Off the Shelf: Whose Religion is Christianity?

I love finding hidden treasures at the library. A few weeks back, I was browsing the stacks at the downtown branch when I came across the book Whose Religion is Christianity by Lamin Sanneh.

Don't get the title wrong. Sanneh is a Gambian Christian, and he writes this book to explain African Christianity to Europeans and Americans. Reading his words, I can tell he has a particular audience in mind -- he's a professor at Yale Divinity school, so he's writing primarily to the liberal, skeptical, academic crowd of New England. He keeps defending African Christianity, with its emphasis on the Bible, spiritual experience, actual belief in the resurrection of Christ, and evangelism -- he defends it because he knows that the enlightened secularist thinks these things are very bad. “The sticking point in all this…is the allergy of a secular West to any suggestion of a return to Christianity….The West as a modern progressive society is committed to live as if God does not exist, etsi dues non daretur, or at any rate to live with no sense of the devil.” (83) Basically his audience are the same people who woke up last year and discovered that "Evangelical Christians" are a massive segement of society in America.

While the reviews on Amazon are shallowly critical, I suggest that it is worth a read -- not for keeping in your personal library, but certainly worth a borrow from your public library. Here's why:

Sanneh talks about indigenous African Christianity -- not the neo-European style Christianity that was planted by colonialism, but Christianity that sprang up in the wake of Bible translations being available in native tongues. “…African Christianity is the consequence of haphazard, unorchestrated, popular mobilization, much of it outside, or even against, mainstream bodies. African Christianity, then, is the irony of mass religious enthusiasm pitted against mass disenfranchisement with the political structures.” (28). It is a spontaneous Christianity that seems to be sweeping the continent. Sanneh cites statistics that say that Africa currently has 350 millon Christians, but in 25 years, that is expected to swell to 600 million, making Africa the most Christianized continent on the planet.

A significant part of this model of Christianity is its focus on relationships and story (much like the postmodern movement here in the states -- but the main difference being that the African churches tend to be clear on the truth of the stories). As an example, Sanneh tells the story of how the Maasai Christians responded to 9/11:

The Maasai, who are herders in East Africa, didn’t hear about 9/11 until a Maasai student studying abroad returned home to tell the story. He told it not as a dispassionate news piece, but in their own cultural fashon so that they felt the anguish of the American people. The Maasai were so moved, they held a sacred ceremony and blessed 16 cows in sympathy and solidarity with the US – and the warriors vowed to do their part in hunting down those responsible. A bemused US Embassy official from Nairobi made the trek to receive the cows. Several months later, NPR broadcast a public acknowledgement of the gift and thanksgiving for the thoughtfulness of the Maasai. (64-65) In this story, we see both the power of story and the power of relationship -- their action was based off a single relationship of hospitality that was shown to the student, but the relationship was so important that they had to act.

For further reading on this book, see the review from the Presbyterian Outlook or the Christianity Today review. Or check out this provocative interview with Sanneh from 2003 (he tells the story of his conversion from Islam to Christianity -- and it saddens me the response he received from Christians). Here are some excerpts:

"How would your early childhood and adolescence have differed from that of the "typical" North American?

It's like living on another planet. I was raised in a culture where the stress is not on the individual but on the community, on tradition, on fidelity to past models, on respect for parents and elders, on rote memorization of knowledge, on scarce material resources offset by a wealth of social capital. We had limited access to the modern world, but lavish access to family and clan achievement and honor. We had close proximity to the natural world without the demand to subdue and exploit it. One could go on."

"How would you compare Christianity as it is understood and practiced in Africa and in North America?

The main difference I see is the difference between a post-Christian American society and a post-Western Christianity rising in Africa and elsewhere. The one is in decline, at least intellectually, and the other is in spate. The taming of Christianity in North America requires very different tools from those required by the conditions favoring expansion in Africa. Christians are not afraid to go to church for prayer and healing when they are ill, for instance, whereas in North America prayers may be said for people who are ill but only in absentia.

Africans trust God for their spiritual, physical, social, and medical needs; Americans don't."

That last sentence struck me hard. Tolle Lege and see what the Holy Spirit does in you.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Congratulations to Kilama George

You've heard me talk about the microlending outfit Kiva (see my earlier posts). The first loan I gave through Kiva has just been completely repaid -- Kilama George. His loan request, as told on the Kiva website, was thus:

[Kilama George] works as a bracelet maker for the Invisible Children Bracelet Project.

He lives with his wife and children in the Acholi quarters. He has been there for five years ,and he came from Pader district he has six children. Before coming to LiA, he worked in the stone quarry with his wife and had a very difficult time supporting his family. His wife still works at the quarry while he works at liA. Together, their incomes now support the family and their lives have improved. However, housing is very poor in the Acholi quarter.

He has acquired a plot of land from the King of Buganda who has sympathy for the people of Acholi. On this land he plans to build a two room house for his family.

The genius of Kiva is that it works through local organizations that guarantee the loan, in this case the Life in Africa foundation working in Uganda. These local organizations provide support, accountability, and encouragement. Life in Africa is a group of people working to help themselves out of the chaos that exists because of civil war in Uganda and Sudan:

Over 85% of our members are people displaced or otherwise directly affected by Northern Uganda's 20 year long war. Together we are joining hands to lift ourselves out of poverty once and for all, and to make an impact for peace in our war-torn community.

We produce and export crafts to make a difference in the world, and promote social action initiatives online. Our unique Webbed Empowerment approach offers global communities of supporters unique ways to connect with our Ugandan community's successes and needs directly.

Life in Africa's WE Centers also offer internet training, a community microfinance program, and adult learning opportunities that are available to active members.

Uganda recently has come on the radar of Americans because of the Invisible Children campaign. For the past 15-20 years, a whole generation of young men have been press ganged to serve in the guerilla militaries -- not men of 18 or 19; we're talking boys as young as 12 and 13 being trained in explosives, hand to hand combat, and other techniques, and then being sent to wreck havoc. Think of it as a nationwide Lord of the Flies type experiement. Many young men have become refugees, wandering about trying to avoid capture by these militia. Because Uganda and Sudan border each other, the same problem is chronicled in the recent film God Grew Tired of Us, as featured recently in National Geographic. The whole region is caught in a devastating cycle of poverty and violence.

While there are many ways to help -- through diplomacy and aid efforts, another great way of helping is by restoring economic stability. Microlending plays to the strength of a local economy by investing in the entrepreneurs who are the pillars of community. I've been praying the Kilama George will be a blessing to all those around him, and that he helps make Uganda a stronger place. The loan goes directly to the entrepreneur, it isn't siphoned off by corrupt warlords. Now imagine what a hundred thousand such small loans can do....

And best of all, I've just been repaid.... so I get to loan my money out again. Pretty darn cool, if you ask me.

Excelsior,
Russell

Summer Reading at Covenant-First: Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender -- about Murray

This summer at Covenant-First Presbyterian, we're sponsoring a series of book clubs in which we'll read books recommended by Andrew Purves, our Homecoming Conference speaker. Throughout the summer, I'll be putting up posts interacting with the three books we'll be reading. The first book we tackle is Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender.

