Liam's cool boat!

Lent - the importance of Easter in the Christian faith

As I'm going through Lent, and preparing for Easter, I have been reflecting on the importance of this feast in the Christian tradition. Somehow in the West we place more emphasis on Christmas - perhaps it is because we're so self centered and are caught up in the reward and response of giving and receiving gifts!

This quote reminded me how important Easter has been for all of Christian history:

Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins. We shouldn’t allow the secular world, with its schedules and habits and parareligious events, its cute Easter bunnies, to blow us off course. This is our greatest day. We should put the flags out.

- N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope (via @invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog)

May the Lord richly bless us as we prepare to celebrate the significance of God's generous gift in Christ.

Rob Bell - Love Wins

I picked up my copy of 'Love Wins' after I saw a young friend, Ryan Vermooten, reading it when I visited LA last week. Ryan is extremely contrarian. He has dreadlocks, multiple piercings and both his arms are works of contemporary art - I love looking at his tattoos! But, Ryan is passionate about Christ and the ways of Christ. He is doing his DTS (discipleship training school) with YWAM (Youth With a Mission - an international evangelical mission agency). In fact as I write this he is serving on a mission in Haiti - that's deep, sincere, Christ-like, commitment!

Perhaps, Ryan is the kind of person for whom 'Love Wins' was written? I have encountered many young people who are passionate about Christ and the ways of Christ, yet they are less passionate about the narrow theology and approach of traditional evangelical Christianity (particularly as it is expressed in the Western world).

Please take a few minutes to read Ryan's perspective on 'Love wins' here. It sat next to him as he typed this... It is awesome to see a person who loves Jesus think so deeply and critically about our faith, the contemporary debates within the faith, and about ways in which we cultivate an authentic witness to the person of Christ!

I will start reading the book this weekend and then let you know what I think about it. The review below has been quite helpful in framing my approach to the book.

invisibleforeigner:

I had been eager to pick Love Wins up for while. I’ve read both Velvet Elvis and Sex God, and found both simplistic and boring, but I figured a book about an evangelical universalist understanding of hell might be interesting. Once I got past the strange prose, the book was engaging, and I can see why evangelicals are up in arms about this issue.

Love Wins asks a lot of good questions that evangelicals, at least in my experience, are afraid to ask. As someone who has wrestled with the idea of hell, I found myself sympathizing with Rob Bell’s determination to challenge people who might be too complacent about the existence of hell and the eternal damnation of the people around them. Love Wins is very good at talking about the beauty, glory, and mercy of God. God is radiant in this book, and some of the extended meditations on the overwhelming God has for his creation were heartbreaking, in a good way. His view of creation as a place that reveals and displays the glory of God is a powerful corrective of an unfortunate Christian tendency to treat heaven and hell as distant places in the future, and reminds us that what we do in this world important.

Unfortunately, that’s all I really can say that is positive about Love Wins. I think part of that is because I am not the book’s intended audience. Rob Bell is reaching an audience of evangelicals who are disenchanted with a narrow view of a vicious God who condemns people to hell for no good reason, and I commend him for that. However, this book should be the start of discussion, if we have to talk about it at all. Bell messes up basic elements of theology and church history; he treats people like Origen as venerated mainstream church fathers, when the reality is far more complicated; he misquotes Martin Luther; he assumes the worst of opposing views of hell; he calls other views of salvation tribalistic and narrow-minded; he treats demonstrably poetic language as literally as possible when it suits his purposes.

In the end, he reminds me of a less educated version of N.T. Wright, or even of C.S. Lewis. Lewis writes a powerful rebuttal of a narrow view of hell in The Great Divorce, and yet manages to convey that approaching heaven is a terribly painful process, one that will demand the total casting off of everything we held dear. Love winning in The Great Divorce requires losing ourselves utterly, while in Love Wins it just seems to demand infinite amounts of time. While I’m sympathetic to Bell’s worries about hell, I can’t quite say that I’m convinced. I think he tries too hard to make the Gospel palatable, and sin insignificant.

