October 27, 2004
A New Kind of Christian
One of my good friends in Atlanta wrote this today in an email . . .
Lee: I saw that you are reading A New Kind of Christian. I have read this book twice and would really like to get your take on it.
Even though I haven't finished the book yet, I think I will recommend it. At the very least, it's thought provoking. The author attempts to paint a picture (using a fictional conversation between two Christians) about what our faith might look like in the post-modern context. Here's what I wrote back . . .
"Hi Dave,
Thanks very much for writing! A New Kind of Christian . . . yeah, it’s interesting. I started the book this week, but can only read 4 or 5 pages at a time. So far I have mixed feelings.
My heart wants to go with much of what McLaren is saying, but my head isn’t there yet. I’m just getting to the part where he’s talking about other religions, and I’m afraid he’s naïve at best when he talks about “redeeming” Muslim or Buddhist culture. Those kinds of strategies have been tried in the last decade by well-meaning missionaries, but they almost always fail. Bangladesh is a good example . . . I could give you more details about that if you like. Anyway, it turns out that Muslims and Buddhists who have genuine conversions to Christ really WANT to leave the mosque and the temple. They’re not as concerned with redeeming the culture as we might think.
Okay, I’d better stop there because I need to do the book justice by finishing it. Much of it is valuable as near as I can tell . . . Lee"
October 22, 2004
October ministry update
Since my last update I have been traveling . . . a lot. Our "acceleration" approach to ministry has taken me to Romania and Czech Republic this month, and in early November I will be helping envision church planting missionaries in Poznan, Poland.
Here are some photos of my visits to Romania and Czech . . .
This is the staff of MMU (Romanian initials for "United World Mission") Romania. You may remember an earlier blog image with Gavi Moldovan who is the head of this group. These national brothers and sisters have the clearest saturation church planting vision in our region of the world.
Pastor Marcel and brothers Dani and Tani are key leaders of the Alba Iulia Baptist church. This church has been responsible for planting a dozen or so churches in the last several years. Perhaps the Lord will use us to help them turn this addition into multiplication.
Don Harris is one of my favorite people. He is our ASCP team leader in Czech Republic. In this photo (taken at the Harris home in Brno) Don and I are discussing Winnie the Pooh's church planting strategy . . . with Mckenna's permission of course. Since Brno is less than 4 hours drive from Budapest, Brooke and Mackie got to come with me on this trip. Don's wife Ellen got some vicarious "grandbaby" time with Mckenna, Brooke enjoyed seeing a new city, and Don and I reviewed his ministry plan for 2005.
Please check out this month's "Prayer Wish List" so that you will know how to pray for the family and ministry. Thanks!