So for today, a few preliminary words about Andrew Murray.

The Wikipedia article is quite sparse, but it does give us his dates (1828-1917) and his main geographic location (South Africa -- serving the Dutch Reformed Church). He and his wife had eight children, and the article notes the encouraged the South Africa Revival of 1860. The nice feature of this article is the extensive list of links to Murray's works. (he did write over 250 books and pamphlets)

The next source of information for me came from Charles Stanley's In Touch Ministries site. Here we find that Murray's preaching attracted large crowds. However, Murray was prone to illness, one bout even taking him away from preaching for two years! Even so, these health trials strengthened his faith, as the article tells us:

Murray'sdaug hter wrote of her father, "It was after the 'time of silence' [in sickness] when God came so near to father and he saw more clearly the meaning of a life of full surrender and simple faith. He began to show in all relationships that constant tenderness and unruffled lovingkindness and unselfish thought for others which increasingly characterized his life from that point. At the same time he lost nothing of his strength and determination."

We also learn that when revival came, Murray was very cautious, wanting to "test the spirits" to make sure that this exuberance was truly of God. Among his other accomplishments were the founding of the Huguenot Seminary in 1873 and service as the first president of the YMCA (though a cursory search of the web finds no indication from YMCA sources that this is true).

Then at the Glory of His Cross webpage (a charismatic ministry based in India) we find more information on the 1860 South Africa Revival. Interestingly, in the middle of this section, I found word for word, the biography of Murray that was on the In Touch website (a cautionary reminder that net writers need to do a much better job at citing their sources and providing appropriate links)

Christianity Today's brief article expands on Murray's concern for education (he was also involved in several other educational institutions) and his theological orientation. According to this article, Murray was considered something of a forerunner to Pentecostalism, but he struggled diligently to maintain his Reformed theology emphasizing God's sovereignty over all. Christianity Today named Murray one of 113 Christians "everyone should to know". The article also gives us more information about Murray's most famous work:

One of his most popular books, With Christ in the School of Prayer, takes New Testament teachings about prayer and illumines them in 31 "lessons" designed to help the reader move past shallow, ineffectual prayer into a fuller understanding of the work God has called them to do. According to Murray, the church does not realize that "God rules the world by the prayers of his saints, that prayer is the power by which Satan is conquered, that by prayer the church on earth has disposal of the powers of the heavenly world."

All these quotes and sites from just an hour or so perusing the web. However, a few observations are in order: 1) every group seems to want to claim Murray as part of their heritage -- reformed, pentecostals, anabaptists, universalists (yes, universalists), foursquare gospel folks. 2) there's lots of stories without much documentation -- with over 200 works, it makes sense that people forget where the stories come from, but it sure would help if they cited a book or sermon 3) Murray preached and taught about a level of spiritual intensity that eludes many of us today -- I suspect that Absolute Surrender will be challenging to all of us who read it this month. I hope Eagle and Child readers will join us here at Covenant-First in working through this book.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Bi-Okoto -- an African experience

Honestly, I normally wouldn't have chosen it as tops on my list for evening entertainment. But one of our congregation members was performing in the recital -- and Tammy and I wanted to support her. So we sprung for a babysitter and tickets and went to see this weekend's performance of the Bi-Okoto Drum and Dance Theater.

I'm glad we went -- and I know we'll be back. Sure there were more than a few technical glitches -- they were performing in a new space and working out kinks with the sound and the lights. But when it came to performance, this troupe was on fire.

They performed the expected traditional African drum and dance routines -- which were interesting and high energy. But rather than two hours these routines, the Bi-Okoto threw a few surprises. After the second number, three young men came out to sit behind the keyboard, drumset, and bass guitar on Stage left. Then four elegantly dressed ladies came out and took their place behind microphones -- the three men struck up a reggae beat and the ladies began to sing a gospel tune, first in English, then in Ghanan. This group was the Hyssops African Praise Band.

After intermission, the Hyssops band was back, but this time with help from Mama Lizzy, a Ghanan woman leading a group of drummers. Mama Lizzy told us about the first song they would all perform together (in Ghanan) -- the lyrics were simply "I've been delivered by the blood of Jesus". After an inspiring set with that song, Mama Lizzy invited members of the audience to come forward and dance -- about 15 people went down and learned a few steps -- and then as the drums and the band continued with a dancable beat, each person took a few moments in the spotlight as a dancer. Then, after all the amateur dancers were thoroughly exhausted, Mama Lizzy told us about the next song: "It shall be well" -- encouraging the people that even in the midst of adversity, all shall be well through their faith and trust.

At that point, my heart was rejoicing. I had heard the gospel sung in Ghanan; I had seen people dance before the Lord (at least a few of the people were dancing before the Lord, for one of the audience dancers whom I know to be a Christian told me that she felt the presence of the Holy Spirit down there as she danced), like David bringing the ark home. Scripture kept ringing in my head: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) All the nations find their union and ultimate fulfillment in Christ. "For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshippers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering." (Zeph 3:9-10) -- that new tongue is not necessarily a new language, but a purifying of all languages that every nation, every tribe on this terrestrial ball would ascribe Him majesty. And I love the imagery "From beyond the rivers of Cush" -- Cush being Nubia (today's Sudan). From the heart of Africa will come praise said the prophet -- and so it does.

Africa is reminding the world what it means to call upon the Lord. I didn't expect such a reminder in a cultural presentation of traditional African dance -- but I was truly blessed to experience it. Praise God!

Other Posts on African Christianity:
Whose Christianity is it Anyway?
Advice from Africa: Start with prayer
Sometimes its good to go hungry

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

A Conversation with Sid Rice of Literacy and Evangelism: The World Mission Scene

Today we continue our conversation with Sid Rice of Literacy and Evangelism. If you missed it, see yesterday's post, when we talked about Leadership. Today's conversation begins with us talking about the world mission scene:

Russ: Let’s shift gears and talk world mission. What’s exciting that you see happening out there on the world mission field?

Sid: There are a lot of different things happening. I told you about the guy from Malawi who spent 10 years translating his heart language with a team of translators. As he was finishing up the New Testament, he found out that in southern Malawi, 70% of the people in his network of churches where he was doing the translation could not read. It just flipped a switch in him and he started looking for literacy programs. He found LEI on the net and spent last summer with us. He’s now a full time LEI missionary. For me, being in literacy missions, it's hugely rewarding to see someone who was called by God to a season of translation, and now to a season of literacy missions because the need is so huge, so awesome.

I talked about another guy in West Africa out of the Ivory Coast. He’s responsible for 13 different countries specifically for church planting with Global 12 which is a charismatic community. His comment was ‘I am putting in place pastors who cannot read’ He confided in me that he was planting churches but the pastors who were pastoring these churches couldn’t read, couldn’t study, couldn’t feast, couldn’t exegete the word of God because they couldn’t read. He said it’s such a huge impediment to church growth and discipleship in West Africa, his sphere of influence. He’s come on as an affiliate missionary member of LEI. We love to see those kind of partnerships in areas where we see such a huge need.

