The Arrogance and Impatience of Church Planters

 

How slowing down helps us start stronger churches.

 

I met with a pastor of a large and influential church with the hopes of engaging him in a church planting movement for our city. Over lunch, his observation about church planters surprised me, "I find that most church planters are characterized by two things: arrogance and impatience."

He quickly added, "And I guess I should not be surprised at that. Who else believes that he can gather disinterested people, lead them to a new life in Christ and help them embrace a mission to change the world with little or no physical resources?"

I think the second comment was his way of trying to diffuse some of the tension in the room. After all, I am a church planter—you know, arrogant and impatient. But he was right about church planters, and that is deadly.

The future of church planting requires a commitment to weed out arrogance and impatience in the men who plant churches. A church might get started with an arrogant and impatient leader, but it will not grow healthy with such a leader.

In the church planting movement, we must address arrogance and impatience with thorough assessment, training, and coaching. It's a slower process, but it's better.

The Scary Truth About Christian Giving

 

 We need to be more ruthless about ridding ourselves of surplus wealth.

The Bible gives a two-sided portrayal of wealth: It is good, but it can seduce us into sin. The solution, according to New Testament scholar Craig L. Blomberg, is to freely share it. In Christians in an Age of Wealth: A Biblical Theology of Stewardship (Zondervan), Blomberg, who teaches at Denver Seminary, argues that sacrificial giving is an essential part of good stewardship. He spoke with CT editor at large Rob Moll about our spending patterns and whether Christians are required to tithe.

If, as you argue, Christians are no longer bound by the Old Testament principle of tithing, what's so bad about low rates of giving?

Over the past 40 years, self-identified evangelicals have given between 2 and 3 percent of their incomes to churches and Christian organizations. Stewardship is a crucial part of the Christian life, and according to these figures, it is sadly lacking.

Now, on any topic, we have to filter the Old Testament through the grid of Jesus' and the apostles' teaching. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that they neglect the weightier things of the law, though they did tithe. This is often cited to claim that Jesus still promoted tithing. Yes, he did—for Jews still under the Mosaic Law.

Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu Says He Would Choose Hell Over 'Homophobic' Heaven

Speaking recently at the United Nation's launch of its "Free & Equal" campaign to promote fair treatment of LGBT persons, former archbishop and South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu declared that the issue was so close to his heart that he "would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven" and instead choose "the other place."

The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the South African Anglican Church and South African Council of Churches made the remarks last Friday, July 26, during the press event in his home country, where same-sex marriage is legal but where views remain antagonistic toward homosexuals.

Calling for greater protections for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons, Archbishop Emeritus Tutu, 81, said, "I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place."

He added, "I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

Church and State (Dept.): John Kerry Gets New Adviser for Religion

 
if Secretary of State John Kerry were heading to college today, he'd study comparative religion. "That's how integrated it is [into] everything," he remarked in August.

Redoing college isn't an option for Kerry, who studied political science at Yale. But he's serious about religion. Kerry didn't waste any time launching the State Department's faith-based initiatives office just months into his appointment. To lead the office, Kerry selected his friend Shaun Casey, a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary.

"My understanding is, in that first meeting, Kerry leaned over to a staff member and said, 'Let's get Shaun in here,' " said Casey, who grew up in the Church of Christ and previously coordinated evangelical outreach for President Obama.

Appointed through the end of Obama's term, Casey will be the first adviser to the secretary of state on the religious dimension of foreign affairs. He told ct that his new office will advise the secretary, help diplomats engage people of various religions, and teach faith-based groups to bring their views to bear on U.S. foreign policy.

Diverse groups from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to the International Religious Freedom Roundtable have been suggesting such an office for years. In 2012, a white paper from the Interagency Working Group on Religion and Global Affairs made recommendations that appear to have been used as a blueprint for the office.

Raising Christian Kids in a Sex-Filled Culture

In a recent article, Catholic dad and blogger Raylan Alleman lists reason after reason "to NOT send your daughter to college." As a way to counter the evils of feminism that have invaded our society, Alleman advocates forbidding our daughters from attending college, and instead encourages them to learn through libraries and the Internet.

"We are NOT saying that sending a girl to college or women working is a sin," he writes. "But after looking at the issues we raise, we would challenge anyone to convince us that college for girls is not a near occasion of sin."

It's easy to poke holes in his myopic position; plenty have. For the record, I thoroughly disagree with him. I'd like to consider his argument that college is a dangerous place for young women because of its "near occasion of sin," particularly sexual sin.

Surely Jesus put himself and his disciples in a "near occasion of sin" when hanging out with prostitutes and sinners. Sending our daughters out the door at all, and even welcoming others into our home, is potentially placing them in "a near occasion" to sexual sin and the effects of sexual sin all prior to college.

While I can leverage a modicum of control over what my girls see and hear in our home, I cannot control what other children are exposed to or the images that will shape their brains and behavior. Children can recite hyper-sexualized song lyrics, rehearse sexually explicit film dialogue, and even swap porn back and forth like trading cards via social media and their smart phones.

Things Broke People Do

For the longest time i wondered why God allowed me—and my family—to go broke. After so many cries for rescue, after so many laments, after so many opportunities where God could've "fixed" our financial crisis easily, but didn't, I wondered what he was up to. Wondered why he wasn't "blessing" us with financial abundance the way he had in the past.

At long last, I figured maybe God was actually blessing us with a time in relative poverty. That maybe, God allowed us to linger in financial desperation so that we might learn something life-changing through a time of total and utter dependence on him. That maybe learning what it is to lean on God and God's people, to fully understand the beauty of asking for and receiving daily bread would be a bigger blessing than some zeroes on a savings account.

But I was wrong. At least, according to a post on Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey's site. Based on that advice, we went broke—from rich to poor—because I wasn't forcing my children to read at least two non-fiction books a month… or following those 19 other things Rich People Do Every Day that Poor People Don't.

If this is true, it makes total sense why I'm no longer rich: I may have spent two hours last night in bed with Jane Eyre, but since I did not spend 30 minutes reading something career-related, I have no hope. It doesn't help that I choose NPR over audio books or that I usually speak what's on my mind. You know, like we broke people do.

Quenching Russia's Drinking Problem

The death toll was seven: a teacher, her husband, and five orphans with disabilities. They were returning home from a crafts fair last September when a drunk driver, traveling 125 miles per hour through the streets of Moscow, plowed into them as they waited at a bus stop.

Following his arrest, 29-year-old Alexander Maximov, who had been drinking for two days straight and had landed a DUI arrest two years prior, told investigators, "I always do what I want."

Under current law, a drunk driver will spend less than 10 years behind bars if convicted of manslaughter. But the public outcry after the accident caused lawmakers to call for life imprisonment as a maximum punishment when fatal car crashes are fueled by intoxication.

The national tragedy also stirred soul-searching among pastors, priests, and other Christian leaders. Could the church help solve the country's addiction to alcohol?

Europe has the world's highest rate of alcohol consumption. But Russia's consumption rate of 15.8 liters (or about 4 gallons) of pure ethyl alcohol per capita annually is even higher. It is exceeded in Europe only by Moldova (18.2), the Czech Republic (16.5), and Hungary (16.3). Working-age men are Russia's heaviest drinkers, consuming the equivalent of 155 half-liter bottles (or about 20 gallons) of vodka yearly on average.

Russia's drinking problem affects every facet of national life. There's the sheer fact of 30,000 deaths each year from alcohol poisoning. Russian moonshine, called samogon, as well as "surrogate alcohols" like antifreeze, perfume, and cleaning solutions, play a large role in alcohol-related deaths.