One of the old time hymns of David has a line about going to the Temple to fulfill our vows. To me, it is a very important concept of faith formation. I get a good "gut feeling" when in a church even when the sanctuary is empty.
I'm not convinced the problem is man-made. In either case, the lowest cost solution is to build hydro dams and cancel the federal flood insurance program.
". . . found themselves relegated to spiritual grunt work . . . ."
"Spiritual grunt work" is the stuff the true saints of the church do, the stuff the rest of us don't want to do. Anyway, it isn't my place to tell the congregation and the council what I should be doing for them.
So David got it wrong in the 23rd Psalm? This concept is as goofy as "God answers all prayers because "NO" is an answer." Theologically, it gives God a free pass. God tells us that he creates evil so why does "official" Christian theology give God a "get out of jail free" card?
Agree 100% - especially since I became "reformed." If God is the ultimate determiner of regeneration/reprobation then the "Christian" concept of evangelism and some of our prayers is defective. We need to learn the difference between our will and God's. We don't know God's . . . everything that happens is God's will in the long run?
Most Baptist Churches don't have this problems because the NT states someplace that every Christian is supposed to be ready to to explain his faith. Every Elder is expected to be able to give an acceptable sermon.
Anyone who thinks the CRC should grow and/or needs to be reorganized should take a look at Wall Street Journal book review by Michael Shermer of "The Head Game," which begins,"
When President Bill Clinton chose to intervene in the Somali civil war in 1993, the Battle of Mogadishu resulted in thousands of Somali citizens killed, two American Black Hawk helicopters shot down, and the death of 18 U.S. soldiers, several of whose bodies were dragged through the streets of the capital. As a consequence, a year later Mr. Clinton hesitated to intervene in Rwanda despite intelligence before the height of the massacre that Hutu leaders were planning to eliminate all Tutsis. The result was a hemoclysm—a blood flood—of around a million dead. Mr. Clinton said it was one of the worst foreign-policy decisions of his eight years in office.
President Clinton might have benefited from Philip Mudd’s “The HEAD Game,” a book based on a program that the author developed during more than two decades at the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Council. The book title keys off Mr. Mudd’s acronym for his methodology: High Efficiency Analytic Decision-making (HEAD). When faced with an ocean of information or apparently conflicting data, Mr. Mudd says we—presidents, CEOs and the rest of us—need to ask a few fundamental questions. What is the problem? What are your “drivers,” the important characteristics that define your problem? How will you measure performance? What about the data collected in relation to the defined problem? Are you missing important information?"
and ends, "The HEAD Game” is not an academic work: It lacks an index and its bibliography is just a short list of related books. Mr. Mudd himself recommends Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” as the masterpiece in the genre of decision-making psychology. But the author’s many personal experiences in facing real-world threats like al Qaeda terrorists does as much to illuminate the problem of making predictions before the fact as hundreds of academic experiments on undergraduates motivated by little more than beer money. As we face new perils like ISIS, whose explosive growth serves as another example in prediction failure discussed in the book, we would do well to ask the question Mr. Mudd poses to end his book: “Can you please point out an element or two of my analysis that seems weak, or reflects some sort of bias?”
To this, I would add two more statements we all should be willing to make: “I was wrong” and, especially, “I don’t know”."
The reason I prefer a "high" Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic . . . liturgy is they have been around for 100 or so years. They read well, everyone knows what the words and the thoughts behind them mean. I quit saying ad hoc liturgies because I don't always know what they are "getting at" and/or they seem semi-Pelagian at best.
Just met a guy in a store who said what I have been thinking. 60 years ago blue/white collar families were doing just a little better every year and parents expected their children to do even better. It has been two or three decades since most families could say that. The post-WW 2 "middle class" bubble has been popped and will not return unless Jesus returns, we have a shooting revolution, or WW 3. I predict the western nations are regressing to a 19th century social structure and economy.
The statistical "median" person is neo-poor person with a full time low wage job. At the height of the middle class bubble, the median person never was in the social middle class. At least we knew we were working people. Please, someone, show me with statistical data why I am wrong.
I understand the theology and practicality of being a good neighbor. I understand the dispensational/semi-Pelagian theology of missions but disagree with it. I do not understand the Reformed theology of missions. I have no problem with the doctrine of election as long as it not used to define a sub-set of the general population that God can not regenerate.
Posted in: Why Do We Profess Our Faith?
One of the old time hymns of David has a line about going to the Temple to fulfill our vows. To me, it is a very important concept of faith formation. I get a good "gut feeling" when in a church even when the sanctuary is empty.
Posted in: The Climate Witness Project - Christian Reformed Church in North America
I'm not convinced the problem is man-made. In either case, the lowest cost solution is to build hydro dams and cancel the federal flood insurance program.
