Archive for the 'Missions' Category

Doug Wilson on the mosque and a different kind of spine

Published on August 23, 2010 in Missions and Politics. 0 Comments

God’s people need the “spine” and character to shine the light of Christ in controversies that arise in the public square.  Doug Wilson effectively points this out in a post regarding the mosque controversy. 

Previously, I pointed to a column by Ross Douthat on the building of a mosque at Ground Zero.  Now, Doug Wilson begins a post on the mosque by noticing:

The proposed Ground Zero mosque provides us with a wonderful case study of public square issues, and of the great need for a new Christendom. And since the opportunities in this situation to gain wisdom are enormous, it is not surprising that just about everybody is refusing to do so. . .

He concludes:

Someone really does need to tell secularist America that her gods are genuinely pathetic. And currently, the Muslims are doing this because the Christians won’t. And the Christians who won’t do this are not so much in need of a different kind of theology as they are in need of a different kind of spine.

Here to read the whole thing.

HT: Tim Challies

Douthat on the Mosque Controversy

Published on August 17, 2010 in Culture, Missions and Politics. 1 Comment

Ross Douthat’s thoughts on the NYC mosque/Ground Zero controversy are the most insightful I have heard thus far.

There’s an America where it doesn’t matter what language you speak, what god you worship, or how deep your New World roots run. An America where allegiance to the Constitution trumps ethnic differences, language barriers and religious divides. An America where the newest arrival to our shores is no less American than the ever-so-great granddaughter of the Pilgrims.

But there’s another America as well, one that understands itself as a distinctive culture, rather than just a set of political propositions. This America speaks English, not Spanish or Chinese or Arabic. It looks back to a particular religious heritage: Protestantism originally, and then a Judeo-Christian consensus that accommodated Jews and Catholics as well. It draws its social norms from the mores of the Anglo-Saxon diaspora — and it expects new arrivals to assimilate themselves to these norms, and quickly.

Here to read the whole thing.

HT: Mike Wittmer

The number one threat for America?

Published on August 8, 2010 in Culture and Missions. 1 Comment

Scott Moore points to what one professor says is the number one threat to America.  I suspect he is correct.

I will never forget the serious look on Dr. Richard Pratt’s face one Monday night as he was expressing his number one fear for the next generation. It was not alcoholism, or disease. It was not liberalism, or the church’s view on women being ordained (or not) in ministry. He looked across the classroom and called all of us to take heed to the Islamic growth in America. One statistic I remember is that the census reported that by year 2025, one major metropolitan city, in America, will be predominately . . .

Read the rest here.

HT: Z

NPR: In the land of Mao, a rising tide of Christianity

Published on July 26, 2010 in Missions. 0 Comments

Worshippers attend a service at a Christian church in China's Protestant heartlandA recent NPR article surveys the rapid spread of Christianity in China.  It concludes:

China’s Christians are pushing back the boundaries, and the authorities don’t seem to know how to respond. Recent reports say some leaders of larger unofficial churches are harassed and persecuted and their congregations are prevented from meeting in their previous places of worship.

But in this rural part of China, these young missionaries are operating without hindrance.

After their performance, they climb into a trailer pulled by a tractor, which will take them to their next destination. They are intent on saving souls, one village at a time.

China’s youth once trundled across the countryside spreading communism. Now, they’re spreading God’s word.

Read the whole thing here.

Your first business every day

Published on July 25, 2010 in Missions and Quotes. 0 Comments

Psalms are a wonderful place to get your soul into a “happy state.”  This summer, I have been memorizing Psalm 65.  The Psalm shows us how we can experience joy when we meditate on how both the power of God and the goodness of God are seen in His creation.

George Mueller was a 19th century pastor who had a great passion for orphans.  You can read more about George Mueller on the Desiring God site. 

Below is one of his most famous quotes in which he describes the first priority of his daily routine.

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first and great primary business to which I ought to attend every day, was to have my soul happy in the Lord.  The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might sere the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished . . . I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it.  George Mueller of Bristol

Steeples in the valleys and the most fortuitous moment in human history

Published on June 18, 2010 in Missions and Sabbatical. 0 Comments

The picture to the right is of Jamie and me in the Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland.  One cannot look at too many village landscapes in Western Europe, without seeing a steeple.

