Trump, Evangelicals, and the Road Ahead
March 12, 2016
In 1934, at the age of 28, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to a friend about an upcoming conference that would involve members of churches from several countries and denominations. In this lette…
Bernie or Bust pledge is the ‘miracle’ Senator Sanders needs to secure Party nomination
March 4, 2016
Bernie or Bust pledge is the ‘miracle’ Senator Sanders needs to secure Party nomination
March 4, 2016
PLUTOCRACY: A plutocracy is a country or society governed by the wealthy few. To prevail in the Democratic primaries, Senator Sanders needs to have at least one million, dedicated supporters take t…
Source: Bernie or Bust pledge is the ‘miracle’ Senator Sanders needs to secure Party nomination
Trump, Evangelicals, and the Road Ahead
March 2, 2016
In 1934, at the age of 28, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to a friend about an upcoming conference that would involve members of churches from several countries and denominations. In this letter, he wrote, “We must make it clear—fearful as it is—that the time is very near when we shall have to decide between National Socialism and Christianity. It may be fearfully hard and difficult for us all, but we must get right to the root of things, with open Christian speaking and no diplomacy. And in prayer together we will find the way.”[1] This was before the Holocaust began, before WWII began. But Bonhoeffer saw that one could not embrace the Christian faith and embrace the political tide of his nation that was so enamored with the Nazi party. The two simply were not compatible. On April 9th, 1944, he was executed for his part in the…
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As I’m away from Facebook
December 1, 2015
http://odb.org/2015/12/31/on-the-wing-2/
My own thoughts (away from Facebook) on Jesus’s teachings throughout Mathew’s gospel:
Jesus & Mohammed – the difference is that of Light vs darkness.
“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:27-31 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)
Go – sent – apostolic migration: Make no mistake, if your church is not training and sending out disciple makers, it is not Jesus’s Church, or at most a poor example.
}:- 💔~💜
Giving is Weird
November 2, 2015
Yep, it is weird indeed. And it requires both faith and diligence on the part of the pastor and his family.
As a former elder in a large denomination and church, I had “intimate” experience with finances. I’m sure like all things, finances vary greatly between churches. I have been troubled though when I discovered that salaries, buildings, and programs left only about 5% for “mission”; the Kingdom allocation. }:- anonemoose monk 💔💜
My family and I eat, sleep, and live because people have made a decision to be generous. Now, I know that the “right” answer is that God provides through people’s gifts to our church. But I often wonder for people outside the church, or outside knowing God, how weird all of that probably looks. I could picture this conversation, perhaps at the soccer field watching my kids practice.
“So you’re a pastor?”
“Yep.”
“And you get paid because people decide to give out of their income each week, each month, or whenever they feel like it?”
“Yep.”
“Weird.”
“Yep.”
“What happens if they decide not to do that anymore?”
[silence]
“I don’t know…in other places I served, there were times I had to wait to get a paycheck, because our ministry didn’t have the money. But it eventually always showed up. There are a lot of generous people out there. And most churches…
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Church or church?
October 28, 2015
Church or church?
Somewhere along the way while trying to follow Jesus I came to the realization that what church was doing, and what I was doing as part of the church didn’t look much like what I saw Jesus doing?!
Though I claimed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Master, things just didn’t jibe with His Way? I had to accept that I needed to embrace a paradigm shift (a holy shift) of monumental, life-changing proportion.
It has not been an easy change to say the least. Fortunately, the trail has been blazed by others before me. They have become my new “community in Christ”, and I see them as the true Church, the Body of Christ, organically manifested in the world at large.
I have tried with love and Grace to remain in fellowship with Brethren who call the institutional, traditional church their home. However, I am seen as a rebel, a threat to the status quo, one who “stirs the pot” so to speak. Some relationships remain strong in the Lord, but others are strained by my passion and willingness to speak up when I sense a wandering from Jesus’s “Narrow Way”.
I know this is frightening stuff for some, but I’ve also seen many step out in faith. The Verge Network and its many collaborators (individuals and groups) are a constant source of encouragement, as well as accountability. They are not afraid to “question authority” (I’m a “child of the 60’s”), and yet submit themselves to God and one another.
When we feel alone and rejected by the status quo church, this community sustains us in Christ Jesus. The Psalms become our prayer book, as like David, we feel the persecution and oppression of religious authority pressing down on us. Then too, we recall Paul’s “prayer” to the Philippians (4:4-13), and always the Lord’s own encouragement recorded in John’s gospel.
I sense the church religious is beginning to change, and many within are embracing God’s recreation in spite of opposition. Many pastors and leaders are risking loss of employment and family financial stability to follow Jesus out into the world of “missional communities”. The church is slowly beginning to look like the Church, the Body Christ Jesus had in mind and heart at the beginning. It may take years of small steps, but as Caesar Kalinowski says, “small is big, slow is fast”.
I’m in for the long haul, “a long obedience in the same direction” toward my true Home in God by the Grace of Christ Jesus. Surrendered and submitted to His “unforced rhythms of Grace”; daily life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, an apprentice in training and training others as He makes more disciples and “builds His Church”, one person at a time. You see, we are not “just another brick in the wall”.
}:- 💔💜
I’m not really a “giver…”
October 27, 2015
Source: I’m not really a “giver…”
I’m not really a “giver…”
October 27, 2015
Yep
I’m not really what you would call a “giver.” Let me explain.
At the age of 11, I had my first job, delivering newspapers for the Seattle Times in the afternoon. (remember the video game Paperboy? I played it…and lived it). 
My older brother delivered the morning paper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. When he went off to college, I inherited his morning route, and I got up at 4:45 each morning through my high school years, walked the route for 45 minutes, went back to bed for an hour, then went to school (insert your story of how hard you had it during childhood here). The point was this: I worked hard for that money (so I thought at the time), and it was mine. I had to go door to door to collect the monthly dues. If I remember right, I made about $100 a month. It was mine. I…
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