Trevin Wax interviews N T Wright

Trevin Wax is the Minister of Education and Missions at First Baptist Church in Shelbyville, TN. A contributor to Christianity Today, Trevin is originally from Murfreesboro, TN and is currently finishing his Masters of Divinity at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY via the extension center in Nashville. He received his bachelor’s degree at Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania, where he was involved in mission work in several village churches in the Oradea area from 2000-2005. Trevin’s wife is Corina and they have a son, Timothy and a daughter on the way.

Two quotes from the interview, which you can read in full here
“…We don’t know how the kingdom works. Take Jesus’ parables about seeds growing secretly and small seeds becoming mustard bushes and so on. The kingdom is always a surprise to us, which keeps us humble. The danger with “building the kingdom” language can make us very proud. “Building for the kingdom” keeps you humble. It says, “These are your tasks; you’ve got to get on with them. How God puts them into the eventual construct is completely his business.”

“…It dawned on me several years ago that when somebody says “no” to God and refuses to worship the God in whose image they are made, saying “I’m not going to worship that God,” then what happens to their humanness is that it progressively ceases to bear the image of God. You become like what you worship. You reflect the one you worship. It’s one of the great truths of spirituality…”

Love your neighbour

The great thing about the Web is that you're constantly bumping into things you didn't know existed. I was looking for a bit of material for a workshop I took on the weekend, and came across the Love Your Neighbour site. It's hosted in New Zealand, and focuses on NZ stories. They're well written ones, too.

One of the main intentions of the site is to encourage local churches to get involved in their local community, to uncover needs that are peculiar to their local area, and to find ways to help.

Their basic strategy is simple: they're calling churches to

• to adopt the streets in their community,
• to prayerwalk those streets,
• to build community through fun events and acts of kindness,
• to capitalize on the goodwill that has been created by following up with an invitation to hear the gospel.

Churches invovled with the Love Your Neighbour project begin by choosing to be outward, rather than inward-focused. They ask, as a church, how far do the cords of your tent extend? How big is the ‘parish’ that God has called you to serve?

Their strategy is as simple as ABC: Adopt, Befriend, Co-operate. You can see more detail about the strategy on their site.

Expelled again

Some comments relating to this blog don't actually make it onto the site. Henry Neufield, to whom I referred readers in regard to the film, Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed, wrote to me personally, and we had a bit of email chit-chat back and forth. He told me he "was most impressed since you are the first person in many moons to call me "pretty sane"!"

I take that as a compliment. ! (For those who haven't picked up on this movie yet, the Intelligence bit is a play on words regarding the intelligence of some of those interviewed in the movie, the intelligence of some of the Universities that have denied certain professors the right to speak about Intelligent Design, and of course, Intelligent Design itself. But you'd already figured all that out, hadn't you?)

Anyway, more on the movie itself. CT at the Movies has a fairly lengthy but worth reading review of it here. They're perhaps a little more middle of the road about it than Henry was, which is okay, and have some positive things to say about it. And I'd like to quote a short section of the review, which might give some of you a laugh:

Stein, in his inimitable way, tries to corner [Richard]Dawkins into acknowledging the possible existence of God — or at least some sort of intelligent designer behind it all. At first, Dawkins doesn't budge, and is incredulous at Stein's line of questions. But Stein, deadpan yet persistent, latches on to Dawkins' comment that he's 99 percent certain there's no God — and runs with it. "Why not 97 percent?" Stein asks. "Why not 49 percent?"

Stein continues to press until a clearly irritated Dawkins says something quite astonishing. "Okay," he says in essence (I'm paraphrasing, because I don't have the precise quote), "maybe there is an intelligent designer. But if there is, I can guarantee that that intelligent designer is a life form that evolved elsewhere and came to earth and seeded life here."

Huh? So that's his concession to the ID camp? That if they're at all right, that we were designed by aliens who evolved somewhere else in the universe? Yowza.

Review: Surprised by Hope by Tom Wright

Tom Wright has several things he wants to put across in this book, but there are two particular ones that stand out for me. Firstly he wants to encourage the church to change its view of what happens to us after death, and secondly, and even more important, he wants us to realise the extent to which we're affected, in every aspect of our lives, by Jesus' resurrection from the dead, and our own future resurrection in the new heavens/new earth.

I must confess I'm a person who likes to read books that speculate as far as possible on where (and what) we'll be in the post-death future. I sometimes feel a little alone in this, as, to my surprise, many Christians don't appear to care overly much. For them vague thoughts of 'heaven' are enough. However, Wright isn't prepared to let us away with any kind of vagueness. He spends a good amount of time dealing to the usual idea of 'heaven,' which he says is not only inaccurate, it's not even Scriptural.

