While theologians debate whether or not the practice of tithing - donating ten percent (or more) of one's income to churches and charitable groups - is a biblical responsibility of Christians, Americans have pretty much made up their minds on the subject. Their views are discernible through their behavior.
Do you ever find that you're trusting in yourself or what you have – your talent, youth, diligence, discipline, wit, bank account? Learning to trust in the Giver, not His good gifts, is a lesson on which I’ve been forced to focus this past year. And it was this lesson that came to mind as I read an article in today’s Washington Post about local preachers’ struggle “to make the centuries-old story of the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ relevant to today’s worshipers.”
Hundreds of ministers in the Washington region will face packed churches tonight when they preach one of their most important, and challenging, sermons of the year as Christians gather to celebrate Christmas.
With high-flown rhetoric or plain-spoken bluntness, brevity or long-winded oratory, ministers will try to make the centuries-old story of the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ relevant to today’s worshipers.
It’s not easy, ministers say.
I wonder whether some of these ministers, perhaps caught up in the pressure of the moment, are trusting too much in their God-given intelligence, humor, cleverness or oratorical skills? I wonder whether they might find preaching on Christmas Eve less of a struggle if they looked to Saint Paul as an example?
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).
"I don't know what you feel about the prosperity gospel . . . but I'll tell you what I feel about it: hatred." - John Piper
Click here to see a three-minute clip from a sermon by John Piper, in which he shares the truth about the prosperity gospel.
HT: Desiring God
An opinion piece in yesterday’s Washington Post highlights the affordable-housing crisis in the DC area, reminding us how important it is for the Church to provide sufficient material support to those who live a life of service in the nonprofit sector.
In the Washington region – the 10th-most expensive metropolitan area in the country, according to the [National Low Income Housing Coalition] – the affordable-housing problem has reached crisis levels.
[For example, in] Arlington County, the amount of affordable housing declined by more than 50 percent from 2000 and 2005, with nearly 9,900 rental units becoming unattainable for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area’s median income. Furthermore, since November 2004, owners of more than 2,200 rental units in Arlington have begun converting them to high-end condominiums and townhouses.
Keith Plummer offers an interesting perspective on the American evangelical “impulse to stamp a Scripture verse on every imaginable object.”
In large part we have an anemic doctrine of creation. Our conviction that God is the maker of heaven and earth should be evidenced in more ways than ongoing debates with evolutionists. Certainly, there’s a need for such apologetic activity but the doctrine of creation, like all biblical doctrines, is not given primarily for the purpose of our defending it but for our living it.
How do we live the doctrine of creation? By affirming along with God that his creation, though cursed on account of humanity’s rebellion, is still good and is given to us to richly enjoy with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4; 6:17). As Michael Wittmer says in his book, Heaven is a Place on Earth:
Because we know that this creation is the good gift of God, we are not only permitted but encouraged to enjoy it as is. Unlike those who think that worldly objects are somehow enhanced by stamping Scripture verses on them, Christians who understand the goodness of this world celebrate the freedom to enjoy God’s creation as is. We no longer need to sanitize secular items with our sanctified slogans to make them suitable for Christian consumption....In fact, our feeble attempts at baptizing creation tend to cheapen both it and the gospel (p. 66-67).
If believers really grasped this, many Christian businesses would go belly up and perhaps Christian “bookstores” would become bookstores again.
(HT: JollyBlogger)
The Orlando Sentinel had a story yesterday about Stevens Creek Community Church in Augusta, Georgia, where “God takes credit cards. Debit cards, too.”
Two “giving kiosks” sit just outside the church’s chapel, next-generation collection plates that allow churchgoers to swipe their credit or debit cards and instantly send donations to the church. . . . Pastor Marty Baker has renamed the black terminals “automatic tithe machines.” “We’re just trying to connect with the culture,” Baker says. “And that’s how the culture does business. It’s more than an ATM for Jesus. It’s about erasing barriers.”
The giving kiosks do seem to have erased some barriers to giving. Since their installation in early 2005, Stevens Creek has experienced an 18% increase in donations. And they are, in some sense, helping the church “connect with the culture.” One woman “says she knew the church was the right fit for her the first time she saw the kiosks. ‘This church gets how I live,’ she says.”
As a Christian committed to helping others understand the joy of giving, I’m intrigued by Pastor Baker’s success in leading his flock to a higher plane of generosity. As a Christian trying to help the Church and the wider society understand each other, I’m encouraged that Stevens Creek is looking for ways to connect with the culture. Yet, I wonder whether there is reason for the Christian mind to be concerned with Pastor Baker’s giving kiosks.
Servants Quarters 2007 is in full swing. We convened last night for the third time to continue our year-long dialogue exploring the implications of biblical stewardship principles for living in a culture captive to materialistic ideals. During this latest gathering, we planned to discuss the worldview perspectives reflected in a specific product of American culture: the critically-acclaimed and highly popular film, The Shawshank Redemption. God had other plans.
I hope and trust we were following His lead, as we shelved our Shawshank examination in favor of a spirited discussion concerning the crisis facing The Episcopal Church (TEC). In particular, we explored what it means for The Falls Church (and other parishes who only recently disaffiliated from TEC) to be wise and faithful stewards of the property with which they have been blessed – as the Diocese of Virginia and TEC press headlong into litigation aimed at reclaiming that property.
Given the dynamic and volatile nature of the situation, I abstain, at this time, from sharing my specific thoughts on the matter. What I will say is that we are striving to approach the situation with not just a Christian ethic and Christian spirituality (which no doubt are important) but also a Christian mind. We are striving to help each other “think christianly” – “to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man’s eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? p.44). We are striving to “set[ ] all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, . . . see[ing] all things here below in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell” (id. at 4). In one sense, that’s the primary business of Servants Quarters.
Because of that fruitful detour, we’ve decided to hold our Shawshank discussion here in this forum. All are welcome to pose questions, share observations or take issue with what I’ve written previously. (In short, I observed that (1) Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) reflected in important ways the biblical notion of how important it is to maintain an eternal perspective, while living here and now; and (2) the redemption of Andy’s best friend, Red Redding (Morgan Freeman), was suggestive of a Christian-like process of repentance.)
If you prefer specific to open-ended questions, let’s begin the discussion with the subject of beauty. What is attractive in the film? What people, places, behavior or ideas? To whom? How is it made attractive?