Cooking with pooh... [pic] Choose your title with care...

Uh, yes.... Just goes to show that you have to be quite selective about book titles - not everyone will think of the same things when they hear the title of this cool little book.

So, any suggestions for the title of my new book on Bede Griffiths' cosmic Christology?

Willow Creek Church repents... We were wrong.

I have visited Willow Creek Church in Chicago. It is impressive in very many ways - it is extremely well matched to its context. In fact, I have enjoyed quite a lot of what has come from that Church, the Willow Creek association, and Bill Hybels himself. I have even had the good fortune of meeting Bill Hybels and spending a bit of time chatting with him.

I am certainly NOT one of those pastors or scholars who believes that nothing good can come from America. Sure, there are a few things about Willow that I think need changing (both in their context, and certainly for ours), but I think that there is a lot that we can learn about being strategic, careful, and deliberate in sharing the Gospel.

However, this remarkable article came into my inbox today... It was quite a challenge to read it. However, on the other hand it also shows me that perhaps there is something more to this Church than just empire building - they have integrity, and the courage to admit where they've made a mistake.

Read it if you get a chance and let me know what your thoughts are:

Few would disagree that Willow Creek Community Church has been one of the most influential churches in America over the last thirty years. Willow, through its association, has promoted a vision of church that is big, programmatic, and comprehensive. This vision has been heavily influenced by the methods of secular business. James Twitchell, in his new book Shopping for God, reports that outside Bill Hybels’ office hangs a poster that says: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value?” Directly or indirectly, this philosophy of ministry—church should be a big box with programs for people at every level of spiritual maturity to consume and engage—has impacted every evangelical church in the country.

So what happens when leaders of Willow Creek stand up and say, “We made a mistake”?

Not long ago Willow released its findings from a multiple year qualitative study of its ministry. Basically, they wanted to know what programs and activities of the church were actually helping people mature spiritually and which were not. The results were published in a book, Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek. Hybels called the findings “earth shaking,” “ground breaking,” and “mind blowing.”

If you’d like to get a synopsis of the research you can watch a video with Greg Hawkins here. And Bill Hybels’ reactions, recorded at last summer’s Leadership Summit, can be seen here. Both videos are worth watching in their entirety, but below are few highlights.

In the Hawkins’ video he says, “Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” This has been Willow’s philosophy of ministry in a nutshell. The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity. In a moment of stinging honesty Hawkins says, “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.”

Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”

Speaking at the Leadership Summit, Hybels summarized the findings this way:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.
Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research “the wake up call” of his adult life.

Hybels confesses:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.

Does this mark the end of Willow’s thirty years of influence over the American church? Not according to Hawkins:

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

Article sent to me by my friend Andrew Franks. It comes from here.

Technorati tags: Willow Creek, Bill Hybels, repent, integrity, growth

Is the extinction of humanity part of God's plan for the evolution of the Cosmos? You and I might be nothing more than a gracious blimp in history...

My friend Gus posed a very interesting question in his blog. He asked : What if this is the only shot at life - ever? This is his post -

Reading some time ago about the amazing co-operation of factors that went together to give us the opportunity at life on earth, I wondered: What if this was the only shot at life ever (for all things living)? What if in the whole universe there was no other planet that produced sentient beings at all? (Which as far as we know is the case...)

Imagine how we would have wasted this opportunity if all we did for all our years was fight with and harm one another?

Here's my response to him:

Hi Gus,

This is a very astute observation! In fact, I think that you're right, this IS the ONLY shot that we have at this KIND of life ever! Now, I'm not talking about a pious afterlife... What I'm talking about is something MUCH MORE RADICAL!

Have you ever considered that perhaps human beings are not the end (the telos) of God's creative activity? Certainly, the God I know does not place humans at the centre of the cosmos - no, he places the Cosmic Christ at the centre of the cosmos. That God even notices us, and even gives us a single shot at life is a gracious miracle.

No, I think that perhaps we are part of what stops the world from reaching the true potential for which God has created it! So, perhaps we need to be made extinct for it to reach that purpose... Maybe not.....

But, the one thing that we need to learn is the WE are not the Alpha and the Omega... We're just a blip somewhere in the middle.

Jumbled thoughts, I know... I did record them much more articulately (and with a little bit of scientific and theological research) in a paper I had published a few years ago.

You can read, and download, the paper here.