Another thing happening in the world of missions – the invasion/entrance of short term teams is a huge phenomenon, and its debated as being both good and bad. I was in the corporate world for a couple of decades – what inspired me toward the ends of missions and outreach was in the early 90s starting to participate in short term missions through my local church. First participating, just going along. Then in leadership positions. It really ignited my heart and passion particularly for outreach in the context of mission. And I know the spiritually transformative value of short term missions and that’s why I’m particularly jazzed about our partnership with the PEACE Plan.

Russ: The PEACE Plan. Tell me a little more about that.

Sid: It's the next big project from Saddleback church. PEACE is an acronym that stands for:

Planting churches
Educating servant leaders
Assisting the poor
Caring for the sick
Educating the next generation

That last letter of the acronym is where Literacy and Evangelism comes in. What Rick Warren identifies as the global giant of rampant illiteracy. When you read some of the stuff that he’s written on that you think “wow, he’s been reading our website”

Russ: That’s glorious

Sid: You can see him up there going “Half the world cannot read – can you imagine that” It’s neat that we’re a part of their experiment. It really is. They talk about ‘firm jello’ (meaning everything’s a work in process – as it should be) as we come together to bring Jesus home sooner. That’s the overriding goal of missions domestically, locally, and internationally -- to hasten Jesus' return.

The PEACE plan is envisioning empowering short term teams and small groups to reach the remaining unengaged 3400 people groups around the world. They’re building a beta website whereby resources are going to be available to meet those ends, those needs. Literacy and Evangelism is currently the only literacy resource of record on their beta website. We’ve put almost 100 of our different readers in different languages for them to give away to their network of hundreds of thousands of Purpose Driven churches around the world. For LEI, it could be very well the most significant platform of distribution of our product in the history of our 40 years of existence. I’m very mindful that this is an experiment, who knows how God’s going to use it, but we feel hugely affirmed by this group coming to us and asking us if they can use our product.

Russ: That’s a great example of strategic partnership. I also know you’re staffing for short term missions. It’s interesting how that goes hand in glove with this strategic partnership.

Sid: Coming alongside Saddleback has opened up our vision of possibilities. And now we ask what about those churches that aren’t a part of the Purpose Driven network? How do we service those small groups or churches or even individuals that are inspired for literacy missions – who see that global giant of illiteracy and want to help God attack it around the globe. We’re crafting and re-designing our website into a content management format where we can host our primers (Editorial note -- a primier is an introductory reading curriculum), the treasure chest of 40 years of work, out on the net for people to download.

We’re also working on a media initiative in the preliminary stages – Here in North Americal we have 3-5 week literacy training events that empower people to go back to their respective countries and launch literacy programs. Now we've been pushing that training out to sites in Africa and Brazil and India. Our new concept is to take that into the digital arena.

To be continued tomorrow

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

The Moderator Election

So I was there -- other bloggers have beat me to the story. Check out the posts about our new moderator at The Church for Starving Artists and Quotidian Grace and the Presbyterian bloggers website.

Now here's my take -- we have a good moderator who is friendly to the evangelical wing of the church. This is the first time since Fahed Abu Akel's election that I've seen evangelicals breathe easy after an election.

The questions from the floor were polite and subdued -- there was one direct question about the ordination of self-affirming gays and lesbians.

But the most important question, to my mind, was from my friend Michael Carey of Central Florida Presbytery -- asked about their understanding of whether Jesus Christ is the only Savior, or but one way. Kerry Carson gave a direct and affirming Yes, as did Tim Halverson. Joan made it clear that Jesus was the only way, but that she was willing to grant God a wide degree of lattitude in how He applied the work of Jesus. Then Deborah Block came out with the statement that "the lamps are many, the light is one"

Other telling moments -- Halverson's seizing on the fact that our denomination bemoans membership loss, but before this august assembly, there are only 2 overtures dealing with evangelism!

And Props to Lydia Efimba, the Ecumenical Advisory Delegate from the Presbyterian Chruch of Cameroon -- she brought out the truth that now evangelism moves from the churches of Africa to America! (Check out this post and this post that run along the same theme of the ascendancy of Christianity in Africa)

Tomorrow -- committee work begins!

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

PS -- perhaps we need to get the presbybloggers on the ground to meet up? When's a good time?

Advice from Africa -- Start with Prayer

Rick-Ufford Chase, the Moderator of the PCUSA (for those of you unaware, the Moderator is the highest elected office in the denomination, and holds office for 2 years -- among other things, the moderator travels the world representing the denomination to the global church), has been blogging from his trip to the Congo -- on a recent post, he relates some wonderful advice from leaders in the African church:

After dinner, our conversation broadened to include the rest of the group, and Jean Marie asked her favorite question. Though their church obviously faces many challenges in a country that is both unimaginably poor and caught in seemingly never-ending cycles of war and conflict, their numbers continue to grow. What advice can they offer their sisters and brothers in the Presbyterian Church (USA) about evangelization and church growth?

In response, Pastor Chibemba offered these suggestions:

He said that we must start and end with prayer and that everything we do must be reinforced with prayer. “When we confront great challenges in my church,” he said, “we begin by forming groups to be in prayer about that matter, and we pray continuously for God’s intervention.”

Second, Chibemba suggested that we must share with people in their hardships. We must be with people who are in need and let them know that the God loves them, Jesus Christ died for them, and the Church cares about them. This is the work of accompaniment with God’s people who are most desperate and most in need.

“Next,” Chibemba said, “we must commit to real evangelization – the kind that trusts our lay people in the church to invite others to know Christ. We must give them more responsibility, not less responsibility.” Later, in another conversation, he elaborated on this theme by suggesting that if a pastor doesn’t train the lay people to share their faith with confidence, the church can only grow by the number of people the pastor can get to know personally. However, if the pastor commits to trusting the lay people, the work grows exponentially and the possibilities for church growth are limitless.

Rick lists other items that struck him, but to me, these are the three most important:

Deep, dependent prayer.
Commitment to demonstrating God's love
Commitment to everyone as an evangelist.

This struck me because these were the main themes in the Parkside Pastor's conference this year. If we are to see church growth, transformation, revival (pick your term) we need to BEGIN with deep heartfelt prayer. We are dependent upon a move of God's Holy Spirit. How often do we settle for the obligatory 15 second prayer at the start of a 2 hour meeting -- how much more ought we to yearn for deep heartfelt crying out to God!

Demonstrating God's love by identifying with and assisting the poor. We learned at the conference about George Whitefield and Charles Haddon Spurgeon. A major part of George Whitefield's itenerant ministry was in raising funds for an orphanage in Georgia. Spurgeon, while a great evangelist, was also intimately involved in the social issues that confronted Victorian London.

And lay evangelism -- well, that was the subject of part of my post from the first day of the conference!

We have much to learn from our faithful bretheren in Africa!

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Summer reading: Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace -- about James Torrance

I'm cutting my losses here and skipping ahead to our next summer reading book. I have scads of notes on Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender -- If time permits, I'll weave some thoughts in over the coming week or so. However now I'm moving ahead to James Torrance's Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace. First, a bit of a biographical context for this book:

The Torrance family may well be the closest thing that Presbyterians may have to royalty. Tom Torrance was a noted and respected theologian, teaching Dogmatics at the University of Edinburgh -- his brother James, the subject of this reflection, was professor of Theology at the University of Aberdeen. Meanwhile Ian Torrance is currently President of Princeton Theological Seminary.