Posted in: How to Be a Woman in the Evangelical Church
". . . found themselves relegated to spiritual grunt work . . . ."
"Spiritual grunt work" is the stuff the true saints of the church do, the stuff the rest of us don't want to do. Anyway, it isn't my place to tell the congregation and the council what I should be doing for them.
Posted in: Presence or Protection?
So David got it wrong in the 23rd Psalm? This concept is as goofy as "God answers all prayers because "NO" is an answer." Theologically, it gives God a free pass. God tells us that he creates evil so why does "official" Christian theology give God a "get out of jail free" card?
Posted in: Does Academia Act as an Incubator for Faith Struggles?
Agree 100% - especially since I became "reformed." If God is the ultimate determiner of regeneration/reprobation then the "Christian" concept of evangelism and some of our prayers is defective. We need to learn the difference between our will and God's. We don't know God's . . . everything that happens is God's will in the long run?
Posted in: Public Defenders and People With Disabilities
True, but most of the disabilities are self-caused.
Posted in: The 'Reading Sermon'
Most Baptist Churches don't have this problems because the NT states someplace that every Christian is supposed to be ready to to explain his faith. Every Elder is expected to be able to give an acceptable sermon.
Posted in: Is It Time to Rethink Our View of Millennials?
Anyone who thinks the CRC should grow and/or needs to be reorganized should take a look at Wall Street Journal book review by Michael Shermer of "The Head Game," which begins,"
When President Bill Clinton chose to intervene in the Somali civil war in 1993, the Battle of Mogadishu resulted in thousands of Somali citizens killed, two American Black Hawk helicopters shot down, and the death of 18 U.S. soldiers, several of whose bodies were dragged through the streets of the capital. As a consequence, a year later Mr. Clinton hesitated to intervene in Rwanda despite intelligence before the height of the massacre that Hutu leaders were planning to eliminate all Tutsis. The result was a hemoclysm—a blood flood—of around a million dead. Mr. Clinton said it was one of the worst foreign-policy decisions of his eight years in office.
President Clinton might have benefited from Philip Mudd’s “The HEAD Game,” a book based on a program that the author developed during more than two decades at the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Council. The book title keys off Mr. Mudd’s acronym for his methodology: High Efficiency Analytic Decision-making (HEAD). When faced with an ocean of information or apparently conflicting data, Mr. Mudd says we—presidents, CEOs and the rest of us—need to ask a few fundamental questions. What is the problem? What are your “drivers,” the important characteristics that define your problem? How will you measure performance? What about the data collected in relation to the defined problem? Are you missing important information?"
and ends, "The HEAD Game” is not an academic work: It lacks an index and its bibliography is just a short list of related books. Mr. Mudd himself recommends Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” as the masterpiece in the genre of decision-making psychology. But the author’s many personal experiences in facing real-world threats like al Qaeda terrorists does as much to illuminate the problem of making predictions before the fact as hundreds of academic experiments on undergraduates motivated by little more than beer money. As we face new perils like ISIS, whose explosive growth serves as another example in prediction failure discussed in the book, we would do well to ask the question Mr. Mudd poses to end his book: “Can you please point out an element or two of my analysis that seems weak, or reflects some sort of bias?”
To this, I would add two more statements we all should be willing to make: “I was wrong” and, especially, “I don’t know”."
Posted in: Unequally Yoked: What's a Pastor to Do?
In this described circumstance, maybe the "yoke" is the marriage contract. "A deal's a deal."
Posted in: The Evangelical Liturgist
The reason I prefer a "high" Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic . . . liturgy is they have been around for 100 or so years. They read well, everyone knows what the words and the thoughts behind them mean. I quit saying ad hoc liturgies because I don't always know what they are "getting at" and/or they seem semi-Pelagian at best.
Posted in: The Case of the Vanishing Pay Check
Just met a guy in a store who said what I have been thinking. 60 years ago blue/white collar families were doing just a little better every year and parents expected their children to do even better. It has been two or three decades since most families could say that. The post-WW 2 "middle class" bubble has been popped and will not return unless Jesus returns, we have a shooting revolution, or WW 3. I predict the western nations are regressing to a 19th century social structure and economy.
The statistical "median" person is neo-poor person with a full time low wage job. At the height of the middle class bubble, the median person never was in the social middle class. At least we knew we were working people. Please, someone, show me with statistical data why I am wrong.
Posted in: Mind the Gap
I understand the theology and practicality of being a good neighbor. I understand the dispensational/semi-Pelagian theology of missions but disagree with it. I do not understand the Reformed theology of missions. I have no problem with the doctrine of election as long as it not used to define a sub-set of the general population that God can not regenerate.