I know that Bell is writing towards a specific audience of evangelicals, particularly the ones who are bitter towards a God they think is cruel. I think a lot of the people who read this book will be pushed towards a deeper understanding of who God is, what Jesus did, and what salvation and sanctification are all about. I know that this book should be taken as an introduction to people who have no idea about the depths of Christianity, and the best case scenario will be that this book will cause people to seek out people like N.T. Wright, and hopefully continue on to reading church fathers like St. Athanasius.

However, I also know that there will be people for whom this book is the last word. Instead of freeing Christians to explore the depth and breath of God’s faithfulness and their faith in full, this book could be the end of the questioning for some. For that reason, I found the book shamefully lacking. Other elements of Christian thought, such as the concept of realized eschatology, which both John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas write extensively about, would have strengthened Bell’s argument, and would have been far more convincing than platitudes about how a God that damns his creation to hell cannot be loving and glorious. The Eastern Orthodox understanding of theosis and the impassibility of God would have been a welcome addition to a text that is sorely in need of depth.

In the end, I hope that this book allows people to seek out what makes Christianity great. I hope people find Jesus in these pages, but I don’t think I did.

If you've read the book I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Update on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 10:23AM by Prof Dion Forster

A great, thought provoking, post by Scott McKnight on 'Love Wins'.  Gives an entirely different perspective by just pulling us back a step or two!

His point, which I had not considered (and I ask myself why not!) is that every congregation (denomination, Bible study, Christian community) shares an eschatology and a sotergiology (i.e., a perspective on the doctrine of salvation and a perspective on the afterlife). We hear it in sermons, pick it up in our liturgies, worship songs, and even in conversation between members.  Most of us unknowingly hold a 'grace filled' perspective that 'feels' that it is right that God is gracious enough to love everyone, even those who have no access to the Gospel (e.g., the population of North Korea that is largey cut of in their entirety from the Gospel of Christ - God must have a plan for them!  We cannot simply assume that because they live under a dictator that they are 'damned to hell'! Or can we?)

Very challenging thought!  Read Scot's post and let me know what your thoughts are.

Update on Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 7:24PM by Prof Dion Forster

So, I'm reading 'Love Wins' and enjoying it so much!  It is not a systematic theology, or a technical Biblical investigation...  It is a great sermon, in that great way in which Rob Bell thinks and speaks! 

Sure, there are some elements that I take with a pinch of salt. However, what I am loving about this book is that it emphasises the importance of the world NOW!  Far too much of contemporary Western Christianity (and so also the Christianity that dominates the media) is obsessed with a form a neo-Gnostic, world escaping, life avoiding, 'other-wordly' theology.

Indeed, while Rob Bell preaches a good sermon, NT Wright write a far better theological text along similar lines.  I read 'Suprised by Hope' about a year ago (I received it from SPCK in lue of payment for a chapter I wrote for one of their books (See the details of that book here, and the book itself here: ISG 44: Church Communities Confronting HIV/AIDS (International Study Guide (ISG)).  Instead of taking money I asked to get some books, and this was one of them).

The following quote seems to resonate quite strongly with the point that Rob Bell makes so convincingly and passionately in 'Love Wins':

As long as we see salvation in terms of going to heaven when we die, the main work of the church is bound to be seen in terms of saving souls for that future. But when we see salvation, as the New Testament sees it, in terms of God’s promised new heavens and new earth and of our promised resurrection to share in that new and gloriously embodied reality - what I have called life after life after death - then the main work of the church here and now demands to be rethought in consequence.

- N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope (via @invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog)

You can get the book here

The body of Christ

I'm reading Hauerwas, Yoder and Cavanaugh...

The task of the church in the temporal is to embody what Christ has already accomplished in history by remembering his broken and victorious body. Christ’s victory is already won, and the Kingdom is to have transformative effects on Christian practice in history. The task of the church is to live as if this is the case, until Christ comes again and fully consummates his reign.

