The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Business Week Online has some fun technology slides shows they feature from time to time. This week they have one on new moblile phones which are coming out. These are not rumored phones, but devices being launched...most in early 06. One of them is 800 bucks - for corporate big dogs with too much cash.
Brett Kunkle at Stand to Reason has pulled together a great listing of summer worldview training for young people in America.
See his link at Stand to Reason Blog: Worldview Training for Youth
Dook goes down again. At home, in JJ's last game, the crazies in Cameron are shut down!
Tarheels Defeat the DookiesMark Driscoll has a good post over at Resurgence on the effect of theologically conservative, gospel preaching, Bible teaching practice in churches.
I concur with him on one major point. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many denominations scampered around to become "more Modernist." In other words, the recrafted their doctrine in the image of the spirit of the age. So they removed all the miracles from the Bible, removed the idea of sin and judgment, and presto, they looked just like the world around them. What was left was simply a form of godliness which denied its power. An empty shell of ritual and ceremony devoid of the gospel which is the power of God for salvation of all who believe.
Today's Emergent crowd is on a familiar path. They cry out like those who came before "The church must change its doctrine/theology to concur with the spirit of the age - lest we die!" Not realizing this is precisely what kills churches. What we need is cultural engagement, winsome evangelism, thoughtful believers who swim in the cultural worlds we inhabit, without swallowing the hook of the philosophy of the age at the expense of gospel Truth
A quick exerpt from the Resurgence Post:
In conclusion, the way out of this sort of mess calls for theologically conservative Bible teaching, real church members actively doing ministry, drifting from national denomination leadership to more local authority, raising up pastors from within, and ignoring the parade of fools who will shrill at such changes.
Now the post does have some of Driscoll's concern with "large churches" - but the rest of the post is very good. To read the whole deal go on over to Resurgence Those Bloody Presbyterians | Resurgence
Many times over the last ten years of Christian ministry I have interacted with this generation over the topic everyone loves today. Reading. In 2000, one young man who went with me to Eastern Europe said:
I don't like reading, becasue that would involve...well, reading.
With a generation coming up that is saturated with media, ingnorant of their own history (both the evil and the good chapters), oblivious to our intellectual heritage, and generally resistance to turning a page, I have made it a prayer and calling to encourage others to read. I wanted to take just a moment and share why I feel reading is so important. Important today, in the 21st century.
The pace our our generation is one on the move. We hop from website (or in my case blog to blog), we surf channels, we function with background music in just about everything we do, we have our own headphones, little kids have little DVD players for the back seat of the car. See this article on the MediaWise Web Site for good reasons to slow down the torrent of media.
And then, we try to read a book. We try to read the Bible. Oh, how we need to turn off, slow down, pause, remove the noise and train ourselves to read. I know the pace of my soul greatly changes when I linger in the Scriptures or a good book. Our brains function differently when reading, and the soul may pause before God. I believe the quietness of reading the Scriptures to be one of the reasons God gave us a book. To speak to us - to have us be still and know he is God.
The ability to construct an argument, to connect thoughts in an order, to persuade, to filter all we hear is a skill which is being lost upon a generation. Reading and following a train of thought can be difficult to do with information flying around us in short sound bites. Reading allows us to follow along with someone who is attempting to make a point; it helps us see when someone makes mistakes or fails to make her case. Reading just makes better thinkers. Some basic understanding of logic (I know there are logic haters abounding today as well) doesn't hurt either.
Language is a gift from a speaking God. We use language because God has given it to us. God himself speaks, so of all people, we ought value language highly. Language has taken a beating over the years, be it from Wittgenstein or Derrida. Yet, it is still the only tool we have. Many are keen to quote the research that 90% of communication is non-verbal. I always find this statistic strange. I believe it accurate - with body language, posture, facial expression, and tone being indespensible for good communication. But that 10% seems to be the most important in the process. I can get by with gestures, facial contortions, but combine all thes with words I think the communication is much more complete. Clear and artful writing needs CPR, no it needs a kiss from God. May we ever take seriously the words we write and read - yes, even in e-mail.
John Piper recently remarked that our age is one which is running to alternative forms of communication (video, etc) and telling a generation that it needs to be spoken to in pictures rather than words. He encouraged all the young people, when they hear this sort of thing, to stand up in protest and say "I'm going to the Library." I agree. Young people, reject the patronizing nonsense that you are idiots who cannot tackle a book. Challenge that in yourself, grab a dictionary, grab a friend who wants to change. Have reading hour in protest of those who would belittle your intellect.