It is called a posthuman evolutionary cosmology... I got quite a lot of criticism for it... However, I think the central argument is still quite sound... Christ is the centre, the goal, and the true aim, of the Universe... We are just an expression of God's gracious love along the way.

So, what do you think? This is not exactly the kind of thing you want to preach on a Sunday.... Heck, how 'seeker sensitive' do you think this will be!!? But, it may be something for us to consider in terms of theology, i.e., placing Christ at the centre and moving humans to margins?

Technorati tags: Teilhard, Cosmos, evolution, extinct

Rejected, not because he was missunderstood, but because they were afraid of what they understood! Having the courage to tell it like it is.

So much of the Gospel of Christ has to do with economics. I'm not talking about the thieves who appear on TV telling us that if we give to their ministry, or a particular cause, that we will be healed, or God will prosper us.

No, what I am talking about is God's economy for the world. The word economics comes from the root Greek word, oikonume which means 'the management of a household'. In short, the kind of economics that we find in the Bible is about managing the resources of the whole of God's family so that no one has too much, and no one has too little. It means, in essence, that if you wish to have the freedom to 'have more', then you also need to bear the responsibility of 'doing more' with that freedom. This economy was central to the teaching of Jesus.

Let me say, to others and to myself, a great deal will be expected from the wealthy!

Today in our morning devotions, Andile Sinandile led us in a reading of Luke 4:14-28 which is entitled the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth. Many of us will know the passage well, it tells of how Jesus goes to his 'home Church', the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth, and there he is given the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah to read. He applies the role of the promised Messiah to himself, as one who would bring freedom, healing, deliverance, and economic empowerment. The passage leads the reader through an emotional cycle of rejection... We so often focus on the content and thrust of the ministry of Jesus, but we must remember that in Luke's narrative it aims to show that, AS WELL AS, the reasons why Jesus was rejected by the pious and religious people of his time.

What struck me as I read this text today was that there is a movement that is quite commonly observable in many honest communities:

• It starts out with what I call the 'honeymoon phase' - I have experienced this in many relationships and communities. People are nice, they think that you're the best thing since sliced bread. Sadly, it is often because they don't know the real 'you' yet. In my case it is often because people have heard something about me from elsewhere (perhaps a radio program, an article or a book I wrote, or someone who heard me speak at a Church or gathering). They like THEIR image of who they think I am... But that is not me.
• Next comes the point where 'truth telling' starts. Jesus reads the scriptures, that they had heard read many, many, many, times before. But, he reads them with a freshness of insight and challenge that innitially makes people say "wow, that's different..." This is the start of their discovery of the Truth. Suddenly as the truth dawns upon them, and THEIR image of Jesus (i.e., the son of Joseph) is challenged by the REAL JESUS, they begin to feel uncomfortable...
• Last, there comes the uneasy and difficult step of managing rejection... Of course whilst there will always be people who find the truth unpalatable, there are, also, thankfully those who discover something meaningful, worthwhile, and life changing in the truth.

Don't get me wrong, not every 'prophet' who is rejected by a community is a 'prophet of honour'. Some people do need to be set right, as I have often do. However, the point here is that if like Christ you are living the truth by being in community, as Jesus was in the synagogue (and not a false sense of community that smiles while thinking and saying all sorts of false things), and you're sharing the truth of God's liberating Gospel, as Jesus did from scripture, then don't be afraid to face opposition for the sake of Christ.

Take heart! Fight for the weak, speak up for the silenced, and work for the 'household of God'. I think Jesus was rejected because of his economy, it was not popular for people to hear that they needed to make some changes so that ALL of God's children could share in the love and blessing of God... It is still not a popular message today!

Do you realise (if you read Luke 14:28) that Jesus almost lost his life that day? Way before he was crucified the religious and pious people of his home town almost threw him off a cliff... Real ministry, the kind of ministry that transforms society to reflect the will of God is dangerous! There are those who fear prophets like Jesus - there are those who hate to get to know 'the real you', and would rather throw you off a cliff than encounter the truth.

I have experienced this again today as I received a threatening, and scathing, letter from a vigilant member of our Church (I say, 'our' because we are together in our devotion to Christ). This person does not know me, but he has learned about my desire to have the Church be open, inclusive, and affirmed to all people, the poor, the rich, and what he can't stand, the straight, and the gay...

Perhaps I am misguided, but I am committed to radical Gospel, a Gospel that is life giving, a Gospel of economics, and politics, the Gospel of Christ. It's a dangerous commitment.

