confession | willow creek

weeping willow

Imagine waking up one morning to the shocking realization that everything you have built your life on, your vision, your passion, and your conviction, has been wrong. That was the shocking revelation about the ministry of Willow Creek Community Church, and what makes it even more shocking is the revelation came from them. Bob Barney gives us the whole story in his article, “A shocking confession from Willow Creek Community Church leaders”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP)–If you are older than 40 the name Benjamin Spock is more than familiar. It was Spock that told an entire generation of parents to take it easy, don’t discipline your children and allow them to express themselves. › Continue reading

Wise as serpents, gentle as doves

On Christian political engagement

The electoral silly season is upon - or almost upon - many of us. In the US, a year of non-stop advertising is about to begin in order to elect the next president. In the UK, many observers think Gordon Brown will soon seek a personal mandate via a general election. In Australia, they’re in the thick of it with battles underway for a November 10th federal election. In New Zealand things are temporarily quiet as in Canada… although last week the Canadian minority national government was on the brink of collapse.

How do Christians deal with politics (apart from church politics)? What’s the best way to take our understanding of faith into the political arena and to joust in that forum of ideas, whether during an election or any other time?

 

This article - written for theRubicon - explores Christian political engagement. Although many of the references are Canadian, the main ideas and arguments are universal.

 

P. Hill has worked inside and outside of government as both a policy advisor to a Cabinet Minister in Canada and as a spokesperson for religious communities. P. Hill’s current public office prevents him/her publishing such arguments for attribution, hence the pseudonym.

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reston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party of Canada, is often heard admonishing Christians who engage in politics to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. In his opinion, Christians too often fail in this regard, with the result that their advocacy is ineffective and counterproductive.

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Slavery

Areopagus #27

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n a talk as current as today’s headlines and as wide-ranging as a quality newspaper, Tim Costello takes listeners around the world for a better understanding of human and sexual trafficking and slavery. And it’s not a dry recitation of facts: this gifted communicator offers context and variety - three ways a church can avoid supporting this international trade in human misery; details of his first successful legal case defending a prostitute; why Christian musicians and songwriters need more of life’s bumps and bruises in their lyrics because they have more influence than preachers and theologans. Don’t miss this 51:13 presentation from January’s ACC in Melbourne, Australia. To listen, click on the arrow below or download the episode from the Areopagus podcast on iTunes.

Costello’s biography is available on the next page. › Continue reading

Hastening the end

Jim Read on physician-assisted suicide

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ecently my wife and I had the privilege of presenting day-long ethics workshops in four rural hospice and palliative care centres in Manitoba (a central-Canadian province). I was able to contribute my knowledge of law, policies and ethical theory. Laurie was able to bring her nine years of clinical experience as a nurse leader in cancer care and palliative care. In order to get the workshop participants thinking about the social policy side of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide we showed an excerpt from Bill Moyers’s PBS series “On Our Own Terms.”

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Women leadership in the church

Danielle Strickland on why it matters and how to change

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e have become increasingly familiar with what the raising of strong male figures looks like in the church. And while men are able to gather and develop similar-minded men, is the same urgency to shape strong godly females as prevalent? Are females less proactive in mentoring younger girls, and what is our perception of women leaders or pioneers? Do we aim to create more or less of these? How can women step into both, making sure they are learning from older women while passing on support to those who are younger?

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Injustice Within

Lucy AitkenRead wonders if we daren’t reform, do we have a future?

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e have a natural instinct for what is fair, and unfair. Here in Australasia, the phrase is a “Fair Go.” When I was young I had an acute sense of what was fair and what was unfair. My sister and I would try to outdo each other with how many times a day we could wail, “Its not FAIR!!!” My “Fair Go” detector was possibly overly sensitive and bent toward my own feelings and perceived needs. Thankfully, my sense of injustice has expanded its boundaries and now I hope that I care rather less about being given a “Fair Go” myself, and more for others. › Continue reading

Saved to Surrender

Marching as to war: Jason Pope takes another look at

The Salvation Army’s military metaphors

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight oh Lord my rock and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:14)

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he Psalmist realized sometimes the words we choose to use convey much deeper meanings and connotations than just their literal definitions. That is why he said let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight oh Lord my strength and my redeemer. “Salvationists”, members of The Salvation Army church, are engaged in a controversy over whether their use of military terminology in the Christian arena is merely metaphorical or whether it represents a real war.

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Social Holiness

A full Holiness is social, by Amy Reardon*

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n 1930 philosopher Bertrand Russell, critic of religion and especially Christianity, wrote an essay called “Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?” This essay is now a chapter in the collection of his work titled Why I Am Not a Christian. Among his many intriguing arguments is this one: “The natural impulse of the vigorous person of decent character is to attempt to do good, but if he is deprived of all political power and of all opportunity to influence events, he will be deflected from his natural course and will decide that the most important thing is to be good.” › Continue reading

Inversion of Power

A reflection on Luke 23:1-25, focusing on Jesus’ response to evil in life and death, by Eleanor Clitheroe-Bell

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esus is charged with three political charges: perverting the nation, forbidding the payment of taxes and claiming himself as the prophesied liberator from oppression. In a sense, these accusations are true. › Continue reading

Mission Statements

Transforming whose relationship with Christ? by Dion Oxford

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run into numerous Christian ministries with mission statements that are quite one-sided. Please don’t get me wrong - there are many wonderful, effective ministries around doing what God has called them to do. But I wonder if we evangelicals have missed a very valuable and crucial element of what being in ministry is all about. › Continue reading