I have been working on and off for the past few years on a new book. It is a real departure for me, working through how to face ministry disappointments, whether minor or major.
What happens when God’s servants face apathy, ingratitude, racism, psychological issues, physical ailments, lies, and other problems? Our solution is not to ignore our pain, but to “re-tell” our stories through the biblical lens, to ourselves, to others, to God.
We use the experiences of the apostle Paul on his missionary journey to Macedonia as the framework for understanding our own trials.
Enjoy! And I hope to see this in print before too long.
The disappointments in Christian ministry might feel like colliding with an iceberg!
TITLE:
Iceberg Ahead!
When God’s servants crash into cold, hard reality
Excerpt from the INTRODUCTION
Collision, the North Atlantic, 1912
Two massive objects took intersecting paths. And they nearly missed each other – this word ‘nearly’ is key, since it was a glancing blow alone that turned fatal for 1500 people.
RMS Titanic was the dream of Bruce Ismay of the White Star Line, which planned to astonish the world with the biggest ocean liner ever built. It was ready with only hours to spare: the boarding passengers remarked on the smell of fresh paint. From concept to maiden voyage took four long years, and finally it sailed forth under the command of Captain Edward Smith.
Meanwhile, traveling from the north: The berg was ages older than this or any human ship, calved from a Greenland glacier that had taken thousands of years to form out of layered ice and snow. The massive piece of ice had broken off the previous summer, and it took a year to drift in the direction of Nova Scotia, ambling toward its date with history. On April 14, 11:40pm, it would have been moving at less than half a mile per hour. Later reports noted that it was the only large berg in the vicinity, that is, in theory it could easily have been missed.
And traveling from the east: the Titanic plowed ahead with geometrical accuracy, as if it had planned its deadly rendezvous with the help of satellite positioning. If only the great ship had been traveling one knot faster or slower; if it had steamed from port a few minutes earlier or later; if it had turned a fraction of a degree further south when the iceberg warnings came in. If only we could factor in one of these minute changes, the Titanic would have sailed on to New York and the berg would have floated by in the darkness, unseen and unremarked. The name Titanic would be as historically obscure as the names of its two sister ships, the Britannic (sunk in World War I) and the Olympic (after many years of service, sold for scrap). There are no movies about the Olympic; no Celine Dion songs about the Britannic!
A hundred vain ‘what-ifs’ – and we have had a century to wonder why this disaster came to this ship on that night.
Collision, Paul on his first Macedonian Tour
It was at roughly the midpoint of his ministry years when the apostle Paul launched a new operation, with what seemed like specific direction from God: Go to Macedonia, announce the good news of Jesus.
As it turned out, Paul ran into massive opposition there. To extend the Titanic image even further, Paul rammed into one iceberg, but did not sink; he then limped along and smashed into a second one; and again, and again, for a total of, by our count, eleven distinct collisions, any one of which could have finished him off. (more…)
The ‘Ultracharismatics’ of Corinth and the Pentecostals of Latin America as the Religion of the Disaffected
Originally published as: “The ‘Ultracharismatics’ of Corinth and the Pentecostals of Latin America as the religion of the disaffected.” Tyndale Bulletin 56.2 (2005): 91-110. This is a detailed exegetical study, more technical than most of what I post on this blog.
To download the article as a pdf, click here Ultracharismatics in Corinth and in Latin America. La versión en español AQUI.
Summary
This paper arises from research on 1 Corinthians within a Latin American milieu. It shows the value of studying God’s word from non-First World perspectives, particularly with regard to the themes of societal status and the charismata in the first century church. The majority opinion is that 1 Corinthians was written to correct a ‘pneumatic enthusiasm’, with such diverse components as the denial of the resurrection, egalitarianism and triumphalism. It would follow that the teaching about the charismata in chapters 12–14 is directed against that same outlook. We will argue that the majority of the letter is addressed to Christians who dabbled in philosophy as a sign of their upward mobility. But then, using sociological insights from Roman Corinth and from the contemporary Latin American church, we will propose that chapters 12–14 speak to the marginalized of the church. They had turned to the showier charismata as a means of creating an identity for themselves in a church where the elitists received all the attention…as well as invitations to the table of other rich Christians. Thus while the bulk of the letter is a harsh rebuke to the arrogant elitists, chapters 12–14 are directed to the marginalized ultracharismatics, showing them that all of God’s gifts must be used in the loving service of the body.
1. Introduction: 1 Corinthians 12-14 in the scope of the letter
In 12:1 Paul responds to a written question regarding the gifts of the Spirit.[1] The main issue was that some were ignoring apostolic custom, which the apostle reaffirms in chapter 14. For want of a better label, we will refer to them as ‘ultracharismatics’. Given Paul’s response, we will argue further down that tongues were causing some – whether it was their intention or no – to withdraw inwardly from the group dynamic of the assembly. What is more readily obvious from the text is that their noise and unintelligibility tended to overwhelm those who wanted to unite the group with teaching, song, or prophetic revelation (14:26). John Hurd is not quite on the mark, therefore, that chapters 12-14 are ‘one long attack upon the notion that speaking in tongues was the single or the best manifestation of the Spirit at work in the Church’.[2] This may have been the specific issue in the letter from Corinth, but Paul’s larger criticism has to do with using any charism without due care to the church’s need for corporate edification (more…)
- 1 Corinthians
- Apollos
- Bible
- Bible study
- Biblical languages
- body of Christ
- charity
- Christian
- Christian Life
- Church
- Church history
- Commentaries
- commentary
- Corinthians
- Culture
- Devotions devotional
- Discernment
- Education
- Ethics
- Evangelism
- Faith
- False teaching
- Flesh
- Gnosticism
- God's Will
- Greek of the New Testament
- hermeneutic
- History
- Holy Spirit
- Judaism
- Love
- Missionary Journies
- New Testament Interpretation
- Obey obedience
- Pastoral ministry
- Paul
- Pentecost
- Peter
- Philosophy
- poor poverty
- Poverty
- Praise and worship
- Prayer
- Preach the Word
- Preaching
- pride
- prophecy
- Racism
- Sin
- Sin nature
- Sociology
- Spiritual gifts
- spiritual gifts
- Stoic
- Thanksgiving
- Tongues
on April 13, 2018 at 9:08 am Leave a CommentTags: Biblia, corinto, cristiano, evangelico