For him the resurrection of Jesus is of utter importance in relation to our future. The resurrection will sweep up everything in this world and recreate it in the new. For Wright, everything that's of value here will have value eternally, and he's not just talking about 'spiritual' things, but about creative things, about work and love and kindness and relationships and all manner of other aspects of our everyday lives. The 'first' resurrection happened here, in this world, and it will ultimately affect everything in this world. The new creation will incorporate the old, making all the old of immense value.

But this is just part of the message in the book. Wright presents a wide-ranging and accessible theology of the resurrection, of Easter itself, of the Christian's hope as it was understood in the early church, of what Jesus' judgment of this world means, of whether Purgatory and Paradise have any relevance to us.

And in his final section, where some of the best material lies (in a book full of good material), he writes of hope in practice: how the resurrection affects the mission of the church.

If you've ever felt that we've lost the point of Easter, that the resurrection was a one-off and rather odd event, and that our deaths are fairly irrelevant in the scheme of things, read this book. Even if you don't agree with all Wright's theology – as some (plainly misguided critics) don't – I'll be surprised if you're not inspired by at least some of what he has to say.

reviewed by Mike Crowl

Tom Wright on the Church

A couple of extracts from Tom Wright's address to the Fulcrum Conference Islington 2008

“… the church, in its very life as well as in what it says to communities and individuals, [is] … indeed the missionary body of Christ, the community at which the principalities and powers look and realise, perhaps with an angry shock, that Jesus is Lord and they are not; the community at which ordinary people look and realise, perhaps with an eager start, that there is after all a different way to be human and that they want to find out what makes it tick.

Let the Bible shape your eschatology; let that biblical eschatology shape your mission; and then let that eschatologically-shaped mission shape your view of the church; and you'll find that, instead of the shrill functional pragmatism of today's muddled left, insisting on breaking old rules because they're outdated, and the equally shrill and functional pragmatism of today's muddled right, insisting on keeping old rules because they're the old rules even at the cost of unity, you will have a robust, biblical, Christ-centred, Spirit-led, costly ecclesiology that will be in good shape to take forward God's mission into the next generation…

…The late, great Lesslie Newbigin was once asked whether, when he looked at the church, he was an optimist or a pessimist. I make his reply my own. I am neither an optimist, nor a pessimist: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!”

Keeping Time

John Sweetman, on the Neoleader blog, makes several good points about watching how you handle your time as a minister.
A couple of these are of particular value:

Keep a to-do list. It's better to have a list of jobs to do (it can be updated daily) rather than trying to keep things in your head, and hoping you'll remember what's important. Otherwise it's easy to get sidetracked onto less important tasks. And keep the list handy: if it's hard to access, like being in some program on your computer, you'll be less likely to pay attention to it. (Paper and pen are still valid tools in the postmodern age.)

Let your diary be your protector and pay attention to it. It's perfectly valid to book yourself up on so many days of the year, but not on others. An essential number of days need to be kept free for family, relaxation, retreats, exercise and friends. It's a good idea, John writes, to block out these days at the beginning of the year, and make them non-negotiables. Only true emergencies should take them over.

More from Rick Warren on Leadership

You never lead by yourself. You always do it in context of a team. All great leaders are great team builders. In fact, if you don’t have a team, you’re not a leader. You’re a loner. The test of leadership is whether anyone is following you.

Jesus modeled this kind of ministry. He never did ministry alone. Mark 3:14 says, “He appointed twelve – designating them apostles – that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” Jesus enlisted other people to serve the cause with him.

If God gives you a vision for your ministry, he’s going to bring other people with the same idea together with you. If nobody agrees on your idea, guess what? It’s not from God.

A time to be simple

Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples, by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.

Based on case studies of four hundred American churches, authors Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger prove that the process for making disciples has quite often become too complex. Simple churches are thriving, and they are doing so by taking these four ideas to heart: Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus. Each idea is examined here, simply showing why it is time to simplify.

One Amazon reviewer noted: The only part of this book, or the genre, that ought to give the reader pause is that the authors presume that ministry requires a strategic process through which people are funnelled on the way to spiritual growth. While that is the reality of modern, institutional church management, it seems to overrule the fluid and organic (if not disorganized) ministry of Jesus and the disciples while co-opting their names. This is not a major critique of the book, just the observation that business management principles are governing the church whose founder had very little to say about business management.

