I cannot fully buy into humans being the redeemers of this world. This teaching is popular with a lot of the popular Postmodern preachers, and yet I have a hard time seeing how it fits biblically. So I’m in a weird spot of not being happy when natural disasters kill thousands of people because it is a sign of the end times, but also not being able to square with the fact that God’s kingdom will be established on earth in this age.
In fact, I will take this even a step further. I am not certain that if every person in the world became a Christian that all of the world’s problems would be solved. The reason I say this is that I go to school with all Christians, and that place is far from heaven. I say that because I myself often do not respond to situations in a way that fits with my beliefs as a Christian. This pervading hope that screams if we can just make everyone “believe” what we believe then our mission is accomplished. But as Dr. Oz has told us, you can memorize all of the Bible verses you want or explain theology with the best of them, but if there is not a transformation happening in your life then it is all meaningless. The brutal truth is that the Gospel is incredibly simple in theory, and ridiculously hard in practice. I say that if every person gets transformed by Christ, then his kingdom will finally come to this earth.
What he was essentially saying is that you can have all of the knowledge in the world, but unless there is a change in your life, it won’t matter a bit. Now I must admit I am a fan of people getting properly trained and educated before they become working professionals. I think it is funny that we would never go to see a doctor that did not complete their entire training process, but we will get spiritual direction and diagnoses from anyone and everyone. My vocation is especially guilty of putting undertrained and undereducated people in charge of a group of people without batting an eye. Some of these cases are ok when people are leading small groups or other areas such as these. I would compare this to your mom being able to take care of you when you are sick as a child or when you fall down and get hurt. What you would not do though is want a parent performing major surgery or even regular checkups on their kids. This is the same in ministry.
In fact, I read a book for class the other day that was debating whether you should pay a minister more nor not based on the level of degree which they have completed. The book concluded that you should not, and I was losing my mind about it. Only in ministry would an organization not pay more based on a degree when you are trained in so many essential areas during seminary. So as you can see, I am obviously a fan of edu-ma-cation.
But with that being stated, there is a tendency in our Information Age that says knowledge is the answer. The internet has revolutionized the way we see our world around us. Suddenly everyone is an expert on every subject. It is pretty annoying to sit in class with laptops when a professor mentions something in passing, a student Googles it and then corrects the professor. Education and knowledge, as useful as it can be, without values seems rather to make man a more clever devil. But hopefully the Postmodern era will prove yet again that we cannot fix the mess we’re in with more of anything produced by man.
The Modern era brought a hope that technology would eventually progress to a point where we could achieve our own return the Garden of Eden. But we all watched I-Robot and had our dreams shattered of this idea. But now it seems that the Postmodern era is putting the emphasis which was once on technology, now more on education. “If we can just educate about AIDS, then we can get rid of it.” I would say American’s are pretty educated and yet we still have thousands of people every year who are new carriers of the horrible disease.
I am all for making the world a better place and actually working to see this happen. I 100% affirm a holistic view of salvation that says the complete person must be redeemed by Christ, as opposed to handing out a 4-spiritual laws and my duty is done type of salvation. But even with that, I cannot fully buy into humans being the redeemers of this world. This teaching is popular with a lot of the popular Postmodern preachers, and yet I have a hard time seeing how it fits biblically. So I’m in a weird spot of not being happy when natural disasters kill thousands of people because it is a sign of the end times, but also not being able to square with the fact that God’s kingdom will be established on earth in this age.