I recall once reading that Calvin said when Paul received the Macedonian call it was the most fortuitous moment in history.  It meant that the Gospel traveled west rather than east – - initially to Europe rather than Asia.  Given the boundaries of the Roman Empire, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel soon blazed all the way to England and in God’s Providence, to the New World. (This post will help you better understand the point).

By circa 200, Tertullian was able to say:

We are but of yesterday, but we have filled every place among you cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.

Traveling about Europe, it is mind boggling to see churches dotted across the landscape and to consider how the entire culture was shaped by the cause of Christ.

Yet, it is also tragic to reflect on the reality that much of the spiritual soil here is as tillable as concrete.  We so need to pray for the West!

Last night after having dinner in Salzburg, our family reflected together on the Great Commission and the call to go into all the world and make disciples.  We awoke to the Salzburg church bells ringing, reminding us that nearly 2000 years ago, God directed Paul to spread the Gospel West.

See also, The Miracle that was Paul

Let’s multiply our talents with this sort of ingenuity . . .

Published on May 19, 2010 in Missions. 0 Comments

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) encourages us to multiply what has been entrusted to us – - rather than playing it safe.  To multiply talents requires hard work, risk, and creativity. 

Examples like the one below (of how the Allies helped POW’s escape in WWII), remind me that human beings faced with desperate circumstances and a clear goal can be amazingly creative.  Read the below example and consider the challenge to multiply what has been entrusted to you with this sort of resourcefulness. 

The board game Monopoly served allied prisoners as a real-life tool to get out of jail during World War II, says Brian McMahon in Mental Floss, a magazine devoted to intellectual esoterica.

monopoly dogIn 1941, the British Secret Service asked the game’s British licensee John Waddington Ltd. to add secret extras to some sets, which had become standard elements of the aid packages that the Red Cross delivered to allied prisoners of war. Along with the usual dog, top hat and and thimble, the sets had a metal file, compass, and silk maps of safe houses (silk, because it folds into small spaces and unfolds silently). Even better, real French, German and Italian currency was hidden underneath the game’s fake money. Departing allied soldiers and pilots were told that if they were captured they should look out for the special editions, identified by a red dot in the Free Parking space.

The rest here.

HT: Challies

NY Times: AIDS War is falling apart

Published on May 13, 2010 in Missions. 0 Comments

The New York Times:

On the grounds of Uganda’s biggest AIDS clinic, Dinavance Kamukama sits under a tree and weeps.

Her disease is probably quite advanced: her kidneys are failing and she is so weak she can barely walk. Leaving her young daughter with family, she rode a bus four hours to the hospital where her cousin Allen Bamurekye, born infected, both works and gets the drugs that keep her alive.

But there are no drugs for Ms. Kamukama. As is happening in other clinics in Kampala, all new patients go on a waiting list. A slot opens when a patient dies.

“So many people are being supported by America,” Ms. Kamukama, 28, says mournfully. “Can they not help me as well?”

The answer increasingly is no. Uganda is the first and most obvious example of how the war on global AIDS is falling apart.

Read the rest. 

HT: Z

Two false notions American churches should reject about global ministry

Published on April 13, 2010 in Missions. 1 Comment

Mark Noll, in his important book, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith:

For American churches to participate in the universal body of Christ in ways that reflect the deepest realities of that body, it will be necessary to discard two false notions – - both Western paternal benevolence in which the instinct is to think that unless Americans do it, it will not get done, and also Western hegemonic imperialism whereby all the evils of the world are laid at the feet of American dominated-multinationals or mission agencies.  Once those delusions are set aside, practices of partnership drawing on genuine Christian realities may flourish.

Before you make this loan, ask how good is God’s credit rating?

Published on April 8, 2010 in Missions, Proverbs and justice. 1 Comment

Proverbs 19:17, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Wouldn’t you agree that God is a good credit risk?

Matthew 25:40