I’ve got ‘em, and you’ve got ‘em – rows and stacks of books. Since one of my life motto’s is “when I get a little money, I buy myself a book,” the stacks of books grow higher and higher, and the rows get longer and longer. I can think of far worst addictions – can’t you? Read more…
The Will to Control
by mikestroope | November 10th, 2010 | Formation, Hope | No CommentsThe will to control … is it good or bad, necessary or excessive?
Being in control is good, isn’t it?
-When I am in control, I am able to make sure that what is best actually happens.
-When I am in control, I am able to effect the most beneficial outcomes.
-When I am in control, I am responsible and productive.
-When I am in control, I am able to effectively lead others.
-When I am in control, I able to prepare and execute plans.
Being out of control is not good, is it?
-When I am out of control, I cannot predict or anticipate what will happen next.
-When I am out of control, the outcomes are not always the best.
-When I am out of control, I look irresponsible and lazy.
-When I am out of control, others do not benefit from my leadership.
-When I am out of control, my plans come undone.
Most everything is beyond my control, isn’t it?
-When things around me fall apart, I realize I really do not control what happens.
-When my controlled outcomes hurt others, I see that I don’t always know what is best.
-When I fear looking irresponsible and unproductive, I am overly concerned with image.
-When I have to control others in order to lead, I am manipulative and scheming.
-When my plans come undone, unintended and uncontrolled forces take over. Read more…
You’ve got a Friend?
by mikestroope | November 1st, 2010 | Culture, Formation | 3 Comments“Words,” said the Mad Hatter to Alice, “mean exactly whatever I say they mean.”
Life comes undone when the words used to explain and describe reality loose their mooring and float from place to place, meaning to meaning. A confused Alice cannot make sense of the new reality of rabbits, cats and queens, especially when words point to their own contradictions – black becomes white, tall becomes short, up becomes down. Read more…
Violent Roots
by mikestroope | October 25th, 2010 | Culture, History | No CommentsChurch history recounts too many acts of violence carried out in the name of Christianity. Self-identifying Christians throughout the ages have employed threats, coercion, censure, shunning, imprisonment, and even torture and murder to force conversions, to enforce particular brands of orthodoxy, and to persecute non-believers. Those who should have known better did not do better. Instead, they behaved in ways worst than most non-believers and thus betrayed the cause of Christ. Read more…
What’s Next for American Christians?
by mikestroope | October 11th, 2010 | Change, Culture | 1 CommentWhat are Christians living in pluralistic, postmodern, and post-Christian America to do in order to overcome the negative reactions they now engender? This is the central question Gabe Lyons seeks to address in The Next Christians: The Good News about the End of Christian America (Doubleday, 2010, 224 pages).
Lyons addresses this question with inspiring stories of those he dubs as “Next Christians,” and with the promise of what could happen through their words and deeds. His faith in these Next Christians is boldly asserted in the subtitle on the book’s jacket, “How a New Generation is Restoring the Faith.” Read more…
Speaking of World Christianity
by mikestroope | October 7th, 2010 | Events | No CommentsBaylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion will host a symposium on World Christianity. The focus of the symposium will be on the role of Christianity in Brazil, Russia, India and China, exploring questions of Christianity’s role in economic development, Christianity as a minority, its relation with other religions, and the impact of demographic patterns on Christianity. The symposium is a one-day event and will take place Monday, October 11th at Baylor. At 10:30am there will be a panel discussion by Paul C. Freston of Laurier University, Paul Froese of Baylor University, Virginia Garrard-Burnett of University of Texas, and Robert Woodberry of University of Texas. The panel will take place in the Armstrong Browning Library Classroom. At 2:30pm Philip Jenkins of Penn State University and Baylor University will make a presentation in Draper 106.
I will be there and hope to see you there as well.
Listening to the Spirit
by mikestroope | October 6th, 2010 | Change, Church, Mission | 3 CommentsBrettG, in response to a post of August 16th (Globalized Answers) comments: “Okay, now please help me understand how to ‘listen to what the Spirit is saying’.”
To the modern mind (not that BrettG has a typical modern mind), listening to the Spirit is a bit nebulous and subjective. We prefer a rational or programmatic approach to most everything in life, even our religion and devotion. So, we rely chiefly on reasoned or formulaic answers rather than those generated by processes that are Spirit-induced or Spirit-guided. This is not to say we should forgo reason altogether or that there is nothing to be gained from processes that people in other places have found helpful. The difference is that reasoning and formula can take us only so far and routinely give us expected, uniform answers when what is needed are new and local answers. Read more…
Love Rules
by mikestroope | September 27th, 2010 | Mission | 2 CommentsThe aim for any of us, especially those of us who are religious professionals, should be love. A paraphrase of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 for the world in which I live and the life I am meant to live reads as follows …
If I preach with great style, technique and passion, but do not have love, I have become a rattling can or honking horn. If I have knowledge of all methods and have the skill to do them all with great effect, but do not have love, I have lost my way. And if I am able to start hundreds of churches, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love does not rush by people; love does not become jealous of the success of a colleague. Love does not brag about deeds or speak in a superior tone, does not act haughty or seek its own way, is not easily offended, keep a record of offenses or failures, nor is it OK with evil stuff and lies but is thrilled with justice and truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are methods, and strategies, they will be done away with; if there are five and ten-year plans, they will one day come to an end; if there are teachers and missiologists, they will be unemployed.
For we really know only a fraction of what is going on around us, but when Jesus’ reign is established, our temporal methods and strategies will pale in comparison to what he is doing. When I was a young religious professional, I spoke like a minister, thought like a missionary, reasoned like a theologian; when I started loving, I moved beyond such speaking, thinking and reasoning.
For now we see in part what God is doing, but one day we will see everything exactly as it is. But for the time, all we have are faith, hope and love. Of these, love rules.
If love is the aim, then preaching, strategizing, and teaching should move me closer to people, not increase my distance from them. These activities should add dignity and humanity to the person in front of me, not objectify them. And yet, the truth is – for love to rule these activities, I must be radically seized by the God who is love.
Good Work
by mikestroope | September 3rd, 2010 | Formation | 5 Comments
Three years ago, Kay and I planted (with the help of many friends) rows and rows of tiny lavender ‘plugs’ in hopes of one day seeing a harvest. This hobby on the sidelines of our lives has at times hijacked us and become our life. It has been hard work. But the work of planting, weeding, fertilizing (non-chemically, of course), and watering paid off this summer with an acre of eye-pleasing, luscious-smelling lavender blooms. And once blooms appear comes the equally hard work of harvesting!
I suspect our friends and family are secretly asking (and some not so secretly), Why are you doing this? Are you out of your minds? Don’t you have better things to do with your time? Read more…
Finding their Voice
by mikestroope | August 31st, 2010 | Church, Culture | 3 CommentsOne of the characteristics of modernity, according to Anthony Giddens (The Consequence of Modernity, p. 27), is the rise of “expert systems” of “technical accomplishments or professional expertise that organize large areas of material and social environments in which we live today.” These systems and experts allow the layperson to trust in the system and the expertise of the professional and thus stand apart from or live without intimate knowledge of huge areas of life. So, whether the professional is a lawyer, doctor, or counselor, we trust the expert knowledge of that professional without question. Read more…