James Torrance died in 2003. In his obituary, we discover that he was born in 1923, the son of a missionary couple who served in China. James and his five siblings were all ministers or married to ministers. After serving in World War II in the Royal Air Force, Torrance studied Philosophy and theology. He served in parish ministry near Dundee before returning to the academy in 1963 at Edinburgh, where he lectured on Christian Thought.

As to his character and influence on his students:

There can be little doubt that the buoyancy and vibrancy of Aberdeen’s Faculty of Divinity in the late 70s owed a vast amount to his inspiring teaching, and to his bold leadership as Dean. He travelled widely, especially to the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia, teaching and preaching up to five times a day. As a result, students flocked to study with him from all over the world.

On retirement in 1989, with unstoppable energy he continued to travel widely, and encapsulated the heart his convictions in a remarkable book, Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace. In 2001 he was invited to deliver the prestigious Warfield Lectures at Princeton Seminary (soon to be published).

No-one could miss the secret of his inspiration: he lived and breathed what he believed. His life was marked by an open-hearted generosity born of his own conviction that he had been welcomed unconditionally by an open-hearted, generous God. Few who knew him will forget the extraordinary hospitality he and his wife, Mary, showed in their home.

Apparently, he was concerned with impressing upon his students that theology was not just a dry and dusty exercise, but a vital discipline of living.

Blogger Andy Goodliff (a British Baptist), gives us this list of major works. A quick perusal of the titles will tell you that this fellow dealt with pretty heady stuff.

Here's a reflection from Andrew Thompson as he wrestles with the concepts in Torrance's book. As I've scoured the web, I've found nothing but glowing reviews. However, it is worth remembering that this book is a collection of lectures given at a theological college -- Torrance assumes a familiarity with technical terms and theological dramatis personae that the average reader will not have. Lord willing, we'll unfold some of that as we go along.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

A Conversation with Sid Rice of Literacy and Evangelism: Technology Drivers

This Post continues the conversation I had with Sid Rice, the director of Literacy and Evangelism International. See Part I on Leadership and Part II on the World Mission Scene. This third part focuses on how LEI is leveraging Technology in light of developments on the world mission scene:

Russ: That’s fascinating. We mentioned Collins’ work earlier. One of the things he talks about is technology drivers: Strategically choosing technology. This is the third instance you’ve brought up of how 21^st technology has dramatically impacted your ministry: being found on the web by the man in Malawi, this PEACE program wiki, and now you’re leveraging some great digital opportunities. This strategic leadership.

Sid: I remember a hearing about book titled Go Digital or Die, but I haven’t found it yet – it may have been an article I saw. I think it’s incumbent upon us to leverage all the myriad of tools. The digital arena allows hundreds of thousands of churches to avail themselves of our curriculum. They can download it with no charge.

As an aside, I’ve said no charge a couple of times, and at first, coming out of corporate America, that didn’t feel quite right. And yet, I look back over the history of LEI – for 40 years all our ministry has done is come alongside people, churches, mission agencies, Wycliffe bible translators, bible societies across Africa, Asia and elsewhere. We’ve come alongside other ministries and partner and say here’s our linguistic expertise, let’s craft a bible content curriculum to teach people to read and share the story of Christ and wrap that gift of the story of Jesus within the socially critical gift of reading. And we’ve done it at no charge. We’ve always given it away. We’ve never put a royalty on top of the curriculum.

Again, coming from corporate America, I scratch my head and go “what is with this” and it finally came home to me that the reason is because our target market, our mission, that half of the world is the poorest of the poor, the most suppressed and oppressed indigent impoverished segment of our society. When you read the book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman talks about the unflat world. The Illiterate half of the world is the unflat world that has no chance. For us as a mission agency to put a royalty on top of that curriculum would suppress them even further. And that’s not what Jesus would do. So we’ve always given it away.

When we came into our co-operative agreement with the Saddleback PEACE plan, we said let's just give our stuff away faster. Let’s give it away on a platform that can do it significantly faster than we can in a hard copy. It’s in a digital realm, and we’ve embraced that. There’s a whole training issue that we’re running to catch up with because good training is critical to the success of using our curriculum. A key part of success is to be able to have that training in place so that people can use your material effectively.

Russ: That’s the huge thing about the digital realm. Everything is expected to be free. Everything is expected to be available. And you are known by the quality of your content. That is what defines you. Wikipedia being the terrific example of that.

Sid: It’s pretty interesting. Within the PEACE plan, it’s called the Peacepedia and it’s a malleable wiki. People can actually go into the website and delete our primiers. Its that free and open.

Russ: But there are controls…

Sid: There are controls beneath the surface, and it's also an environment where you’re talking Purpose Driven churches that will have access to this. As we look at our website, we’re looking at content management format – not quite as GUI as the media pedia format so there is a little more control there. As I was talking to our technical guy I said ‘I want both worlds’ and he said the software hasn’t gotten there yet where you can have truly wikipedia components to a harder architecture. Hey, it’s a work in progress.

Russ: Have you been in conversation with the Presbyterian Global Fellowship. They’re building a similar Presby-pedia or Missional-pedia of their own.

Sid: I haven’t, and I do need to have that conversation. I remember the conversation thinking ‘we’re doing this with a 25,000 member church in Southern California’ They’ve got this bigger vision. I wonder how much duplication of effort and work is going on and should there be some more collaboration.

By the same token, we’re also working with the Assembly of God out of Springfield MO. We just finished a hard copy curriculum that is training at a Bible College level to use our curriculum. It’s like we’re going in different directions. And they want to be able to access our materials digitally as well. They're another driver to us to host our material on our own website.

Right now there are just a lot of people pursuing the same ministry goals. And that’s good. Sometimes you wind up tripping over each other towards the end. I don’t know that that’s all bad. Within our sphere of partnerships we’ve given birth to Literacy and Evangelism Fellowship of Kenya, an independent daughter organization that is working on the same types of projects that we work on. We need to be in constant dialogue with them because we are targeting strategic languages as are they. We need to be sure that if they’re looking at a language that we’re coming alongside of them asking how can we support you, how can we garner investments in North America to funnel in your direction to support what you’re doing. It seems like we’re also going in tandem directions doing a lot of the same things:

Within Presbyterian Global Fellowship, downstream I can envision just a natural link, a page saying here’s who we are, here’s our heritage, this is what we’re doing. Click here to enter into the world of literacy missions with LEI. Lots of opportunities to connect.

To be continued tomorrow

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Conversation with Sid Rice of Literacy and Evangelism: American Churches

this post continues our ongoing conversation with Sid Rice of Literacy and Evangelism. See the prior posts on:
Leadership
World Missions
Technology Drivers.

Russ: That topic segues very nicely to the last topic I want to pick your brain on. You travel all over the country. You get to see a lot of what’s happening in the US. – from little places like Covenant-First with 160 members to 20,000 member Saddleback and everything in between. What do you see happening on the American church scene that are encouraging, what are some areas where we can learn from our brothers and sisters in Africa. What do you see going on that’s intriguing to you.

