This is just becoming all too familiar. The first reports, the death toll climbing every half-hour or so, the news of those who survived, grieving for those who did not. I first learned about the earthquake today in Chile from Twitter - from Alyssa Milano on Twitter, in fact, retweeting photo images from the New York Times. I jumped on Facebook and learned that several friends of mine have relatives in Chile; thankfully, all reports are good news so far.

As I continued combing through news reports, I discovered that there was also an earthquake in Japan this morning. Then I heard further news - the warning of an impending tsunami. I have just been looking at the images on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center web site, and I see nations and cities along the Pacific coast that are now at risk: Japan, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga and many other place.

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What do you think? Can the church be both attractive and missional? What would this look like? Or should church be only attractive or only missional? How do churches continually mobilize their congregants to be missional, taking church outside the church walls and into their communities?

Christians talk too much.  At least, they feel the pressure to.

I have a talk entitled “Why I Am a Christian,” where I discuss the primary reason we ought to follow Christ:  because He’s the Truth.  Christianity (in the sense of C.S. Lewis’ “mere Christianity”) is true and we have good reasons to think so.  But sometimes, when people hear this they feel pressure to have all the right answers for their non-believing friends.  I hear the stress in their voices when they ask, “So what should I say to my non-Christian friends?”  I have some advice. 

First, start with questions.  Oftentimes, Christians think evangelism means we talk and others listen.  So, the believer is supposed to have a polished “Gospel presentation” and a finely tuned response to all objections.  But this approach is undignifying to non-Christians and it completely ignores the unique questions an individual might have.  And it’s why some Christians are really good at answering questions no one is asking.  Francis Schaeffer’s words are instructive here:  “If I have only an hour with someone, I will spend the first 55 minutes asking questions and finding out what is troubling their heart and mind, and then the last 5 minutes I will share something of the truth.” 

I encourage students to start with Stand to Reason’s first two “Columbo” questions: 

#1 -- What do you mean by that?

#2 -- How did you come to that conclusion?

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This past weekend we went to the fair. There’s always a salt of the earth kind of quality to state fairs. They draw a colorful crowd to say the very least.  My favorite part is the food (actually that’s the only reason I agree to go): fried twinkies, hot scones, grilled corn on the cob, kettle corn, elephant ears, giant turkey legs, and the latest creation, chocolate covered bacon. I didn’t make that last one up.

We walked around taking in the sights, deciding which neon carnival ride would make us feel brave and daring but the least ill, and avoiding a few seedy characters I’m pretty sure I saw on America’s Most Wanted.  Does anyone else wonder how safe rides operated by toothless meth users are?  We toured the livestock barns, got to pet some piglets, and decided that of all the barns, the swine barn smelled the absolute worst.

 I met Scott after I watched him walk oblong circles for an hour in the mercury-lit parking lot behind my house. I timed my trip to the dumpster to intercept his orbit. As it turned out, he was not having a mental health episode, but explained that he and some others had boarded a faded Ford van and drove all the way from Ohio to “do evangelism” in New York City.  He was pretty psyched to be in New York. His eyes glistened with the vivid sheen of hopeful good intentions.  

Talking with Scott raised a few questions. I’m glad Scott came all the way from Ohio to be with people from New York, but I really wanted to ask him if everyone in Ohio had become a Christian already. Or did he want to go to Times Square, where visitors from Ohio tend to hang out? Were the only non-Christians in Ohio currently visiting New York? Was he was the hound of heaven, pursuing them even as they waited in line at TKTS for cheap “Little Mermaid” seats?

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Certain perks come with being in a new city and not knowing folks, like waking to an agenda-less weekend morning. If I made it to the farmers market, or a dusty aisle of the used bookstore, great, but as I departed my front step, I was determined to let twenty bucks and the wind be my compass, not a prescribed endpoint.

Forsyth Park is a stones throw from my apartment, and shares its south side with an eclectic coffee shop and ever-lively scene. I strolled that way, enjoying a cookie, cup of tea and loose read of the NY Times, before returning to the park. Benches are spread throughout, and given that temperatures were already blazing, it was a shaded, less noticeable one that drew me.

“Mind if I share your bench?”
“Not at all, just people watching. Name’s Laverne,” he said with an outstretched arm.
“Abbie. Nice to meet you.”

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If you’ve ever spent time in the south you know life travels along at a turtle’s pace. Maybe it’s the breathtaking beauty in the south that slows people down or maybe it’s the bottomless buckets of fried food. Needless to say, time seems to crawl when you’re in the south.

Not every south out there is this slow however. When it comes to the worlds Southern Hemisphere, life is on the move. If you’ve ever wanted to see the Gospel spread like wild fire book a trip to anywhere south of the equator.

The spreading of this fiery Gospel has experienced many seasons of change and location since Jesus Christ gave his followers the Great Commissions (which can be found in Matt 28:18-20, Mark 15:16, Luke 24:45-49 and John 20:21). What began in Jerusalem, spread to Samaria and Judea immediately following the stoning of Stephen recorded in Acts seven.

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Paul Copan is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University.  He has a Ph. D. in philosophy from Marquette University and is author of  several books including “When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics” (Baker).  Paul is the current president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.  Find out more about Paul and his books HERE.

 

  “That’s Just Your Opinion”—Or Is It?

Have you ever tried to explain reasons for taking the Christian faith seriously, only to get shot down with the exasperating comeback, “Well, that’s just your opinion!”?  You’re left scratching your head, wondering how someone could slam the door on such eloquence and brilliance!

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I sat down with my friend Seeran recently to talk a bit about a trip she took to Turkey. Thoughts of reconciliation came to mind for me as we spoke. Specifically these verses from Corinthians,

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

 

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When followers of Christ become socially conscious about global issues, one of the first things that becomes discussed is the role or necessity of a verbal proclamation of the gospel. There are typically two camps: One believes that the good deeds required to respond to social issues is more or less sufficient; the other emphasizes a verbal proclamation over any type of “physical” service.

These tensions have become highlighted with two recent publications. The first is an article by Mark Galli of Christianity Today entitled “Speak the Gospel Use deeds when necessary”.

The second is The Hole in Our Gospel a book by World Vision USA President Richard Stearns.

Galli is writing from a perspective that demonstrates concern that a verbal proclamation of the Gospel is undermined when deeds are emphasized. He points to the quote, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words” which is commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.

Galli shows two important things:

1) There is a good chance that St. Francis never said this since it does not emerge until two centuries after his death. It is unlikely that his followers would not have cited such a pithy phrase.

2) St. Francis regularly preached or verbally proclaimed the gospel, thus demonstrating that he had a high view of such activity.

Before we return to Galli, let’s look at one of Stearns’ stories in his new book. Stearns tells the wonderful story of a collaborative project that World Vision did with Habitat for Humanity in rural India. During a ceremony dedicating the project to the community, a local World Vision worker overhears the local people speaking in their dialect asking each other questions about why Christians would come from so far away to help them. Stearns concludes, “We had not spoken a word in their local language, but the village elders had already ‘heard’ the gospel” (p. 23).

While one could not say that Stearns reflects an opposite viewpoint of Galli, he is emphasizing that the good deeds done either replace or are the functional equivalent of verbally speaking the gospel.

I have read Stearns and Galli on numerous occasions and they are both thought provoking, faithful followers of Christ and strong leaders. If I could be privileged enough to sit down with them, I think we would all come to very similar conclusions regarding the relationship of word and deeds to the Christian faith. However, both of their viewpoints in these recent publications fall short of articulating the fullness of word/deed ministry.

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