Missions is changing.  At least, that is what some people say. And there’s no question, they have a point. There seem to be more and more people who are sent out to live in foreign countries with less and less of a concern for proclaiming the gospel and establishing and strengthening biblical local churches.  Now, we don’t want to exaggerate the problem.  Because there are many godly missionaries out there who are steadily plodding away to advance the cause of Christ in this world. And there have always been missionaries who didn’t fulfill their calling as well as they should. But, still it’s … Continue reading Losing Sight of Forever

Sometimes when people talk about the responsibility of church leaders to help the church care for the poor, they think what’s being said is that church leaders have the responsibility to organize institutional strategies and programs for the church to reach out to the poor in their community.  I don’t think however that is necessarily true.  I know it is not true at least for me.  It should be obvious.  But if a church as an institution never has a feeding program or clothing distribution center or an orphanage, it still can be a church.  Now, if the church as … Continue reading Thinking Out Loud about the Church and Mercy Ministry

Is the responsibility to proclaim the message of salvation and to care for those with deep social problems necessarily in competition with one another? It is possible for the two to compete, I suppose. But do they have to? Should we simply write off anyone who talks about the advantaged disadvantaging themselves for the sake of the disadvantaged as speaking postmodern gibberish? In this series of posts, we are looking to great leaders of the past to see if this is necessarily so. Today, we are looking at Andrew Reed.  Though Andrew Reed’s name is not as well known as Charles … Continue reading Lessons from History part two: Andrew Reed, ‘While Christianity Lives, Charity Cannot Die.’

Is the emphasis on social justice among current evangelicals really something new? The question here is not whether it is right. Instead the question is whether, historically speaking, it is really all that new. In their book, The New Evangelical Social Engagement, Brian Steensland and Phillip Goff seem to question that. “Today’s new evangelicals are but the most recent iteration of evangelicalism’s long-standing tendency to spin off its own renewal movements. Recognizing this in no way minimizes the importance of what is happening in the contemporary moment. Today’s tumult and transformation are part of evangelicalism’s essence, and the new social engagement, many … Continue reading How new?

The way people sometimes speak and act, I wonder if there are only two options for church planters. Social gospel guys or preaching robots. Either they are someone who is trying to make the church a soup kitchen or they attack anything that moves. Can’t there a better way than this? There is. And it starts with this. If we say that we are passionate about the truth, we need to look long and hard at the one who is Truth, Jesus. We need to see the Creator becoming a servant on the very earth He created. We need to … Continue reading Can You Feel Me?