Sid: It’s easy to get jazzed by some of the mega-churches. At the risk of being tantalized by something that’s … well anyway, I went to Saddleback. As I was going to talk with them about etching an agreement for cooperative participation in the PEACE plan, I said ‘let me talk to your mission committee’ They go “well, we don’t have a mission committee”. “really?” Here’s this 25,000 member church that doesn’t have a mission committee. It blows my mind. "I know you’re hugely into missions, you support missionaries and mission agencies. How does that work?"

The comment was ‘Everything is pushed down through small groups’. In larger churches, small group is church. I remember sharing this with a pastor at a church I spoke in. He said “Ah, that’s not a biblical model. The biblical model is that the congregation brings the tithes and offerings into the storehouse and the church redistributes it.” I said "Very good. The Old Testament Model. Absolutely."

When I was back up at Saddleback sharing this, the person I was talking to had a big grin on his face. He said “Sid, put it this way – do you want control or do you want exponential growth for the sake of the kingdom.” “I think I’ll go with exponential growth for the sake of the kingdom.” I replied. He said “that’s the mentalitiy. You lose control in a lot of areas for the sake of growing the kingdom.”

To me, when I look at the Presbyterian church and the battle over property, and we’re getting very political here, it grieves me hugely because I see a structure seeking to grab control, and in that grabbing of control they will never ever, ever, ever experience exponential growth for the kingdom. And to see that happening within my own denomination, the Presbyterian Church USA where I’m a minister of word and sacrament. It grieves me hugely to see us flounder while other bodies of Christ let go of that control and afford the Spirit of God to grow exponentially.

What else is going on within the church. I know that a lot of people resonate with small groups – they’re key. We're glad to be a part of that experiment within the context of mission with the Peace Plan. Not really sure what God’s going to do there, but we’re excited to be affirmed to be a part of that.

As far as what else is going on. I see lots of servant hearts, pastors like yourself, revitalizing downtown churches. I think that’s pretty significant.

Russ: You see that happening in many places?

Sid: Yeah, It’s all about servant leadership. And not only that, it’s about preaching the word. I was in Western Pennsylvania at a downtown church, if you will. My friend, the pastor there, said “It’s been a couple of decades since anybody has been in the pulpit preaching God’s word. And the folks here are just hungry for that.” Expository preaching – explaining it, applying it, illustrating it -- is so foundational to what people want in the pews these days. I see pastors realizing that and really coming back to the heart of what our pastoral call is all about as preachers. And that’s an inspiriation

Russ: That raises an interesting point. You bring up the grand issue of control – some might say “everything done decently and in order” – verses freedom, following the winds of the spirit as it were. That plays itself out not just in a polity sense of who owns the property and who controls the land, but also theologically. So how does that balance work? Where you are under the control of the Word of God and yet freed by the Holy Spirit to go forth and do the mission to which you in particular are called. There’s this tension between liberty and submission. How does that work out?

Sid: That sounds like a rhetorical question to me. You just answered it. There is the tension or a balance between the two.

Russ: So, when we err too far on one side or the other, we get into sticky water, to create a new phrase. I know that some of the Eagle and Child readers will sit there aghast, not just that you’d have something good to say about Saddleback, but the whole chuckle of amusement over ‘do you want exponential growth or do you want control.’ The immediate question might well become one of expediency or faithfulness.

For instance. Martin Lloyd jones at Westminster Chapel in London was at an elders meeting and they were sorting through how to grow the church. They talked about all these things they could do to grow the church. Finally Dr. Lloyd-Jones said “Gentelmen, if you want to grow this church, I can do it overnight.” “Really, how” “simple, we put out an advertisement in the Times that says This Sunday Dr. Lloyd-Jones will be preaching a series in his underwear, and people will come from miles around just to see a man preach in his underwear. So there’s this tension between expediency and what is truly helpful. That’s what I hear a lot of the critics, particularly of the Purpose driven model, trying to get at – sometimes expediency works in the short term, but not necessarily in the long term.

I’m a supporter of the whole Purpose Driven thing – kept in context. The best wisdom I’ve received was from a colleage of mine who said “Russell, if you’re going to do Purpose Driven Church, make sure the being Purpose Driven doesn’t become the purpose.” The whole point behind purpose driven is to point us back to Christ. The whole point of Missional Church is to point us back to Christ. What I see happening so often is that the missional conversation becomes about being missional rather than about serving Christ. It becomes about “what is missional, can we truly claim to be missional. Are we thinking about missional. Suddenly, being missional is the mission. I think that’s part of the critique and I’m sensitive to the critique. But I’m also sensitive to what the folks at Saddleback say ‘We’re on a mission here.” How do you tap dance through all that?

Sid: It’s really getting outside of ourselves. Whether it’s purpose driven or the next step, the PEACE plan, it’s a vision to attack – a huge vision to globally attack the balance of those who have not heard so we can bring our leader Jesus back to earth. That’s the driving force – if somebody’s got a better plan, praise God. Get after it go do it. Don’t sit idly by.

One of the things that In my travels abroud is my sense of how aggressively other faiths, in particular the muslim faith, is aggressively going after new converts. They are aggressively spreading their word. I’m disturbed that we’re sitting around and critiquing each other as opposed to affirming each others experiments, and getting after the work that God has called us to do. It’s easy to be a critic, and I love Moody’s comment about the guy who came up to him and said “I don’t like the way you do evangelism.” “really I don’t either – how do you do evangelism.” “well, I don’t” “Well I like the way I do it better than the way you don’t.”

So if somebody’s getting after it, Praise God, how can we affirm them. How can we augment what’s happening. Presbyterian Global fellowship – what a breath of fresh air – we’re looking outside ourselves and getting after the great commission.

This interview will be concluded in tomorrows post (probably late night)

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

A hero for our time: Henry Orombi

This week's World Magazine has named African Archbishops Peter Akinola and Henry Orombi as "Daniels of the Year" (World's effort to celebrate christians who stand firm in the midst of pressure and trial).





Orombi's story particularly gripped me. I learned about his apprenticeship to Archbishop Janini Luwam, who was murdered by Idi Amin's thugs. He was there the night Luwan was killed -- the thugs came to the house and forced their way in "They forced him to go everywhere," says Orombi, "the chapel, the bedrooms -- under the pretext of looking for guns. Finally they came to this room and on this table was a Bible. 'This is my gun' Luwam told the men. Not long after, Idi Amin's men shot and killed Luwam" -- What a mentor -- what courage under pressure -- what composure in the face of evil.





Meanwhile, Orombi was jailed. What a trying time for a man who had dropped out of high school to become a mechanic, but found no gift for it. His father had sent him to a teacher's college where he became a Christian -- and opened up a love of children's ministry. He went on to study theology in Kampala (at what is now Uganda Christian University) and then for three years at St John's College, Nottingham. It was during his time as a seminary student that he worked with the Archbishop, and jailed.





