Reflections on Kingdom Come

I'm sorry if this is turning into a rotisserie of books I've been reading. It's not my intention that this become a book review blog, but I've been reading so great books lately. The latest was Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World by Allen Wakabayashi who is on staff with InterVarsity at Northwestern. In the book, he does a great job of describing Kingdom theology in layman's language and drawing a grand holistic mission for the church based on the Kingdom.

Basically, he writes that the American church has emphasized the individual aspects of salvation (Christ died for my sins so I can go to heaven) at the expense of the Gospel's teaching of the Kingdom. That teaching is that Christ's death and resurrection accomplished not only an individual's salvation but the restoration of God's reign in all areas - personally, relationally, and corporately. This means God's redeeming and reconciling work extends to not only my sins but to making right injustice, healing the hurting, etc.

I've been chewing on these things for a while (George Ladd's Gospel of the Kingdom has been really influential), and this idea comes up often in Emerging Church discussions. But, I've never found anyone who deals with this holistic view of the Kingdom while maintaining a robust evangelical view of the need for individual salvation. It always seems to be one or the other. Well, until now. This book provided the missing link between the Emerging emphasis on the Kingdom and the traditional evangelical beliefs in salvation. I highly recommend it especially to college students and those in campus ministries.

Reflections on Sin and the Cross

Recently, I finished one of the most influential books that I've ever read. It's titled Not The Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. Now, with a name like that, you'd expect this guy to be dry and scholastic. But, this book was so profound and accessible that it was revolutionized the way that I view the cross. All I have to say is read it! How can you truly understand the glory and riches of the cross without plumbing the depths of human sin? most interesting was the chapter on the treatment of sin as the violation of the Jewish concept of shalom. I won't ruin it though.

Reflections on Movements Cartoon

This cartoon has been floating around the Christian blogosphere, and I thought it was very funny and apt. I figured I'd share it considering some of my previous ramblings on the Emerging Church.

Reflections on the Civil War

A few weeks ago while Kathi and I were back in Dayton visiting family, we had a chance to dig through some family records left by my grandmother. In those records we discovered an ancestor of mine who had fought in the Civil War with the 5th Ohio Calvary. Now I'm no Civil War buff (how do you become a buff, anyway?), but this piqued an interested in the history of it all. Back when I was in college, I bought James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, and I had never read it. So, I decided to pick up and read this 800-page behemoth.

Wow! It was an amazing read. The book didn't just focus on the battles and the military personalities. It really put you right there in the midst of what was going on in society at that time. I actually felt the tension and the angst that was so a part of antebellum America. He wrote with such a narrative style that you felt like you were reading a story, being caught up with all of the twists and turns.

If we think that our country today is divisive and broken, we got nothing on America in the 1850s and 60s. During the time leading up to Fort Sumter, fist fights regular broke out during sessions of Congress. During one infamous incident, a southern Congressman sensing an insult on his family honor, beat a northern abolitionist within an inch of his life with a cane. Now that's politics! That's what we need today - Congressional beatings.

Reflections on Roofing Servanthood

My experiences as a country farm hand just got another chapter this weekend. There is a man in our church here that was recently diagnosed with cancer. He works as a carpenter in a shop next to his house, and recently this shop developed a leaky roof. With him undergoing treatment, he's had neither the energy or the money to replace the roof. Well, the men in our church came out in full force this weekend. About 20 of us showed up 7am on Saturday and stripped, sealed, and put on new shingles in about 8 hours. It was an amazing manifestation of the body of Christ.

On a personal level, it was also a lot of fun. Many of the people there said that I've missed my true calling and that I should abandon the ministry in favor of a career as a roofer. I don't know about that, but using the nail gun was pretty sweet. And, at the very least, I feel confident that I would know how to replace a roof if I needed to.

Reflections on Canoing

Yesterday morning Kathi and I went canoing with a couple in our church, Larry and Beth. We went out on the lake near our house and paddled around for a couple of hours. I really can't remember the last time I went canoing. It must have been at least since I was a kid. Everyone agreed that canoing on a river would have been more fun, but the serene lake was nice and relaxing.

It was a brief respite in the midst of a hectic time. This weekend as I was talking with Brian, I bragged about how I don't let stress affect me too much. God must have been laughing because I've been in denial recently about just how stressed out I am. Support raising along with money concerns, dental working being done, and busyness all around have made it hard to catch up. Please be praying for us.