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What is
The Other Side? |
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September 10, 2005
The ten commands of Christian college
dating
By Reverend John Stumbo
Presented during a Fall ’04 Deeper Life
chapel series at Crown College, St.
Bonifacius, MN
1. Thou
shalt not marry an idiot, including but
not limited to the person who claims,
“God told me you have to marry me.”
2. Thou
shalt treat engagement as engagement,
not as marriage.
3. Thou
shalt marry a friend, but not thy only
friend
4. Thou
shalt not attempt to create thy partner
into thine own image.
5. Thou
shalt listen to the questioning voices.
6. Thou
shalt give greater priority to thine
holiness than thine happiness.
7. Thou
shalt marry because thou hast found the
right person, not because thou dost
desire to be married and happen to be
dating someone.
8. Thou
shalt not kiss passionately anyone with
whom thou canst not pray passionately
(but just because thou canst pray dost
not mean thou shouldst kiss).
9. Thou
shalt never require thy partner to be
God.
10.
Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, soul, mind and strength and thy
partner as thyself.
Used by permission of Rev. John Stumbo,
Crown College
1983 graduate, and current pastor of
Salem
Alliance Church and
the Corporate Vice President of the
Christian and Missionary Alliance
(’05-’07). Originally appeared in
the Bridge, a publication of
Crown College, Spring 2005.
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July 12, 2005
An Urban pastor explains
why he believes his parish begins at the
pulpit—and extends all the way to city
hall
How few of us gathered to
protest the governor’s paltry proposal
for aid to welfare recipients! It used
to be the clergy would turn out en
masse on behalf of welfare parents.
A welfare rally at the capitol was a
festive occasion. It was an opportunity
to swap tall tales of picketing and
protest with priests and ministers from
all across the state. This year we had
an auxiliary bishop, an elderly black
Baptist preacher, the director of a
Christian community action program, and
myself. Where have all the clergy gone?
Many of my fellow
ministers have gone from picketing to
pastoral counseling. They’ve hung out
the shingle and are practicing
transactional analysis for a goodly
fee. Others are busily engaged in
various strategies for restructuring the
congregation. Some are involved in
frantic evangelistic efforts.
full
essay>>
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May
29, 2005
Being a Pawn on the Church Chessboard
by Len Evans
I’ve always had a
fascination with the game of chess and
the strategy needed to play it well. My
fascination was never strong enough to
join the chess club in high school,
probably because I couldn’t weather the
stigma. As I reflect on the power
issues that often crop up in churches, I
realized I’m a pawn.
A pawn, despite popular
opinion, is not worthless. Its primary
objective is to defend the good of its
fellow pieces and to serve in any way
necessary, even if it means sacrificing
itself so others can survive.
I’m imperfect—I know it
and everyone around me knows it. So I
don’t think I expect too much of those
who are in power or wield power in local
churches, because I don’t expect
perfection from them either. I do,
however, grow tired of Christian leaders
who can’t do what they said they were
going to do. I become angry and
frustrated when they cave into desires
and personalities and don’t act
according to biblical principles.
Sadly some churches cave
in to a consumeristic model that says
everything is about personal pleasure
and satisfaction. We have too many
churches that exist to make people happy
rather than challenging them to live for
the Kingdom of God and to die to self.
I hate the politics of
church. It’s a certainty that you can’t
have church without politics, because
the church is full of fallen people who,
even though they’re redeemed, strive for
power and other things God despises.
I’ve often wanted to be
more of a leader in churches, but I
haven’t been; because those who posses
the power haven’t allowed me to. I
often long to be a more important piece
on the church chess board—perhaps a
castle or knight. (I guess there’s only
room for one king at a church and that
position’s taken.)
A mentor of mine brought
that to my attention, and I sat there
with tears falling down my face as I
realized it was true. The truth is that
I’ve resented that, but I’m coming to
terms with it as I focus on being where
God has me instead of focusing on where
I’m not.
I must choose the
position of humility versus the position
of power. I am a pawn in the hands of
God, and I must lay down my life for
those whom God has placed within my
responsibility. Then I can be fully in
God’s will.
