Thursday, March 29, 2007

Daxological Diagram and Diatribe of Missiology


You can click on the image for a bigger view of it. I have in mind the tabernacle that increases in holiness as one approached the presence of God. I realize that this is now in the hearts of all believers, but I believe there is an aspect of this that is pictured with how the church relates to the community as well.

Here's the thing. I think I am being called to church planting, yet I don't have a clear vision on the church plant, or on the culture to target. When I pray to God and meditate on a vision for my church plant, the vision is HUGE, it is scary because it is way beyond anything I could manage, i can't even fully imagine what it all entails. I know I am being called now to prepare through study, prayer, and at some point soon I will begin some planning.

The vision I have included bits and pieces of many things, including a network of Christian Schools, integration of those schools with the church and the teachers in the church (teachers meaning experienced and Godly people). It also includes integration of Home Schooling families so that they are not so separated from the culture but through the schools and the churches, the weaknesses they (home schoolers) may have in education their children in certain areas (examples could include calculus and chemistry) could be supplemented by these Christian schools, the schools could also serve as a "co-op" of sorts to enable greater activities and opportunities for everyone involved.

I see that we currently in our culture are operating under certain paradigms that do not work. For instance public schools, the way we do "church" (mainly in terms of how the church interacts with and engages the culture), the way our culture deals with the elderly, and the way we are parenting our children and caring for the orphans and widows of our society. It seems to me that solving some of these problems will mean we will have to make some new (or more precisely, rediscover some old) ideas about education, worship, evangelism, and community.

I think these schools may be funded by many churches and private individuals with full time staffs and teachers, and offer the education to anyone in the community for free (like the community schools of old), however with a major difference in that through the use of technology, the availability and quality of the curriculum, access to high quality and dynamic teachers, and access to a larger market place of potential students would be greatly expanded. The vision I have here parallels and mixes in what I read in the bible where people would gather at the temple, or how the Greeks would gather at Mars Hill in order to learn and debate things. I see these schools as being able to offer all kinds of educational services to the community as a whole and offer a "temple" or "market" of sorts for people to come together.

Another part of my vision is building these schools within entire communities that include orphans, families, and retired people who are willing to live in an "apartment" style communities that creates opportunities for generational knowledge to be transferred to the people being taught in the schools, I'm still pretty unclear on this idea, and it seems really big and scary too. however I think I would want to be careful not to build these communities in such a way that they seemed "cultish" or "communish". I can imagine some apartment complexes open to anyone in the public to live in, surrounding a school, orphanage and nursing home, and designed in such a way that the community of the apartment complex centers around the activities at the school, orphanage, and nursing home, and all of this managed with an evangelical purpose. Now this is the vision I have, but it may be symbolic in many ways as to how God wants to implement it, and it may also be virtual in many ways (meaning that some of these places may not be physical but virtual in nature, and some may only be philosophical in nature in regards to the world view of the organization that is attempting to achieve the ends that the vision implies).

What do you think? I don't think this will be possible except through the work of God, it is much bigger than a church plant, but I think that a church plant may be where God wants me to start.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Ackley Park Elk City, OK

Here's a video of Ackley park in Elk City, OK, featuring the aquatic center. Elk City has many nice parks and a good Route 66 museum complex. I think it is important especially for small towns to have unique attractions that give people places to congregate and enjoy being together, as well as places that highlight the unique and or historical aspects of the community. Parks and museums like this help defend communities from becoming so overrun with the "Applebee's/McDonald's/Wal-mart" corporate monoculturalism that makes everything look the same, taste the same, and where nobody can remember their own history.



I think the interesting thing about Ackley Park in Elk City is despite the fact that it has great playground equipment, a beautiful wooden horse carousel, a very nice swimming pool, and many other features, most people come simply to enjoy the duck pond and the ducks and geese themselves. Everyday there are people who come to the park to feed the ducks or just to watch them. They might participate in some of the other activities, but no matter what, it seems that most people take the time to reflect over the water and enjoy watching or feeding the ducks and geese that live there.

