Video: Tim Keller & John Meacham On “The End of Christian America”

I really enjoyed this discussion on the current state of American Christianity in relation to politics and culture. This was a “Good Friday” segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. His guests are Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and Newsweek’s John Meacham (who had just published an article entitled The End of Christian America). Although billed as a “debate,” this was a thoughtful, fair discussion. If only the majority of cable TV talk shows were like this! Enjoy.

done

[HT - Missional Education]

You Can Help: Blankets, Coats Needed in Dallas

The temperature is finally beginning to drop in the Dallas, TX area. Our missional community gave out as many coats, jeans, socks, and shoes as we could to the homeless this week but there was not enough to go around. As the nights are getting colder, the need for warm clothes and blankets is increasing.

To provide some background, I am a member of one of the missional communities of Providence Community Church in Plano, TX. Our church frequently teaches about the Kingdom of Christ and kingdom-living. Responding to Jesus’s teachings about the poor, two couples in our church decided that they ought to begin to serve “the least of these” so they began to spend time with the homeless in downtown Dallas. They began to build relationships with these folks and brought food and clothing to them once a week.

Our missional community had been praying about how we might serve the poor and homeless among us. Within a couple months, one of these couples moved close to us, joined our missional community and shared with us what they had been doing with the homeless downtown. Our missional community gladly joined their efforts. With more families involved we were now able to supply more clothing and food when we would go to spend time with the homeless each week.

It has been several months now and this has been a great experience for everyone. Even the kids are happily engaged as they help us prepare the food each week. And our homeless friends minister to us as much as we minister to them, of course.

If you are in the Dallas-area: would you consider donating clothes and blankets to the homeless? Email me at pursuing_truth at hotmail dot com and we can coordinate the details. You can also help us spread the word by forwarding this post to your friends, family, co-workers and church members. Here are the items we could use for both men and women:

- Coats
- Blankets
- Jeans
- Socks
- Tennis shoes
- Boots
- T-shirts
- Wool caps
- Scarves
- Underwear
- Pretty much any clothing item except dresses. Just let common sense be your guide.

Thank you so much. Please keep our homeless friends and our efforts to serve them in your prayers. If you are in Dallas and would like to go downtown with us sometime, let me know.

Pursuing Truth,
Jeff Wright

The Other 50 Weeks

Tonight we’re going to take a “Thanksgiving” meal to our homeless friends in Dallas. Giving to the homeless increases around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and that’s a good thing. Some churches hit the streets taking food to the homeless. Other churches or municipalities host meals at their facilities. Families can volunteer to go and serve food. Schools sometimes conduct canned food drives. The Salvation Army is faithfully stationed outside shops with their red kettles.

What happens when these holidays pass? How long is it before the Thanksgiving meal you’ve eaten has passed before you need to eat again? You can probably measure it in hours rather than days, I know I can. The homeless remain among us for fifty other weeks of the year beyond the two weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This post is not meant to be a self-righteous lecture. I’ve only begun to involve myself with the homeless of my city earlier this year so I’m a newcomer to this. I simply want to use this time of the year when people are more inclined to be sensitive to the needs of the poor and homeless to raise awareness. Long-term solutions are still needed. And even if solutions are hard to come by, we have done unto Christ whatever we have done unto the least of these and that is worth our effort even if the homeless problem isn’t “solved” (see the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 25).

Below is a video from Central Dallas Ministries entitled, “Homeless: The Dallas No One Wants to See.”

Oh, the Irony!

Today’s edition of the Christian History Newsletter from ChristianHistory.net includes this bit of trivia that brought a bit of an evil grin to my face:

Recently, Lifeway Research published a study that showed that unchurched people “prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral than … [like] a more contemporary church building” by “a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option.” Indeed, unchurched people “may be turned off by … more utilitarian church buildings.”

Missiologist Ed Stetzer commented that “young unchurched people were particularly drawn to the Gothic look”—and I don’t think he meant black lipstick and black nail polish.

Why are we still drawn to a medieval form of architecture? Perhaps it is because strongly vertical architecture speaks of transcendence. Perhaps it is because medieval architecture speaks through symbols, while functional modern buildings stand mute.

They are “mute” at best. At worst, they scream “waste,” “opulence,” “vanity,” and “materialism.” The ironic part is that its done in the name of attracting people by giving them what they want, avoiding offense, and avoiding bad ol’ memories of the Christianity of their youth.

“Unchurched” people prefer a church building that looks like a church building? People prefer buildings that communicate transcendence rather than comfort and entertainment? Who’d a thunk it?

