Parable of the Talents

http://paulswritings.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/howard-wrong-on-parable-of-the-talents/

Here's a take on the parable of the talents which I've not heard before - and which makes much more sense to me. Certainly more than assuming it as about prosperity, and rather more than about 'doing our best with what God has given us' which never really fit with the 'I know you are a cruel man and reap where you have not sown' view of God...

You DO have to read right to the end to get it, though, in terms of how it comes back on us as Christians. Are _you_ prepared to support and care for the whistle blowers? Read on to find out...

We are not about weekends...

http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2007/01/we_arent_about_weekends.html

"Church is not supposed to be a Sunday event. It's supposed to be salt and light in the family, in the community, and around the world.

Our church is not about the weekend. I didn't understand this when we started. Many churches, like ours, start out with mass mailers, advertising, "show up on Sunday," we're starting "our thing."

But the best people to reach are those you connect with in your community involvement when you're engaging the culture. They're seeing the church in action, not just in its advertising."

Hillsong = Justice?

JUSTICE HAS A
FRONT SEAT AT HILLSONG CONFERENCE

July 10, 2007

With themes of unity, courage, justice and freedom, this year's
Hillsong conference held last week in Sydney, which each year is the
largest single gathering of Christians in Australia, had the ring of
a United Nations convention rather than a church gathering. Criticized
in the past for its deemed emphasis on prosperity as a blessing from
God, this years Conference featured at its opening session, Gary
Skinner, leader of the Kampala Pentecostal Church and Founder of
Watoto Child Care Ministries, who told delegates how to spend their
money and exercise their faith tackling poverty and AIDS in Africa.

He said it was not the responsibility of celebrities, pop idols or
governments to mitigate poverty, but that of individual believers and
the church as a whole. "God was not impressed by church doctrine or
the number of times people attended church, but by the way his
followers practised and lived their faith" Mr Skinner went on to
say."The world is on an accumulation binge. God is not a grabber; he
is a giver."

Some 26,000 Christians from 68 nations representing 19
denominations attended the Conference which provided delegates with a
blend of practical workshops on congregation-building, worship,
evangelism, and high-energy preaching, at Acer Arena, an auditorium
built for the Olympics that serves nicely as a modern house of
God.

The word "justice" and the responsibility it infers was a key
message of the conference, said the senior pastor Brian Houston.
Stressing its record of helping the poor, Hillsong is keen to end
criticism that Pentecostal churches are more interested in
entertainment than religion and more worried about personal
enlightenment and spiritual and material abundance than social
justice. "God tells us that standing against injustice and speaking
up for the disenfranchised is the responsibility of every Christian,"
Mr Houston said. Mr Skinner did not go away empty-handed. Hillsong
handed over a cheque for more than $700,000 to build a village in
Gulu, northern Uganda, for rescued child soldiers.

Source: Compiled by APN from various media
reports http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/

Rapture? What rapture?

http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_BR_Farewell_Rapture.htm

"The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2)."

God at fault? Or us?

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21861447-7583,00.html?from=public_rss

"...no fanatical movement in the eons of religious history, not even modern Islamofascism or the whole miserable chapter of the Crusades, has wreaked the sort of havoc the Jew and Christian-hating Nazi regime achieved in one brief decade."

The Art of Holiness and Spiritual Progress

http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/2007/01/art-of-holiness-and-spiritual-progress.html

"The current misconceptions regarding how to approach Christianity and a lack of proper language in Christian circles to explain and train one another in the methods of sanctification and spiritual progress is so acute that I find it necessary to go outside of the majority Christian culture in order to develop what I understand to be a disciple making community."

Church or Kingdom

http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/2007/01/church-or-kingdom.html

"When the mainstream church honestly answer the question, “What can we give to people?”, the answer is that we can offer good programs and clear bible teaching. We may say, “We offer relationship with Jesus Christ”, but if by relationship with Jesus Christ we mean the immediate power and presence of the Holy Spirit then the mainstream church cannot honestly testify that we offer people a life of relationship with Jesus Christ. The daily power of the Holy Spirit has not been my experience of the life of the normal church-goer. No what the church offers is programs and teaching. In other words, the church offers people church."

Church and Innovation = Creativity + Hard Work?

http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/2007/06/05/guest-blog-scott-rodgers/

"Church is too predictable for me. I’m looking for something remarkable, something memorable; and so are your first time guests. I had a club sandwich at Houston’s the other night and told three people the next day how great it was.

Most people love to have a story to tell; a story about their experience. As a church, we need to give people a story to tell."

Cool story

I just like this story :-)

Arthur Burns was a Washington power broker who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve, as ambassador to West Germany, and in other prominent positions from the 1960s through the 1980s. He was a counselor and confidant to a number of U.S. presidents during his career. Arthur Burns was also Jewish.

That is why his regular attendance at a weekly Bible study and prayer meeting at the White House in the 1970s was a surprise to many. Although he was warmly welcomed, different members of the group who took turns leading the meetings never called on him to pray.

One week, however, a newcomer leading the group asked Arthur Burns to close in prayer.

The other members shot a glance at one another, wondering how Burns would respond to this awkward situation. Burns never hesitated. Instead, he joined hands with the others in the group, bowed his head, and prayed, "Lord, I pray that you would bring Jews to know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would bring Muslims to know Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray that you would bring Christians to know Jesus Christ. Amen."

You Can't Keep a Justified Man Down

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/aprilweb-only/4-14-42.0.html

"Conservative Christian readers often scrunch together two very different things. One is going to heaven after you die, and the other is the resurrection of the body as the final destination. Many conservatives are puzzled when I tell them that there's not very much in the New Testament about going to heaven when you die, and that where you do find material in the New Testament about going to heaven when you die, this is a temporary thing. What really matters is resurrection—Life After Life After Death."

The New Intolerance - Atheist Fundamentalism

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/17.24.html

Richard Dawkin's latest book "The God Delusion" has sparked a controversy that he may not have expected - the "secular", "liberal" - and thinking - critics are not impressed - and are calling him an uneducated bigot (in the realm in which he writes).

Also this article reviews the book itself:

"Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology."

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/18772.htm

Is this about your church? Our church?

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/18572.htm

A hard article to read - many challenging home truths that apply very welll to the Church in Australia (written to the NZ Church) and to our own churches...

Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple?

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/01/was-lazarus-beloved-disciple.html

A longish read but an increasingly interesting one. Why are people so certain that the Gospel of John was written by John the son of Zebedee? Love to hear your thoughts on this; (Ben Witherington is a very well known theologian and unlikely to espouse unorthodox views without very strong support for them.)

The thought that grabbed me - that if Ben is correct - then we have a Gospel written by someone who had actually died and been raised again by Jesus...