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 ...
The phrase or hashtag #MeToo became viral in social media in recent days. Me Too is not a new phrase; the African-American social activist Tarana Burke started using it ten years ago, but it became a media trending topic recently. This phrase represents a public acknowledgement that a person (although women are sadly the vast majority) has been sexually harassed or assaulted. It has been heartbreaking to read the countless testimonies of people who had the courage to share their abuse storiesmany of them for the first timewith openness and frankness ...
La frase o hashtag #metoo (yo tambi矇n) se ha hecho viral en las redes sociales en los 繳ltimos d穩as. No es una frase nueva porque desde hace 10 a簽os la activista afroamericana Tarana Burke intent籀 hacerla p繳blica, pero no ha sido sino hasta estos d穩as que su uso se ha convertido en una tendencia social. La frase indica un reconocimiento p繳blico que una mujer, principalmente y en su gran mayor穩a aunque tambi矇n incluye hombres, ha sido v穩ctima de cualquier tipo de acoso sexual o incluso violaci籀n. Ha sido desgarrador leer los innumerables testimonios de personas que han tenido la valent穩a de contar sus historias y hablar de frente, en muchas ocasiones por primera vez, sobre el abuso que sufrieron ...
When my father died, I grieved. My father died on a Sunday morning, early. His hospital roommate told us that Dad had spent his last nightthe whole nightpraying softly for his family, person by person, before dying peacefully in the early morning. Even though wed known that he would die soon from bone cancer, and knew that he was eager to be home with the Lord, it was still a shock. It was still too soon. Death is like that: it always surprises us and it interrupts our lives. We stop, and we grieve.
A brief look back over the history over the world or turning on the nightly news will reveal the pain of people caused by the actions of others. It can be simply stated: People have caused the impoverished lifestyle experienced by so many in the world through harmful acts. Some cyclical poverty is the result of well-meaning assistance that has perpetuated dependency, unintentionally making things worse. Other people are trapped in communities of poverty through corrupt policies and a lack of rule of law. Worse, history is full of the evil of some to oppress, steal from and enslave people resulting in deadly poverty ...
My students in Exegesis In The Gospels (a second-year Greek course) were delighted to discover that (in the words of one news agency) Christian conspiracy theorists have gathered clues that suggest the end of the world is nigh" ...
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 ...
La compasi籀n debe ser sentimiento esencial de aquellos que se dicen seguidores de Jesucristo. La palabra compasi籀n significa sufrir juntos y es un sentimiento que se manifiesta al percibir y comprender el sufrimiento de los dem獺s y, por lo tanto, produce el deseo de aliviar, reducir o eliminar este sufrimiento. Al ver las noticias, caminar por las calles o simplemente al conversar con personas a nuestro alrededor es f獺cil darse cuenta que muchas personas est獺n sufriendo por diferentes circunstancias. La tendencia natural y tristemente com繳n incluso en muchos de aquellos que se dicen cristianos es juzgar a los dem獺s y asumir que sus circunstancias negativas son consecuencia de sus malas decisiones. Es f獺cil amar a los que nos aman y preocuparnos por aquellos que son cercanos a nosotros, pero una marca central de Jes繳s y sus seguidores debe ser amar y tener compasi籀n por todos sin importar quienes son o qu矇 han hecho ...
En este a簽o se celebra alrededor del mundo los 500 a簽os del inicio de lo que se conoce como La Reforma protestante. El 31 de octubre de 1517 el monje agustino Mart穩n Lutero clav籀 en la puerta de la Iglesia del Castillo en Wittenberg en Alemania 95 tesis en las que criticaba abiertamente las ventas de indulgencias de la iglesia cat籀lica romana. Lutero escogi籀 ese d穩a deliberadamente ya que era la v穩spera del D穩a de Todos los Santos y tanto la facultad de la universidad como muchos fieles asist穩an a la iglesia. Lutero inicialmente no ten穩a la intenci籀n de romper con la iglesia romana sino enfatizar la supremac穩a del evangelio de Cristo basada en su simplicidad y a la vez en su gran profundidad ...
This summer, as part of my participation in Talbots Kern Foundation reading group, I had the opportunity to travel to Grand Rapids and attend a 4-day think tank called Acton University. This was my first time participating in a think tank (unless you count my years watching MacGyver problem-solve for the Phoenix Foundation), and it was an experience! The annual event brings together around 1000 scholars, students, businesspeople, and leaders from over 75 countries and seeks to provide an opportunity to deepen ones knowledge and integrate philosophy, theology, business, development with sound, market based, economics (http://university.acton.org/). The daily program consisted of several parallel presentations (in fact, Talbots own Dr. Scott Rae was a presenter), a fabulous dinner designed to foster new relationships and stimulate conversations, and it closed each night with a plenary talk ...
