Christian Megapolis is conducting a project, which considers the following two issues: (1) the nature of doctoral education and (2) actual national Ukrainian doctors and doctoral students as living, interesting personalities. To this end we invite you to enjoy this interview of Eduard Borysov by Rostislav Tkachenko ...
A while ago, I received an email from Ed Stetzer asking if I knew when spiritual gifts inventories first became prevalent. I gave him a quick reflection based on what I remembered at that time, but his question created a curiosity that sent me on a longer investigation. While this is certainly not the final word on the question, it may serve as a beginning point for other researchers. Here is what I have discovered ...
51蹤獲 half the world is made up of women. Books such as Half the Sky (Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn) and Half the Church (Carolyn Custis James) highlight how important it is for the Evangelical church to consider Gods vision both locally and globally for women. In the light of the Gospel, the church during the Reformation also wrestled with womens place, in the church, marriage, and society. While the Protestant Reformers did not set out to define womens roles, as they fleshed out their theological convictions of sola Scriptura and the priesthood of all believers, they were faced with addressing the question of how women are to participate in the church and the world as both receivers and conveyors of the Gospel. Did the Reformers responses result in constraining women by moving their ministry from the convent to the home (as Jane Dempsey Douglass argues), or did it provide them with new dignity (as Stephen Nichols suggests)? The answer to that question is complicated ...
51蹤獲 ten years ago, some of my fellow professors and I began to observe a trend among undergraduate Biblical & Theological Studies majors at 51蹤獲. We noticed that freshman students arrived on campus eager and ready to learn, but at some point during their sophomore year, these Biblical Studies majors became aware that on average they generally knew more theology than did the average 51蹤獲 student ...
I just finished reading Owen Strachans book, Awakening the Evangelical Mind: An Intellectual History of the Neo-Evangelical Movement. He has some good words for how to keep evangelical universities, well evangelical. These three paragraphs are worth the three minutes it will take you to read them ...
Job interviews are a nerve-wracking ordeal. The feeling of being out of control regarding ones future leads to subservient postures in relationships. This was the situation the Moabite, Ruth, found herself in after returning with her mother in-law to Bethlehem (Ruth 1). However, in this amazing Biblical narrative is a posture of grace-seeking that is reminiscent of our seeking God; it is the God-action of finding favor in others that we should model in our working relationships ...
Many persons in vocational Christian service got their start by working with young people. Youth ministry is great preparation for future service in other capacities. But it is much more than that. Youth pastors have the potential to impact the world for Christ in a powerful way, because young people often make important decisions about their future lives under the influence of church mentors and student ministries workers ...
Where does inspiration come from? Where does the motivation to use ones gifts and passions to make a difference begin? Jane Goodall said, What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Are we the source of action or does that spark come from something else? I would like to propose God is the beginning of movements that bring change; history is the record of mankinds response to the divine prompting ...
T繳 nunca me dices que me amas, una esposa triste se quejaba con su esposo; a lo que 矇ste respondi籀: yo te dije que te amaba el d穩a en que nos casamos y no he cambiado de opini籀n, as穩 que, no veo la raz籀n de estarlo repitiendo." Nos podemos sonre穩r con la historia anterior. Sin embargo, estoy convencido de que muchos esposos no comprenden lo importante que es amar a sus esposas y c籀mo demostrarles ese amor. El romanticismo no es solamente un asunto de mujeres sino que deber穩a ser la prioridad de los maridos ...
My friend and colleague, Mick Boersma, and I have been working together on a book, Supervising and Supporting Ministry Staff: A Guide to Thriving Together (forthcoming, Rowman & Littlefield). The book is based on research with associate staff members, and exemplary ministry supervisors, about what supervisors can do to help their ministry staff thriving in their ministry roles. It employs a bifocal lens model, looking simultaneously at issues of supervision (seeing that the ministry is done well) and support (encouraging the wellbeing of those doing the ministry). Along with the research results, which we share throughout the book, we also put together five biblical foundations for ministry together that I want to share in this blog. I encourage you to read these and reflect on the degree to which they guide your ministry with other staff members, and what other biblical foundations are important to you as you approach your ministry on a staff team ...
