I know that for the long time reads of this blog that i used to post any and every sermon i preached.. so I did another one, but this time I posted the audio and the written copy to the Praxis Podcast.. so if your interested head over to the Praxis Podcast website and listen to it or download it through iTunes! (please subscribe to it via iTunes…. that would help us greatly!
OK, here is the video of my presentation in Central TX Conference called YASummit.com the presentation ws called: Creating Community From Nothing! Enjoy:
Well, for those of you who don’t know I am doing three podcasts now, and loving every single one of them, but one in particular is causing me to do more research and getting to know my bible much better. the podcast is called, “Generally Speaking About The Church” and on the podcast I co-host the show with a new friend Cliff and we speak generally about our faith and Christianity. We join discussions live with people on the chat and the same with emails and voice mails. Well, a lot of the topics we have talked about lately are a few contriversial issues and one that we talked about is this text found in the Bible:
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2 Cor. 5:21-33
21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives and Husbands
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31″For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
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And the more and more I got into the discussion the more and more I realized that I had not really crittically done any exgetical work on this passage, so I sat down and started the process… and here are the top ten thoughts I gleened out of the passge through study and prayer:
The way I see it:
1) this is only for husband and wife, not male and female roles.
2) Christ is the example that qualifies “headship”, and “submission”.
3) this must be read with the first century culture in mind.
4) the submission of the wife to the husband is within the wider submission of everyone to each other in 21.
5) the motive for submission of the wife is within the context of the wife’s relation to the Lord.
6) this submission is regulated by the divine pattern of Christ’s relationship to the church.
7) so, the husband’s authority is regulated by Christ’s example and the principle of love.
NO human or fallible husband could ever live up to the quality of love and sacrifice (and love in the past tense in my mind refers back to an event I.e. the cross ) that Christ has for the church, but even at a much lower level this is the quality or concern, love and sacrifice a husband must have for his wife!
9) the Agape love spoken of is one that is completely selfless in its nature and therefore does not give any right of the husband to hold any hint of selfish authority over his wife, it means she (his wife) must be above any of his own interests, pleasures, and personality for the benefit of his wife.
10) I believe there is many more verses found in the bible especially the New Testament that speak of mutual submission to each other than of husbands and wives. (just like in 21, that this is a value and expression for all believers to each other, and that wives to husbands is within that larger context. So, I choose to emphasize verse 21 of mutual submission to one another over that of husband “over” wife.
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So, what do yall think? I have a few more of these that I will put here as well, like “The Christian response to war”, and “the use of the American flag in worship”. those will come if yall want to read them, but chew on this one for a while and let me know what yall think. Thanks! and blessing on ya!
OK, so I just read an amazing blog post responding to a statement that Mark Driscoll said explaining how the Emerging/Emergent Church does not have Converts….
“And all the nonsense of emerging, and Emergent, and new monastic communities, and, you know, all of these various kinds of ridiculous conversations — I’ll tell you as one on the inside, they don’t have converts. The silly little myth, the naked emperor is this: they will tell you it’s all about being in culture to reach lost people, and they’re not.”
And so, David Fitch over at his blog wrote an amazing blog post on his blog explaining Emergent/Emerging churches and how Driscoll could come to this conclusion. And it really resonated with my heart so here are a few quotes from his blog.. and I encourage you to go over to his blog and read it all. (then he has a follow-up blog post continuing the discussion here.
Quotes from David Fitch’s blog:
“I get this kind of remark often in places where I speak. It usually goes something like this: “We love the missional theology. But does it work? How many converts have you had in your missional church? Is it (like it’s some kind of strategy) reaching the people you’re talking about?” And so it goes, the modernist drive to measure success raises its ugly head. Yet this does not offend me because these are important questions. For I believe if we are not seeing people transformed by the gospel then “missional” in the end means very little.
So my response to Driscoll would go something like this:
1.) I agree. There is a stunning lack of sustainable communities in the movements addressed by Driscoll and I think this is disturbing.”
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“2.) Regarding missional churches, it is difficult to survive as a sustainable missional church (versus your standard Driscollesque mega church). Missional church ecclesiology is organic and incarnational. It does not fit easily with denominational expectations. This creates economic pressures for the missional leaders. I believe it takes 5- 10 years to nourish a missional community into a true functioning existence.”
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“3.) Regarding emerging churches/Emergent Village, I don’t believe they intend to plant church communities that would lead to converts. Instead at least Emergent, (and a lot of emerging folk depending on which stream you’re talking about) promote conversations (cohorts?). They seek to foster critique and seek “reform” within Christianity.”
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“4.) Having said all this, the number of conversions for missional church communities could still match the mega churches on the basis of percentages (if we were counting). This is Brother Maynard’s point. I think that the missional communities that do persist may have a higher conversion rate than the Drsicollesque mega church. Missional churches are so much smaller. 6 conversions from a group of 25 over ten years would match (or exceed) the percentage growth of a typical mega church. I think it would be interesting to measure how much dollars per conversion are spent in missional churches versus mega churches five to ten years from now when conversions start manifesting themselves in missional churches.”
