Rene Erwich gives an overview of the theological implications of the Natural Church Development in an interesting article called Missional churches: identical global ‘plants’ or locally grown ‘flower’?
Tag: mission
The Association of Religion Data Archives
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) strives to democratize access to the best data on religion. Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997 and going online in 1998, the initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in American religion. The targeted audience and the data collection have both greatly expanded since 1998, now including American and international collections and developing features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers. Data included in the ARDA are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world.
The Church of the Non-Believers
It’s a question you may prefer not to be asked. But I’m afraid I have no choice. We find ourselves, this very autumn, three and a half centuries after the intellectual martyrdom of Galileo, caught up in a struggle of ultimate importance, when each one of us must make a commitment. It is time to declare our position.
This is the challenge posed by the New Atheists. We are called upon, we lax agnostics, we noncommittal nonbelievers, we vague deists who would be embarrassed to defend antique absurdities like the Virgin Birth or the notion that Mary rose into heaven without dying, or any other blatant myth; we are called out, we fence-sitters, and told to help exorcise this debilitating curse: the curse of faith.
The New Atheists will not let us off the hook simply because we are not doctrinaire believers. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it’s evil. Now that the battle has been joined, there’s no excuse for shirking.
Restructuring UMC
The United Methodist Church or, more specifically, its U.S. component, often continues to be entangled in U.S. political and economic ideologies and desires. … we must clearly grasp that the so-called “American Way of Life” requires critique. Capitalism and consumerism are not practices taken straight from the gospel.
Elaine A Robinson has an interesting article about the need to restructure UMC in an Age of Empire (PDF). Asking questions about the unbalanced relationship between north and south.
ELCA Global Mission
ELCA’s understanding of Global Mission in the 21st Century is explained in the paper “Global Mission in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision of Evangelical Faithfulness in God’s Mission.”
The focus on ELCA’s Global Mission is the word accompaniment that is explained here.
The cost of short-term missions
While on the phone, I asked her what she thought of those groups. Her answer might surprise you: “Everyone knows,” she said, “That short term missions benefit the people who come, not the people here.”
Is that true? If so, then thousands of people are raising millions of dollars each year to do something not for others, but for themselves. Are we fooling ourselves by pretending these trips help people when they are really just an excuse to see a foreign country? If our good works are not doing good, why do them?
via catapult magazine The cost of short-term missions. The original article is to be found on pdf at www.ajshonduras.org/joannsarticle.pdf.
International Bulletin of Missionary Research
In the International Bulletin of Missionary Research one can find all kinds of facts and figures about global Christianity.
Kung’s Paradigm Shifts
Hans Kung focuses in his studies on Paradigm Shifts in Christianity. Here is a pdf that showw how Kung sees the historical process of Christianity through the ages.
Ordination and Authority
The ordination of women dramatically reoriented everyone’s ordinary and probably outworn assumptions about authority. If the move to ordain women signaled an undue idealism on the part of proponents, the women who joined the ranks of the clergy shouldered the task of negotiating authority within congregations. The experience of these women demonstrated that ordination did not confer upon these women the authority of office, or character that could elicit from congregants the same kind of understanding or response that they gave to a male holding the position.
Maria Erling addresses the meaning of ordination in an age of mission in an interesting article that can be found on ELCA’s website (PDF): “Ordination from the Perspective of Mission.“
The mission of the Church …
“The mission of the Church is to love Jesus Christ. Everything else is just strategy.” Mark Allan Powell
Missional Economics: From Charity to Justice « A Living Alternative Our Missional Pilgrimage
Third, while charity speaks to the condition of the recipient of the giving, justice speaks to the hearts and lives of everyone involved. To live justly requires that we look at why there are those who “have” and those who “have not”. It is this commitment that is at the heart of the Anabaptist commitment to simplicity and contentment. While justice might be somewhat “popular” in Christian circles these days, I believe it will be this dynamic that will most clearly distinguish the true willingness of our commitment.
via Missional Economics: From Charity to Justice « A Living Alternative Our Missional Pilgrimage.
Experience in Haiti
I have made almost 8 minutes video with pictures and sounds to describe my experience and feelings in Haiti. In it I use pictures from my travel partners, music and sounds. It is no longer accessible on the web. If you like to help there are many great organizations doing wonderful work in Haiti. One of them is Haiti Timoun Foundation.
idealist.org
Idealist is a project of Action Without Borders, a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 with offices in the United States and Argentina. Idealist is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives.
via idealist.org – Welcome to Idealist.org – Imagine. Connect. Act..
Charity: Who Cares?
Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over One Trillion Dollars needed to keep US charities in operation, more than the US government collects in taxes. The rest comes from their own assets, government support, and foreign investment.
via Charity: Who Cares? | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice.
A Jesus Manifesto
A Jesus Manifesto is formed by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. A reminder of Jesus as a person, not a cause or project.
The Biblical Mission Statement
The Biblical Mission Statement in 21st Century is probably 1Pt 3.15. It is about readiness to have dialogue not a threatening or forceful claims.
Great Budget Narrative
First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Longmont Colorado does a great job in presenting their Proposed Budget on the web. It is easily understandable. It starts with focus on what we are doing which then is turned into numbers.
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
via As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God | Matthew Parris – Times Online .
From Definitions and Technical Jargon to Story Telling
The Church is about sharing, living, remembering and repeating The Story. If we understand theology as constantly contextual, we are moving away from the world of definitions (modernism) to a world of stories.
The Aristotelic way of organizing, thinking that the sum of all the parts is equal to the whole, nothing more and nothing less, is not sufficient to understand ourselves or others.
Our task as modern theologians is therefore to move away from our definitions and technical jargon and start telling and listening to stories.
We can actually ask whether Schleiermacher and later WCC in their focus on modern/enlightened theology removed God from the people in the pews, and perhaps alltogether from all of us.
Hyperhistory
Some history buff in Trinity brought my attention to the Hyperhistory-web. It contains timelines and info in a short form about whatever history related.