tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post116020930094490946..comments2024-03-24T11:30:08.199-07:00Comments on Can you believe?: Can evangelicals reproduce?Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-41516545957610496532006-10-13T07:46:00.000-07:002006-10-13T07:46:00.000-07:00Ricardo, I agree that it is normal for many teenag...Ricardo, I agree that it is normal for many teenagers to begin making independent assessments of family assumptions and affiliations. To some extent I worry more about those who (according to statistics) don't make that assessment than about those who do.<br /><br />That's part of what I mean when I refer to the leaders' stewardship of their followers' trust and idealism. At the moment I'm thinking of a young adult who works full-time and is also a full-time Bible college student. This person, for whom I'm committed to pray daily, is full of joyful energy. Let that enthusiasm not be betrayed!<br /><br />Hello, Patrick! We're eager to see you next month. Thanks for your comments, too. I quoted from Balmer's book back <a href="http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2006/07/use-and-abuse-of-doctrine.htm">here</a>.<br /><br />Joe--you're welcome. By the way, the question in your current blog <a href="http://beppe.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/is-is-possible-to-worship-with-a-multitude-of-transcendents/">post</a>, "Is it possible to worship with a multitude of 'transcendents'?", touches on the dilemma that eventually contributed to a famous Russian Quaker's decision to stop attending Quaker worship and return to the Orthodox church.Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-18684126621564835172006-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:00No apologies needed for "cynicism." You are right ...No apologies needed for "cynicism." You are right on target. Yet . . . yet . . . there is hope. Check out Randall Balmer's book, "Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament," in which he chronicles and and cries to heaven about the ways in which the evangelical world has been hijacked by the religious right. In my extended visit to the US, I am seeing sincere Christians who realize that the evangelical leadership has led us down the garden path, and away from any kind of concrete obedience to Jesus and his teachings. And people like Dallas Willard and Tom Wright are forcing us to do what we always claim but rarely ever do--read the Bible on its own terms and find the truth that it there, apart from our fixed theological orthodoxies. People are responding to this, because evangelicals, deep down, are as hungry for Christ--and as unsatisfied--as everyone else.Patrick J. Nugent jrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00138826531822330089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-63876780372224667642006-10-10T16:17:00.000-07:002006-10-10T16:17:00.000-07:00Evangelizing a Jaded Culture.
I grew up in Costa ...Evangelizing a Jaded Culture.<br /><br />I grew up in Costa Rica. I heard a few sermons by missionaries that turned out to be written earlier, in the US, about situations that did not exist in Costa Rica. <br /><br />When I read Barbara Kingsolver’s“Poisonwood Bible” I was reminded here and there of missionary families I knew in Costa Rica. Much of their preaching, much of it unconsciously, was Cultural colonialism. Don’t get me wrong. I still count among my examples of good Christians some of those same missionaries.<br /><br />But, with foreign missionaries, some of the issues foreign to the gospel message were easier to recognize. So much of what is currently preached in church is culturally based. So much is based on long forgotten discussions that have no bearing on The Good News of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />I have read with interest Bishop Spong’s books, where he explores what a post-modern church could/should look like. So much of his ministry has been toward the group he calls the “church alumni association.” Part of my problem is that, like so many of us ex-pew-warmers, I would much prefer to have someone else figure these things out for us, so we can follow a tried and true formula.<br /><br />So we go back to basics: What do we want to preach to a Jaded Culture?<br /><br />God is speaking to many of us so much more powerfully through Obi Wan Kenobi, Neo and Harry Potter, than through the Gospel of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.<br /><br />So, let’s pull a “St. Paul,” and preach about this unknown god.<br /><br />Evangelical churches don’t do “teen-age” well. The role of teenagers is to throw out all rules, check each one carefully before internalizing the ones that make sense to them. (“Check everything out, Keep the good stuff.”) When you thing about it, that was the modus operandi of the Church in Acts.<br /><br />Ricardo5322@yahoo.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-66283100223975958412006-10-09T10:29:00.000-07:002006-10-09T10:29:00.000-07:00PS to Joe. I looked up that website you mentioned,...PS to Joe. I looked up that website you mentioned, <a href="http://www.thesimpleway.org/">The Simple Way</a>, and found a link to a familiar network, the <a href="http://www.ccda.org/">Christian Community Development Association</a>, on whose board John and Vera Mae Perkins serve. I wrote about John Perkins back <a href="http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2005/06/mississippi-mellowing.htm">here</a>.<br /><br />JohanJohan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1160254080144495612006-10-07T13:48:00.000-07:002006-10-07T13:48:00.000-07:00Hi, David. Thanks for commenting. I assure you tha...Hi, David. Thanks for commenting. I assure you that was a cold-blooded and unemotional comment, not a rant. Most evangelical organizations have something about the infallibility or inerrancy of scripture in their statement of faith. (Example from the <A HREF="http://www.nae.net/index.cfm?FUSEACTION=nae.statement_of_faith" REL="nofollow">NAE</A>: "We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.") As I've said before in this blog, I think the Bible was co-created by God and God's people, and there's incredible authority in it but NO magic. Yet, in some evangelical circles, the first attempt to say something nuanced is denounced as liberalism. The words "inerrant" and "infallible" have become code words meaning "we're not liberal," and that is not a good enough reason to use them. They convey no intellectually respectable content. At least, that is true in the one-way communication channels where they're usually used; in the context of a dialogue they're far more useful. <BR/><BR/>But I'm less concerned about these words than about the conformist culture that insists on them. In my experience, fear and self-censorship, as well as heavy-handed denunciations, inhibit that necessary dialogue. Just look at the abuse to which evangelical Friend Richard Foster has been subjected for advocating meditation <I>in a Christian context.</I> Or the politics that went on around a proposed inclusive-language version of the NIV Bible translation. On second thought, if you're not already familiar with these stories, don't look. It's not a pretty sight. And it is hardly the sort of relational, humane, encouraging approach that (at least in my fantasies) would be more likely to keep our teenagers.<BR/><BR/>Joe, that mission statement sounds like a dream come true. It reminds me of my own description of Friends, which I posted on someone else's blog yesterday: Friends are people who want to live as close to Jesus as possible, and who organize to help each other fulfill this desire, including its ethical consequences.<BR/><BR/>JohanJohan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-1160225644519745052006-10-07T05:54:00.000-07:002006-10-07T05:54:00.000-07:00huh? I want to understand but you're loosing me i...<< (I refuse to bow to the Stalinist demand for functionally meaningless but politically barbed formula words such as "inerrancy")><BR/><BR/>huh? I want to understand but you're loosing me in the emotion of your rantAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com