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“5.) We must also recognize that “missionary conversions” take longer than mega church conversions. They are also more difficult to measure for often “conversion” happens as a process within a community (I could give you several examples within our own church). I argue that a conversion of a post-Christendom “pagan,” who has had little to no exposure to the language and story of Christ in Scripture, requires five years of relational immersion before a decision would even make sense. If you do not have this immersion/context, any decision that is made is prone to be a consumerist one. It in essence is a consumerist decision. It is made based on the perceived immediate benefit. It lasts as long as this perceived benefit remains important. It does not lead to discipleship.”
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“The bottom line is then, if we would reach the lost souls of post Christendom, the church in N America must go missional, incarnational, organic. We must become intertwined with those we seek to reach. Yet this will take time and appear to be highly inefficient in the terms we have become used to in the church growth/mega church world.”
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OK, so I wrote a comment on the origional blog post and wanted to share it here with yall:
Living in a Missional/Emerging Church Plant within the United Methodist Church, I cannot tell you how you have hit the hammer on the nail! Big time! Great response! And I just wanted to share one way that I have explained “Conversion” to the older generation UM pastors and laity.
“Most churches and traditional church plants focus on the “conversion” first and then take the “converts” through a long/lifelong understanding of discipleship. If Discipleship is becoming a “student”/”apprentice” of Jesus, then in the missional “model/way of being” their understanding of discipleship happens first, and then in (as you say) 5 years of wrestling with God and the Bible and doing it within community, the “decision” of “conversion” Is made with pure conviction and depth. They know exactly what they are getting into and how important this relationship with Christ is, but are already living out a lifestyle of Christianity. It is not an emotional response or a pressure tactic. They really know, and are living lives that are constantly search to know Jesus more just like a student/apprentice would do with a teacher, and therefore being a Disciple in the truest understanding.
This explanation has helped tremendously in the past and present, but I am currently at the end of my 3rd year, and the funding will be dropping by 25% in Jan. and I am prayerfully discerning looking into part-time working at the Apple Store or Starbucks, just because I believe so much in this way of being the church! But, also, more than the money I realy believe that I could develope relationshipsmore effectivly beyond the walls of the church if I worked in customer surface kinds of places.
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Well, what do yall think? sorry for the long blog post it just excited me! heh heh.
Well, I have been busy trying out living life with different and new ways to think about how to live in this amazing world we live in and lately I have been enjoying Twitter and podcasting.. so let me give yall some links and some info on them all:
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1st up is Twitter:
Twitter is like a Blog, but its purpose is for allowing everyone you know to know what you are doing right now. (just like the “status” under your name in Facebook). And so the cool thing is tha tyou can post to Twitter online but also through texting on your cell phone. And then you can follow others and get reports from them of what they are doing or thinking…and you can even get those messages on your phone too. (be sure to get unlimited texting, heh) So if you have been wondering that is the daily post that is showing up here on the blog.. it is a summary of my “Tweets” from the previous day! So, if you would like to sign up for Twitter (try it out) and follow me (and others) there go to my Twitter page and look for the signup link.
BTW: I really believe that Twitter could be an amazing technology for churches and ministries!
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2nd up is The Guys’ Podcast:
The Guy’s Podcast is two of my friends (Brad (in Florida) and Court(here in NKY with me)) and myself that talk about the latest technology news, movie and video game reviews, and anything else that might be Sci-Fi or Fantasy in nature! We are very broad, but we have ton of fun and who knows you may just learn something as well. We try to keep the podcast to less that an hour each week. Please tell you Geek friends and spread the word and ask others to subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.
The Praxis Podcast is me and my friend Kevin Rains interviewing fellow ministers who are doing and being the church in old and new ways. We interview them so that other pastors or people in ministry can be encouraged and challenged to live out their faith individually and in their faith communities. For them to talk about Praxising in the kingdom and helping others to do them same. If you know of people that like the Emergent/Emerging/Organic/Simple Church then this is the podcast for you… and even if you do not know what those thigs are… you might find a new world of living out the Kingdom by listening to these interviews. As always please tell others and have them subscribe via iTunes.
About the church is just me and a new friend Chris just sitting in a room talking about faith and Christianity. It really is a podcast for anyone that might not be a Christian or looking into Christanit, or Christians for that matter, but we are going to get real about our faith, questions, and challenges we have with the bible, the church, Chrtistianity, and Christians. We are both Christains, but goming from different backgroudns and will be encouraging others to send us topics for discussion or questions. Chris has started his own network of podcasts (something like 17 different podcasts!!!) And several of his podcasts are live online shows discussing TV shows like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, etc… anyway the two podcasts I have done so far (starting with Episode 31) were good, and it looks to be a fun and opinionated show, heh. tune in and point others to check this one out as well. Oh and this is the only podcast I am not doing myself. this is Chris’ show, but he asked me to be a co-host!
Well if yall are bored, and looking for some stuff to listen to on commute drives or just want to listen to my sexy voice, please subscribe via iTunes and thanks for supporting me and these endeavors! Blessings to you all!
NO human or fallible husband could ever live up to the quality of love and sacrifice (and love in the past tense in my mind refers back to an event I.e. the cross ) that Christ has for the church, but even at a much lower level this is the quality or concern, love and sacrifice a husband must have for his wife!
