The UmBlog

Jesus still provokes doesn't he?

i actually neglected this topic last year. i had much fewer RSS feeds to look at last year too. i have three kids. as a child, i enjoyed walking around trick-or-treating. i dressed in various outfits from humpback monster to WW1 pilot. i had even read all the Jack Chick tracts , but still enjoyed dressing up in order to earn my haul of candy which i could make last into december, unlike my brother. but i deny my children that experience and bring them to Chrisitan " harvest " parties. harvest parties are more than a semantic distinction. first of all, they aren't scary, and scary or slutty costumes are discouraged. are they so bad off that they will still have scary dreams when watching some videos that other 5 year olds no longer flinch at? i don't think so. but i also don't want them crawling into my bed for the next week because some guy with a bloody cleaver in his head greeted them at a house to give them candy. i don't want them desensitized to the cree...

"Allurement" is an illegal method of conversion in India but apparently not an illegal method to harass and frame Christians. I guess what's good for the goose isn't applicable to the gander there. Dilip Akodiya of the Bethel church told Compass that officer Malvi informed him that he was under tremendous political pressure to charge Thakur. Viju Varghese, Global Council of Indian Christians coordinator in Madhya Pradesh, told Compass that the RSS had offered Thakur 25,000 rupees (US$552) to implicate Pastor Bharti in a charge of “allurement” to convert. Indira Iyengar, a former member of the Madhya Pradesh State Minorities Commission, told Compass “The harassment of the Christians just keeps spiraling upwards. Pastor Jagdish and Ramesh Thakur have been continuously harassed by the police, as well as by the Bajrang Dal .” Bharti and 15 other Christians had been arrested on June 4 after a mob of Hindu extremists stormed their home prayer meeting in Mayapuri and d...

great resources, well described, especially cool is this Greek NT site .

a sad list, but one the church can address...

its worth consideration

doind a little research and enjoyed this Wiki entry... The word deacon (and deaconess ) is derived from the Greek word diakonos (διάκονος), which is often translated servant or more specifically waiter . Some believe that the office of deacon originated in the selection of seven men (among them Stephen ) to assist with the pastoral and administrative needs of the early church. ( Acts of the Apostles , chapter 6). Deaconesses are mentioned by Pliny the Younger in a letter dated c . 112 (see Historicity of Jesus#Pliny the Younger ).

for you Greek geeks, it's almost complete. i found one broken link.

Bob Roberts Jr. writes Let’s just dream for a minute! Pretend we have an unlimited supply of money and 1,000 of the most gifted preachers, organizational guru’s, and team builder’s all built into one. Let’s start 1,000 churches over the next ten years where each one will grow to at least 2,000!!!!! Those churches would change America overnight! WRONG – WE JUST DID THAT!!!!! In the past ten years, that very thing has happened and yet there are numerically less people in church than ten years ago. I pastor a “mega-church” and I believe in “church-multiplication” so it may sound wrong to you that I would say that shouldn’t be our primary strategy – but it shouldn’t. We’re building a new 2,000 seat auditorium, have a large staff, and do a lot of the things that come with a mega-church. But, we must be clear, there has never been a church planting movement begun and sustained and replicated by mega-churches! I still believe in mega-churches – I believe in all churches and each one has a c...

a quiz to identify who is talking about God in the more-famous-than-you world. HT: Get Religion

great summary of a cool story of repentance and reconciliation linked to be Get Religion. could Mrs. Clinton be using the D.C. prayer group for political means? sure, but couldn't God be using that sinful desire for His own desire to save her?

quotes at the Evangelical Outpost All traits in existence across the entire animal and vegetable kingdoms get the same seven word explanation: Whatever needs an explanation "arose by accident and was selected for." How did the elephant get its trunk? It ABAAWSF. How did ants appear? They ABAAWSF. How did the leopard get its spots? ABAAWSF. Etcetera, ad infinitum. -- Tom Bethell summing up the "faith" of neo-Darwinists. °°°°°° Being hostile to virginity is the ultimate misogyny. It means sneering at the innocence of children, and laughing at women who want sex to mean something more than just a hookup. -- Wendy Shalit, quoted in Rachel Kramer Bussel's Village Voice column, "Like a Virgin: The Case Against Having Sex." (HT: The Dawn Patrol )

