I was freshly out of surgery and in recovery mode at my parents’ home during the final week of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Every afternoon I would sit in my jammies on the sofa and watch the countdown festivities. After 25 years on the air, Oprah was wrapping it up.

 

What I was most interested in was not the huge hoo-ha of celebrations, fun as they were to watch. No, I kept tuning in because Oprah had promised to reveal which story, of the thousands she had covered, was her number one most favorite story from her entire 25 years on air. The final days of the show were building toward this culmination when Oprah would revisit the story that had most moved, inspired and thrilled her.

 

Imagine my surprise and delight when the story Oprah chose was that of one African life. The “Queen of Daytime Television” and arguably one of the most powerful people on the planet was unforgettably moved by the tale of one woman whose life was transformed when someone came along and empowered her to reach her dream. This woman was married against her will as a child, kept from the education she longed for and beaten when she talked of hoping to go to school. When she came back to the Oprah show for this final-week episode, she had just completed her Ph.D. Initially denied the opportunity to attend even primary school, she now holds a doctorate degree and is returning to her home community to start a school for children like the child she once was.

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This is the third and final segment in my interview with Bobby Duran on The Soul of Hip Hop. Here we talk about engaging an unreached people group that is more spiritual and global than you might think.

This is the third and final segment in my interview with Bobby Duran on The Soul of Hip Hop. Here we talk about engaging an unreached people group that is more spiritual and global than you might think.

Daniel Hodge Part 3 - "Engaging the Hip Hop Culture" from ConversantLife on Vimeo.

The world seemed to stand still for a moment 6 months ago when a powerful earthquake rumbled its way through the tiny country of Haiti and destroying everything in its path. My friend Stuart was there. You can read and see more of Stuart in Haiti during that time here. Newspapers wrote about it and Stuart witnessed that God is very active in Haiti among the Haitian survivors. Below is a recent article Stuart wrote for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, student magazine Contact. (Stuart and I became friends while students at the seminary). How cool it would be if the country known for so long now as the poorest in the western hemisphere, will now and forever be known as God's country!

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We began the training for our trip to Utah with forty students. Some dropped out for different reasons, but a common theme was they thought we were going to “beat up on Mormons.” I’ve never received criticism from Christians for our mission trips to Berkeley where we engage atheists and agnostics, but a decent number of Christians felt we shouldn’t be going on a mission trip to Utah. Why is this? I’d love to know what some of you think.

The conclusion I’ve come to is that many Christians don’t fully understand the depravity of man. Mormons are nice, well-meaning people who believe in family values. So, who are we to try and convert them? Isn’t this intolerant? It seems to me that we confuse the difference between goodness and niceness. I’ve certainly done this many times in my own life. Most Mormons are certainly nice, but does that mean they are good? According to Isaiah 64:6, “All of our righteous deeds are like filthy garments.” Mormons are just as sinful and in desperate need of God’s grace as anyone else (myself included).

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Recently, upon reading an article titled "International Development: Christian Reflections on Today's Competing Theory," I was struck by what perhaps thousands of people before me have come to learn; oftentimes in an attempt to intellectualize a subject, we forget the heart of it. Now, as a professor and a lifelong learner, I'm all about intellectual discussion, however, as Christians we can never be content to leave the discussion as mere theory when the lives of God's children are involved. What is the Christian response to competing international development theories? And more specifically, how does it impact that very practical business of helping those around the world? 

As with many questions of scholarly discussion, there are really two distinct camps.

Ask the average church-going Christian whether they think that the church should be involved in missions and they'll probably answer yes. Ask the average church-going Christian what the missions program should consist of and you'll probably get a lot of blanks stares or generalities. It's hard to define a mission "program" primarily because true evangelism is anything but programatic. And for better or worse, most American churches seems to have a hard time do anything that can't fit into a snappy bulletin announcement.

The reason that missions is hard to formualized is because by definition missions are complicated. First, think of it purely on a logistic basis. Most outreaches involve people going somewhere that they normally don't. This means that they has to be decisions about food, shelter, transportation, etc. that immediately confound our normal programming activities. Secondly, and predominately, evangelism is complicated because people are complicated, and there is no evangelism without people. 

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When I asked my friend Adina to describe Urbana 09 to me recently, she simply said, “It's insane!”

Urbana 09 is happening right now in St. Louis.  Adina said there are 17,000+ college students from around the world in attendance this year. They are discussing topics such as human trafficking, poverty, HIV/AIDS, divisions between peoples, and even environmental degradation affect missions.

One of the key themes of this years Urbana is on incarnational missions. They are taking a close look at the first four chapters of John’s Gospel for a rich understanding of Christ who came and dwelt among us.

Adina is very excited about all that she is learning and taking away with her from this event and she mentioned she is thinking hard about what it looks like to bring Urbana home.

Tonight was commitment night at Urbana. This is the night when the students have the opportunity to publicly commit to an area of mission involvement. That can be anything from committing to pray and learn more about God’s direction for them to committing to joining cross-cultural service anywhere in the world.

These students represent a rising, contagious love for God and for justice. As they make their commitments tonight, finish their college educations and venture into their illuminated path for righteousness, they need encouragement and prayer. For some, they are taking risks to live out bold fiery faith.  

I am excited for Adina. I have seen a joy in that woman that will no doubt bless countless others no matter where she ends up. And to think there are over 17,000 others like her, making courageous life altering decisions tonight excites me.  Like Adina said, “It’s insane!”

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(Durban, South Africa)

At first glance, the Zulu children we met on the bus en route to Ithemba Lethu’s leadership camp were just like any other seventh graders we had ever met. They boarded the bus with tremendous enthusiasm. They were full of life and noise and a certain pre-teen angst. They were excited to be with their friends, armed with bits of junk food, slightly insecure and were chatting about celebrities and rappers. If one didn’t already know that the children were from one of Durban’s poorest townships, that most lived in tin shacks, or that many were being raised by siblings just a few years older than them, it wouldn’t have been immediately obvious that these kids differed from suburban American youth.

As the weekend progressed, we began learning more details about their lives. One child’s parents had just died. Her mother died of AIDS and her father was murdered by human hands. She was now living with an aunt who didn’t want her.  Several of the children were being physically abused on a regular basis. School was not a safe place for the kids because teachers hit them with pipes.

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