In his introduction to Athanasius' work On the Incarnation, CS Leiws exhorted us in his work On the Incarnation:
The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity ("mere Christianity" as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.
One of the great blessing is to walk with the great minds of the past. I have been so encouraged and blessed by reading Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas. I have been brought up into heavenly visions reading Owen, Bunyan, Edwards, and the letters of Spurgeon. Breathing air from different ages is a pleasant undertaking; don't miss the fresh breezes of history by always chewing on the spirit of the age.
In the 1997 space alien comedy Men in Black (Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith) Agent Kay (Jones' character) makes the following statement:
You will dress only in attire specially sanctioned by M.I.B. special services. You'll conform to the identity we give you. Eat where we tell you. Live where we tell you. From now on, you'll have no identifying marks of any kind. You will not stand out in any way. Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory with anyone you encounter. You are a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu, and dismissed just as quickly. You don't exist. You were never even born. Anonymity is your name, silence is your native tongue. You are no longer part of the system. You are above the system, over it, beyond it. We're "them." We're "they." We are the Men in Black.
Too funny! But there is a truth we must get to as well. Our culture is so addicted to "they say this, they say that." If "they" say something why does this make it true? We need to ask who "they" are - then read what they say. We are all too believing at times of the experts, we must learn to understand what they say and whether it is so. The Bereans could teach us much in our day
Finally, and most importantly, we read to have communion with God. His words must guide us, his truth most be upon us. God has given testimony to himself in many ways; the Scriptures, the Bible, the Good Book, being primary. The Scriptures testify to us as to the nature and will of God, the nature and mission of Jesus, how to walk these roads with him on our way to the celestial city. If reading continues to fall out of repute among the people of God, all manner of error, confusion, false teaching, and hell will be unleashed in our midst.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
O Father, have your children drawn to the Scriptures for their lives and communion with you. And do Lord call us continually to wonderful, God exalting, soul stirring, passion inflaming, service inspiring, suffering sustaining, Christ worshipping books.
Think Secret has a report about a possible next iPod.
Think Secret - Apple thinks big(ger): video iPod to pack 4-inch display HT - EngadgetHow about this for a little weekend project:
Link at Engadget: Man builds 60-foot tower to nab some wireless broadband - Engadget
Field trip to Berkeley to interact with the best of secular thought and Unitarian religion.
Great idea Brett Kunkle, may your tribe increase! Stand to Reason Blog: The Berkeley Mission -- Part 1
Michael Haykin has decided to keep the ALL CAPS TITLES on his blog - See Historia ecclesiastica
He offers an excellent reason (Design. It just looks better. I think I agree) and a fine argument from Gordon Woods who applied net courtesy with more wisdom. All Caps is not a Sin. Plus, he is not writing the titles to or at people - that would be yelling. So, for the sake of design and good looking headers I conceed the point. Just use all caps with wisdom within posts and comments and never all cap anyone in e-mail unless you really want to yell.
Dr. Haykin is no yelling 21st century church historian - he just wants his blog to look cool. And I'm cool with that.
A couple of fun geek pages over at engadet.com
Enjoy
In Leadership Journal, in answering the question "What is the Church for" Brian McLaren makes the following claim:
Most of us have our "theologically correct" answer. The church's purpose is worship, or evangelism, or making disciples, or some combination. But deeper than our conscious answers are our unspoken, unexamined, perhaps even unconscious beliefs—four of which are especially powerful these days:
The church exists to …
- Provide a civil religion for the state
- Preserve and promote certain social values
- Provide a living for religious professionals
- Promote the satisfaction of its members.
It is on this deeper level that the emerging/missional conversation has, in my opinion, the most to offer.
While I happen to agree with many of the things McLaren bemoans in this article (slavery, racism, even some flavor of environment concern - though I would not use the personified language of "care for creation" which he chooses), it is a bit frustrating that he places beliefs in others that they may not hold. In fact, to say others have "subconscious" beliefs about what the church is for, and then to list them is facile and seems to me to be just a rhetorical device.
First, nobody thinks that Christianity is or should be the state religion by talking about a "Christian nation" - we do not have a national state church (though some of the "states" did in the early days). He is right to remind us of some of the evils perpetrated by Christians in America, but I know very few people he could be referring to (I can't think of one right now - maybe some Theonomists in Idaho?) that want an official civil religion.