In today's culture places like this are not only important to the secular community but also to the church. The church should grasp the importance of community gathering places. It seems to me that the church and the culture in rural areas can be very divided, and there is very few places where the two meet. In "monocultural" rural or suburbian towns that do not offer many places for people to come together, most people will spend their leisure time watching television, and the only time "church people" come into a social interaction with other people are at high school sporting events or at church and at both places they basically interact with the same people. Communities need places and activities where the "church people" and the rest of the culture can come together and create relationships in which true Christians will be able to share the importance of Christ in a personal and meaningful way to a non-believer with whom they have built a relationship.

Christians should be encouraged to be involved in their local city councils and community organizations in order to promote and develop activities and places where people can come together.

By the way, the music on the video is "Truckin' Down" by Rick Hudson, a good friend of mine and very very talented musician.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

There would be no abortions if we all were Teletubbies

South Carolina considers bill requiring ultra sounds prior to abortions:

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=47984

I don't see the problem with this. Sounds good on several levels, here are some thought's on it:

1. It get's some other business's in on the abortion racket ( the ultra sound business ), which is ultimately good for the economy. It also makes abortions more expensive, so there might be less of them and thus not killing off the potential tax payer that is the fetus, which is also good for the economy.

2. If you were going to have a tumor removed, your tummy tucked, or most any other procedure, the doctor would generally take the time to show you and explain to you exactly what he or she was going to do to your body, this seems to especially make sense on an elective procedure such as an abortion.

3. Some may complain that this will make the procedure more difficult and too emotional...(this is where I become subjective) ummmm you're killing a baby, I know, I know... it's your right to do so, however I think that at the very least should be as difficult and emotional as possible.

4. So...you not only want the right to choose to have an abortion (which you have), you want the right to go into the procedure with your hands over your eyes so you won't accidentally be cognitively aware of what you are doing. I'm pretty sure you couldn't get plastic surgery under those conditions...don't know why you should be able to get an abortion. Any by the way, aren't you always ragging on us Christians for "blindly believing God", but what are you doing here? It seems like the same part of us Christians that we are using to "blindly believe in God", you are using to blind yourself from the guilt and consequences of your actions. Whatever part of us that is, it seems we have it in common, maybe you should focus yours on God too?

5. Why do you need an abortion in the first place? Could it be a result of the lifestyle you live and the choices you have made? So basically you want to lead a lifestyle in which you are the absolute authority on right and wrong, and then when that lifestyle brings upon you unwanted consequences you want to ignorantly be able to remove those consequences so that they won't in any way affect your lifestyle which caused the problem in the first place. And you say Christians have circular logic!

6. You say "Ah Ha mister Jesus freak right wing ultra Christian meany...you never considered women who's lives are at risk, or who were raped, or victim's of incest"...and I say "Ah Ha mister moral relativist, I still think that if abortion is going to be legal it should be an informed decision that is as difficult and emotional as possible even under those circumstances."

7. You say "man, you are mean", and I say "no not really", if confronted with a pregnant young girl who was looking to excape the consequences of her actions by pursuing an abortion I would lovingly have her consider repenting of the lifestyle that lead her to this situation and make Jesus Lord of her life and follow what the Bible says as absolute truth. And then she should take the consequences that come with the past desicions that she has made by giving birth to the child and putting it up for adoption so that it could be raised by one of the many families out there praying for God to send them a baby. So instead of trying to hide from her sin by killing her baby, she could turn from her life of sin, accept the unescapeable consquences for her sin, and give life to a new person who will be put into a home that is desperate for a baby to love.

Conclusion: People naturally want to lead sinful lifestyles and they don't want to suffer any consequences from the lifestyle they choose. Most people have blocked out of thier mind the eternal consequences of leading sinful lifestyles by somehow convincing themselves that God doesn't exist or that He won't punish people for thier sin's, or whatever. But all this abortion thing goes to show is that A.) People know that God exists and they know that abortion is wrong (if they didn't know this then the aborition deal wouldn't be such a big deal and most of the arguments would be around the money and economics of the issue and not around the emotion and guilt of the issue) and B.) unless Jesus is the Lord of your life and the Bible is your ultimate source of truth you too will continue to try to justify your sin, and if you can't do that you'll just shut your eyes and ignore the extra-biblical truth that God gracefully gives you through your conscience or through your abilities to reasonably consider the realities of your surroundings (the ones you are right now ignoring).

Romans 1:18-23 -

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Typical Bible Class in Public School

"Georgia legislature close to allowing Bible classes in Public Schools"

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258020,00.html

The article says:

"The measure calls for the courses to be taught "in an objective and nondevotional manner...""