Len Evans is the
Family Pastor at
Grace Bible Church, La
Vernia, Texas. Posted by
permission of author, originally
published in
YouthWorker. Check
out Pastor Len's blog,
Looking out from my little place.
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May 1,
2005
Outreach is an "inside job" by
Reverend Eric Marx
Wow, Words'nTone offers a lot to think about on subjects
like evangelism and church growth.
Thought provoking to say the least. I
wrestle with the tensions between
theology and practice (e.g., "can I
separate them?"). I think that
evangelicals have wrestled with this
futility for some time. Remember
the old short movie entitled, "The
Gospel Blimp?" As I recall it, some
Christians thought they just needed
"just get the word out." So, they came
up with the idea of renting a blimp and
dumping all kinds of Gospel tracts onto
their town. They were "doing their
duty" to get the word out. It seems,
although they’d never admit it, that all
the mega-trendy church growth principles
are just variations on the “Gospel
Blimp.”
The gurus of church growth have never tried their plans,
strategies, and principles in small
towns like ours. Lanyon doesn’t even
make it into the 10-year census figures
it’s so small—it’s forty people are
lumped in with other surrounding small
municipalities and added to the largest
city in the area. Our average church
attendance on Sundays is twice the
population of the town. Neighbors can
be miles apart. Yet, we want our church
to grow. We really do. But, it seems
that the trendy, up-to-date church
growth principles are relevant to larger
municipalities where growth is
potentially latent in the vast numbers
of their populations. Not so for ours.
In larger cities, churches are able to blimp the Gospel
because of the masses of people. Praise
the Lord for the Gideons and other
groups “who can get the message out” to
the masses, and mega-churches that can
blitz a city with invitations and
announcements. The “Gospel Blimp”
approach is possible where there is the
population to play the marketing
percentages for a half decent response.
Being a pastor in an extremely small town, I have come to recognize
that outreach is an "inside job.” I
challenge our church to become relevant
to our community by becoming their
friends and helping them in what ways we
can. As I live in the community and
have developed a heart for it, I have
seen some fruit over time. I think that
the main battle (that is outreach,
evangelism, and church growth) will be
won in the trenches by people doing
hand-to-hand combat with their
neighbors, and where a choice to love
them despite any unloveablness is
needed.
Last week a neighbor saw me outside at the rural mailboxes and
stated, "What have you been up to? I
haven't seen you for a while.” I
interpreted what he was saying: "Hey, I
miss your company!” When visiting with
this gentleman, he always says, "Please
come back again.” No, he is not a
lonely old man, though the town we live
in doesn't afford close friendships.
Over the years, through smiles and acts
of kindnesses, I have been able to enter
into his personal world. I am afraid
that the easy way out is to just mail a
few tracts anonymously—a modified
blimp approach.
Every year I challenge our church to reach out in love to
our, extremely small, community. Most
of those who attend Lanyon Covenant
Church travel in from outside and drive
nice cars into our lot. The community
consists of people who are lower income
and have many lifestyle challenges.
This year individuals are going to give
to each town family—not church family,
town family (some families have
two households in one home)—a half
gallon of Schwan's Ice Cream.
Although evangelism is more than standing on the street corner and
handing out Cokes in the name of Jesus,
I feel comfortable keeping random acts
of kindness before the community that we
have chosen to love. Mission boards set
up medical hospital outposts in the most
rural, least populated areas of Africa
and Indonesia just to establish the love
of Jesus and in hopes of telling those
of the least populated areas that He
died for their sins. Not sure why this
approach should be so different here on
the home front. Perhaps, someday, our
neighbors here in Lanyon will ask why we
do the silly, small things we do at our
church, and then we can give our defense
for the hope is within us.
But, I admit, this year I am going to send out a Christmas Gospel
tract as well. Just in case they are
ready to receive that message we have
been telling them through actions. But
they’ll only be ready if we continue to
make our church’s outreach and “inside
job.”
