Epiphany +2
Blogwise, I seem to have entirely skipped over the Christmas season…. Actually, it’s not just blogwise, I essentially did that in the real world too. JJ and I (with Sophia) too 3 of our college students and 1 high school student to Urbana. Well, actually it was St. Louis since “Urbana” was in St Louis this year. (Of course, the other reason I’ve been ignoring the blogosphere is that the rough draft of my D.Min. thesis proposal was due this morning and I’ve been plowing through with that!)
It was an excellent conference (usually is) even though the city wasn’t at all prepared for a short-term influx of 22 thousand people. I’d particularly turn your attention to the message by Oscar Muriu, Pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya. His observations about the Christianity in the West were powerful. You can download the Mp3 of his message or watch the streaming video (if you are fortunate enough to live in a place where high speed interenet is actually available) at:
Two statements particularly stick out in my mind:
When noting that America ranks as the 3rd largest pagan nation in the world (behind only India and China) Muriu queried: “Could it be that to drink from the cup of western theology is to drink from a poisoned chalice?”
And later, in his exhortation regarding the body of Christ: “If the whole body were European, where would the sense of joy be? … If the whole body were African, where would the sense of order be?”
Finally, although I didn’t actually write down the exact quotation, he noted that our definition of what it means to be Christian is going to be increasingly defined by the 2/3rds world and that is going to change our missions paradigm dramatically!
Excellent stuff.
Also check out Brenda Salter McNeil’s message from the same evening (same link as above). Interesting take on Genesis 11 and 12 — really good.
Grace and Peace,
`tim
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