Video: Shane Claiborne Speaks on “Simplicity: Pursuing New Perspectives on Redistribution”

Shane Claiborne of the simple way recently spoke at the Christian Community Development Association’s (CCDA) National Conference in Cincinnati, OH. The conference was entitled: Pursuing Kingdom Priorities. Claiborne spoke on the subjects of redistribution of wealth, debt relief, misuse of resources, the power of money and creative community development. Now as soon as some of you read “redistribution” in the title of this post you kept reading only because you wanted to see if I’ve gone crazy or have given in to some kind of socialist propaganda. Whenever I read or listen to Shane Claiborne there are always some things I disagree with him about. But… he says many things that make a lot of sense even to a conservative like me.

What I admire about Claiborne is that his primary focus is on kingdom-based, church-based and community-based solutions. I rarely hear him talk about government solutions. In other words, he doesn’t believe the answers lie in big government. He believes the Bible teaches redistribution of wealth but he’s not waiting for the government to do it for him. He and his community take direct action themselves.

These (bootleg) videos do not contain his full talk but it is enough to provide food for thought. Our missional community is currently reading through his book “Jesus For President” and I highly recommend it. You might not agree with everything you read in it but it will challenge your thinking and inspire you to begin to think with a kingdom of Christ perspective rather than a Democrat or Republican one.

Yeah, It’s Not the Government’s Responsibility! Oh, wait…

Many Americans this morning, particularly conservatives, are celebrating an announcement from Gallup.com:

More in U.S. Say Health Coverage Is Not Gov’t. Responsibility by Frank Newport
Marks significant shift from the attitudes of the past decade
PRINCETON, NJ — More Americans now say it is not the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage (50%) than say it is (47%). This is a first since Gallup began tracking this question, and a significant shift from as recently as three years ago, when two-thirds said ensuring healthcare coverage was the government’s responsibility.

This announcement is being enlisted in the battle to stop the Democrat’s healthcare bill(s). I’m sure many radio talk shows and cable programs will discuss this at some point today.

So let us stipulate that it truly is not the government’s responsiblity. Let’s say the healthcare reform bills are defeated (and I do hope they are defeated). Then what? The opponents of the legislation will celebrate, the nation will divert its attention to something else and the politicians will fight over some other issue.

If it is not the government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage (and I agree that it is not), whose responsibility is it? The standard answer is that it is each individual’s responsibility to procure healthcare coverage for themselves. At this point, those of us who subscribe to some version of this point of view leave it at that and declare the matter resolved. But we don’t live in the world of political theory where things are as neat and tidy as we sometimes make them out to be.

Jesus was right: the poor will always be among us. We can either shrug our shoulders and use Jesus’s word as an excuse to do nothing or we can take action. What is the Church’s responsibility to the poor among us who are without health insurance? We, as Christians, are not primarily Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. We are not primarily conservatives, liberals and moderates. We are servants of the Most High God. We are the King’s subjects. We claim to be followers and disciples of Jesus the Christ. This is the lens we ought to use when we look at these issues. Here are some passages from Scripture to help us fine-tune our lenses:

“Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him.” Psalm 41:1
“Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.” Proverbs 14:21
“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” Prov. 14:31
“Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.” Prov. 17:5
“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.” Prov. 19:17
“Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” Prov. 21:13
“Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” Prov. 22:9

Jesus: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46

What is the Church’s responsibility to the poor among us who are without health insurance? The Bible, of course, does not speak directly to modern healthcare or health insurance. In the passage above, Jesus only speaks about visiting the sick. Should we assume that this is the extent of our responsibility? I don’t think so. So how can we as followers of Jesus, who had a great deal to say about caring for the poor, actively care for the people of our neighborhoods who are in need of health care?

These are not loaded questions or merely hypothetical ones. These are questions I am wrestling with along with our missional community. I know some local churches and charities are involved in this work and I look forward to learning from those who are already engaged. Leave a comment if you want to discuss ideas here.

The answers are not easy but we, servants of Christ and His kingdom, must be engaged. To my conservative brethren: we may believe that it is not the government’s responsibility to ensure that all Americans have health coverage but that just means that the solutions lie elsewhere. The needs remain. If the government is not the solution, we must become the solution. The hands and feet of Christ have hung limp and paralyzed for far too long.

Video: Advent Conspiracy 2009

Worship Fully :: Spend Less :: Give More :: Love All

Then Jesus said, “Big government is the salt of the earth…”

I hardly follow the day-to-day political squabbles. It didn’t used to be that way for me. In the past I would go from news sites and blogs to talk radio all day. It’s not that I think we should forget about politics or that political affairs do not matter. These issues do matter. What I want to see and participate in is the people of God being the people of God and living as disciples of Christ our King.

