Viral Faith

The field of ethics is actually the structured evaluation of behavior.  It is the consideration of why we do what we do.  It consists of hard to define, but inherently understandable concepts such as morality, justice, equity, and best-interests.  When it comes to Christian ethics, or the analysis of why Christians do what Christians do, or are supposed to do, there have been radically different understandings within the Christian community.  For instance, some Christians feel strongly that war is an act of God, and to participate is consistent with God's desired will.  Therefore, participating as a soldier in war would be considered ethical.  However, many Christians feel strongly that war is contrary to the will of God, and actively resist participating in war.  These Christians find war highly unethical.  How do we analyze the difference in the view of war among Christians: Through the study of ethics. Ethicists look at reasons for beh...

This Christmas season, I have been greatly impacted by the drive and determination of one of the members of the congregation that I serve.  Kaela is not one of the officers of the church, nor does she have a powerful civic post, but she is a determined teenage follower of Jesus. Kaela is leading an effort within our congregation to raise money this Christmas season to drill wells in Haiti.  She is deeply inspiring as she has personally been convicted that God is calling us to make a difference in the devastated nation of Haiti by simply offering clean, reliable water.  Approximately 60,000 people in Haiti have been affected by the scourge of cholera which is directly connected to a tainted water supply. Kaela's presentations have shown her passion and her deep grief for the people of Haiti.  The burden that God has placed in her heart is evident and I find my heart breaking as she shows us that to celebrate Jesus is to minister to him i...

I have been thinking a lot about worship services lately.  What is the purpose of worship service?  What are the goals of worship service?  Is the service to God, and secondarily blesses people, or are the people of the community primary? I believe that the late Robert Webber was correct when he described the role of worship as "the celebration of God's story".  We stop during our week, to reflect on God's story, where He is the central character, His Word is the script, and His people play small but important roles.  There is a temptation to watch the telling of God's story like we watch TV or a sporting event.  However, the reality is that God gives us instruction through scripture that our worship is to be highly participatory and interactive.  In other words, worship does not "happen" to us, but occurs through us.  Ideally, it is the fully trinitarian experience of revelation from God the father, incarnational experience of the presence of...

Mark 1:14-15 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus begins His ministry with a triumphant declaration that the "Kingdom of God" is present and tangible.  His listeners would have had a clear image of what the "Kingdom of God" should look like, unfortunately, that image was dead wrong.  To many people at the time of Jesus, the Kingdom of God was thought to be a political entity inwhich God would use a conquering Messiah to make Israel a global superpower and throw off the shackles of Roman oppression.  They misunderstood the nature of the revolution by limiting the vision to military, economic, and political might, as opposed to a fundamental transformation of humanity. My thought today, is that we can be sincere in our anticipation of what God is doing, but also be ...

I have been noticing that despite a recent vacation, I still feel somewhat fatigued.  It has taken me some time to understand why I wasn't fully rested.  I was sharing with our pastoral team this week, that God desires us his pastors to do three things at the core of our calling: 1. Pray (Connecting with God, listening to God, and interceding for His people) 2. Reading Scripture (Understanding the revealed will of God based upon the Holy scriptures) 3. Spiritual Direction (Being aware of God's presence and desire among the people we minister with) Eugene Peterson, in his excellent book, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity , suggests that all of these activities are a continium  that begins with being attentive to God, so that we can properly understand His will (scripture), so that we can then see that will in the lives of others.  The focus of the pastoral call is simply connecting people with the presence and purposes of God.  Without...

Over the past 2 months, I have looked at the teachings of Jesus, and the teachings of Paul  in regards to the role of women in ministry.  We have seen thus far that Jesus had women disciples, Paul worked with women leaders, and that the most famous scriptures used to ban women from leadership and ministry are often misinterpreted, taken out of context, or mistranslated. (See parts 2-4 of this blog series). Often, Christians will cite the Old testament (Hebrew scriptures) as a justification of prohibition of women in leadership.  This is fair ground, as all scripture is inspired by God (II Tim 3:16).  What is clear, is that there is not a single command in the Mosiac law or the entire Hebrew scriptures that forbids women from being in leadership or teaching.  In fact, to the contrary, God used women in leadership despite the deeply entrenched  cultural view in ancient Palestine that women were inferior or incapable of leading. Judges ...

Over the past several weeks, we have looked at key passages from the Bible that deal with the role of women in leadership.  These selected texts are often quoted to deny women from being in positions of leadership, teaching, and influence.    I have sought to illustrate the textual meaning (what does the text actually say), the contextual background (In what context or situation was the written word addressed), and the culture (the expected roles, responsibilities, and relationships) of the era.  Thus far we have talked about Jesus' specific teachings (Part 2) and one of the seemingly prohibitive scriptures for women leadership in I Timothy 2:11-15 (part 3).  Thus far, we have seen that Jesus places no obstacles from women being full disciples and demonstrates prominent roles for women in ministry.  We say that in I Timothy2, the text speaks against women manipulating men, but does not speak against women teaching in the church. In light of this...