Responses to this book vary from considerable enthusiasm to some concern about the way the authors ideas of ‘decluttering’ tend to throw some babies out with the bathwater.

Slideshow

On one of the blogs I read regularly, I came across a 'slideshow' that had been sent on from yet another blogger.

It's a slideshow giving some definitions of the differences between Modern and PostModern. It's not long, but there are several slides that would make good starting points for discussions about the point in history we're now in and what we're leaving behind.

I think slide 18 says it all: We must think like missionaries again! Which of course is what this blog is all about.

| View | Upload your own

Transitioning....?

Gordon MacDonald writes a semi-fictional account of what it's like to be in a church in the process of change....

Who Stole My Church? : What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century, by Gordon MacDonald.

MacDonald (Ordering Your Private World) charts new territory in church growth books by turning what could have been a long list of dos and don'ts into a highly readable, even novelistic, approach to the subject. With himself as narrator, MacDonald creates a cast of church members in their 50s, 60s and 70s who meet each week to discuss where their church has been, is now and should go in the future. All I know is that someone stole my church and I'd like to get it back, says one. MacDonald delves into the feelings of the older generation as they watch new leadership take over, see changes in music and use of technology, and begin to wonder how they will fit in. He challenges their understanding of what the church is, then looks at the early church and the modern church and the many cultural influences that transform Christian spirituality. MacDonald is especially strong when he includes young people's perspectives or brings research to bear on how people view and act on change. This is a challenging, innovative approach to a delicate subject. It's sure to benefit church leaders and members of all ages who dream of a reinvented church.

Tod Bolsinger and the emerging church

Martin Stewart of Christchurch writes: I’ve been looking at Tod Bolsinger’s blog recently – he is one among many thinking about the emerging church – I think he gets the balance between mission and theology right in that the two are not seen as separate entities as we often end up making them to be.

Martin referred to a particular post in which Bolsinger quotes Richard Mouw, who asked: "Should we attempt to be communities of interest or communities of memory?"

Bolsinger comments on this question: That is to say, which is more important: restructuring churches to appeal to the outsider who is searching for God and responding to the missional opportunities and challenges present in the culture or insuring that churches remained focused on the liturgical, doctrinal and sacramental elements that keeps the church anchored in it's core beliefs and practices?

Check out the rest of what Bolsinger has to say by clicking here.

Words of advice - from Picasso

I can't vouch for these being actual quotes from Picasso, but each of them has value without being attributed to him (!)

"He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law."

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working."

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."

"Action is the foundational key to all success."

"Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not."

"Youth has no age."

Leaving the church, young and old?

In one of those careless moments, I managed to post this onto my own blog, instead of this one. So here it is now, in its rightful place - a few days late.

If there is one thing that everyone in youth ministry seems to talk about it’s how to keep students following Christ after they leave school - especially if they then go onto University or Polytech. Even more so if they leave home
at the same time.

Kara Powell, the executive director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California [man, these Americans have long job titles], says that data shows, 50% of high school students who had been deeply involved in a church’s youth ministry will not be serving God 18 months after graduation. And that’s not counting the many other high school students who are only going to church because their parents are forcing them.

She asks four questions of church and youth leaders:
What gospel are we feeding our kids?
Are students' doubts welcome at our table?
How can kids take their place at God’s diverse kingdom table?
How can we train students to feed themselves after graduation?

Her answers to, and explanations of, these questions can be found in this report from the Shift Conference.

What is interesting, however, is that these questions could just as easily apply to adult Christians. As Skye Jethani says, 48 year olds may not be leaving the church the way 18 year olds are, but are they really growing? Are we feeding them a Red Bull gospel? Are we teaching them to be self-feeders? Are their doubts and struggles welcomed?

Friendship

A friendship, like falling asleep, is something you cannot enter into by sheer willpower. I can open myself up to it. I can pray for it. I can look for people and invite them out for coffee. Then maybe we find common ground. Maybe we make each other laugh, or find the same books interesting. Then we find that we are somehow loyal to each other, want good things for each other, are willing to speak difficult truth to each other.

But I cannot make this occur. Friendship happens, when it happens, as a gift.

From a short article by John Ortberg entitled, Spiritual Friends.

Stolen Goods: Tempted to Plagiarize

Understanding the necessity of citation and the damage of deceit

Thomas G. Long, well-known for his own books on preaching, has written an excellent article on the problems inherent in 'borrowing' other people's sermons from the Internet, or other sources, in order to use them as our own in our own churches. He looks at the pros and cons, at the ethics, and whether there's a difference in plagiarising someone's sermon compared to plagiarising someone's other writings.