— William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist(via @invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog.

And it is good...

I would suggest that you follow invisibleforeigner's tumblr blog. It has been such a great blessing to me to read the quotes, thoughts and ideas on it, many of which you will see on my blog. Thanks!

Back to Cape Town - 27 March 2011

Our time in the US ended on a high note - the two day conference on our book, 'Transform your work Life' and our Unashamedly Ethical campaign went off extremely well. Both Graham and I were well received by the 180 people in attendance, we ended the weekend with the establishment of a UE community in Palos Verdes and another in Hollywood. We also had close to 90 persons commit themselves to the Unashamedly Ethics commitment to ethics in personal and business life.

LA was wonderful! It is such beautiful place, and our hosts, Dave and Kristen Wendorff were just wonderful. I feel that I have made friends in them that will last me a lifetime!

I am truly grateful for your prayers, the Lord blessed us in so many ways. I look forward to being back in the USA in June. But for now I cannot wait to get home! Our flight goes from LA to Washington (5 hours), then Washington to Johannesburg (via Dakar, which is 16.5 hours) and then Johannesburg to Cape Town (which is another 2 hours). Together with the airport lay overs it is almost 2 days in transit, but for the joy of being with the wonderful friends in Jacksonville, San Francisco, San Jose and LA, AND for the joy of getting home it is worth it! I cannot wait to see Megie, Courtney and Liam! They will collect me at just before 10pm.

Palos Verdes, Los Angeles - 25 and 26 March 2011

Graham and I arrived at LAX airport in Los Angeles on the evening of the 24th of March.  We are staying with our friends Dave and Kristen Wendorff in Rolling Hills (which is in the city of Palos Verdes, California - I guess by South African standards we would say that it is a suburb of Los Angeles).  These are such beautiful, kind people, and their surroundings closely match their wonderful hearts.  It is truly lovely to be among such sincere, loving, and dedicated Christians!

Dave is a property developer (like Graham) - he has had a great deal of success in that field.  However, what is truly significant is that he has seen his business as an opportunity to bless the people of the city, to develop infrastructure to support transformation in society so that the 'good news' may be experienced wherever he has been busy.  So, he prays for his staff, his clients, and even the land on which he is building homes.  It is fantastic to be with Dave and his family!  We hosted their eldes son, Nathan, in South Africa last year.  And their daughter Louisa will be with us a little later this month.  Here we are with some friends from elsewhere in Californa, and our friend Larry Ihle from Minnesota having breakfast.

We are speaking at a 2 day conference on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life at the Rolling Hills Covenant Church.  It is a remarkable Church (which has a South African, Matthew Kennedy, who is the worship pastor!)  We are being hosted by our friend Joy Handley who is the president of Asia Access (a missions organisation that works in Japan).  He was in Japan at the time of the earthquakes last week and share some remarkable insights on how things are going there after the Tsunami.  He and his organisation are doing truly wonderful work!  Then the local pastor is Dr Andy Noch - we have had a great connection.  This is a special guy in an awesome Church.

Today we continue to share on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life - there are about 180 men at this men's conference.  Yesterday we also had a special luncheon with some business leaders and their wives at a beautiful country club (I have no idea what the place was called!) and some meetings with David Wood and his team from Hollywood who are running a Global Day of Prayer event there.  

Today is our last day in LA - we start our long journey home early tomorrow morning (LAX to Washington, Washington to Dakar, Dakar to JHB, JHB to Cape Town).  It will take 2 days to get home, but I can't wait to be home with Courtney, Megie and Liam!

Thanks for your prayers for all of us!  I am so pleased to tell you that Liam has recovered from his tonsillitis and the whole family are doing great!  We skype each other every day / morning (when I wake up at 6am it is 4pm back home - so the timing works quite well!)