Eric Marx is pastor of the Lanyon Covenant Church, Lanyon, Iowa
(Church
website).
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April 24, 2005
Enter the naked public
square: the other side
by Chip M Anderson
I have grand dreams for
this website. Well, at least I’d like
it to offer some material that can
impact how believers and non-believers
think about Christianity, the
Scriptures, and the world. I am also a
doodler-with-words. Some say, “Chip
thinks too much.” One of my employees
at work says, “There goes Chip’s stream
of consciousness, again.” I like what I
am doing here in
Words’nTone.
It is, in some way, a dream come true.
I want to promote good exegesis and
Christian thinking, and how these should
impact how the Church “is” (that is,
“ought to be”) in the world.
I have wanted to start a
page for guest writers that would
promote the Christian faith and its
relationship to our surrounding social
environment. My problem wasn’t the
idea. I knew what I wanted the contents
to be. I knew the subtitles: Faith and
Community, and with an additional tag or
slogan to further explain and emphasize
what I am promoting: Enter the naked
public square. But I couldn’t think
past a bland page title, Guest Column,
or something close to that.
I doodled countless,
mostly embarrassing, two word tags, but
nothing was clicking. Then a good
friend and retiring pastor gave me an
essay he wrote in 1979. The essay was
published in an older discipleship
magazine with the title,
The Other Side.
I knew I had my guest page title. And the same
day, in my devotions, I was reading John
6 and encountered verse 25:
When they found Him
on the other side of the sea,
they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did
you get here?”
The Other Side.
I thought, “This is it.” Exactly. I
wanted a place where fellow Christians
could put their own thoughts on how the
Christian life and faith work itself out
in the communities that surround us.
Much like the disciple’s surprise and
question, when we hear about how others
have gotten to “the other side,” we’ll
be surprised to find Jesus already
there. We'll ask, “Jesus, when did you get
here?” I want to encourage essays
on Christian thinking, best practices,
and ministry that will make us think how
the Christian life and faith work itself
out “in the world.”
A quick search
of the phrase—the other side—gives
us an interesting array of texts, mainly
from
the Gospels. Interestingly, the
consequence of being on the other side
was to encounter new opportunities for
ministry (often in enemy or opposing,
foreign, and unsavory territories). We
read in Matthew 8:28:
“When He came to
the other side into the country
of the Gadarenes, two men who were
demon-possessed met Him as they were
coming out of the tombs. They were
so extremely violent that no one
could pass by that way.”
On the other side we meet
the demon-possessed, tomb-walkers, those preventing others from passing by.
The other side is where
we take on the enemy, cast out demons
(as it were), and even feed bread to the
hungry. Sometimes on the other
side we learn there are those who abuse
the sacred text and wrongly, selfishly,
politically interpret Scripture:
“And the disciples
came to the other side of the
sea, but they had forgotten to bring
any bread” (Matthew 16:5).
While on the other
side, the disciples were
concentrating on their stomachs, but
Jesus wants them to beware of
those—religious figures—that set forth
false and unbiblical teachings:
“‘How is it that you
do not understand that I did not
speak to you concerning bread? But
beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they
understood that He did not say to
beware of the leaven of bread, but
of the teaching of the Pharisees and
Sadducees” (16:11-12).
And finally, the other
side can have a negative connotation, as
well. It is the place we escape from
our Christian responsibility, like those
who crossed to the other side to avoid
helping the injured man in the Good
Samaritan story.
“And by chance a
priest was going down on that road,
and when he saw him, he passed by on
the other side” (Luke 10:31).
“Likewise a Levite
also, when he came to the place and
saw him, passed by on the other
side” (Luke 10:32).
So, welcome to
The Other Side.
Enter the naked public square.
Now, it is up to you. Send your
thoughts, ideas, examples of ministry
and outreach, and sound Christian
thinking to The
Other Side. Check out
SUBMISSIONS…click.
Return soon to this
page...two new guest contributions to be
posted...
Outreach is an
"inside job"
My Visions of a New
Jerusalem
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muse,
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