The UmBlog

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....

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...

interesting article about being married then pregnant before 20... It was only recently that being a teenager became synonymous with being too young to make big decisions about marriage and children. Some of my favorite books are the Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery. In these beloved books, Anne attains what is the modern day equivalent of a college education, becomes a full-time schoolteacher, and starts to teach herself Latin and Greek — by age 16. Her friends, also teenagers, start marrying and having babies right out of school. Yet none of this is depicted as unusual — Anne is only a slightly-above-average teenage woman 100 years ago. Today, Anne would be hailed as a genius and her friends would be considered mature far beyond their years (or else stupid for "giving up their independence" so early). But maybe young Christians wouldn’t be so starry-eyed about marriage if they were told that babies are a good and immediate part of the deal. That would sober t...

September 26 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists severely beat two pastors on September 24 in Madhya Pradesh, India, before dragging them to a police station and accusing them of “forcing” conversions. Two days earlier, extremists had attacked and injured two evangelists in the same state, later accusing them of “hurting Hindu sentiments.” More than 20 members of two extremist groups, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal (the youth wing of the World Hindu Council) barged into a church in Nana Badvani area in Badvani district last Sunday and attacked two pastors, identified only as Sukhlal and Jorsingh. The mob spit on a Bible and then tore it up, according to a local Christian who witnessed the attack. They also told Sukhlal and Jorsingh to abandon Christianity or they would forfeit their lives. The extremists forcibly took the two pastors to the Nana Badvani sub-police station, accusing them of eating beef – an offense to Hindus – and carrying out forced conv...

Thabiti Anyabwile writes, The writer, picking up on the typical multi-site church slogan, "One church, multiple locations," asks a critical question: "But what does it mean to be "one church," spread across hundreds or thousands of miles?" Good question. This model of doing church calls into question all of our assumptions about pastoral ministry. It calls into question whether the relationship between pastor and congregation is at all essential. It begs the question of whether preaching really is central to our gatherings (at least live preaching from a flesh-and-blood preacher). And I'm curious about the approach to governance or polity used by such churches. How is a group in Bangkod involved in the decisions of groups in Southern California? Rev. Geoff Surratt, co-author of The Multi-Site Church Revolution and a pastor at Seacoast Church, a church with six sites in Georgia and one in South Carolina, makes this case for multi-sites over and against...

if race can explain everything, does it explain anything? Though it poses as an efficient explanatory variable in the popular and scientific mind, "race" as a construct does not in fact deliver on its promises to explain very much. So, here's a short list of things that are not explained (or perhaps a better word is "caused") by race, in no particular order, with brief suggestions as to why the construct fails. It's a partial list, perhaps a debatable list, but one that I hope triggers us to be less anchored in a way of viewing people that falls short of how God views people. Individual educational achievement. You're proficient at what you practice. Prevalence of certain diseases. Usually has more to do with an individual's or family's diet and lifestyle. Election of God. Obviously.... Eph. 1. Crime rates. Perhaps James 4 is a better explanation. Musical preferences. Cases in point: the success of Hip Hop in Japan... and Mark Dever bobbing his h...

nice analysis, including tidbits such as, 5. Point out that, in response to this constant defamation of Jesus Christ, there are no public threats or demands for apologies. This is not because we do not love Jesus above all things, or because we have no zeal for the glory of his name. It is because he told us to expect this (Matthew 10:25; John 15:20) and then modeled for us how to react: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

notes for my spiritual gifts class...[updated and color-coded] stuff from 12 from 13 from 14 Message of wisdom Message of knowledge Faith Move mountains Gifts of healing Possessors of gifts of healing Miraculous powers Miracle workers Prophecy Prophets Fathom mysteries and knowledge Speaks strength, encouragement, and comfort Builds the church For believers Can be controlled Be eager for Expose secrets of the heart Prophecies need to be weighed Instructs and encourages Distinguish between spirits Speak in different tongues Speakers in tongues Tongues of men and angels Speaks to God not men Utters mysteries Builds himself Needs to ask for interpretation Prays in spirit but not in mind May be giving thanks A sign for unbelievers Should be kept private if no interpretation available Don’t forbid it Interpretation of tongues Apostles Can bring revelation, knowledge, prophecy, word of instruction Teachers ...