Why does the Bible use so many metaphors and analogies to describe the Spirits activities and our relationship to those activities? Why not employ concrete language to teach us what we need to know about the Holy Spirit and our relationship to him? ...
There are many helpful resources for those who want to engage the Bible on a deeper level. The big question is how to know which resources might be the most helpful. Periodically, I encounter resources that I think distinguish themselves from the myriad of available options. It is a safe bet that a resource book on Bible charts, maps, and timelines will not hit the bestseller list. However, Jack Becks The Baker Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Timelines has recently been published, and I think it will benefit Christians, pastors, and scholars, who want to engage the Bible more deeply. I have reached out to Jack and asked him to answer a few questions that might help you in understanding the purposes behind this new book ...
Los cristianos son seguidores de Jesucristo. La palabra que se usaba en los tiempos de Jes繳s para designar a sus seguidores es disc穩pulos. Por lo tanto, ser un cristiano es ser un disc穩pulo de Cristo (Hechos 11:26). En Lucas 14:25-35, y en otros pasajes m獺s, Jes繳s establece los requisitos para los que quieran ser sus disc穩pulos. Grandes multitudes le segu穩an asombradas de su mensaje y autoridad. Sin embargo, Jes繳s no estaba complacido solamente con que mucha gente le siguiera sino que 矇l deseaba que aquellos que tomaran la decisi籀n de hacerlo, lo hicieran de acuerdo a unas normas espec穩ficas. As穩 que, Jes繳s se detuvo y deline籀 en esta ocasi籀n cuatro caracter穩sticas indispensables para sus seguidores. Para ser un buen cristiano o disc穩pulo de Cristo es necesario cumplir con las condiciones que Jesucristo indica.
In our day, wherever it is found, the fruits of intellectual inquiry grow from the conviction that there is such a thing as truth out there to discover. Take an axe to the existence of truth and you no longer have education, you have propaganda. Ideologies that deny the very possibility of truth can be found in many (thankfully, not all) fields of education. In the quip of postmodern philosopher, Richard Rorty, truth is simply a matter of whatever your colleagues will let you get away with saying. With no truth to seek and discover, we are left with only social constructs to endlessly dream up and deconstruct. In the words of one lamenting Harvard graduate, The freedom of our day is the freedom to devote ourselves to any values we please, on the mere condition that we do not believe them to be true." When the very idea of truth is considered so out-of-fashion, schools gradually turn from the pursuit of knowledge to the business of data transfer, indoctrination, and diploma-printing ...
... Kids today are surrounded by a secularized society that bombards them with advertising, television, and social media messages. Parents are juggling demanding careers and family life in light of societal pressures to be more, do more, and have more. Our good intentions of helping, protecting, and providing for our kids can quickly turn to enabling or even disabling them. How do we help our kids grow into mature Christ followers without falling into the trap of enabling or disabling them? ...
Actually, there are lots of ways to kill a prayer meeting. Display bitterness or hostility to someone just before you start praying; thats sure to do the job. Or thoughtlessly rush into a prayer meeting, without any spiritual preparation, cracking jokes up until the moment you bow your head. That, too, has a good chance of killing a prayer meeting ...
En los 繳ltimos d穩as se ha dicho y escrito mucho sobre Cuba. La muerte de Fidel Castro ha originado un sin fin de perspectivas sobre su legado, sobre la Revoluci籀n Cubana y sobre el bello pa穩s de Cuba en general. En lo personal, he tenido el privilegio de viajar a Cuba en trece ocasiones, de convivir con much穩simos cubanos en diferentes contextos y de hacer una investigaci籀n sobre la educaci籀n teol籀gica en Cuba. Me gustar穩a resaltar que en Cuba ha habido un avivamiento espiritual por much穩simos a簽os en donde el Esp穩ritu Santo ha estado obrando poderosamente a lo largo de la isla. El crecimiento de la iglesia ha sido tal que muchas denominaciones no se dan abasto en la preparaci籀n de l穩deres y en el discipulado de los nuevos creyentes.
