promiseandpeace

Reflective Service at Redemption Church

Highlight(s):

1. Valentine’s Day was nice. Not because Amanda and I did anything spectacular, but because I know she loves me and I love her. I’ve become kinda bored with the “flash,” and I simply rest in the love my wife shows me.
2. Reflective, experiential, creative worship service at Redemption Church last night. We had an extended worship service. No preaching. We used stations of Jesus’ sayings and focused on Matthew 11: 28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Pretty comforting words, don’t you think? It was nice to see our church slow down and reflect.
3. Congrats to the Saints! It was a bittersweet Super Bowl since I am a huge Peyton Manning fan. However, you can’t win them all…just ask Brett Favre, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino. I am really happy for New Orleans. They are a city that has endured a lot. May God continue to work there as he already has done.
4. What about all of this snow?! Philly received over 3 feet in about a week. It’s crazy. If the apocalypse isn’t upon us, I don’t know when it will be. The only thing left is for Sadaam Hussein to resurrect from the dead with the Pope his prophet and Barack Obama his puppet. I think that’s how Joel C. Rosenberg told me it would happen. It’s been awhile since I read those books.

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The Marks of the Missional Church

Over approximately two millennia, the Church has continually struggled with its mission to be the people of Jesus Christ to an ever-changing culture and society. The task has not always been an easy one. As the Church has entered the twenty-first century, the question of what makes the Church the people of Jesus Christ still lingers. The Church seeks to be ekklesia, a “called out” people, and becomes a peculiar people. This peculiar people must live in the twenty-first century seeking to fulfill the mission of Christ and dialog about what specifically marks the Church in its current context. These people are sent to the world as agents of Christ’s kingdom and should continually self-evaluate to see if it is living out its mission.

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Multiracial church?

There are multiple problems that attribute to evangelicalism’s position on race issues. Firstly, premillennialism became the dominant eschatological view during these sad years. Such a view sees the world as evil and in rapid decay until Christ returns (p. 47). Thus, social reform has been seen as unimportant, and evangelicalism’s sole purpose has become “saving souls” for heaven. Often, from an evangelical standpoint, social reform is left to the misguided, mainline churches. American evangelicalism finds itself as a far from innocent bystander on the issues surrounding race and a promoter of the status quo. The dichotomy of evangelism and social action is a false one, and, unfortunately, premillennialism encourages it. Thus, premillennialism must change or cease to exist.

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Highlights:

Matt Schaub lifts Pro Bowl MVP trophy

1. Amanda and I spent Friday night in the city. We stayed at the Hyatt by Penns Landing with a riverfront view. It was really nice to spend some time alone with Amanda, which I’ve found is more difficult when you have a kid (albeit, I wouldn’t change my life right now if I could). We ate a two fantastic restaurants that I recommend: (a) Amada Restaurant — Amada is a Spanish tapas based restaurant and is home of the Food Networks new Iron Chef, Jose Garces. Both Amanda and I thought it was fabulous. We ate off of the Restaurant Week menu with two courses and dessert. The garlic shrimp, marinated olives, and grilled chicken with a fried egg on top reminded us of our honeymoon in Spain.  (b) On Saturday morning, we ate brunch at Max Brenner, which offers its own self-proclaimed “chocolate culture.” From different styles of hot chocolate in their “hug mugs” to chocolate banana crepes, we felt like we tasted the chocolate river in Willy Wanka’s Chocolate Factory.
2. The NFL Pro Bowl received 12 million viewers. The largest viewing audience ever for the seemingly tag-football game of the NFL season. I guess the week before the Super Bowl will be the standard henceforth. Congrats to Matt Schaub for winning the MVP. With Peyton Manning out of the way, the guy shines. Just imaging if the Colts weren’t in the same division as the Texans? Houston might make the playoffs!

