Guan Un / 31st January 2005
In my daily round of the internet news outposts this morning, I couldn't help noticing this review in the UK Times about Wild at Heart, the latest book to take churches in the US by storm, a book that encourages men to “recover their masculine soul”. Or, to quote from the website, “This is a message about the recovery and release of a man's heart, his passions, which he has been given by God.”
If you're anything like my (admittedly fairly cynical) self, then your alarm bells will be ringing at any book that has proven to be a runaway hit after being out for three months. Is it popular because it is truly advocating a godly lifestyle that involves hard work and dedication to the kingdom of God, or because it's touting a solution that gives an easy and popular solution to life troubles? I know my alarm bells certainly don't stop ringing when I read that there's already a Wild at Heart Field Manual available. Oh, and a Wild at Heart: A Band of Brothers Video Series. Not to mention the Wild at Heart Boot Camp Retreats.
I'll reserve my full judgement until I've read a copy for myself, but these two reviews don't give me too much more confidence. There's just something not quite right when the first chapter of a book based on God's Word quotes a proverb out of context.
Guan Un / 25th January 2005
Found an excellent post over at the evangelical outpost, which briefly discusses an evangelical view of sex and marriage, and covering similar ground to The Hard Ask from the January Briefing.
I especially liked that where the article would naturally lead into a railing against same-sex marriage, he instead writes: “A far greater threat to the sanctity of ‘one-flesh unions’ comes from heterosexuals in the form of divorce. ... For every post and op-ed we write railing against ‘same-sex’ marriage, we should write one highlighting the damages to society caused by divorce. Maybe then we will have a firmer moral foundation on which to stand.”
Read the original post.
Simon Roberts / 24th January 2005
/ Media Watch
I couldn't help noticing Lisa Pryor's SMH article, ‘Add a little optimism to reconnect with the young ones’ (January 24, 2005).
She explores the ways in which the union movement could learn from the success Hillsong has had reaching today's youth. The Hillsong approach is optimistic and forward-looking and taps into the aspirations of young people. But as Lisa comments, “The downside to this approach is that it could increase [union] membership only by forsaking the ideals of the institution. Religion-lite can be attractive because it provides personal comfort without challenging some of the materialistic or individualistic values of modern life, and the union movement could fall into this trap.”
The true test of genuine, evangelical Christianity must be that not only does it add nothing to the gospel, but it takes away nothing. A gospel which does not confront our selfish desires is no gospel at all. And the real gospel comfort is not that we remain unchallenged, but that in the midst of the helplessness of our sin and depravity Christ died for the ungodly. Thank God there is no such thing as Christianity-lite!
Ian Carmichael / 21st January 2005
Thought this was a well-expressed assessment of the gay marriage issue:
Why then do gay activists want their options restricted by marriage laws, when they can make their own contracts with their own provisions and hold whatever kinds of ceremony they want to celebrate it?
The issue is not individual rights. What the activists are seeking is official social approval of their lifestyle. But this is the antithesis of equal rights.
If you have a right to someone else's approval, then they do not have a right to their own opinions and values. You cannot say that what ‘consenting adults’ do in private is nobody else's business and then turn around and say that others are bound to put their seal of approval on it.
Thomas Sowell, . Read the full article here.
Guan Un / 20th January 2005
From a Briefing reader with close ties to some of the regions affected in the tsunami:
With the horrific toll on human life and local economies that has unfolded before our eyes, Australian evangelicals will be wondering how they should react. Yes, we can contribute money—that goes without saying—but as Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you”. We know therefore that money will not solve the problems of the millions of destitute survivors. What then, are some of the Biblical responses to this disaster, and others that will, no doubt, follow it during our lifetimes?
As someone who works alongside members of an indigenous Indonesian church, let me give you some insights on how the local Christians respond. The Bali Protestant church is small, but fiercely true to the gospel. It is used to being a minority in a sea of local Hinduism and Indonesian Islam, but this has not stopped it from having an impact far beyond its numbers.
When the bombs exploded in Kuta-Legian, the church was the first organisation to offer help to the families of the deceased local families. The congregations of Bali took up a special offering for the widows and orphans. They also visited the families, appealed for sponsorship of schoolage children and took orphans into their care facilities. This had an enormous impact upon the Muslims who lost breadwinners and on the Muslim community of Bali as a whole. The commonly heard remark was “We thought you would hate us, but instead you have responded with love. Why?” As a result, there have been turnings to Christ.
Yet, money and economic support was never their only method of reaching out. When I attended the Memorial Outreach a month after the disaster, I met an elderly Muslim from Lombok, whose only daughter had been badly injured. I asked him how he had been surviving with no breadwinner, and he pointed to a Christian family, saying simply, “They took me in.”
This is typically the Balinese Christian response to disaster: they wade in as deeply as they can, and even further.
And so they have done, in the wake of the tsunamis. As news came through on Sunday, the Balinese church dedicated its entire weekly offertory to the survivors. This week, they will hold a massive conference to organise help. I have no doubt that Christians from Bali will go to the devastated areas, offering help in whatever form it can be offered.
I have no doubt, too, that Christians from the province of North Sumatera, where there is a Christian majority amongst the Batak tribe, will also travel to Aceh to bring relief and offer themselves as living sacrifices. And when I say sacrifices, I do not necessarily mean it in a spiritual sense. Aceh is the most fanatically Islamic region of Indonesia, and has waged an almost constant war for independence from first the Dutch and afterwards the Indonesian government, for almost 200 years. The Acehnese have banned Christianity, and burnt down the churches which were there.
Yet, Christ is represented in Aceh. A Christian radio station broadcasts into the region, and Christian workers serve Christ secretly, under the sentence of death if they are discovered. It doesn't stop them.
The Indonesian Christians give us the example we should follow: not just money, but our lives should be offered for Christ. Don't cancel your holidays to the region. Postpone them, perhaps, until the crisis is passed and life is beginning to normalise (if the word ‘normal’ can be used), then go there. Sit with the local people; build relationships with them; listen to them and give them your shoulder to cry on. Give to them financially and of yourselves, and tell them why you are giving. I can assure you they will listen, and they will accept your prayers if you offer them. I know: I was blessed to be able to share the gospel with Hindus in Bali, and I continue to be able to do so, as I return annually to the region.
If you want to know more of what work my family has been privileged to be involved in, you can read more on our site: http://www.webpastor.com