Needless to say, he was eventually released and became a priest. His adminiatrative skill won him a bishopric -- he began the term in a new diocese with no infrastructure. Within a decade, he had established a complete system that included churches, schools, training centers, missionary airstrips and rural and community outreach that was a model for Anglicans around the globe "I did it by preaching the gospel fiercely" he said. He was soon appointed archbishop.





Now he ministers in a land that is torn by violence from 20 years of war with rebels in the Lord's Resistance Army (though a peace agreement has been recently settled). This is a man who is acquainted with suffering on a daily basis. All these things, I learned from the World Magazine article. This man is a hero for Christianity.

I did some checking on weblogs for comments about Orombi -- had to go back a few months to get material that wasn't just regurgitation of the article (which I provided nicely for you above)

• GadgetVicar says: "What a cool Archbishop! He is passionate, funny, Jesus-centred and humble. A wonderfully encouraging hour in which the Lord drew near to me in a lovely way."
• Terry in Singapore speaks of his visit there to promote the Alpha Course: "It was so good to meet Archbishop Henry Orombi from Uganda, who was in Singapore this week for a series of revival meetings. We were very blessed by his ministry."
• Space in a Place that Nobody Knows gives a personal account of a vacation in Uganda spent with the Archbishop (apparently they are old family friends)

Other Posts on African Christianity:

Whose Christianity is it Anyway?

Advice from Africa: Start with prayer

Sometimes its good to go hungry

Bi-Okoto -- an African Experience

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell

Why ancient philosophy?

Yes, I've been incommunicando for a while. We've had a lot going on at church, at home, and I've been in the throes of my advanced studies in Ancient Cultures through the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.
 
Right now I'm working on a module on ancient philosophy. How do such studies help the church? My primary reason is to make me a better interpreter of scripture. Hellenistic philosophy oozes through the New Testament, and for me to better explain the New Testament, I'd best have a working knowledge of how Hellenistic philosophy was actually practiced. A little tidbit of what I'm working on right now as an example. I'm reading an essay on the contrast of friendship and flattery in the Epicurean schools of philosophy. Apparantly Epicureans were criticized by adherents of other schools (such as the Stoics) for being flattering sycophants to the great leaders and powerful men of the day. Epicureans saw no problem with a philosopher attaching himself to a powerful man as a "house philosopher" for that man. Of course the Epicureans defended this practice, making a distinction between being a sycophant and being a court sage. Now put this context as background to the Paul before Roman Governor Felix (Acts 24: 24-27). The passage tells us that Felix was waiting for money. This of course is true. The whole Roman economy functioned on patraonage, bribes, kickbacks, loans, favors .... from Findlay's depiction in his work The Ancient Economy, it seems like the Roman economy looked ahead to Don Corleone rather than Adam Smith.
 
But the passage also tells us that Felix kept bringing Paul to speak with him over the course of his two year assignment. Could it be that Felix was treating Paul as his own captive court-philosopher? It was the mark of great men to surround themselves with men of learning. Was Felix trying to offer Paul opportunities to continue on as a court philosopher if he would but tone down his rhetoric? Was he grooming Paul to be part of his entourage? Does any of this background make the tragedy of Felix's incomprehension even more pressing? Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Posted via email from russellbsmith's posterous

Happy Independence Day -- for Ghana!

I heard on NPR's All Things Considered that today was Ghana's independence day. Not only that, but it is their 50th anniversary of independence. They were the first sub-saharan African nation to gain their independence, and though they've had a rocky past, they are now a pretty stable democracy

Why, you ask, should I care? I care because I sponsor a Ghanan entrepreneur, Yesutor Yevu, through Kiva.org. She runs a building supply business which she hopes to double in size -- helping to create affordable middle class housing in West Ghana. Because I've been a part of a small microloan to her, I have a vested interest in the health and welfare of her country.

I care because I believe small entrepreneurs are a great source of hope for bringing stability to the developing world. The more stable Ghana is, the greater the possibilities for stability in other nations of Africa. Ghana also has a flourishing Christian population working to make the nation strong.

Take a few moments and pray for the church in Ghana as they continue to be salt and light in this young republic.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Resources for Revival -- lead from your knees

"I charge you to lead from your knees" That's what Joan Grey, moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) told us as she came before the plenary of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship. It could have been a time of great tension -- for this gathering was born out of dissatisfaction with denominational status quo. More than 1000 Presbyterians gathered last week to seek a way of faithfully moving forward in spite of the dysfunction of the institution.

And yet Joan Grey came. And she told us that we were to lead from our knees -- to be so humble and fervent in our prayers that we recognized that we could do nothing without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, graciously given by the living Lord Jesus Christ. She reminded us that Jesus is the vine -- we are but the branches -- without him we can do nothing. So if we would lead, we must lead from our knees. And then she charged us to dream big -- for our God is able to do more than we can possibly imagine.

Then, we gathered around her in prayer -- she sat in a chair and dozens of elders and pastors laid hands on her shoulders. More of us knelt in the aisle. And we began to pray -- first a prayer of repentence. We didn't begin with a happy confident prayer that God would bless us. As was right, we began with a prayer of corporate repentence for our blindness to truth and goodness -- for our smallness of mind -- for our own personal sin. We lingered there in repentence for a season before we started to pray for God's protection and direction for our Moderator.

Looking back -- I believe that was a defining moment. In my study of Revivals, all revivals begin in repentence and prayer. I've been encouraging our congregation to engage in fasting and prayer for this season of our life in the church. And then here is our Moderator challenging us to that very discipline -- an unwavering dependence upon the empowerment and leading of Christ.

Might this have been the catalytic moment where the call to prayer and repentence and fasting went viral -- might this have been the tipping point where a sufficient number of people feel led by the Holy Spirit to make prayer a discipline for revival? We will only know from when we are years down the road and look in the rear view mirror. I hope that this event will have been more than a pep rally and that across the land we'll take seriously what it means to lead from our knees.

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell

Resources for Revival Index:
* Family
* From the Book of Order
* Prayer and Forgiveness
* Andrew Murray on corporate prayer
* Bill Bright on fasting and prayer
* Longing for revival: resources for revival

Other Revival oriented posts
* A Call for fasting and prayer
* Thomas Watson on prayer
* National Day of Prayer retrospective
* Longing for revival: a reminder from history
* Longing for Revival in the presbyterian church
* The foolishness of preaching
* Fasting and Prayer
* A running theme: revival
* Advice from Africa: Start with Prayer

Resources for Revival: Prayer and Forgiveness

I've been preaching through the Lord's prayer these past few weeks. Yesterday, we spent time on "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" -- a few key points (and again, I'm indebted to Thomas Watson's incredible work on the Lord's Prayer -- written in the 17th century and still thought provoking today):

* We're reminded that we have much to be forgiven. By commanding us to pray for forgiveness, Jesus also encourages us to examine ourselves to see where we need forgiveness. Such self examination in the light of Scripture (which is a trait not encouraged in our uber-carnival culture) will lead us to see how we continue to deny God's rule in our lives. Self reflection shines the spotlight of truth on the recesses of our soul and prompts us to cry out "Lord, have mercy on me" --

* We're reminded that we're called to forgive others. Ephesians 4:31-32 "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

* Our grounding of forgiveness is the same as the grounding of our capacity to forgie. Our forgiveness is secured by the person and work of Jesus Christ -- in His death, resurrection and ascension. In the same way, our capacity to forgive is secured by His work. Justification (our forgiveness) is instant and done from without, imputed to us. Sanctification (our holiness -- including the capacity to forgive) is progressive and done from within, worked out by the Holy Spirit. However both Justification and Sanctification are extended to us by the work of Jesus Christ.