El evangelio seg繳n San Juan empieza con una declaraci籀n asombrosa que describe el origen del universo y nos da una descripci籀n de Jesucristo: En el principio era el Verbo, y el Verbo era con Dios, y el Verbo era Dios. Este era en el principio con Dios. Todas las cosas por 矇l fueron hechas, y sin 矇l nada de lo que ha sido hecho, fue hecho (Juan 1:1-3) ...
Its time we stopped reading, buying, and recommending The Message. We who hold to a high view of Scripturethat the Bible is the very word of God, inspired by God, inerrant in all it affirmsneed to carefully reconsider our use of The Message. There actually wouldnt be a problem at all if The Message were sold and treated as an interpretation of the Bible, or an expansive reading of the Bible. But as long as The Message continues to be marketed and used by preachers and teachers as a Bible translation, it is imperative that we ask the question of whether it is an accurate translation or not. I believe that the answer to this question is: The Message is not an accurate translation of what the original authors wrote.
Todos somos Marcos se convirti籀 en una popular frase en M矇xico y en muchos lugares del mundo. El primero de enero de 1994 el denominado Ej矇rcito Zapatista de Liberaci籀n Nacional inici籀 una lucha armada en el estado de Chiapas en el sur de M矇xico. El subcomandante Marcos era el l穩der de este movimiento que buscaba justicia, trabajo justo y equitativo entre otras demandas b獺sicas. El subcomandante Marcos se convirti籀 en un personaje carism獺tico y enigm獺tico porque ten穩a un pasamonta簽as que cubr穩a su identidad. Para protegerlo y para identificarse con las demandas de este movimiento muchas personas empezaron a decir todos somos Marcos y de esta manera borrar las diferencias entre esta persona y ellos mismos ...
Images of extreme poverty motivate those with financial resources to donate their money to help alleviate poverty; or that is what the producers of the images hope occurs. However, reducing the terrible and often deadly ramifications of poverty is not as simple as signing the ONE petition or buying RED products (both of which I have done). The problem is also not as straightforward as the global 1% of wealth (the haves) giving of their means as handouts to the have-nots. The position of wealth in the Global West often leads to a mentality that says we know what is best for the Global Rest we assume that if they just do what we did then they will get the same results. However, this classification of foreign aid ignores the resources of the Global Poor and their local churches, and instead creates an unhealthy dependency on handouts undermining the dignity of the materially poor, while their poverty is actually deepened by the very churches and organizations that are trying to help them (Fikkert & Mask, From Dependence to Dignity, 2015, p. 20) ...
Who has God brought into your life to teach you the Bible and help you grow in your faithfulness in following after Christ? Is it your pastor? Are there also others who have taught you the Scriptures, or who are teaching your friends or family members? In most churches, the Bible is being taught in a variety of places to different groups of different ages and stages of life. From childrens classes to youth group settings, to small group ministries, throughout the week Gods Word is opened and studied in churches around the world. This is one of the most powerful agents for change in our lives ...
At a recent luncheon, the Talbot faculty were reminded about the culture of academia, a culture that permeates Christian universities as well. The typical academic conducts research by herself or himself alone. Any paper or book that results may be reviewed by colleagues, but still the research is the product of one mind alone. Sometimes there are books that contain contributions by various researchers, but each article typically has also a single author. There are exceptions to the rulebooks or articles that are co-authored. They are still exceptions, though, and not the rule ...
In light of Holocaust Remembrance Week and Holocaust Remembrance Day on May 5, professor Rick Langer shares what a swastika means to him. ... Likewise, the swastika, the twisted cross, is a distillation of all of Nazism. It proclaims racial purity and narratives of supermen and lives unworthy of living. Its jagged arms encompass a thousand crimes both large and small, and circumscribe many million corpses, named and unnamed, which lie in graves across the continent of Europe. But the swastika has also etched a personal meaning into countless souls. Some of these souls whisper stories from their graves, but others still walk among us. And for some, myself included, the stories of our fathers and mothers have been etched into our souls as well ...
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