Second, the church should promote godliness and holiness in its people and should propehtically call the state to justice. This I think I agree with Mr. McLaren.
Why he patronizes "theologoical correctness" I am really not sure. Other than to poke at people who care about having sound doctrine. Yes, we do not all agree on "correct" but we should all care to move towards that reality. There is incorrect theology, we ought to avoid it. This exhoration is repeated over and over in the New Testament.
I guess my overall frustration with the article is why McLaren chooses to interact with the "unstated, unconcious beliefs." This seems to me to only be the creation of a rhetorical world, to create a world in which emergent can play the hero.
My question is why does emergent have "the most to offer." Obviously it is not because it is a better view, or "more correct" - perhaps just because it is in the middle.
Finally, I want to point out how emergent consistenly uses language like "deeper" and "beyond" and "most to offer." One uses metaphors when there is no arguement offered for why a view is "better."
GK Chesterton once remarked about Nietzsche's use of metaphors (ie Beyond Good and Evil - to avoid saying "better" than good and evil) when he wrote:
Had he faced his thought without metaphors, he would have seen that it was nonsense
McLaren does this often. In his powerpoint presentation from the Emergent Convention (which is no longer on his web site as far as I can tell - I have it downloaded though) he calls us to go "beyond" relativism and absolutism. I just don't know what that means. I think Chesterton would call this nonsenese.
Full article is here Underneath the Cosmetics - LeadershipJournal.net
Jeff Hawkins, who gave the world the PalmPilot in 1996 (I had one of those first little gems) and the founder of Handspring (who gave us the Treo) is now on to looking ot produce a computer based upon his theories of brain functioning.
An interview with Hawkins is available on NPR - NPR : PalmPilot Creator Models Computer on Brain.
Hawkins new company, Numenta , has this as their mission:
I try to stay up on the Artificial Intelligence conversation, so I need to pick up this book along with Kurzweil's Singularity (which is on its way in one of those delicious little brown Amazon.com boxes)Numenta is developing a new type of computer memory system modeled after the human neocortex. The applications of this technology are broad and can be applied to solve problems in computer vision, artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning. The Numenta technology, called Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), is based on a theory of the neocortex described in Jeff Hawkins' book entitled On Intelligence (with co-author Sandra Blakeslee).
Just kiidding. I like the Mac. Would get one as my next computer perhaps if it could open and effectively convert all my MS Publisher files. But it is funny that the "PC's are a security hazard, Macs never have viruses" schmack is now not so true. You sell enough boxes, somebody will want to attack and hack them. Really, I do like Apple...Especially iPod.
Link - Macs, Safe No More?I am off to Brown University today to speak to a group of college athletes. My topic for the evening is Living as a Christian Athlete in College. Brown has a fairly new Athletes in Action ministry which has been a privilege to connect with. I was able to speak there in November and I am looking forwarding to seeing the crew again.
A new book is soon to hit the streets following the emergence of the contemporary Intelligent Design Movement.
Looks like one for the wish list
For more info see: Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson And the Intelligent Design Movement edited by William A. Dembski, forward by Rick Santorum,Michael Haykin has a great little post up on Martin Lloyd Jones. Now we just need to get Dr. Haykin to stop YELLING in all of his post titles.
The Wiki of Netiquette states:
Typing in all capital letters usually denotes screaming or yelling.
Here is the link - Historia ecclesiastica: EMINENT CHRISTIANS: 4. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES
Many of us are very familiar with Wikipedia, the Internet Encyclopedia, edited and maintained by some good citizens in cyberspace. Wikis are very common on the net today, and there is a growing Wiki dedicated to the highest of persuits. As a quick aside, the reliability of Wikipedia has been questioned as mistakes can creep in...yet some are saying that on certain topics, Wikipedia does pretty well.
Enter, Theopedia...
Theopedia is an online encyclopedia of Biblical Christianity edited by a group of net users over time. Like any Wiki, it is very much a work in progress, but the intial effort looks very good. I look forward to seeing Theopedia grow and expand over time. As theological astude Theopedians serve up a course of good teaching to the rest of the world, may their goals be realized:
To centralize the efforts of thousands of net-savvy theologians (armchair or professional) into a comprehensive encyclopedia on all things Christian.