This has been such a wonderful trip!  I know that the Lord has done some wonderful work in the lives of the people that we have had the joy of meeting and sharing with. It is always humbling to be encounter people who are doing such wonderful things, sometimes they just need a little encouragement to seek obedience to God, connection with the challenges the world faces, and one or two ideas for doing ministry for transformation.

A visual illustration of transformation

I am often asked if it is possible for an individual to truly make a difference in the face of the massive needs and problems that we face in the world? The answer is, yes!  Of course you can make a difference - you may be surprised how just a few small choices, acts of mercy, and choices for ethics, justice and peace could transform the world!

This wonderful little video shows how something small can make a massive change.  I often use this video in my talks to illustrate that when one does good and it reaches a tipping point it can change the world.

Isn't this an awesome visual illustration of how small actions of courage can have massive effects on the world?

Leaving San Francisco for LA

This picture shows the view from our friends Brett and Lyn Johnson's home - if you look carefully you can see the Apple headquarters (1 Infinite loop, Cupertino) and the Google headquarters in the valley. San Jose is a beautiful place!  It was quite cold up there.

Brett runs a company called Rep (short for repurpose).  He is a Chartered Accountant (I think it is called a CPA in the US).  He has a very keen understanding of the nuts and bolts of business.  He helps individuals and companies to repurpose what they do for greater significance and in order to achieve God's aims of transformation in society.  He is an incredible teacher!  You can see more about his organisation (which works with many of the tech companies in silicon valley, including Apple and Google) here.  Brett very kindly wrote an endorsement for my book 'Transform your work life' when it was published in May last year. When I was writing the book he offered some great technical and theological insights and even reviewed one of the critical chapters!  He is a good friend.

In this picture Brett is teaching one of his groups of business people on the relationsihp between faith and Capital (i.e., finance and human capital).  It was an awesome evening.  Graham and I got to share with the group.

Here's the original post:

We're sitting in San Jose airport about to fly to Los Angeles. Our time with Brett and Lyn Johnson and the Rep (Repurpose) team here was awesome!

It was fantastic to connect with our friends and I learned such a great deal about repurposing business for purpose, and of course the purpose of business should be to work together with God to transform and bless society.

I don't have much Internet access so I will have to write a more detailed reflection when I have more time.

I'm excited about the 2 day Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life conference Graham and I will be speaking at in Rolling Hills, LA.

We also had a chance to do some sight seeing.  Here's a picture of Graham and I at the Golden Gate Bridge.  I just love San Francisco!  It is an incredible city!  I need to visit here again!

San Francisco - 23 March 2011

It was an early start today - 3.15 am wakeup call so that we could leave for the airport at 4.00 am to fly to San Francisco (via Houston at 6 am).

Our time in Jacksonville ended on a great note last night. Before departing South Africa I had been contacted by a member of the 'Sister Cities' organization to say that Jacksonville is a sister city to Port Elizabeth (also known as the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan). Since we (The Power Group) have offices in Port Elizabeth they wanted to host a reception where Graham was to speak, share some greetings, and we were to hear of the work that the sister cities project are doing. I say that it was a highlight since I left the reception with such a sense of encouragement at the goodness of people - we were met by a group of about 10 persons (about a third of the Jacksonville sister city committee). They told us of the work they are doing in establishing a primary health care clinic in a township of Port Elizabeth. I thought to my self how magnificent it is that ordinary persons would give up their time, energy, and finance, to create awareness and raise funds to better then lives of others half way across the world!

Indeed, God has created humanity to be good - these kind people were a wonderful reminder of that fact! I spoke very briefly at the reception about the suffering that is experienced by persons who are HIV+, and the high infection and mortality rate that is a reality in the Eastern Cape. As you would know I have such a passion for raising awareness of our global responsibility to care for persons who are infected, or affected, by HIV and AIDS. I shared some statistics from my book "Christians and Positive: Reflections on Christianity in an HIV+ world", and encouraged the Sister Cities in their great work.