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Race and the Church in America

Christian congregations, when possible, should be multiracial. It is unlikely that any Christian would disagree with such a proposition outright. However, the overwhelming majority of Christian congregations in America do not reflect racial diversity, and this is even truer within the evangelical tradition. Evangelical congregations, holding to a firm belief that the entire world must hear about the salvation offered by Jesus, should be at the forefront of making the above proposition a reality, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. Thus, evangelicals must take to task the proposition that all churches, when possible, should be multicultural.

When authors Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey, and Karen Chai Kim were writing the book United by Faith: the Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race, the magazine Christianity Today summed up much of what the authors have proposed. The authors define a multiracial congregation as that which 80 percent or more of the church’s membership is made up of one race. The lack of multiracial congregations is simply unacceptable since the racial landscape of America has changed dramatically even over the last few decades. As the article states, “In absolute numbers, the United States had well over 35 million more people of color in 2000 than it did in 1980” (par. 5; emphasis original).

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I have not done one of these in a long time, but I feel that I should update everyone a little on my life.

Kid #2

Highlights:

1. Amanda is pregnant, and we just found out last Thursday that this one will be a boy! His name will be “Evan” named after my grandfather, father, and me (in that order, too). I am very excited. As a dad, you have fantasies of playing catch with your son, going to games together, camping, fishing, etc. I hope to do all these things and more. Giselle tries her best to pronounce “Evan.” It started like “Ibann,” and now sounds more like “Ebbin.” Close enough.
2. Yesterday, our church plant Redemption Church voted Gary Alloway as our pastor. Gary had been with us from the beginning, and we on the leadership team believed God had called him to be our pastor. However, we wanted confirmation from the congregation, as well. This was confirmed! Pastor Gary Alloway.
3. I am in my second semester at my job, and I am beginning to feel like I know what I am doing. Overall, I love my staff and the people I work with. This sounds bad, but I like my job more than I thought I would. I guess that’s a good thing.

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Re-posting a post from June 26, 2009 because I’ve been asking myself “Why?” once again:

My most recent post on Everyday Liturgy’s website dealing with the question of purpose is now up:

Why?

Recently, I’ve been asked to join the leadership team for a new church plant that will be happening in Bristol, PA. I’m excited about this venture. As of late, we have been struggling over the question, “Why?” Why are we doing this? What’s our purpose? Are we hoping to be the young, cool, hip group? Or are we hoping to reach the poor of Bristol? Or the families of Bristol? The question, Why?, gives us guidance and helps us understand what the next steps should be…

Caesar Augustus

Many of my recent studies have been focused around Rome and the New Testament (as with my post on Warren Carter’s book). After doing much research, I have put together a document comparing Caesar and Jesus. We must remember that many (if not all) of these titles/topics were dedicated to the Caesars before Jesus so the New Testament’s critique on empire should not be missed. I know I left off some other important titles such as “son of God,” but this should be a good starting point. Also, I must state that I am indebted to Richard Smith from Biblical Seminary as his lectures have assisted me in these studies.

View the document “Comparison between Caesar and Jesus” here (.pdf).

Is there anything I missed?

What are your thoughts after viewing this document?

Church Marketing

From the experience of many in the American church, Kenneson and Street’s words are comforting. It is difficult to argue with much of what the authors are stating. It is discomforting to hear church marketers speak of people in terms of cost and effectiveness, and it is equally saddening to see that many great church leaders have fallen into the marketing trap. There is little to contend with and much to praise in the work of Kenneson and Street. Three specific points are worth noting.

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Selling Out the Church

Much of the American church has emphasized the need to be heard by the culture around it so that society will listen to what the church has to say. However, these churches often do not think about the consequences of emphasizing this thought. Philip Kenneson and James Street have found an unnerving trend in American churches that shows many yielding to marketing strategies, and the authors have dedicated their book Selling Out the Church: the Dangers of Church Marketing to reveal this. Many churches have become obsessed with marketing techniques in order to bring more people through the doors and have neglected their call to be a peculiar people, diluting the gospel in the process. Although Kenneson and Street at times overemphasize the dangers of church marketing, the American church, as well as, the international church should heed their overall message.

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