In fact, I will take this even a step further. I am not certain that if every person in the world became a Christian that all of the world’s problems would be solved. The reason I say this is that I go to school with all Christians, and that place is far from heaven. I say that because I myself often do not respond to situations in a way that fits with my beliefs as a Christian. This pervading hope that screams if we can just make everyone “believe” what we believe then our mission is accomplished. But as Dr. Oz has told us, you can memorize all of the Bible verses you want or explain theology with the best of them, but if there is not a transformation happening in your life then it is all meaningless. The brutal truth is that the Gospel is incredibly simple in theory, and ridiculously hard in practice. I say that if every person gets transformed by Christ, then his kingdom will finally come to this earth.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Religious or Spiritual? by Clint
The other day, I overheard a guy having a conversation with a girl (I was not eavesdropping, they were just talking loud!). It was fairly obvious that he was trying to impress her. He kept talking about how he was spiritual but not religious. He didn’t go into much detail about what this meant, but he kept saying it, thinking that it would certainly intrigue the young lady he was attempting to charm. I thought a little bit about what he was trying to get across by saying that, and I also contemplated the fact that I’ve heard that expression before; it seems to be almost a buzzword in our society. Everyone wants to be spiritual and forego the religious aspects. In a way, I understand this. Often, religion is viewed only in a negative sense: Bigoted, intolerant, authoritarian, and sometimes even hateful. People’s minds often drift to those unappealing adjectives upon hearing the word “religious.” But my problem with saying, “I am spiritual but not religious” is that it is such a nebulous comment. Anyone can pronounce themselves as spiritual. Spiritual in our 21st century context can be any of these things: artistic, poetic, quiet, introspective, yoga-practicing, emotional, green-tea drinking, etc… Certainly I do not have an issue with any of these things (Yahoo says green tea is good for your complexion), however are they really spiritual?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian theologian during the time of WWII. He wrote about a costly faith, a faith that involved truly following Christ even at a high cost. He practiced what he preached, as he was executed by the Nazi regime at the end of the war for his involvement in an attempt to overthrow Hitler. While he could have left the country and taught theology in New York, he stayed in Germany to suffer with the people and preach against the hatred of the Nazis. One of Bonhoeffer’s more interesting theological assertions was one of a “religionless Christianity.” In this, he spoke that following Christ goes way beyond the safer man-made boundaries of religiosity. In these man-made boundaries, he found people hiding behind an easily defined legalism, a system of piety which boiled faith down to rules of life which would most likely never really cost anyone anything truly valuable. He called believers to go beyond these safe boundaries and enter into a suffering world, carrying the gospel of Christ, and taking the risks of entering into challenging relationships. He did not view this as a loophole for living a hedonistic lifestyle, though. The spirituality of living out the teachings of Christ in a hurting world would not mesh with a sinful, worldly lifestyle. But, the point is that faith and discipleship goes so far beyond just religion and attempts to make people think you’re not naughty but nice. Bonhoeffer seemed to support this idea of “I’m spiritual but not religious,” but the context for spirituality was completely Christ-centered. There is no other spirituality but through the Holy Spirit and through discipleship in Christ.
In examining Jesus’ life, he had aspects of one who was religious. He observed Jewish holidays (John 13) and he spent time in the temple (Luke 2:41-49). However, he was not satisfied with religion, but he pointed to something greater. He pointed to true spirituality which rests in two focuses in life: Love God and love your neighbor. In this, everything hangs in the balance (Matthew 22:36-40). Jesus did not come to earth to just start a new religion. Jesus Christ came to teach and show the one truth of God. He came to bid those to follow him and live a life of spirituality, a life in relationship with God through discipleship and faith in Christ. I guess its ok to be spiritual and not religious, but this is only possible in Christ Jesus and in Christian fellowship. And any proclaimed spirituality outside of Christ is actually just an empty religion.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian theologian during the time of WWII. He wrote about a costly faith, a faith that involved truly following Christ even at a high cost. He practiced what he preached, as he was executed by the Nazi regime at the end of the war for his involvement in an attempt to overthrow Hitler. While he could have left the country and taught theology in New York, he stayed in Germany to suffer with the people and preach against the hatred of the Nazis. One of Bonhoeffer’s more interesting theological assertions was one of a “religionless Christianity.” In this, he spoke that following Christ goes way beyond the safer man-made boundaries of religiosity. In these man-made boundaries, he found people hiding behind an easily defined legalism, a system of piety which boiled faith down to rules of life which would most likely never really cost anyone anything truly valuable. He called believers to go beyond these safe boundaries and enter into a suffering world, carrying the gospel of Christ, and taking the risks of entering into challenging relationships. He did not view this as a loophole for living a hedonistic lifestyle, though. The spirituality of living out the teachings of Christ in a hurting world would not mesh with a sinful, worldly lifestyle. But, the point is that faith and discipleship goes so far beyond just religion and attempts to make people think you’re not naughty but nice. Bonhoeffer seemed to support this idea of “I’m spiritual but not religious,” but the context for spirituality was completely Christ-centered. There is no other spirituality but through the Holy Spirit and through discipleship in Christ.
In examining Jesus’ life, he had aspects of one who was religious. He observed Jewish holidays (John 13) and he spent time in the temple (Luke 2:41-49). However, he was not satisfied with religion, but he pointed to something greater. He pointed to true spirituality which rests in two focuses in life: Love God and love your neighbor. In this, everything hangs in the balance (Matthew 22:36-40). Jesus did not come to earth to just start a new religion. Jesus Christ came to teach and show the one truth of God. He came to bid those to follow him and live a life of spirituality, a life in relationship with God through discipleship and faith in Christ. I guess its ok to be spiritual and not religious, but this is only possible in Christ Jesus and in Christian fellowship. And any proclaimed spirituality outside of Christ is actually just an empty religion.
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