.. a missionary, in the fight of faith and labor of love and evangelism. He has minimal resources where he is at, and is overwhelmed with the scattered resources of the internet. But he stumbles upon Theopedia, a great gateway for him for resources and material. He returns to it to grow in his faith. He feeds on it. Imagine this someday!
Imagine some of the people...living for eternity, eeee, yeah,
You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one,
For some day He'll come for us, and his sheeeeep, will live as one.
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John 21:25 ESV
Perhaps some day my keyboard will be allied with the task of Theopedia. Perhaps some day.
A great article has been posted to Christianity Today about the missionary efforts of the South Korean church. See Missions Incredible - Christianity Today Magazine. The article is a fascinating look at the nature of missionary sending churches from Korea as well as other parts of the world. Most of the essay is about the efforst of Korea, highlighted by the labors of Samuel Kang, a long time church planter in Africa, who currently serves as chief executive director of the Korean World Mission Association and dean of the Graduate School of World Mission at Seoul's influential Chongshin University.
A few quotes from the article I found interesting
Another advantage is the evangelistic zeal typical of the majority-world church, a zeal that has been fundamental to majority-world missionary growth. In 1973, CT reported there were at least 3,411 non-Western, crosscultural missionaries in the world. That number has now exploded to 103,000, according to reliable estimates, though figures are difficult to determine in the majority world. That total nearly equals the number of U.S. and Canadian Protestant mission personnel, which stands at about 112,000. As the Western mission movement matures and slows down, majority-world missions are expanding. South Korea sends more than 1,100 new missionaries annually. That means Korea alone sends out as many new missionaries each year as all of the countries of the West combined. This rocketing rate of growth is historic. When Kang returned to his home in 1991, South Korea had sent more than 1,200 missionaries, up from 80 just 11 years before. Today, almost 13,000 South Koreans are serving as longterm missionaries in countries around the world.
The dreams are wide in scope and very strategic. The Asian church has a deep heart and desire to launch the gospel into Islamic lands; a place very hostile to "western" missionary efforts:
Many Korean missionaries work in China, where they help train house-church leaders. David Lee, who has also served as chair of the World Evangelical Alliance mission commission, sees a big role for Korean missionaries in getting Chinese missionaries involved in Korea's Back to Jerusalem project, which aims to send 100,000 missionaries to the Middle East. "If we can somehow assist them in terms of a more modern way of thinking and coping and understanding context and crosscultural communication," he says, "I think they would have a greater survival rate."
The article ends in a bit of a triumphalist tone:
So what happens if, despite immense hurdles, South Korea manages to reach the world's estimated 6,000 unreached people groups? What if it leads 21st-century missions into Asia, the final frontier of missions, and shepherds the majority world as it takes up its role in fulfilling the Great Commission? What happens if Korea's missions miracle continues?
"We expect Christ to come back," says Kang.
Is this unreasonable, or just posturing. I think not. We need our hope in Christ and his zeal for the nations to worship him. We understand that he taught that the gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed to all nations, "then the end with come." Our blessed hope is his return in his time. Our part is to manage and push forth the vineyard as his stewards until he wraps up this age. Do we "cause" it by evangelizing the peoples - no, we do not. Is our evangelization of the peoples of the world necessary now in the age until he comes? Absolutely. For we do, to quote Mr. Kang - "expect Christ to come back
There is currently a case going to court in California about the legality of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.This agency was created by Proposition 71, a voter initiative to allocate 3 billion in public funds towards controversial stem cell research. A little more on Prop 71:
Proposition 71 authorized the agency to dole out an average of $300 million in research grants each year over 10 years, but 15 months later the agency has yet to hand out a dime because of its legal troubles. The lawsuits have scared off lenders, who won't buy the institute's bonds until the litigation is resolved.
The resolution passed with a 59% vote and was designed to get state funds towards embryonic stem cell research in light of the Bush Administration's withholding of federal dollars toward embryonic research. It should be interesting to see the outcome of this case, though I am assuming that Prop 71 will hold as law. The essence of the challenge from two private groups is as follows:
"The act delegates the disbursal of huge sums of public money to the unfettered discretion of an institution whose governing board and working groups are unaccountable to the public,"
For those interested in the development of embryonic stem cell funding in America, this is a case to watch as several other state governments have considered similar efforts.
AP Story: Calif. Stem Cell Agency Fights for Life - Yahoo! News