Partners is one missionary group I met last week with a focus on ... Our mission is to demonstrate God's love to victims of oppression and natural disaster... Refugees, internally displaced people, and victims of natural disaster are all on the partners radar. Special emphasis is given to women and children, who are most vulnerable in times of conflict and crisis. They bring supplies and hope and Jesus into the jungles of Burma... Legally, the junta is responsible for genocide against the ethnic minority groups. Rape is used as a weapon of war (an allegation upheld by the US State Department). Landmines are widely used - killing more people in Burma in 2002 than any other country in the world. Millions of Burmese have been pressed into forced labour - what the International Labor Organization, calls "a modern form of slavery". Even the former UN Special Rapporteur on Burma Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah QC, stated in 1998, '[I am] deeply concerned about the serious human rights...

BUTARE, RWANDA - A tall, slender Tutsi woman named Jeannette Nyirabaganwa has at least 100 perfectly good reasons never to speak to Anastaz Turimubakunzi again. That's how many of Jeannette's relatives, including her husband, parents, and baby, were killed during the 1994 genocide that raced through her hometown here in Africa's midsection. Anastaz is a confessed killer who, Jeannette says, helped murder her husband. Yet Jeannette does, in fact, speak to Anastaz regularly. She even pays him - along with other Hutus who killed her relatives - to work on her coffee farm. Increasingly, their uneasy partnership is paying off: The beans they grow and pick together are being sold, along with those of many other Rwandan coffee farmers, to Starbucks and other high-end US coffee purveyors, creating growing prosperity for her, him, and others...

Eric talks about the tough decisions he makes in choosing his family over church planting events.

George Thomas writes in an Autralian e-journal about Christianity and Christians in India The Indian constitution penalises Dalits who convert to Christianity. While India provides special rights and privileges for Dalits, even for those who convert to Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, or Sikhism, these are denied to Dalit Christians. In Karnataka, the government has targeted Christian charities which are seen as covert fronts for conversions. Many Hindu law enforcement officials are sympathetic to the Hindu nationalist’s anti-Christian cause. They are unwilling to take action against those responsible for attacks on Christians, thereby encouraging further attacks. The anti-Christian Hindu agenda is exemplified in the various postings on some radical Hindu blogs and websites, such as Hindu Unity , Christian Aggression , and The Conversion Agenda ... Now consider the treatment of Christians in India by Hindu nationalists. An increasing number of Christians in some of the states of India (Guje...

cool article in Leadership Journal: Small churches don't start their meeting with a song, nor end with a benediction. These fellowships of 6-10 people may start out with conversation around the dinner table or a backyard barbecue. Laughter and stories are shared as they talk over life's challenges or daily bungles, something not as easily done in the rush of a Sunday church service, which Highlands calls "big church." As they bond and study the Bible together, the groups become a spiritual family, where members identify and cultivate their unique gifts, such as hospitality or wisdom. Beckman says that maturing process is more difficult in a big church format, where sometimes only the public gifts, such as leadership or teaching, are acknowledged and developed. In home church families, each person is expected to learn directly from Scripture and share their insights. "Robbie and I aren't Bible scholars," Dawn Walker says. "We were worried abo...

"I’m often asked what I think of the emergent church movement and in answering I’ve reminded people that I’ve had very little firsthand touch with it. Thus my conclusions have come from reading some of its authors and what others have said so that my conclusions can’t be construed as definitive. But I have said that I think the movement is asking better questions than many traditional congregations and in many cases has a better message that focuses on relationships with each other and a more relevant engagement with the world. On the downside, however, they seem to be compressing that into the same institutional structures that will eventually subvert their message. They are still caught up in building, leadership and services. Also, I’ve not found that the ever-present Christ is an important part of the conversation. It is more a movement driven by principles and ideology that find identity in the movement and its leaders, rather than finding a deeper intimacy with the Father,...

a joke to make you think...

one organization that i hadn't encountered before was this one, The God Story. They provide an 80 minute summary of the key stories in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, something New Tribes Mission has been doing for awhile. They claim a high success rate with their material where Jesus alone stories haven't inspired many. I'm wondering if any M's who read this might have used this material.

