did anyone listen to pastor jeff's am sermon on sunday? someone told me it was really great, and one of the best sermons they've heard in a long time. someone else felt that it really spoke to them. something about the contrast between living as a spiritually present day christian and as one with a spritual vision. (right? someone wanna share thoughts?)

i'll probably order his tape.

posted by gw at 2:31 AM

more perspectives insights

here's a theological debate which i recently heard recounted at perspectives, which i found interesting. after hearing different accounts of it by word of mouth (2nd hand and even 3rd hand of one side's interpretation), here it is in the original full context.

______________________

theology of freedom of the believer

two guys were dicussing different theological scenarios in discussing the freedom of the believer, as taught in romans chapter 14 and chapter 15.

guy A said that an activity could not be right if you could not tell "a pastor" about something. (note that the discussed scenario is for "a pastor", not necessarily ones at sunset.)

guy B disagreed with that overarching umbrella statement. some pastors feel bound and are not free to do certain things. some things which are permissable in a believer's freedom. out of love for the conservative, bound believer (who can be in some cases be a pastor), the free believer would not share of the permissable activity with them out of love for the other believer.

the free believer should not cause the bound believer to stumble. if the bound believer (in this case a very conservative pastor), does not understand the liberty granted, then the free believer sharing the news would cause the bound believer to stumble.

i know that when it comes to some permissible things, the situation needs to usually be treated very delicately not to stumble others.

"Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be
spoken of as evil" (14:16)

"So then we pursue the things which make for peace and
the building up of one another. (14:19)

______________________

personally, i'm thankful that i'm at a church like sunset, where the pastoral staff does understand the permissable freedom of the believer. you'll definitely get that if you talk to pastor jeff or really become familiar with his sermons and perspectives. you'll get that same understanding if you go thru the membership class which explains the church's view on things. (if you're not a member, you definitely should consider it!)

i would feel uncomfortable at a church which has a culture which is very conservative and legally binding. (i knew of one church pastor, who disapproved of the high schoolers going to a school dance, so the pastor cancelled the high schooler's missions trip over their disobedience! this same church frowns heavily upon drums for worship.) scbc is very grounded in growing the believer to understand biblical truths and maturity of faith, and letting that be the primary guiding force for how believer's live. not by merely teaching rules and laws.

posted by gw at 11:40 PM

stuff from perspectives this week

attended the sf perspectives last nite. the guy brian was a last minute replacement. he taught lesson 9, the second history lesson. he was pretty dry. i was falling asleep in the first half, but mostly cuz of the smaller cramped room and the poor air circulation. but for the second half he was sharing some stories that really piqued my interest (and kept me very awake).

he shared about his team's creative strategy in reaching the peoples of barani (sp?). in terms of doing things which allowed them to cross the cultural barriers. one was to try to develop and pitch a theme park based on their heritage and which would help their economy. he shared about the fellowship of artists for cultural evangelism. they're a fellowship of artists who work to lend their skills for world evangelistic projects, i think. he utilized them to cross language barriers in creating storyboards to communicate the concept of the theme park. i thought that was pretty cool, and something that i should definitely look into, as an intersection of ministry and creative gifts for me. i talked to him later and he told me that they're located in pasadena (where i could be headed this fall if i go to art center). he also told me that they're an agency group of the us center for world missions. anyways, i'll be checking them out, and if people have heard anything of them or opportunities like that lemme know.

another story which was pretty interesting was when his wife adopted the cultural dress of the local peoples. (dressed in all black and covered up.) this was done to the extreme disdain and criticism of the missions community over there. but it was a really good decision for him and his wife, since it immediately opened up doors to be accepted by the people. what was really important was to be accepted by the people, and creatively crossing the cultural barriers was the way. prett much the whole second half of the night was sharing the importance and examples of creative strategies in reaching peoples.

another thing he shared was the engel scale model measuring the awareness levels people have of god and faith. (consistant with how i view our envangelistic goals and how we ought to live as lights in the real world, to be glorifying to god in our actions and relationships and draw people closer to god...when they come to know him is all in his time.)

to sum up he shared that missionaries need to be perceived as a blessing to people. someone the people want to be there. maintain the relationships with the people. another thing is that after the seed is planted, you have to give the seed time to grow on its own, but still with some watering. (recently i've been learning and putting into practice witnessing and planting seeds with different non-chrstian friends, so this was pretty good advice for me...a few of you may have prayed for me from the requests i shared. i'll probably blog an update on praises eventually.)

i hung around to talk to brian afterwards, to ask him about face (the creative agency). i relayed to him that i'm a creative person and i'm seeking out ways for the intersection of my creative gifts and serving god. well he encouraged me and tried to contextualize creativity in the church. a lot of time it's looked down upon by conservative christians. some people will definitely think you're making big mistakes, which may seem to them to fly in the face of traditional christian culture. what's really needed is out of the box thinking and untraditional approaches (particularly when it comes to reaching people). in terms of those situations, you need the holy spirit's guidance, and anyways...our creative gifts do come from the spirit in the first place. i was asking him more specifically in regards to artistic creativity, but it turns out that his response to me was encouraging to me not just in that area, but in other larger ways my creativity plays a part in my life.

posted by gw at 1:41 PM

i think betelnut beauty sounds pretty interesting...for anyone that doesn't know, betelnut is a tobacco-like product that looks like a big clove of garlic, and when you chew it, it turns red and most people choose to spit the buildup of red saliva out instead of swallowing it. i actually tried it once in taiwan...i was expecting the worst, so it didn't seem too bad, but it's not a habit i'd be inclined to pick up...i just remember getting kinda hot and a slight buzz. anyways, betelnut is known to be peddled by girls scantily clad in bikinis, typically in the tien mu/shi men ding areas in taipei. what strikes me as funny is that although i've seen them around before, i didn't know there was a story behind them.

posted by Jason at 12:51 AM

Initially, I didn't really didn’t get what Johnny was talking about. But now I think I do. I agree with Johnny completely. Granted, we all have that "freedom of speech" thing, but I also believe that we must be tactful (especially in our blogs, since they’re so easily accessible).

Paul writes:
"Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." -1 Corinthians 10:23

I fall short with this issue as well. I don’t just wanna point fingers. Several instances, I lack in tact. Being described as "insensitive" by more than a couple people made me realized that. I know that it's hard at times. For me, sometimes it’s innate. But let's encourage one another and hold each other accountable for our actions. As brothers and sisters in Christ you know.

My 2 cents.



posted by Dan at 11:49 PM

i have a request regarding personal blogs. could we please use tact in our blogs, and not intentionally bad mouth any individual, group, or gender that we fellowship with every thursday night? let's try and work together to strengthen this body of Christ, instead of using our personal gripes to tear it down.


posted by J at 8:34 PM

i'd be interested in betelnut beauty, and e-dreams. i know how it feels when your startup (or startups in my case) bites the dust :(

posted by J at 10:44 AM

Go Bruins!

posted by statuskuo at 1:19 AM