When we talk about the great issues of our day I’m particularly interested in the actions of the Church. What will my local church do, for example, when a family is without health insurance? Will their small group or missional community be able to help them? What if their bill is thousands of dollars? Can the church’s benevolence fund handle that? Should we pool X% of our income and designate it for emergency medical issues? What about the widows, orphans, and extreme poor of our local community? Are we doing anything at all at this present time to even know how to go about answering any of these questions? Merely debating (which we ought to do, including Congress which seems to never debate any more) how the federal government is going to supposedly reform healthcare is not really taking responsibility as the people of God to live as we ought. Thinking the federal government is going to live out “kingdom values” by enacting this or that legislation is a pipe dream. We must live them out ourselves.

Let’s face it – our power-hungry government confiscates our life’s blood and seeks to continually expand its control over every area of our lives. The less they are allowed to do this, the more we will be able to do for ourselves and others what big government cannot. The less they intervene where they shouldn’t, the less they will make things worse. The more we can keep of our own resources the more we will have to help others. At least that’s the theory.

Liberals are wrong when they delegate their responsibilities to the government. They are wrong for remaining satisfied with their good intentions even when the actions they favor actually make things worse. If you believe in redistribution of wealth, no one is stopping you. Set up a system where money and other resources are voluntarily redistributed among the members of your community and stop advocating that the federal government confiscate people’s money in order to do what you don’t do yourself. Show us by example what this looks like. Give us a model to emulate. Thankfully, some communities are doing this.

Conservatives are wrong when they do not use the wealth they already have to help others at the same time they are complaining about the government taking too much from them and doing too much on their behalf. Conservatives are also wrong when they rely on laws while refusing to take direct action themselves. For example, not even considering adopting a baby from a young, unmarried mother while agitating for pro-life judges. Or calling for illegals to be kicked out of the country while hiring them at cut-rates to do their landscaping. They are wrong when they cry that more government is not the answer while refusing to become the answer themselves.

I’m in favor of saying, “Big government, get out of our way and leave us free to act” but one side refuses to quit relying on big government while the other side won’t make use of the freedom they already have to help others now. And, of course, there are exceptions all around. So, both liberals and conservatives are wrong for, in their own ways, relying on the government to act while not taking direct, personal action. What would it look like for liberal and conservative Christians to focus on being the Church and following the teachings of Christ directly, firsthand instead of either farming it out to someone else or turning a blind eye? What if the time and energy we spent on laws and legislatures were spent on the strategies and actions of the Church? What if Christians spent as much time living kingdom values as we do electing government officials hoping they will do it for us?

Let’s find out.

Quote of the Day, Reformation Day Edition

[HT - Reformation Shirts and Article: Going His Way
500 Years Later, Retracing Luther's Steps to the Reformation]

Two things I would add:
1) “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
2) And, there might not be beer in heaven but I expect there might be on the new earth when Christ fully establishes His kingdom: “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:29
We’ll see!

Reformation Day 2009

Ah, October 31st, the day everyone has been looking forward to this month is finally here. What…Halloween? No! Today is what is known in some Protestant Christian circles as “Reformation Day.” What is Reformation Day about? Dr. Timothy George paints the scene:

“It was around two o’clock in the afternoon on the eve of the Day of All Saints, October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, hammer in hand, approached the main north door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg and nailed up his Ninety-Five Theses protesting the abuse of indulgences in the teaching and practice of the church of his day. In remembrance of this event, millions of Christians still celebrate this day as the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation.”

Why should we care about Reformation Day? My primary concern is not necessarily that American evangelicals ought to observe this day as a religious holiday or use it as an alternative to Halloween. (Although, Reformation Sunday is a fine idea and Reformation Day festivals can be a lot of fun). What I appreciate about Reformation Day is that it draws attention to church history and historical theology. These are two underdeveloped areas of knowledge within evangelicalism and anything that might cause us to take a moment to read an article or two related to the history of the Church is a good thing.

The Reformation also had a tremendous impact on politics, education, social practice and Western thinking as a whole so Reformation Day could generate a bit of interest for those who are not terribly concerned with Christianity. If you’re in that camp you might enjoy Alister E. McGrath’s chapters “Humanism and the Reformation” and “Scholasticism and the Reformation” found in the online version of his book “Reformation Thought”.

Eric W. Gritsch provides a helpful primer on the events surrounding Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 theses and the message of Luther in: 1517 Luther Posts the 95 Theses by Dr. Eric W. Gritsch, ChristianHistory.net An obscure monk invited debate on a pressing church issue—and touched off a history-shattering reform movement.

Timothy George (mentioned above) reminds us “that Martin Luther belongs to the entire Church, not only to Lutherans and Protestants, just as Thomas Aquinas is a treasury of Christian wisdom for faithful believers of all denominations, not simply for Dominicans and Catholics” in: Reformation Day by Timothy George, First Things.