Challies disapproves, Church: You know the church is in a sad state when it relies on this kind of gimmicks to draw people in and keep them there! I think they are fun to watch.

it is a sad day that Paul's explanation of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians is so horribly wrestled to the ground and denied its meaning when leaders from the Southern Baptist missions board, IMB, come up with stuff like this ( PDF ) HATLEY: Paul would have no problem serving with the IMB. We based this policy on his teachings. My own interpretation of his work is to use the more simple and obvious interpretation in the context of that day, not ours. As such I substitute the word “language” everywhere the word “tongue” or “unknown tongue” appears. That is because the word used by Paul was glossa (from which we receive our word glossary). Paul spoke in many languages, known by his own studies and perhaps was, as a missionary, given the supernatural ability to speak to new language groups encountered on the field. In such an instance he would not understand the language he used but would know the Gospel was being given through his lips by a miracle, which also served to give authori...

October 19 (Compass Direct News) – Accusing a Christian-run health center of forcible conversions, the Chhattisgarh state government has ordered the takeover of the facility and fired 17 of its employees. Chhattisgarh, controlled by the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ordered the takeover of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Lundra village on October 10. The government program had been assigned in 1995 to the Raigarh-Ambikapur Health Association (RAHA), a Catholic voluntary health service of the Ambikapur diocese in the eastern part of the state. “The BJP government is determined to dislodge RAHA from the ICDS Lundra, and allegations of conversions are an effective means to do so,” said Sister Emilina Xess, child development project officer. “We will approach the Bilaspur High Court for a stay order.” Xess told Compass that the government action stems from jealousy of the esteem and popularity of Christians at the ICDS in Lundra. The state government has...

"Police believe that after the girl told her Muslim family of her conversion, her father grabbed a kitchen knife. They suspect the mother stepped between the father and the daughter resulting in the mother's death."

from the A-Team The most popular version of [the] Che t-shirt, for instance, sports the slogan "Fight Oppression" under his famous face. This is the face of a man who co-founded a regime that jailed more of its subjects than Hitler or Stalin's and declared that "individualism must disappear!" Some of his other fine accomplishments (quotes from the article): Declared, "A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate." Said, "I don't need proof to execute a man. I only need proof that it's necessary to execute him!" Boasted that he executed from "revolutionary conviction" rather than from any "archaic bourgeois details" like judicial evidence. Urged "atomic extermination" as the final solution for those American "hyenas," saying, "We will march the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims." Provoked one of the biggest refugee crises i...

Went to a Calvary Chapel Missions Conference at CC Spring Valley in Las Vegas this week. Good stuff to think about. As i pull out all the material and review it, i'll share some links and notes and reflections.

Charles Potter is a local columnist who lives 2 blocks away from me...(free reg required) Published on 10/14/2006 IN THIS BUSINESS, ONE CAN never be sure of the motives of people who send us tips, notes or suggestions. Still, when I received the e-mail with a headline that began: “The KKK Disbands,” it caught my attention. When I read further, I became downright curious. “The KKK Disbands: Leaves Their Job To Black Folks.” And then, even before I read another word, I knew where the thing was going. I knew, because, coincidentally, I've had a few chats lately with my sons about black-on-black crime contributing to the socio-political weakness of the race. Before I get too far into that, though, you should know more about the e-mail. First understand that the commentary appears to be a spoof. The Klan is still in operation. Their Web site has a message that it is down, but there are links to two sites selling KKK collectibles. The e-mail also appears to be written by an African...

the difference being Malaysia is a Muslim country, where interfaith marriages are forbidden but conversion has to be approved by a religious court. Guess how often that gets approved?

Pastor Jon has a helpful interpretation here... 4. (34-35) Women should not judge prophecy or disrupt meetings. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. a. Let your women keep silent in the churches : Paul has already assumed the right of women to pray or prophecy publicly (as stated in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 ). Here, he probably is saying women do not have the right to judge prophecy, something restricted to the male leadership of the church. i. Instead of judging prophecy, women should be submissive to what the leadership of the church judges regarding words of prophecy. b. If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home : In the ancient world, just as in some modern cultures, women and men sit in different groups at church. Among the ...