Technorati tags: ecnomics, liberation, tough love, Kingdom of God, Jesus, persecution

Common grammatical mistakes that bloggers make - how many do you 'suffer' from?

I found this article quite useful. It's for all us 'wannabe' writers!

Computers and the Internet are revolutionizing the way we create and share information. Through blogs, wikis and social networks, you can reach literally 1.2 billion of people without leaving your room.

That being said, a little attention toward correct spelling and basic grammar rules couldn’t hurt, right? Below you will find some curious, to say the least, errors that we gathered on the Web.

"You are the best mom in the hole world" - Maybe the person lives in a hole or something, but he probably wanted to say the whole world.

"The kid's were very attentive because of the recent tsunami" - The apostrophe has a wide range of uses within the English language, but forming plurals is not one of them. The kids were very attentive.

"you might as well ask if less men enter nursing because there are less men in nursing" - Less men? Fewer men you mean! Less is used for uncountable things, like less sugar or less money. For plural things (countable), you must use fewer, like fewer cars.

"The stock market made further progress forward yesterday" - This one is coming from the New York Times (ouch!). Progress means to move forward or to develop, so “progress forward” is a redundancy, and should be avoided. It’s like to say that something is “absolutely essential…”

"took me around 1 hour and my cell ran out of credit) to resolve some minor (yet presistant) issues" - The issues were persistent, not presistant.

"The company provides solutions in the following specialty areas: information technology, proffesional services and direct hire/search" - This was found on a LinkedIn resume (ouch again!). Not sure how professional the services really are.

"the importance of the Internet and the roll it plays in our everyday lives" - The Internet plays a very important role, not roll, in our lives.

"These could of been handy because it’s easier to look at a more simple, less ‘messy’ theme to understand how…" - These could have been, not could of. Also, if something is “more simple” it is simpler.

"1K should be sufficient for an ernest payment" - Ernest is a male name. The good-faith deposit used in real estate transactions is called earnest payment.

"make sure that each of these templates contain the same XHTML/HTML" - Each refers to singular subjects, and the verb must agree with the subject. Each of these templates contains.

"The nature of his illness had been kept quite and not many of the crew and cast had seen much of him in the intervening time" - The nature of his illness had been kept quiet (not "quite").

"A friend will do whatever they can to lift you up when your down because they don’t like to see there friend hurt" - Friends (not "A friend") will do what ever they can. The pronoun must agree with its antecedent. When you’re (not your) down. To see their (not there) friend.

"he’s alot like a younger version robert horry, same height, long body" - This is a mistake that happens a lot (not alot) around the Internet.

For more great writing tips please see dailywritingtips.com.

Pictures of the funniest blog 'bumper stickers' for your blog!

This has to be one of the coolest things to stick on your blog, a blog bumper sticker! Here are a few that I thought were funny!

Never has a truer word been spoken!

Yikes!

Indeed, one must not allow one's friends to play with Giant Squid!

For all those myspace users... Here's a good one! Come on, admit it, how many of you ONLY have Tom as your myspace friend!?

Here's one for those, who like me, often read the offbeat posts on digg.com!

One for Pete, Wessel and I - the Mac guys!

Could this be one of the reasons why we have so much VIOLENT crime in South Africa?

I'm busy writing a book with Prof Loiuse Kretzschmar and Dr Andre van Niekerk from UNISA. The book is intended to replace the current ethics text "Questions of life".

Andre is a specialist in Moral formation (with a particular interest in the work of van der Ven).

We were discussing the issue of crime in South Africa at a meeting for the editors when our conversation turned to violent crimes (such as the murder of Lucky Dube, and the woman here in Pretoria who was not only robed, but also raped, and then murdered).

I came with the retort that I had blogged the other day, which Wessel rightly asked a few questions about in the comments (see my posts, and Wessel's comments, here). My retort was one that is quite common to 'liberal white South Africans' i.e., that crime is a natural consequence of the aftereffects (and current effects) of racial segregation and deliberate oppression of the majority by the minority.

• Here's the reasoning behind such a statement: Person A is poor because under apartheid he and his family were deliberately denied access to education, certain jobs, and so the ability to earn (via regular means) a decent income. Person A has three children in this example. One of them is sick and needs medical attention. Person A does not have the money to provide for this care.

• Living a few kilometres away is Person B. This person is wealthy (i.e., has a house, two cars, a few television sets, cell phones, clothes etc.) The primary reason for this person's wealth is that he has had access to a good education, which was paid for by his parents. He could go to University (since he was not excluded by his race), but also because his parents could afford to send him to University.

