Esfuerzos de la relevación

Done por favor si usted puede:

Visión del mundo

MissionThink 2006

Bien, voy para él. Voy a comenzar a trabajar en una conferencia para el invierno/el resorte de 2006. Si usted está interesado en ser una parte de “MissionThink 2006: Navegación de nuestra misión en una cultura del consumidor“entonces satisfaga email yo. El planeamiento todavía está en su infancia. Estoy buscando iglesias, miembros del comité, presentadores, el etc. que patrocinan. Cualquier ayuda greately sería apreciada.

Educación para $50

Éste será mi poste pasado por alrededor de una semana. Mi esposa (Amy) y es el salir de la ciudad por algunos días celebrar Navidad con sus padres. Desde él mi poste pasado para un poco mientras que, deseo hacerle cuenta… aquí va…

A menudo, cuando estoy hablando con alguien sobre materialism o consumerismo o porqué nuestra actual celebración de Navidad debe cambiar, consigo una clase de mirada fija frustrada y confundida en respuesta. La gente “no lo consigue”. Piensan que estoy siendo ingenuo o extremo. Le aseguro que, no soy algún perrito idealista spunky que tiene gusto de rabiar contra la máquina. Soy un rechoncho, hospitalidad-adicto, el americano que desea profundamente convertirse más bién Jesús Cristo.

Hace una semana, mi esposa y yo hablábamos de cómo ought hacer Navidad este año. Convinimos que sería demasiado precipitado y torpe apenas no comprar presentes para la gente. Instead, we are trying to limit our spending and begin to prepare people for a non-consumerist Christmas next year. But I felt that this wasn’t enough–we must do more. So, though we cannot afford it, we decided that for every dollar we spend on presents, we would give to the global poor. Not much, but a good start.

I went to the World Vision website (which is a highly reputable organization). They have a donation catalog on their site. The online catalog presents some of the best arguments for why we ought to reconsider our relationship with money.

We take our money for granted. We spend thousands of dollars a year on entertainment, travel, recreational eating, and technological gagetry. And when someone comes along and challenges us to give more to the poor or to spend less money on ourselves, we get upset. Part of us feels guilty, the other feels angry. We want to say "bless you for challenging me in this area" while at the same time shouting "damn you for making me feel bad." But the simple reality seen on World Vision’s Catalog leaves us without a defense.

For $75–what many people pay for a week’s worth of groceries–you can buy a family a goat, which can provide them with a good supply of milk, or more goats.

For $50–what you might expect to pay for a text book or a handful of mainstream books at Barnes and Noble–you can send a child to school for a year.

For $1850–what you might pay for new laptop–you can provide drinking water by paying for a shallow well.

For $25–the price I pay for a new pair of jeans–you can buy clothing for 5 homeless American kids.

You get the picture. I don’t want you to feel bad. I want you to give. Start giving out of what you can give, even if it is a pathetic amount…and start giving more and more as you re-orient yourlife to maximize the amount of love you share, rather than the amount of fun you can experience. Merry Christmas.

A Christmas Poem

I don’t write much poetry, but I wrote the following as an act of worship to our Lord:

Ode to a Forgotten Babe

When Yuletide bliss

forgets

the somber tone of Deity enfleshed,

and when gaiety thick

stifles

contemplation of the odorous manger;

when all the world

tethers

the numinous to a pine bough,

We will remember you,

We will make room for you.

We will wonder at you.

An Overview of Anabaptism

Check out this great summary of anabaptism from Leaving Munster.

OMG!

Some 22 year old Australian gamer recently dropped $26,000 for a virtual island on an MMORPG! This is consumerism at its most absurd.

Any Suggestions?

Do any of you, my readers, know of churches which are intentionally taking a thought-out stand against consumerism or globalism?

Being Church in a Consumer Culture?

I’ve been toying with the idea of working with a few Minneapolis churches to put on a conference…(I know it is a bit of a longshot, but hey, it is fun to dream). I’ve been pondering potential themese for a conference. To me, a good conference ought to:

1. Benefit churches (ie, be useful to them).
2. Stimulate new thinking and new practices.
3. Be something that responds to a neglected area.

So, I am pondering putting together a conference on being the Church in a Consumer Culture. This issue is very near and dear to my heart; too few churches are being prophetic in this area. I am fairly confident that I could get a local church to host the conference. If I could secure some basic funds from grants or donors, get at least one well-known speaker (like Marva Dawn, Rodney Clapp, etc.), then I would have a solid foundation for a good conference.

I was thinking it would be a Thursday - Friday conference…with three plenary sessions, featuring one well-established speaker and two relatively well known authorities on consumerism and religion (like a Vincent Miller). The rest of the sessions could be led by church practioners who have been attempting to navigate the church in a consumer culture.

Here is my question: Is this worth doing? Would you be interested in something like this?

A Couple New Blogs

I’ve added a couple new blogs to my blogroll:

Under the Acacias, the Blog of Keith Smith, is a missionary to the Fulani of Burkina Faso. He brings some global perspectives to missional thinking.

Another blog is that of the quest in Columbus, Ohio. They are a house church movement that my buddy Chris and I have been in some contact with over the past couple of years.

Check them out.

Tony Campolo is a bit naive

Check out this post on House Church Blog. The post refers to an article by Tony Campolo.

In the article, Tony Campolo describes the emergent movement as a sort of utopian ideal: decisions by concensus, urban engagement, everyone is actively involved, etc. You can read my fuller response on House Church Blog, but it seems that Mr. Campolo and many others are so enamored by the ideals of the emergent movement that they don’t see how woefully most emergent churches fall short of the ideal. I don’t want to tear down the emergent church–that isn’t my goal. I just want people to be realistic and keep pushing forward, rather than falling into foolish thinking that would claim that the emergent church has emerged and now we can sit back and enjoy it. If the emergent movement is going to benefit the Church, it must press on, criticize itself, and press on more.

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