Boy in So-Called "Persistent Vegetative State" for Two Years Awakens by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor October 11 , 2006 Yamhill, OR (LifeNews.com) -- A 11 year-old Oregon boy who entered into a coma after he was diagnosed with a mysterious illness has awoken from the incapacitated state. Devon Rivers isn't unique but his case is typical of the battle hopeful families fight with doctors who are quick to declare patients in a persistent vegetative state and say there is no hope of recovery... HT: CC

the question is who is afraid of who? October 11 (Compass Direct News) – A church in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district cancelled its weekly meeting yesterday (October 10) due to tensions in the region following false reports of conversions in newspapers. The reports led to two attacks in the past week. A local Christian who requested anonymity told Compass that tensions began on October 4, when local editions of national Hindi dailies Hindustan, Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran published reports on the supposed forced conversion of 350 Hindu villagers to Christianity in Belahta village. Reporters of these newspapers had on October 3 come to the weekly prayer meeting of the Belahta village branch of the Abundant Life Church. More than 1,000 people, mostly believers from Belahta and nearby villages, were praying and worshipping in a tent pitched outside the house of a convert, Sanju Singh. “On October 4, when a few Christian families of the village were sitting in the tent, which had no...

a Book of Mormon parody by an ex-Mormon(?). the point is, by what criteria can Mormons reject this but keep J. Smith's? The Coming Forth of The Book of Zelph While pondering certain passages in The History of the Church, Volume 2, Josh Anderson came upon a passage that mentioned a great white Lamanite warrior named Zelph. This seemingly insignificant event would lead him on a journey to Zelph's final resting place. It was there, in a grove of trees, that Josh would come across the greatest archeological find since Joseph Smith purchased Abraham's writings from Michael Chandler. Josh was led to a hand cart overflowing with metal plates, which were the Lamanite records. He translated the abridgment of these plates, given to him by Zelph, into the Book of Zelph . For the entire story of the coming forth of the Book of Zelph, read Josh Anderson's testimony here. My enemies say The Boo ...

this rant is just as important to homeschoolers who see the system is broken but still try to please the system instead of improve on it.

There are two worlds in North Korea: One is the world of senior military officers, Communist Party members, and the country's ruling elite. They enjoy a lavish lifestyle, fancy restaurants, diplomatic shops with European foods, nightclubs, even a casino. The world for ordinary people in North Korea is completely different. In their world, one can see young children, undersized, undernourished, mute, with sunken eyes and skin stretched tight across their faces, wearing uniform blue-and-white-striped pajamas. Anyone who's seen pictures of Dachau or Auschwitz would find the scene distressingly familiar. Most of the patients in the hospitals suffer from psychosomatic illnesses. They're worn out by compulsory drills, innumerable parades, mandatory assemblies beginning at the crack of dawn, and constant, droning propaganda. Clinical depression is rampant. Alcoholism is common. Young adults have no hope, no future. Everywhere you look, people are beset by anxiety. Everyday worke...

From the persecution blog Iranian house-church contacts have asked for prayer for the following: A satellite radio program is directed toward reaching those under 30, pray for fruit. Growing underground churches; ninety-five percent of the members are under age 30. Safety and support for pastors Underground churches strengthened in God's Word and safe places to meet Seminars and training for house-church leaders and servants An Iranian family currently facing persecution Pray God will be glorified in every person and situation.

got 3 minutes to remember the sins of our country?

Mark Goodacre of the NT Gateway has put together a ton of resource addresses with search fields.

a nice feature for those of us who want to stay in touch with missionaries... HT: evangelical outpost

i remember visiting the massive Orthodox Church in Helsinki Finland and being amazed at the lack of seats, then shocked to find out that people would stand for hours at a time. In this post, Dan Kimball notices that standing wasn't the only option but also kneeling or falling prostrate. The idea wasn't vertical pews. Now i'm intrigued. what if chairs were only an option. what if bean bags were included as an option. what if kids were allowed to burn a little energy in service?

This is the site that actually got me started thinking about new construction that is ecologically considerate. Update: Apparently Scott Adams took the link off his site. Here is another site with pictures . You can see more images if you search Google images as well.

Street church is house church outside a tiny house on a busy 4 land street. Guy Muse concludes with this, There is so much about last night that I could comment on. I think what impacted me the most was that what was done was so authentic. It was real. Genuine. Nobody putting on a show, but just being their real selves before a God that they love in the only envirmonment that have ever known. Several times during the evening I thought about Jesus words in John 4 where he says, "the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth." What I saw last night in this "street church" was this very thing.

the individual articles surveyed are fine, but the synthesis of this post is moving, especially between these bereaved parents and the bereaved father who killed their children.

