Check out this crazy good video, “Information R/evolution” by Digital Ethnography at KSU:

The rate of information growth is so fast, that I wonder where and how theological education and institutions try to “hold ground.”

Is the traditional setting and format for receiving theological instruction the same as it was 500 years ago? What kind of impact does this type of technological revolution have on The Word?  What does this mean for “seekers” and churches that are “seeker-sensitive”? Perhaps we need to engage them where they’re looking and googling, not in our pews.

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Some notes again from my class, “Emerging Models of Church” with Prof. Steve Hayner. Today, we’re discussing Mosaic or intentionally multi-ethnic churches. I’m not going to try transcribing every word like I did last time, but I will be trying to get the high points. Enjoy~

We started today’s class with a viewing of “King of the Hill” looking for a new church (h/t: pomomusings).

Point #1: Everyone is ethnic. And by ethnic we mean:

ethnicity describes the characteristics of our origins – our family, tribe or national identity—our customs and characteristics—our corporate identity as a member of a unique people group.

Culture is one of those weird words. Anyone who has studied anthropology may know how slippery this word is. Some definitions then…

• Culture: variously defined–all culture participates in both the dignity of humanity created in God’s image AND in the brokenness of humanity.
• Multiculture: either pluralistic, where each culture contributes to the whole, or particularistic, where concern is to preserve the particular characteristics of each.
• Multiethnic: consisting of people from various “people groups” (cultural, tribal, national identities = “the ethnos”)
  • Preference not to use the word, race. Race is a 20th century invention that is designed around external characteristics…race is not a good enough indicator of who a person is as is ethnicity.
• Counterculture: intentionally discerning direction contrary to norm based on faith .If multicultural ministry is not countercultural, it is simply political correctness.

Globalization, tribalization (aka balkanization), immigration are huge phenomenons affecting the world we live in.

John Long, Director of US Census Bureau. By 2040, we can extrapolate these demographic changes:

• White 54%
• Black 14%
• Hispanic 22%
• Asian 7%
• Multiracial 2%

[Read more...]

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Tim Keller from Redeemer Church for the Exponential Conference. Discussing Acts 1:8 – Part 02.

Dr. John Franke, Author and Professor at Biblical Seminary, Hatfield, PA, discusses how the gospel relates to culture.

Oh yes, and one more video that I think is emblematic of the pushback on emerging and missional thinking: What do you think?

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“When you have a hammer in your hands, all you see are nails.”That’s certainly how I’ve been feeling with this book in my hands.

Paul Hiebert is quoted in the book, “The Shaping of Things to Come” with some brilliant insights into critical contextualization.

Frost and Hirsch, the authors share Hiebert’s thoughts (pp. 89):

A missional church ought to be filled with students of the Word of God. He [Hiebert] says: “This step is crucial, for if the people do not clearly grasp the biblical message as originally intended, they will have a distorted view of the gospel. This is where the pastor or missionary…has the most to offer in an understanding of biblical truth and making it known in other cultures. While the people must be involved in the study of Scripture so that they grow in their own abilities to discern truth, the leader must have the meat-cultural grids that enable him or her to move between cultures.”….

”(The gospel) is a me to which people must respond…It is not enough that the leaders be convinced about changes that may be needed. Leaders may share their personal convictions and point out the consequences of various decisions, but they must allow the people to make the final decisions in evaluating their past customs.”

He[Hiebert]wants leaders to trust the congregation, something that clergy have been notoriously poor at doing in the past. If the process is guided effectively, he suggests a number of ways a congregation might respond to old beliefs and customs. [Read more...]

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My friend Tim and I have been close friends since we met in 2001 or so, but over the last two years or so, we’ve been “holding each other accountable”. (Although we’re overdue for a phone conversation, I’m calling you this week Tim!)

As men who are learning to be honest and vulnerable, strong and broken, we have found that there are many obstacles that keep men isolated even in the most friendly of circles. Simply put, men don’t talk, don’t know how to talk, and don’t know what to say if and when they ever get there.

As an Asian guy, I would say this is doubly hard for me. Just to say that I have a problem or that I even need to talk elicits all kinds of conflicted feelings including guilt, shame, and even the occasional fit of despair, all before I’ve even said anything at all.

Tim, on the other hand, is all-Americana, a once-farm boy from the big city of Wabash, Indiana now living in Nashville, TN and can’t stand it when I can’t say what I mean, or even worse, when I don’t do what I say.And so, Tim has held me accountable for the last two years, often kicking and screaming.

But in that span, I will say that I have found freedom. I have learned to be more honest about the temptations and proto-addictions that I face. I have gained the strength to talk about them more openly and ask for help from my wife. I have seen God’s power to be more than just friends, but to be active in the process of forming one another in the image of Christ.

In my new and growing understanding of temptation, idolatry, and addiction, I have found that we tend not to name the things we value most. We often make weak, watered-down confessions that objectify the thing, “I have a problem with lust” or “Pray for my problem with work”, but never subjectify it–”I am a sex addict” or “I am a procrastinator”. We are rarely specific nor do we own up to the fact that the “thing” is in us, has infiltrated our very being, has grafted itself into our very DNA, family life, church life, etc. [Read more...]

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Confucianism is the backdrop of a lot of Asian churches and the interractions that take place within them.One of the ways this hierarchical and (my father might say) aristocratic system plays out is pastors and leaders are deferred to almost out of hand.

And why not? There is plenty of scriptural texts to back that up — where “one” leads “the many” –Moses, Joshua, David, so on and so forth.

A great deal of value is placed on the leader and the position carries more weight than on the average layperson. It is hard to see a pastor/reverend consider himself a mere teaching elder and it is even harder for a layperson to limit the pastor/reverend to that role. The pastor/reverend is not merely a teacher, or a theologian, he or she is authoritative, well-networked, and dare-I-say-it, a shaman of sorts.

Is it any wonder then, that this centralized way of looking at leadership could be harmful to the body? Is it possible that by professionalizing our clergy, we have done the church a great disservice?

I wonder if out of self-interest and self-preservation, many pastors take on greater roles in order to validate their work and refuse to give away their power and authority. Or perhaps they draw the line even more distinctly between themselves and laity in order to protect the commonly held notions of power and that Confucian sense of order. Perhaps, they like being trusted, needed, looked up to. And alternatively, they find it very hard to believe that you may not need them…even harder to believe that you could do ministry without them.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying this with a bitter or mean spirit. I’m just bringing up the worst case scenario between the laity idolizing our pastors and the clergy pressing down upon the laity. There can be a great deal of mistrust on both sides. And while I appreciate Confucius, I think it might be high time, for Asians especially, to deconstruct him.

Because while I trust my pastor, there is another I trust more.

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Was the primary message of Jesus an answer to the question: “How to get to heaven?”

Is it really “silly” (MacArthur’s words, not mine) to expect Jesus to fix the petty problems in our lives?

Is this a “straw man” argument — or is MacArthur truly hitting McLaren on the nose?

Also, is “the truth” of the Bible always and readily clear? Are Emergent folks rejecting the Word because it’s not clear and they don’t like what it says?

Interesting perspective on things…[edit] Be sure to check out TallSkinnyKiwi’s take on MacArthur’s book (mentioned in the video), I believe he’s fair in his critique of what is going on in America.

Part 1 /2

Part 2/2

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