Andrew Jones, TallSkinnyKiwi, offers an intriguing critique of “New Calvinism” in his post, Why I Am Not A New Calvinist, By One Guy Who Should Be. One of his reasons: New Calvinism is “irreversibly Western and not accountable to nor appreciative of the emerging global-south based theology (afraid of the power shift?)”

Catholic-turned-Evangelical-turned-Evangelical Catholic Francis Beckwith, asks, “Is the Reformation Over?” in his blog-post of the same name. Beckwith relays this witty quote from Dr. Peter Kreeft offering a Catholic view of the Reformation: “The Protestant Reformation began when a Catholic monk rediscovered a Catholic doctrine in a Catholic book. The monk, of course, was Luther; the doctrine was justification by faith; and the book was the Bible.”

From ChristianHistory.net’s “Did You Know?”:
“Early on as a reformer, Luther publicly concluded that penance (the church sacrament involving confession of sin) wasn’t a sacrament at all. Yet he continued to daily confess his sins to another person for most of his life.” Herbert K. Jacobsen
[see James, chapter 5]

Want more? Eric “Gunny” Hartman, pastor extraordinaire of Providence Church (Plano, TX), has compiled a list of Reformation Day links at his blog, Semper Reformanda.

On a lighter note, you might learn more about what sparked the Reformation with these videos:

“If you havin’ Church problems then don’t blame God, son…I got ninety-five theses but the Pope ain’t one!” [lyrics]

Poll: The First Thing I Do When I Get Online Is…

Growing Online Database of Theological Resources

The Hekman Library of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies hosts an online resource center called The Post-Reformation Digital Library. The editorial board for the project is collecting “digital books available from Google Books as well as smaller digital libraries such as Internet Archive, which may have books not available on Google.” The board goes on to add, “All users are encouraged to contribute to this project by reporting new books with a note under “Comments” at the bottom of the relevant page.” This effort is a great way to collectively pool all relevant digitized works into one online location.

Sub-sections of the Digital Library include:
Patristic Theology
Medieval Theology
Early Modern Theology
Early Modern Philosophy
Bibles
Correspondence
Creeds & Confessions
Periodicals
Synodical Redcords
Reference Works
Bibliographies, and more.

The proliferation of digital resources such as these continues to be a great benefit to Christian scholarship. Potential benefit, that is. We have to make the effort to take advantage of these resources! [HT - @LigonDuncan]

Related: To learn more about current efforts to digitize extant Greek New Testament manuscripts, visit The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM).

Churches, Citizens Not To Blame For Hampering Efforts of Dallas’ The Bridge

More Shelters Do Not Necessarily Solve “Strain” on Law Enforcement

At a recent meeting of social workers, shelter representatives, and other homeless-related workers in the Dallas-area, a spokesperson for Dallas’ The Bridge voiced complaints about people who assist the homeless outside of the government-approved system. In the opinion of this representative, their work is being hampered by citizens who are directly helping the homeless rather than driving homeless persons to approved shelters or volunteering at The Bridge. When churches and private citizens hit the streets and directly assist the homeless, these efforts allegedly keep homeless persons away from approved shelters. This, in turn, causes a greater strain on law enforcement personnel who must respond to disturbances that otherwise would have been avoided.

These assumptions ignore the fact that a certain percentage of homeless persons simply choose to stay away from The Bridge. Last week I asked one of our homeless friends why he does not go to The Bridge. His answer: it is too crowded and there are too many fights. We have heard similar responses from others over the past several months. Sure enough, The Dallas Morning News recently reported:

“Two people were arrested after a disturbance late Friday [Oct. 7, 2009] at The Bridge, Dallas’ homeless assistance center, police said.

About 20 officers responded to 1818 Corsicana Ave. after an intoxicated man at the shelter became belligerent when told he could not sleep in a fire exit, officials said. Several homeless men then started shouting and throwing things at officers, Deputy Chief Vince Golbeck said.”

20 officers had to respond to this incident? Sounds like a “strain” on law enforcement to me. My point is not to blow this incident out of proportion. The article does goes on to state that Deputy Chief Golbeck reports the “police have not had serious problems at the homeless center.” However, shelters are not immune from incidents requiring the assistance of law enforcement officers.

To blame the efforts of churches and private citizens for reducing the effectiveness of The Bridge is misguided. Such a mindset assumes that the work of government agencies, churches, and private citizens are in competition with one another. It also assumes that government solutions are the only solutions. The only way to help the homeless, apparently, is to volunteer for official government entities or to drive homeless individuals to their facilities. All of these assumptions are, of course, false. Public and private efforts need not be seen as in competition with one another. An all-hands-on-deck approach ought to be welcomed. If the work of The Bridge is not living up to expectations, churches and individuals seeking compassion and justice for the poor and homeless should not be cast as the scapegoats.

For more information on how churches and private citizens can take action to assist the homeless, visit the Dallas Justice Revival website.