"But in light of this information glut, this data deluge, I have a suggestion. We are people in transit--moving, changing locations in our cars, buses, planes, and (sometimes I suppose still) trains. The next time you must go from point A to point B by a motorized conveyance, leave the radio, CD, iPod, or any other information dispenser off. Instead of filling that time and space with music (since I haven’t banned that yet) fill it rather with silence—or as silent as it can get on the highway or airway or train tack. During that relative silence reflect on a passage of Scripture and/or pray through something on your mind. Do you need more facts (or worse yet, factoids) all the time? Perhaps you do not. Think about it. You may need to turn down the volume, decrease the data flow, and settle into lifting your concerns to your Heavenly Father. Selah."

The A-Team asks, "Here's my question: Why are normal people on the left obsessed with conspiracy theories? "

if you are no longer receiving site feeds, just let me know... (wink)

i am expecting issues, but will give it a try...

This link will download an hour long documentary filmed by some Dutch cinematographers not too many years ago. It makes sense in a twisted way, and most ways are twisted in North Korea, that they ignited, or may have ignited, their atomic weapon right before a 50th anniversary celebration on October 10. Watching the movie reminded me of Russia under Stalin and China under Mao. Somehow, the experiment in human oppression and mandatory leader cult crumbles at some time and freedom starts to slip in. Lord Jesus, save these people . Link courtesy of the Acton Powerblog .

note: tonsured means shaving the head... October 6 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists in the western state of Orissa on Wednesday (October 4) abducted a Christian youth from his house and tortured and tonsured him, allegedly to punish him for accepting Christianity... But Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, told Compass that the extremists tonsured Dangua after abducting and torturing him. “The radicals on October 4 stormed into Dangua’s house and abducted him,” George said. “Later, they beat him very badly and then tonsured him. They also took him around the village after tonsuring him.” He said the situation in the village, where two platoons of policemen have reportedly been deployed, is “very tense.” George added that Dangua, his family and other Christian families in the village have faced fierce opposition from Hindu extremists of neighboring villages since they became Christians a few years ago....

Michael Novak writes... The future author of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, served on one of the Christian galleys in what he called the greatest naval sea battle in history and the most important to that time for the safety of Europe. The Turks had been massing an enormous fleet for an invasion of Italy. The preparations began to be reported on many months in advance. It was the year 1571 when that fleet was gathered near a port in Greece, not far from the Gulf of Lepanto. For over a year, Pope Pius V had tried to alert the great powers of Europe to the coming menace. But England, France, and the regional powers of what later became Germany were preoccupied with the turmoil of the Reformation.... Whole great rooms of palaces in southern Europe have been given over to immense paintings celebrating episodes in that epic battle. All Europe, historians recount, drew a deep breath of relief and gratitude. It was as if an oppressive cloud had been lifted, some wrote. G. K. Chesterton w...

it's cool to hear people's reflections on their baptisms. Zach is 14. I baptized him and his sister in Long Island Sound last month with the assistance of their dad. God is good to that family . They are also a blogging family.

This is a personal reflection on the shooter of the Amish from an uncomfortably close perspective.

Julian, who blogs at Christian Thought met some reformed charismatics and has thoughts like this... 1. 1 Corinthians 13.8-13 . This is not profound, but merely an acknowledgement of what the majority of evangelicalism has already said: these verses are not referring to the closing of the canon. Without this text, the intratextual evidence for any strong cessationist position is incredibly weak. To my knowledge this is the only text cessationists use to argue their position that Paul knew of the gifts coming to an end. Further, even if we could allow that this text is speaking of these gifts (tongues, prophecies, and knowledge), then why do we include things like the gift of healing in the list of gifts which have ceased?

Where does he get this stuff? This is good... Rev. W. O. Taylor, 91, was the oldest man attending the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago. At the annual free breakfast for retirees, Brother Taylor rose and recited his own alliterative version of the parable of the prodigal son, which he entitled "The Final Fixing of the Foolish Fugitive": "Feeling footloose, fancy-free, and frisky, this feather-brained fellow finagled his fond father into forking over his fortune. Forthwith, he fled for foreign fields and frittered his farthings feasting fabulously with fair-weather friends. Finally, facing famine, and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmlot. He fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments....