I have been living for Micah 6.8 for some days: "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God". In particular the injunction to "love mercy" (and I guess that would extend to acts of mercy and merciful people) has resonated strongly in my heart.

Jacksonville is blessed with many people who are committed to tangible expressions of the good news of God's Kingdom! Fr Peter Church, Charley Christie, Jim Young, Bp Vaughan Mclaughlin, the members of the Sister Cities project...

I am looking forward to being back here in June this year! If you would like to join us in the Global Day of Prayer celebration and conference please visit http://www.fcgdop.org for details.

Today we change gears as we join our friend Brett Johnson from 'Repurpose' in San Francisco. The next two days will be spent mainly with business people who are seeking to find ways of repurposing their influence, income and work life for Kingdom directed social and structural transformation. For the Christian business should not be only about making money! There is so much that we can do through our network of relationships, our influence, and even our products or services to see justice, mercy and God's love established in society!

I am particularly excited to visit San Francisco - I have often admired the unique beauty of that city!

Jacksonville - 22 March 2011 - Prayer breakfast and off to San Francisco

This morning we awoke early to get to the 'Potters House' for Graham to speak at the Jacksonville Prayer breakfast.  It was a lovely event with 700 persons in attendance.  The theme of the breakfast was to work together for community transformation.  Jacksonville is a very good example of how Christians can work together to engage the 'systems' and 'structures' of society.  They have engaged local politicians, the Sherif, the schools and various businesses.

It is great to see Christians (and Churches) taking responsibility for the tangible transformation and renewal of their society.

Graham spoke wonderfully about the power of simple choices to live with values and ethics, to stand against corruption, greed and abuse, and to life sacrificially to see God's Kingdom established in tangible ways in society.

We wrap up this evening at a city event - the City of Jacksonville is a sister city to Port Elizabeth in South Africa.  So, Graham, Etienne, Dawie and I have been invited to a banquet to celebrate that partnership and share greetings with some city officials in Jacksonville - today happens to be election day!  So, it is going to be an exciting evening.

We also had 2 hours off yesterday - Graham had to get some clothes sorted out, and so the rest of us headed along to the St John's Apple store!  I saw the iPad 2 in person... It is not enough of an update for me to upgrade (not to mention that my cash flow is WAY too tight), but there is simply not enough of a change for me to part with my 32gig 3G first generation iPad.  But, it was fun to be at the Apple shop - it was SO busy there!

Graham and I head off to San Francisco tomorrow at 4am tomorrow.  We will fly out of Jacksonville at 6am and then to Houston in Texas and arrive in San Francisco by 11.30 am.  Tomorrow evening (Wednesday) we will be speaking at a Christian Business gathering in San Francisco with Brett Johnson.

Please continue to pray for us.

Can I also please ask, very especially, that you pray for my wife Megan and my kids Courtney and Liam in South Africa?  Liam is sick at the moment - he has tonsillitis.  Please pray that he recovers quickly and completely!  It makes it quite difficult for Megie to manage her work, looking after the kids, and taking care of little Liam when he is sick and con not go to school.  Thank you!

Jacksonville - 21 March 2011 - Human rights day

This morning I woke up realy early - I guess that my 'clock' has not yet adjusted to the timezone, and now that the fatigue of our journey has worn off I don't need as much sleep.  So, I came down to the lobby of the hotel (where there is free wifi) and did a facetime call with Megie, Courtney and Liam!)  FaceTime is so cool!  It is much less bandwidt intensive, so the call and video quality are much better than skype.  I use my iPhone 4 and Megie has her Macbook Pro at home.  Being able to do a video call home is just such a blessing when one has small children!

From there I went back to the gym and did a great cardio cycle - I can't loose too much fitness!  I'll be riding the 60km Vigne-a-Vigne mountainbike race when I get back home (it is part of the last stage of the ABSA Cape Epic and is quite a tough ride).  So, I need to keep my weight down (a tough thing in a town that has such great food and big portions!) and my fitness up!