I saw something amazing this June. Something rare. Something inspiring. It happened behind-the-scenes at Hume Lake Christian Camps and I simply had to move it from backstage and into to the spotlight. Before I showcase this beautiful sight, let me provide a couple paragraphs of context: As part of Talbots Kern Reading group this year, Ive had the joy of reading (and re-reading) several thought-provoking texts on work, leadership, economics, poverty relief, and the relationship of theology and the church to such matters. On this journey, I happily re-read a chapter from one of my favorite books on organizational leadership, Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, Lead Like Jesus: Lessons for Everyone from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005) ...
A few years ago I received an email from a former student (now a young pastor) asking some questions about speaking in tongues during corporate worship. Let me excerpt his e-mail and then include my reply (with his permission): Dr. Berding, I am emailing you because I have a question about service of worship for the church. Recently I have taken upon myself to work out some position papers on where I stand on a few ecclesiology topics. I have spent time reading from Horton, Grudem, Bloesch, and some of Clowney's works on ecclesiology. However, recently at our corporate worship one of the elders prayed in tongues and this was followed by what appeared to be an interpretation. As I have been reading through these books and wrestling with scripture, I have come to wonder if tongues plays a role in corporate worship or not ...
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 ...
Summer movies are often the stories of heroes; whether real-life or Marvel簧, both are super. These stories inspire as they entertain us. The problem is, most of the time, we are content with letting someone else be the hero. We are too busy, too passive, too self-absorbed, or too afraid of what would happen if we got involved; and so the people around us stay unknown to us and do not receive the help they need. The result is preconceived biases that isolate us from one another and a lack of care and compassion for those who need a place of refuge and relief ...
All legitimate work in the world has intrinsic value and God calls men and women to be faithful in working in various arenas as their service to Him. Of course, there are some limits to this, since it would difficult to see how God could call someone to produce pornography or engage in the illegal drug trade. But excluding those exceptions, God calls people to work in business, not only because of what it accomplishes, but because it has value in and of itself to God. Business is the work of God in the world in the same way that being a pastor is the work of God in the church and in the same way that missionary service is the work of God on the mission field. All have value to God because of the value of the work done, and that work is an intrinsically good thing that has value as it's done with excellence ...
Cada vez estoy m獺s convencido que ser un trabajador obsesivo es la adicci籀n m獺s com繳n entre las personas que est獺n en el ministerio cristiano. Evidentemente esta condici籀n se presenta entre todas las personas sin importar su ocupaci籀n o religiosidad. De hecho en ingl矇s el t矇rmino workaholic ya forma parte del vocabulario com繳n ya que representa una realidad cada vez m獺s presente en nuestras sociedades. Pero es f獺cil convertirse en un trabajador obsesivo y disfrazar esta situaci籀n con piedad y buenas intenciones. De la misma manera es muy atractivo sumergirse en el trabajo y echarle la culpa a Dios o a la obra de Dios como excusa por esta situaci籀n ...
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 ...
Kenneth Berding (Professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology) recently wrote and published The Apostolic Fathers: A Narrative Introduction. We wanted to learn more about this book, so we had Ken respond to some questions ...
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 ...
Is the church here to help me to grow in Christ as an individual? Or has God put me here to help the church grow both qualitatively and quantitatively? The easy answer is Both! And thats not completely wrong. But the early Christians clearly prioritized the health and growth of Gods community over the goals and desires of individual believers. This group-first mentality is not only characterized the early church, it characterized family life throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. This is why families arranged marriages. The goal of marriage in the ancient world was the not relational satisfaction of the individuals involved. It was the honor and ongoing viability of the two families who brokered the marriage. The group in this case the family came first ...
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 ...
The recent welcome of Evangelical radio apologist, The Bible Answer Man Hank Hanegraaff, into the Greek Orthodox Church has understandably raised more than eyebrows. Questions about the differences between Protestants and Orthodox have been coming my way in the aftermath, so I want to offer to Good Book Blog readers an essay I wrote for Talbots Sundoulos magazine back in 2008. In it youll find some general characteristics of the Orthodox denomination as well as key points of difference with Protestantssome of which converts such as Hank Hanegraaff would typically need to renounce as they formally enter Orthodoxy ...
As the second part in this post on four protections to create a safe relational space for small groups, here I focus on the fourth condition. This fourth condition has four pieces to it for limiting communication that tends to shut people down. The goal is to be able to accept others as they are, with their true sharing of their real mess in daily life as a Christian. Often we can get in our own way and so fail to love them in this way because we are so busy with the speck of sawdust in their eye. In a sentence, this four-part fourth condition is the log in our eyes that prevents meeting with others.
51蹤獲