The word "objective" means: "
not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased"
The word "devotion" means: "profound dedication; consecration.", so "nondevotional" would be the opposite of this

So the above sentence is actually saying:

"We are going to teach the Bible without any real dedication or reverence, and we surely won't allow teachers to inject their own personal feelings, interpretations, or anything else that might hint to the fact that people actually believe what this book says. We will also make sure that we will apply to the "word of truth" some other higher form of truth (such as Darwinism) to make sure that we don't mistakenly present the Bible as the truth, because that, as we all know, would be the most terrible horrible thing a teacher could do."

Here is how I envision a typical Public School Bible Class:

TEACHER: "Students get out your Bible's (probably any one of the "Gender Neutral" Bible translations that are out there today) ok read Genesis 1:27"

STUDENTS:

"So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."

TEACHER: "Ok now I must apply an objective nondevotional truth to this statement lest you be tempted to actually believe what it says."

(teacher walks to the chalk board and begins writing)

"We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." - Charles Darwin

TEACHER: "OK class, since we know Charles Darwin to be true, what can we conclude about Genesis 1:27?"

(JOHNNY RAISES HIS HAND AND TURNS DOWN HIS IPOD)

TEACHER: "Yes Johnny?"

JOHNNY: "Um...is it that the "image of God" fictitiously and metaphorically applied to man in Genesis 1:27 is merely the "indelible stamp of his lowly origin" that Darwin truthfully concluded?"

TEACHER: "Very good Johnny, A+ work!" (by the way this is the only answer the teach is allowed to give in reponse to a student (in order to protect the student's self esteem) unless, of course, the student concludes that what the Bible says is true, in that case the Student must be suspended from school for proselityzing.)


(JOHNNY CRANKS HIS IPOD BACK UP AND TEXTS HIS PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND TO BOAST OF HIS INTELLIGENCE)

(BELL RINGS AND STUDENTS RUSH OFF TO SEX-ED)

....What a victory for the Gospel!!!


2 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Darwin fishing and other stabs at biblical inerrency

Interesting article on the new "Darwin Fish" at Christianity today:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/march/37.74.html

Here are my thoughts:

Our ability to examine and deduce fact from the world around us is an amazing gift from God to all of humanity. However it is repeatedly made evident to me upon any new scientific discovery that the standard for truth in science is merely an ideal, something always just out of our reach. Since we view creation as a part of creation, we cannot assume to be able to find any truth except for what is relative to what little we already know.

How often do we marvel at a discovery that "changes everything we know about --(fill in the blank)--". In contrast to this is our God, who was and is and always will be, never changing. If we look at reality separated in half, on one side is truth and on the other side is deception, as humans we are sitting on the deception side of reality trying to deduce the truth, while God (who is the truth) reaches out to us with his Word and provides for us a way out of deception and in to truth (this way is the Gospel).

The problem with us Christians is that we try to apply to the Bible the same relativistic methods for truth discovery. So we take a bunch of stuff we have accumulated from the deception side of reality and then throw in God's Word and try to make it work. All we end up with is a "which on of these is not like the other" game, which inevitably excludes the Bible. We try to measure the standard, and you can't do that, God's Word is the standard, everything else is measured by it, otherwise it's not the standard, whatever you are measuring it with is.

For example, if I take a string of unknown length and measure it with a ruler, the ruler tells me how long the string is, because the ruler is the standard. I don't take the string of unknown length to measure the ruler, it just doesn't make any sense, but it is what we have constantly been trying to do as humans ever since God told us His standard.

All evolutionary discoveries just go to illustrate to me the truthfulness of the Genesis story; that we do live in a world that has been cursed and in which life must toil and adapt merely to survive. In my thinking, the earth as it originally was created would have provided no reason for a species to evolve, sin and death caused this necessity. I don't necessarily believe that any new creature was born of evolution, but I do believe that creatures have changed as a result of the sin and death brought into the world by man.

Creationist's arguments are often weak because we don't have good doctrine. I've heard statements like "well if evolution is real then are you saying that God made a mistake when he made the world and the world had to change to correct that mistake", and my reply would be "Have you read the Bible? God didn't make the mistake, man did!!!! And only be the blood of Christ and the word of His power does death and chaos not overtake us all!!!"