• The reasoning is this, if my child was sick and I could not care for her, yet there was someone nearby who has an excess of possessions, not because they are brighter, better, or any other ontological difference between us, but simply because I was dissenfranchised and he was not, then it may be justified for me to 'relieve' him of a few of his excess possessions (perhaps one of his cars, a TV, and some clothes).

This reasoning seems quite clear, in fact sensible and fair.

However, what Andre reminded of, is that in South Africa we don't suffer from crime, we suffer from violent crime...

He reminded me that there are many other nations with similar problems of wealth and poverty across the world. In fact, there are some with a greater problem - such as India. However, while there is crime in India, it is NOT violent crime. Sure, people are robed, houses are broken into, cars are taken. But, seldom will you hear that a person has been beaten to death for a cell phone, or raped and brutalised for R20.

So, then what's the difference? Well, I think one of the primary differences is that apartheid is still alive and well in South Africa. There is still an underlying mistrust between the races (and this goes both ways, I know black persons who are fanatically racist against whites, Indians, and Coloured South Africans. Of the same goes for whites).

When one objectifies another person it is easy to mistreat and abuse them since they are no longer a parent (as happened with Lucky Dube who was murdered in front of his two teenage children), or a husband, or a wife, or someone's child, or a sister, or a brother. Rather, they are 'white', or 'wealthy', or 'an oppressor', or a 'Tswana', or a 'Nigerian'... The list can go on.

However, there could be another much more subtle reason for violent crime... That is, moral formation.

Moral formation has to do with how we form people to be moral beings i.e., what we say and do to get people to behave in a certain way, and not to behave in another way.

Both black and white South African culture has a problem with the manner in which we discipline people - . It has long been assumed that the only way to get a person 'to behave' is to beat them (either physically, or with your words).

The assumption behind such an approach is simply this: one assumes that a person is BAD and must be MADE GOOD! This is not the way of the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of Christ says that people are created GOOD by a Good God, however, we need to help people to rediscover and develop that goodness that is within them.

This is the conflict between being as primary, and doing as primary.

I watched a foreman speaking to his workers the other day. It was clear that he wanted them to do good work, and when speaking with them he wanted to help them to become good 'workmen'. Yet, his assumption was that he had to shout, criticise, and be hard to get the best out of them.

I often see parents doing the same.

Heck, I am glad that God has a different approach to moral formation... God helps me, and does not harm me, when I am wrong. Thank goodness God does not bully me to goodness!

Maybe we can learn to deal with our children, our staff, our colleagues, and ourselves, a little differently? Maybe, just maybe, that is one thing we could do that would help one less person to think that violence, dominance, and abuse, are acceptable means of getting what one wants in this world.

Technorati tags: violent crime, abuse, moral formation, racism, abuse, good, Christ

Making the most of this day, come what may.

My wife has been facing some challenges at work recently. She works for a public finance company that does work for departments of the South African government. One of their primary tasks is doing skills development and upliftment training for unemployed school leavers, and persons who have been hired into posts but lack the skills to adequately perform the tasks their jobs require. It sounds crazy, but that's a reality. People are hired for many reasons other than competency to do their work. And, let me hasten to add, often these reasons are very good! Of course, at times they are not.

What she does sounds like wonderful work doesn't it? She is in charge of a team of people, managing them, overseeing a number of qualifications and short courses, helping the unemployed, and those we desperately need employment but face the struggle of going to work daily feeling inadequate to do what they have been hired to do.

Sadly though, as with most companies that do work for government departments, payment from the State is slow in coming.

Not only is the system of payment to providers fraught with inefficiency and unnecessary bureaucracy, but there is a great deal of corruption and maladministration in some government departments - this often stops payment completely. It has meant that the company my wife works for has had to wait for payments amounting to millions of Rands, some for up to a year, because the department that was supposed to pay them has had its accounts frozen, or the money that was supposed to be used to pay them has landed up in some government official's private bank account and has been spent, and many other such problems. As anyone who balances their books knows, it is difficult to survive from month to month when you don't have enough money coming in - no matter how much is owing to you! I have often prayed, and wondered, how many good companies have closed down because of poor cash flow? I am praying for their company. They do such good work.

Sadly the reality is that sometimes even the most noble and admirable work can be thwarted by evil and sinful people, and by corrupt and inefficient systems.