Today is a public holiday in South Africa - human rights day.  It is the 11th anniversary of the very first Global Day of Prayer gathering in Cape Town in 2001.  11 years ago today we met at the Newlands Rugby stadium together with 45 000 other Christians to pray for our city and nation.  Of course, from there it spread throughout the world until in 2009 every nation on earth participated in this prayer gathering (it is now held on Pentecost Sunday) - it is estminated that around 450 million people gathered in homes, Churches, public places (parks, schools and stadiums) across the world.

Human rights day this year has a special focus for me.  I have been thinking a great deal about the 'allied attacks' on Libiya.  I have been thinking and praying about the 'line' that gets crossed when one nation invades another.  I do believe that there must be a time when action is required to end the tyrany of a state or individual.  However, I am not sure when that line should be crossed.  Moreover, I find it extremely difficult that certain nations are left unchallenged (like Zimbabwe and Rober Mugabe), while others (like Libiya and Iraq) are invaded.  The only thing that I can assume is that there are other motives - such as oil, or regional political concerns, that make such action necessary.

Regardless, I shall be praying for the citizens of Libiya, and for those whose task it is to enforce the 'no fly zone' in that region.  May Christ rule in peace, and may that peace come swiftly and effectly without the loss of human life.

Today, here in Jacksonville, we shall be doing a speaking engagement for Unashamedly Ethical with 50 of the top business people in the city.  I am convinced that one cannot end systemic poverty without dealing with systemic corrpuption - that corruption takes on many forms.  In some instances it is structured (collusion, bribery etc.) in other instances it is much more subtle (little dishonest choices, greed, lust and disregard for the rights of others and the will of God).

We shall also have various meetings with the organisers of the First Coast Global Day of Prayer event which will take place in June 2011 - they've been doing wonderful work to date!

Yesterday I attended 3 different Churches - each one unique, special and a blessing.  I went to CrossRoad United Methodist Church, then to Bishop Vaughan's 'Potters House' (a special experince) and finaly to a very contemporary, young 'hipster Christian Church' called Celebration.  Each Church engaged with Kingdom issues and the Gospel in different ways.  The first Church is an affluent, largely white congregation.  The second Church is an African American, Southern Baptist, congregation - one of the candidates for the local Mayoral election was in attendance.  It was refreshing to see how this Church engaged their members, community officials and 'other powers' (such as gang leaders and drug dealers) in their service.  They are truly working for social transformation economic refermotion.  The final Church clearly catered to young, hip, Christians - they were energetic and MANY.  It was very encouraging.

Well, please continue to pray for us!  

Jacksonville 2011 - a beautiful place and wonderful people!

It is Sunday 20 March 2011. In 30 minutes my friend, Jim Young, will be collecting me to go with him to CrossRoad United Methodist Church. It is always such a joy to connect with Methodist sisters and brothers one my travels. The rest of our team are split up to go to other Churches for worship and to speak.

Later in the day we will all gather at the Potters House with Bishop Vaughan - a real Southern Baptist preacher, for some meetings and planning for this week's activities and our Global Day of Prayer conference that will take place here in June (9-12 June). Later in the day we have a luncheon with some church and community leaders and then will do some sight seeing (Fort Caroline?) before a Church service and dinner this evening.

I slept well last night after the long journey from Cape Town (to JHB, to Dakar, to Washington and then here). This morning I woke early and headed to the gym - such a blessing to be able to keep those routines when on the road.

I also managed to call Megie, Courts and Liam (when the time zones are really conflicted I use Skype on my iPhone, with skypeout credit, to call Megie on her cell phone and speak to the kids). I prefer to use FaceTime or skype video, but the difference in time makes it difficult for everyone to be close to a computer and wifi. I am so thankful that I've found free wifi in the hotel lobby!

Well, I'd appreciate your prayers. Today I shall focussing on the topic of serving Christ's Kingdom in the world of work, prayer mobilization and ethics in the workplace.