In other words -- we don't earn our forgiveness through our capacity to forgive -- however, if we're truly forgiven, we should expect an increasing desire to learn what it means to forgive and to try to forgive. Let us keep these truths in mind as we continue forward in troubling times for the PCUSA and for the world.

I'll close with this prayer from Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions:

"The Convicting Spirit"
Thou Blessed Spirit, Author of all grace and comfort,
Come, work repentance in my soul;
Represent sin to me in its odious colours that I may hate it;
Melt my heart by the majesty and glory of God;
Show me my ruined self and the help there is in him;
Teach me to behold my creator,
his ability to save,
his arms outstretched,
his heart big for me.
May I confide in his power and love,
commit my soul to him without reserve,
bear his image, observe his laws, pursue his service,
and be through time and eternity
a monument to the efficacy of his grace,
a trophy of his victory;
Make me willing to be saved in his way,
perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus
Help me not only to receive him but
to walk in him
depend upon him
commune with him
be conformed to him
follow him
imperfect, but still pressing forward
not complaining of labour, but valuing rest
not murmuring under trials, but thankful for my state
Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,
and the principle and medium of all godliness;
May I be saved by grace through faith;
live by faith
feel the joy of faith
do the work of faith
Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Resources for Revival Index:
* Andrew Murray on corporate prayer
* Bill Bright on fasting and prayer
* Longing for revival: resources for revival

Other Revival oriented posts
* A Call for fasting and prayer
* Thomas Watson on prayer
* National Day of Prayer retrospective
* Longing for revival: a reminder from history
* Longing for Revival in the presbyterian church
* The foolishness of preaching
* Fasting and Prayer
* A running theme: revival
* Advice from Africa: Start with Prayer

Making a difference: Microlending through Kiva

Readers of the Eagle and Child may have seen my earlier posts touching on the idea of microlending (see post 1 and post 2)

Microlending is the concept of making very small loans to mom and pop type entrepreneurs in third world countries (think this size: a fruit stand seller who needs $500 to build another stand and stock it). Most banks don't handle such small loans, and yet this is a fine way to encourage economic development in the third world. There's been some discussion on whether this is a viable model for extending economic aid.

Some of the challenge is that until recently -- most microlending was done much like other large efforts -- we contribute to a foundation or fund and the managers of the foundation decide to make loans based off those contributions. What is lacking is the personal stake for the individual who wants to microlend.

Enter Kiva (thanks to Michael Kruse who tipped me off to Kiva -- I can't seem to find his last story on his Kiva loan, so instead I'll link to this Kiva story from The Orlop). The innovation that Kiva provides is this -- they work through organizations to screen loan applicants and then present the applicants to potential lenders via the web. You as an individual can sign up to microlend to an individual in the third world country. Kiva facilitates person to person lending. You can lend as little as $25 or as much as you want. You can pick the projects and regions that interest you and you will receive email updates from the field.

I like this approach because it puts a face on the work. Not being ones to be left out, Tammy and I put our money where my mouth has been and we decided to lend a modest amount through Kiva. I chose a gentleman in Uganda who is rebuilding his home in a more stable neighborhood where he can get a better job.

Now here are some great benefits -- the loan that I helped to make will cycle through the economy several times (the gentleman used it to buy supplies and hire help -- it was not siphoned off by corrupt governments). The loan helps people who are working their way up -- it is not a handout. In Uganda, the loans are administered through a network called Life in Africa which provides community accountability and support and encourages entrepreneurship. Thus we're contributing to the greater stability of a region that is very unstable. Finally, it has driven me to learn more about Uganda and to pray for this gentleman and his family.

Not bad for a modest loan. And the best part is, when I get paid back, I can lend to someone else, thus furthering economic development in the third world.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Handouts -- do they help or are they a hinderance?

I’ve gotten to know him through one of my coffee shop “satellite offices”. He and his wife live in Over-the-Rhine (for you non Cincinnatians, that is the hood – the hoodiest of the hoods in Cincinnati).

He told me that over the months that he’s been there, he’s watched from his window as churches from the suburbs came in on the weekends and handed out free food in the park – people from all over the neighborhood lined up to get their handout. And then these well meaning church folks pack up and head back to the burbs. “It does more harm than good” he said. He told me that it perpetuates a culture of dependence upon the handout. It enables folks to use what discretionary money they have to waste it upon alcohol and drugs. “You should see the cars these people drive” he said. He once challenged a homeless guy why he didn’t get a job and work – the homeless guy was honest in his response “I can make more money by begging than you can in your job.”

Now bear in mind, my friend who was venting isn’t some rich venture capitalist. He’s not a lawyer or doctor. He’s a barrista – he and his wife work hard and live simply to make ends meet – and they’re being thrifty, frugal and industrious to do it.

I listened and asked questions (a skill that I’m still working on learning). He talked about how Christians needed to learn to examine their motives – are they actually trying to help – or are they trying to make themselves feel better? If trying to help, why not invest themselves in relationships with the poor. Why not challenge them to step up and do for themselves – equip them – teach them. He told of when he was a missionary in East Africa during a time of drought. Every day people came to ask for water – and every day he wrestled and agonized with saying “no” – he just couldn’t give water to one person while the rest of the village went thirsty. And then he learned that there was plenty of water available. The Chineese government had come in and drilled hundreds of wells all around the region in which he served. They taught the locals that all they had to do to assure their continual supply of water is to keep the wells oiled and maintained. And the locals neglected to do it. They simply refused to help themselves.

This ties in a bit with my previous post on microlending. Reader John Jensen challenged the idea in a gentle way – questioning whether it is a viable business model, or whether it is simply a more sophisticated way of doing handouts. He is a real proponent of programs like JobsPlus (“Jobs Plus is a non-profit organization that helps break cycles of poverty and unhealthy dependencies for individuals in low-income communities by providing job opportunities and a network of support and accountability leading to healthier lifestyles”) or Smart Money (“SmartMoney Community Services will be the leading provider of comprehensive affordable financial services and economic education, empowering families to achieve their financial goals while enhancing the quality of life in our community.” )

These are programs that teach job skills and the disciplines of personal finance. They equip people with the tools to help themselves. I agree with John, those programs are great and very effective. Check out their websites – they are eye opening. However, I’m not quite ready to write off microlending as a business model yet – mainly because as with any business model, you’ll find that there are more people who fail at it than succeed. Reader Michael Kruse pointed me to a really innovative microlending outfit called Kiva – they allow you as an individual to participate in a loan to an individual in the third world – read the info on their website, it’s pretty fascinating. Interestingly, Kruse has a really good post on the biblical concept of Jubilee up today. But back to the main point – for both microlending and the teaching model to succeed, they require relationship – something above and beyond drive by handouts.