So, today she left for work feeling a little downhearted. I offer this prayer for her, and for all others, who face the prospect of this day with uncertainty and struggle, for those who are employed and unhappy, and for those who long to be employed but cannot find any work. For those who desperately need their employment but find themselves out of their depth.

A prayer for this day:

My God, you saw me in my unformed substance and numbered my days before I had lived even a single one of them. Be close to me today, my God, and help me to love you first, and to do my best for you in all that I do. Help me to live freely, and without the restraints of this world and my circumstances. Give me the assurance that ultimately you are in control of my life, and that there is nothing that I shall face this day that you cannot help me to deal with. And so, help me to approach all people, and all situations, with the love and openness that only you can give. Let me manage all my affairs in accordance with your will so that when I stand to give an account of this day, I may do so with confidence, and not be ashamed. In the name of Christ, the servant and the savior, I pray. Amen.

Here is something to consider:

"There is a two way relationship between prayer and life. Prayer can be seen as the focusing and redirecting of an attitude to God and to our fellow [human beings] that runs through all that we do. On the other hand we can see our daily life as something which prayer purifies, directs and consecrates. This interrelationship of prayer and life was expressed by William Temple in his well know saying "It is not that conduct is the end of life and worship helps it but that worship is the end of life and conducts tests it." Temple is here using worship in a brad sense to include all of life. For in worship, as the derivation of the work from worth implies, we declare what we value most. If in prayer I declare that I value God above all things and in my life I show that my own selfish interests come first I am making a nonsense of my praying. We declare how we value God as much by our actions, by the way we treat other people, by the manner in which we do our work, as by anything we say. If my actions are wrong or wrongly motivated prayer cannot make them right. If however, despite my failures and inconsistencies, I do on the whole want to put God above all things then prayer will help to purify my motives and clarify my judgment."

-- From The river within by Christopher Bryant

Scripture verse for today:

Col 3:23-24 (NIV) Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Drop me a line and let me know if I can pray for you.

Technorati tags: prayer, work finance, encouragement, strength, government, South Africa

The ALL NEW England Rugby jersey - look closely! It's a wonderful redesign.

This is a radical new design for the England Rugby jersey after their defeat in the final against South Africa.

This comes from: my digital life

A Philadelphia woman gets raped twice, once by a man at gunpoint, then by the American justice system.

The following bizarre story comes from the Philadelphia news. A woman sex worker was raped by a man at gunpoint who forced her to have sex with him and three other men. When the matter was taken to court the Judge dropped the charges of rape and held the man on the lesser charge of "theft of services." Sounds like another case of injustice to me!

What on earth is the world coming to!?

Technorati tags: rape, sex worker, Philladelphia, injustice

$5 Million as a prize - I think it is worth it! Just consider the alternative.

Today it was reported that former Mozambican President, Joaquim Chissano, was awarded the Mo Ibrahim prize for excellence in leadership for an African statesman. The prize money amounts to $US5 Million.

At first I thought, heck $5 Million US, that's about as much as some of the poorer African nations whole budget! But then I thought, well, what is the alternative?

If one were to do an estimate of how much money Robert Mogabe has pillaged from the poor of Zimbabwe I'm sure that it would be a heck of a lot more!

I say well done to Mr Chissano, and well done to the generous benefactor, Mo Ibrahim. May we see many, many more examples of good, honest, integral, African leadership. We are NOT a corrupt continent, we are NOT doomed to poverty and subservience. We are African. We can teach the world another way to live.

Go to the BBC website for full coverage of this story.

What are your thoughts and comments?

Technorati tags: prize, African leader, Joaquim Chissano/a>, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe

What to do if your paper / report / portfolio / presentation exceeds the maximum limit.

Being of the verbose persuasion - as you may have been able to ascertain from my constant nonsensical posts to this blog... I have found on more than one occasion that my work exceeds the maximum number of pages, or words, allowable for publication. I have a paper that is currently under review, which I KNOW is going to be returned to be edited back to the word limit (hopefully for inclusion in a journal).

My doctoral Thesis was about 160 pages longer than most, my Theology masters was about 20 pages too long - and that excludes endnotes and glossaries and the bibliography... Heck, I like to write!

However, that is a problem, when like me, you are needing to develop that all important publications list!!!

So, here's some advice from our friends at PhD (a.k.a. Piled higher and Deeper) for getting your paper or thesis into the allowable word limit:

From PHDcomics.com

Technorati tags: Publish, Journal, word limit, doctorate, PhD, fix