"The survey estimated that Pentecostals and charismatics together comprise at least half the population of Brazil, Guatemala and Kenya, and 44 percent of the Philippines. They make up about one-third of the population of South Africa and Chile and nearly one-quarter of Nigerians and U.S. residents. The figure for South Korea is smaller, at 11 percent. In India, the poll was limited to three states with large Christian populations, so a national estimate could not be made. The study found Pentecostal beliefs have a strong hold in major churches in many countries."

my wonderful wife shares how to organize her world and make it serve her

Flooding triggered by seasonal monsoons in India have recently left hundreds of Dalit villages swamped as a result of overflowing rivers and dams. Some areas received two years' worth of rainfall in three days; and in the Barmer District of Rajasthan, both high-caste families (the wealthy) and low-caste families (the poorest) -- the latter known as Dalits or untouchables -- were marooned on sand dunes. When camps were set up for the displaced, however, members of higher castes chased Dalit families away, denying them food and clean drinking water. But K.P. Yohannan, founder and president of Gospel for Asia (GFA), says the Christian ministry's missionaries are reaching out to assist all victims of the floods, regardless of caste. "We have given top priority to work among these Dalits during these times of flooding and crises," Yohannan notes. "Many hundreds of our workers are bringing food, clothes, and water and working among these people," he says.

what happens when a conservative Christian calls out America's sins on the main stream media? see this article at the Point....

what happens to a culture that loses its view of humanity as a special creation of God? Scientists are planning to create a "frankenrabbit" by fusing together human cells with a rabbit egg. It is hoped the "chimeric" embryos, which would be 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent rabbit, could lead to breakthroughs in stem cell research which could one day cure diseases such as Alzheimer's or spinal cord injury. Canada has already banned this " high-tech bestiality "; the United States must follow suit, lest the line defining what it means to be human continues to blur. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should . [update] great post here at Acton

his outline adds alot more flesh to the flimsy skeletal outline i made. there are more studies of his in Corinthians at this link

ouch!

this blog averages almost 20 readers a day. thank you. i'm considering another change at the 4000 mark and any feedback is welcome. at another blog i came across yesterday, the blogger contends that since his identity is public, his commenters should be also so he does not allow anonymous comments. most of my comments are anonymous. so i'll probably be turning off anonymous commenting this weekend. anyway, 4000 hits in less than a year since i put up the hit counter is cool to me.

"Bad news: You've been caught (a) taking bribes from Jack Abramoff, (b) telling a police officer that "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," or (c) exchanging naked fantasies with teenage boys. What do you do? If you're Mel Gibson, Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), or former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), you blame alcohol. Here's their 10-step program for rehabilitating your career..."

i found this an interesting read on where the culture is going. he may be wrong, and he isn't putting all his eggs in his speculation, but his thoughts intrigue me. now i will talk myself out of this, perhaps you should read it first ... why won't big movies don't go away. the same reasons restaurants don't go away. we want to get out of our homes. we get bored. which is why house churches won't dominate as long as there are venues that provide a different feel. and i'm not sure that a longing for community is the real pull. as kimball writes , and i've blogged on before , multigenerational is not staring at the back of an old guy's head. there is some need for community. but we want to meet our friends on neutral ground that we don't have to clean, we can escape from without offense (as opposed to kicking people out of your house), etc. so i don't think Lucas is totally write, that movies are done with. we make a mistake that things have to be z...

politics, the wrod, can become divorced from the people who are organized behind an agenda. persecution of believers can be misunderstood as simply a misunderstanding between people, but is actually a spiritual reaction that can only be clamed by God. with this set up, this article is very interesting, and i'll share some highlights.... Increased attacks against Christians this year have grown out of a trend of violence going back to 2001. Each year from 2001 to 2005, about 200 anti-Christian attacks were reported in India. This year nearly 150 such incidents were reported by mid-September, with the annual total expected to exceed 200. Whereas the trend began after the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 1998, the recent campaign is rooted in the party’s attempts to recover from political loss and internal division. Then as now, most of the attacks have been led, directly or indirectly, by Hindu extremist organizations linked with the Rashtriya Swayamse...

i had a cool experience at my spiritual gifts class last night. if you attend a church like mine, someone rising up and speaking in tongues on Sunday morning is not the norm. it isn't prohibited, just not expected. so my class becomes a sandbox of sorts, where people can risk expressing their gifts. but one gift you'd never know you have is the interpretation of tongues unless you hear someone speak to the group in tongues, rather than overhear someone worshipping privately in tongues. so last week, i closed in prayer and in tongues. no one that night stood up with an interpretation. last night, i wanted to encourage anyone who might have thought they understood something to risk sharing what they heard. the cool thing was someone did understand something, a person who in previous weeks, was not sure what gifts God had given them. she didn't understand much of it, but she did understand the phrase, "My God," being repeated. i'm so happy for this person. we in...

