Missions: Mark Woodward, Part 3

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Jay F Guin

In Part 3 of his series, Mark takes a very skeptical view of the ability of the local church to manage a missions program —

Local churches Are ill-equipped to truly oversee foreign mission work.

Typically, churches who agree to provide oversight of a foreign mission effort have very little idea of what they are really agreeing to. For most congregations, total oversight means they have hired another employee (the missionary) and that they have ultimate responsibility for the missionary’s

  • complete job performance,
  • all monies given by them, both personal and work-related funds,
  • all work-related decisions, including those made by the mission congregation.
  • all doctrinal issues and/or congregational practices
  • growth strategies, including types of facilities

Any serious differences in opinion in any area or dissatisfaction within the overseeing church results in loss of financial support, the premature return of the missionary family, and often the complete termination of the missionary efforts at that site. Continue reading →

Posted in Church Plants and Foreign Missions, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Music from the Apocalypse of John

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Jay F Guin

(Rev 1:4-6 ESV) 4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,  5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood  6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

(Rev 4:8-1 ESV)  8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”  …  11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

(Rev 11:15-18 ESV) 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”  … 16b “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.  18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Revelation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Thought Question: Parental Control Software at the Church Building?

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Jay F Guin

internet porn signShould churches place parental control software on computers used by church staff?

From MMI Weblog,

[Pornography’s] prevalence among staff members has been disclosed when some churches have decided to begin daycare centers to reach out to their communities, [Southern Baptist ethicist Richard] Land said. In preparing to provide coverage for churches, insurance companies typically research what is being viewed online in the church’s buildings.

“I can’t tell you the number of broken-hearted pastors who have called me when they have discovered what some of their trusted church staff have been looking at on church computers,” he said.

What do you think?

Posted in Thought Questions, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Free (or Really Cheap) Parental Control Software

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Jay F Guin

Get Net Nanny Free for a YearI love computers. They are wonderful, powerful, useful tools. But they are also horrible temptations, especially for children.

If your computer is connected to the Internet, it’s connected to some of the greatest theological works in history — and enough pornograph to destroy a society. Therefore, I think it’s important that any children accessible to a child have software that blocks dangerous websites: pornography, gambling, all sorts of things that children shouldn’t be exposed to.

Two of the best programs are now available for free or nominal cost, according to PC Magazine —

Net Nanny is one of the more comprehensive parental control tools available. It offers all of the expected parental control features as well as some useful and unusual ones. And during the month of June you can get a full-year Net Nanny subscription for free. All you have to do is visit the Net Nanny Facebook page and click “Like.”

If you’re interested, don’t waste any time. The giveaway nominally runs through the last minute of June 30, 2011, but Net Nanny is giving away a maximum of 2,000 copies. …

AVG is also running a promotion in June. While it isn’t a giveaway like Net Nanny’s offer, you can get AVG Family Safety for a 99-cent donation to Red Cross family aid efforts in Joplin. Whichever offer you choose, June is a great month to get free or low-cost access to advanced parental control software.

AVG Family Safety just won the PC Magazine Editor’s Choice designation as best in class, but Net Nanny has been an Editors Choice many times in the past. Both are excellent programs.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 3

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Jay F Guin

In the last post of this series, we found that the New Testament church didn’t exist in numerous autonomous house churches all in the same town. Rather, there was one church, under a single eldership, meeting in multiple houses and sometimes, when the authorities would allow, meeting as a gathering of the whole church.

House church problems

And so, the contemporary house church is not the same thing at all. First, in most settings, house churches are entirely autonomous. House churches are usually just small churches that meet in a house.

Most house churches act toward other house churches and other institutional churches much as institutional churches do — as either irrelevant or as rivals. They may have friendly relations with some other churches, but they certainly don’t submit to any kind of overseeing eldership. Nor do many set their agenda, their mission, or their vision in cooperation with other churches. Continue reading →

Posted in House Churches & Institutional Churches, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Real Restoration: Acts: Peter’s Sermon

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Jay F Guin

So I’d finished up the series on Luke, and it seemed obvious that I should cover Acts next. It’s essentially Luke’s sequel to the Gospel of Luke. But, I thought, we’ve covered Acts so very many times. What would be a fresh approach? What in Acts best shows the Kingdom principles we’ve been talking about?

And then it occurred to me: we never cover the sermons and discourses in Acts. Well, we cover Paul’s address at Mars Hill, and that’s about it. For example, other than Acts 2:38, what did Peter preach at Pentecost that we ever talk about?

And does the fact that we endlessly debate Acts 2:38 while ignoring the rest of his sermon suggest our theology is blind to some issues? Why did Luke consider this sermon so important that it fills most of chapter 2, and yet we consider the sermon so unimportant that we ignore it? What’s going on?

And why do we ignore the other sermons and speeches? We’re big on the conversion stories but not on the speeches. Why?

Well, the only way to find out is to take a look at these passages. We start in Acts 2.

(This is an unusually long post, but I couldn’t think of a way to split it.)

Continue reading →

Posted in Real Restoration, Uncategorized | 39 Comments

Thanks to All Who Comment Here

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Jay F Guin

It’s been immensely helpful to my own growth as a Christian, even — especially — those who disagree.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Thought Question: Missions: Mark Woodward, Part 2

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Jay F Guin

In Part 2 of Mark’s city, Mark writes,

The most ambitious [missionaries] for God are sometimes even successful [at finding supporting and sponsoring congregations], but most potential missionaries are lost to the mission field, giving up on their call because they

a) have only a small number of congregations who know them personally and none of those is willing or in a position to offer oversight and/or support, or

b) they personally do not have the resources to fund weeks, if not months, of cross-country travel for full-time fund raising, or

c) they simply do not have the skills for fund raising. Their desire and training, perhaps their giftedness, is being a missionary, not a fundraiser.

So — is he right? Are we losing missionaries who could be very effective in the field because they are unable to find sponsoring congregations or aren’t skilled at fundraising?

If so, what’s a better plan?

 

Posted in Thought Questions, Uncategorized | 18 Comments

The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Jay F Guin

A study in guilt —

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 2

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Jay F Guin

The previous post in this series produced an interesting and insightful conversation, both in the comments and in some private emails. Let me add this thought to the mix: Neither the institutional churches nor house churches are organized as the New Testament churches were organized.

Congregational autonomy as we practice it is not found in the scriptures. It simply isn’t how the early church operated. And while God grants great freedom in this area, I think, we’ve gone beyond the realm of the permissible.

Allow me to explain. Well, let Gregg Allison explain —

[W]hile it is true that a meaning of the word ekklesia is “assembly,” it is only one of the meanings of that word. An assembly is certainly in view when Paul addresses celebrating the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34) and regulates the exercise of speaking in tongues and prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:26-40) when the church is gathered together. But ekklesia cannot mean “assembly” in Acts 8:1, for example, when Luke’s point is that the church was “scattered”—not assembled—because of persecution. In fact, the word church can refer to meetings of Christians in houses (Acts 12:12), the church in a city (1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1), all the believers in a region (Acts 9:31), the universal church (1 Corinthians 10:32), and even the saints already in heaven (Hebrews 12:23). Saying that the word ekklesia means “assembly” commits a lexical error. Continue reading →

Posted in House Churches & Institutional Churches, Uncategorized | 12 Comments