It’s a sticky conundrum – especially when you have to look someone in the eye and tell them “no, I won’t give you any money”. I’m still chewing on this one – any thoughts (John, I expect to hear you chime in on this one)

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Credit Where Credit is Due

I try to listen to and read across the spectrum of opinion. At times, in fiction and in reporting, I've heard Christianity bashed by certain segments of the left (certainly not all the left -- there are many Christians on the left, and many very respectful non-christians -- but just as there are angry right wingers, there are angry left wingers). Most often, it is the fundamentalist Christians who are equated to the taliban and the warmongering fundamentalists in Islam. And we hear the crusades trotted out, and abortion clinic bombers, and we hear about Pat Robertson's personal jihad against Hugo Chavez -- and we're left the impression that these represent the vast majority of evangelical/fundamentalist Christians.

And so it was quite refreshing to read Lamin Sanneh's book Whose Religion is Christianity? Sanneh is a Gambian native who teaches world mission at Yale divinity school -- he defends the rise of a distinctively African version of Christianity in the face of what he sees as Western Secularism (remember, he is in New England -- he likely sees Secularism as the dominant mode of thought in America). The book is mainly a response to Secularist critics who see a rise in Christianity as a bad thing. He addresses them point by point, showing how Christianity has had an ennobling effect on Africa (though he does have an unfortunate tendency to use the term "pluralism"; his use, however, is that of Christian pluralism -- many denominations, many tongues, many expressions of one faith -- he's not using the term explicitly in connection with interfaith pluralism). He even addresses the oh-so-often-used crusades dismissal of Christianity by showing that era as a season when the church lost sight of the teaching of Christ. He reminds us that for centuries the church has had a guilt complex over it -- only Christianity could produce such ongoing remorse for actions 900 years ago. Where are the Islamic scholars repenting for that faith's centuries of expansion by the sword? You get the idea -- read the book for more.

Then I saw last week's World magazine which contained two editorials, one about abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, the other about Pat Robertson's unfortunate comments about assassinating Hugo Chavez. Here we have the "fundamentalist" christians at World Magazine giving unequivocal condemnation of such deeds. Christianity is a relgion of peace and kindness -- Indeed, Christianity, as opposed to secularism, has the moral grounding to say that the deeds of Rudolph and the speech of Roberson is wrong. Period. Secularism, if it is honest, has no bedrock firm moral foundation upon which to condemn such extremism.

All that to say -- Evangelicals/Fundamentalists are not the fire breathing trogdolytes that they are portrayed as in popular media. We love our children, we enjoy a good joke, we raise a glass every now and again in good spirits, and we're willing to correct our own.

So here's to World Magazine and Professor Sanneh - you receive credit where credit is due.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

With One Voice: Jesus's Lament of Abandonment

See earlier posts in this ongoing interaction with Reggie Kidd's With One Voice.

With One Voice: The Singing Savior

With One Voice: The Psalms

With One Voice: David

With One Voice: Reggie Kidd on Psalm 22

In chapter 5, he picks up with Jesus' use of Psalm 22 as his lament of abandonment from the cross. Reggie hits this chapter of the book out of the park. He brackets the chapter with gut wrenching stories from his own experience -- stories of faithful saints who in the midst of the mess of life, persist in singing songs of praise to the God who is there.

Using these stories, he shapes our understanding of Jesus' suffering on the cross. Many times in evangelical circles, we focus on the magnitude of the cosmic suffering -- or we gallop right ahead to resurrection. But it is in the suffering that Jesus comes and meets with us. Jesus' lament on the cross is the full expression of human suffering, Reggie tells us. “To know the God who is, is to look to him even when he won’t make eye contact. To know the God who keeps covenant is to sing to him, even, perhaps especially, when you fear he may not be listening.” (92) Wow -- again, it is this kind of writing that makes the book worth the cover price.

Reggie then delivers a bomb in the midst of self-help Christianity: “Many of us with stoicism seek simply to cope with life. We paint our canvas in safe, if bland, grays. But real Christianity surrounds us with the reddest reds and the bluest blues, the bleakest blacks and the most radiant whites. It is not about mere resignation and coping mechanisms. It is about resurrection and crucifixion, triumph and failure, redemption and sin.” (93) In the middle of motivational speeches masquerading as sermons, Reggie reminds us that our pain and lonliness and shame are but shadowy reminders that God has not left us alone. We don't have to bootstrap ourselves out of our mess -- rather we're called to sing to our God in the midst of our mess. “The cross brings God into deep places in our lives – places where artists, poets, and musicians go.” (93) The cross confronts us in our own anguish. It reminds us of our own fragility and enables us to worship in the midst of the pain.

Here's another winner quote: “Christ’s death song makes reality more real. It squashes fears, pulls us out of our self-absorbtion, and connects us to others. Songs that keep Christ’s death before us help us in another way: they help us acknowledge how messed up we are. That’s a good thing. It’s the cross that frees Rouault, in another panel from the Miserere, to do a self-portrait as a sad clown and to inscribe beneath it: ‘Do we not all paint our faces?’ We know we are base, but we cannot name our baseness until we see it borne for us. Once we see Christ as bearer of our foolishness, though, we gain the freedom to let go of our pretense – self-made happiness, self-painted beauty, self-generated dignity, self-defined rightness.” (97).

Reggie also makes a well needed detour into the realm of excellence, particularly as it applies to church worship. I believe that we ought to bring our best gifts to God -- we ought to do the very best we can in our music, preaching, and worship design. However, we dare not give in to the idolatry of excellence. That's the idolatry that measures worship as a performance - did we hit all the notes just right; did everything flow well. Such idolotry (and this is Russ, not Reggie speaking) manifests itself in the person who is put out that the organ is just too slow, or put off by the off key singing somewhere in the choir. It's the typo in the worship bulletin that makes their face sour -- whatever it is. There are a zillion other manifestations, depending upon what type of church you attend -- but it all amounts to the same thing: focusing on the show rather than upon the Christ that the worship service is for. It lies in the illusion that in worship we're the audience to be entertained, rather than in the reality that we're the performers before a celestial throne.

"Perhaps we will lament as oprhans or, perhaps worse, as spoiled whiners. But we can choose to lament as sons and daughters who know they are loved and are therefore being disciplined and shaped. The difference will lie largely in learning to suffer to the tune of the Savior's song." (102)

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell

PS -- Reggie indicates on his blog that With One Voice has gone into a second printing. Congratulations! If you've been enjoying reading about this book, you might want to get a copy for yourself -- and you might want to check out Reggie's latest post on Common Grounds online: Athanasius and the Incarnation: Why hope and history do rhyme -- he speaks of suffering and tells the story of speaking in class on the topic: "I made a passing comment about the martyrdom that is a mere theoretical possibility for Western Christians but a daily possibility for Christians elsewhere, when a student’s hand went up. Raised in North Africa, she recounted with proud tears how her father had been killed — after six attempts on his life — for not renouncing his faith in Christ. So much for theoretical possibilities. " And this is his intro to how the theology of Athanasius helps us in these trying times -- a great complement to this chapter we reviewed today.

RS