His conclusions are mostly against the practice, but it's plain from the comments that follow the article that some people regard it as normal to preach someone else's sermon on a Sunday.

Ministering in Rural Areas

Muriel Mellow has been running a series of articles on the Canadian Church Rural Network site. The latest (and last) is now available. (Previous ones are in the Archives section.)

The articles have been based on her book, Defining Work: Gender Professional Work and the Case of Rural Clergy. The most recent article in the series is entitled: Professional Demands and Personal Lives, and looks at how rural clergy manage the relationship between professional and private life, and the different challenges for women and men in this regard. What's presented in the article is a much condensed version of what she has to say in the book.

Here's what the publisher's blurb has to say about the book: For rural clergy, the lines between private life and professional life can blur. Their offices are often in their homes, parishioners are also neighbours, and professional duties are intertwined with emotional caregiving and volunteer activity. In a society that defines work as paid, public, and intellectual the ambiguity inherent in the life of the rural clergy poses unique challenges. Muriel Mellow considers how men and women in this occupational group conceptualize "work" in the context of their unique circumstances and shows how their experience raises questions for feminist theories of work. Based on interviews with forty rural Protestant clergy, Mellow argues that male and female clergy challenge gendered definitions of work by focusing on obligation, context, visibility, and time. She also considers how clergys work is shaped by the rural setting, arguing that we must consider how work is "placed" as well as gendered.

The book was published in 2006.

Willow Creek and the Reveal Survey

I went to check up on a post I'd written on Willow Creek's Reveal survey and discovered it wasn't there. Because I hadn't written it.

I first came across the Reveal survey where it was discussed as part of the Shift Conference, about which I have previously written (!) The writer seemed to indicate that Willow Creek had made major shifts of emphasis as a result of the survey, but it seems as though the responses to the survey (a) may not have been well-interpreted, and (b) have been responses to a survey that had some flaws.

Of course there's always someone on the Net who's prepared to write at length about such issues, and a friend has pointed me to an eleven-part series on the positives and negatives of the survey. It was written late last year, so is still fairly up to date. Furthermore, the writer, Bradley Wright, is a professor at the University of Connecticut, where he studies the sociology of Christianity. You may not want to read all he has to say (some of it's a little technical), so you can skip to the summary
However, those with an interest in seeing how better to view church/Christian behaviour and response, can start at the beginning (the posts are fairly short.)

Gone for Good?

We wrote about Alan Jamieson's books a few posts ago. Another title that complements his thinking is this one, from the UK.

Gone for Good?: Church Leaving and Returning in the 21st Century, by Leslie Francis and Philip Richter.

In their thought-provoking analysis, Francis and Richter provide a detailed account of the different reasons behind church leaving. They also identify how some church leavers can be converted more easily than others into becoming church returners. The authors look at why many people are disillusioned with the church, while for others questions are around matters of teaching, style of worship or incompatibility of lifestyle. For others, the costs of being involved in the church are too high, for others there are issues about change or lack of it.

Leslie Francis and Philip Richter have evaluated over 7000 telephone interviews and more than 900 questionnaires completed by people who have left churches of different Christian denominations. They provide powerful and authoritative insights into what church leavers really think about the church and into who is likely to return and who is likely to stay away.
Epworth Press 2007

What makes a Maori a Maori?

Just catching up on a couple of Grapevine magazines, and found another article of interest. For those who puzzle over what makes a Maori a Maori, and many other issues relating to Maori and Pakeha in New Zealand, this is an accessible and readable interview with Sam Chapman, who, with his wife Thelma, is the founder of Houhanga Rongo and Project Awhi

Sam and Thelma live in Otara, South Auckland, and since 1978 have offered their love and their home to the kind of people no one else wants: people from prisons and gangs, and other people who are socially not in the right status quo.

You can find the article on Grapevine's website (amongst a host of other good material).

Photo courtesy of the NZ Herald

Men and Depression

One of the areas National Mission Office has been concerned with is the health of Presbyterian ministers around the country. Ministers can suffer from burn-out, depression and the symptoms that go with these. And often they feel forced to keep on keeping on because ministers are supposed to be capable people.

Male depression is only just beginning to be regarded as a prime source of suicide amongst men in mid-life - as recent tv ads will have indicated.

Via an article in the magazine, Grapevine, I've just become aware of a site called MenAlive.com. It focuses on depression, mid-life crises, irritable male syndrome (that's right, no typo there), and other related issues.

It's an American site, but it has a links page that is global in its range. And quite apart from that, depression is common to mankind (and womankind, or course!)