Joe Paskewich looks at the Amish school shootings and asks where was God? This is the man who was in NYC the night of 9/11/01 and in New Orleans a coupld days after Katrina...

Andrew, back from a month long blogfast, has begun recounting his view of the church emerging from the 80's. Some interesting thoughts on church in alternative venues and church within church.

"The Holy Spirit is here to reawaken people," says Reverend Laldawngliana, a spokesman for the Presbyterian Church of India in Shillong. He says similar religious experiences proclaimed the beginning of a reawakening in the region in 1906, just two years after the last great revival in Wales. The Presbyterian Church celebrated the centenary of the revival with special congregations and prayer services in April.

7- the end is near, focus and pray 8- LOVE (1 Cor 13) 9- service with a smile 10- Use whatever gifts you’ve been given to serve others (1 Cor12:7) consistently giving out the grace God gave you (Romans 12:6, Eph 4:7) 11- Speaking with God’s words Serving with God’s strength Ensuring God gets all the praise through the Son (by the gifts given by the Spirit)

The Shakers were a charismatic and heretical group of Christianity in early America, 18th-19th centuries. This site reprints with favor some of their early writings. Since not all the writings are present, i wonder if the embarassing stuff has been left out. According to Answers.com there is one community still active in Massachusetts. The Answers.com entry includes this, One of the fundamental doctrines of the society was belief in the dual nature of the Deity. The male principle was incarnated in Jesus; the female principle, in Mother Ann. Other tenets were celibacy, open confession of sins, communal ownership of possessions in the advanced groups, separation from the world, pacifism, equality of the sexes, and consecrated work. Singing, dancing, and marching characterized phases of Shaker worship. The community was organized into groups, called families, of between 30 and 90 individuals. The believers donated their services and possessions but were always free to leave. Shaker furn...

Anbry Hiindus attacked an educational mission in Uttar Pradesh, but the local tribal people being helped prevent his lynching.... Jagat Rana, leader of the Tharu, told AsiaNews that the tribals “were spread across dozens of villages in the area, but deprived of government-run educational institutions. Our children are by and large forced to remain illiterate.” However, around 10 years ago, he continued, “Christian organizations arrived and started to sow seeds of education for our Tharu children. The Christians do talk about their Bible and practice their religious rituals, but they never asked or forced anyone to convert.” Rana said “some Tharus attend their programs but there is no harm in that because Christians are not teaching violence or hatred. Rather they give the message of love and human solidarity." The tribal leader wondered why “these Hindus are bothered about all this. Where were they when we had no schools? Why are they against these innocent Christians who are ...

September 29 (Compass Direct News) – Seven Christians working with the Indian Missionary Society (IMS) in India’s Gujarat state were released on bail this morning. The group was charged with attempted murder after Hindu extremists waylaid and assaulted them last week. Extremists beat the group, took their valuables and warned them of dire consequences if they continued to share the gospel in the area. One of the extremists, Kanji Nayak, then filed a complaint against the eight, claiming that the Christians had tried to shoot him after he refused to convert. An eighth member of the group, Pastor Dasrath Nanji Dilwad, remains in judicial custody and his case has been transferred to the High Court. Dilwad was also charged with misuse of a firearm.

interesting article at the Ooze, an emerging church type site...this author does outreach to gangs and ex-cons... I’m excited about this Emerging church discussion because I’ve been waiting for the church to be missional enough to reap the harvest on my own mission field. Based on my experience, I can say without a doubt that the Emerging church’s focus on being more missional, more hospitable and more focused on “the least of these” will open up a world of ministry possibilities that the Emerging church has not yet dared to dream of. While it’s great to hear those in church-based ministries say they want to get more missional, it may be worth noting that some of us para-church types have been doing the missional part without the church for some time. Missionaries will prove to be your biggest potential source of wisdom for the emerging church. No missionary would have, for example, come up with the idea to use a worship service as a primary means of evangelism (as opposed to actual ou...