Reality Check

July 2, 2010

The solution is not to get “prayed up.”

Ever hear this: “Are you prayed up enough?” Or “I’m just not prayed up.” Or “we need to get prayed up.” Unfortunately we often say this in a way that suggests if we were “prayed up” enough, then everything would be okay. “Get prayed up,” wrote one blog I came across, “and good things will [...]

June 24, 2010

In the long run

…we’re all dead, says Seth Godin. I beg to differ. I have faith that, in the long run, we (at least those who follow Christ) will live forever. In the Long Run: I can learn to sing. (It might take decades, but…) I can explore the solar system. (It might take hundreds of years, but…) [...]

June 17, 2010

Be a missionary from your own home?

I’ve just today run across this article in Mission Network News. Christian Resources International notes that the average US household has 8 or 9 Bibles lying around their house, unused, while in developing countries English-speaking believers may have one Bible per congregation or nothing at all. So CRI suggests you “Bare your Bookshelf” and send [...]

June 13, 2010

Will persecution happen in the USA?

Ever hear someone talking about how persecution is coming to the United States – how soon Christians will be forced underground. Ever hear it said with a tone of anticipation: “I can’t wait for the good new days when we’ll be hunted and forced into hiding.” (Well, perhaps not quite those words.) I have traveled [...]

June 11, 2010

The problem with mass evangelism

Here are some of the problems with mass evangelism (as I have seen it) (there are of course also many benefits): 1. We do not build long-term relationships with those we evangelize–the evangelist is the guy who blows into town, hands out tracts, through the force of his wonderful personality sees lots of fruit, and [...]

April 29, 2010

Remaining close to vision

Vision is a tricky thing. In my experience, understanding a person’s vision is key to understanding why they do what they do–but often it seems like either we don’t know what our vision is, or we find it hard to express it. Once we’ve gotten a vision, the vision itself tends to be “forgotten” or [...]

March 23, 2010

We fear the wrong things

The Case for Toyota demonstrates the real statistics: you are 1,300 times more likely to die from taking aspirin than from a sudden-acceleration issue with a Toyota car. But we fear things that make headlines. What do you fear? Is it ever likely to really happen?

March 21, 2010

On prostitution

On my way home from Asia, sitting in an airport browsing RSS feeds (what else?). Saw a headline on retirement homes for prostitutes which I should check out later. Why? Remember the vast majority of prostitutes did not chose this life. It was forced on them either through no other option or literally through human [...]

March 2, 2010

No assessment may be better than a bad one.

There is an age-old argument in missions and the church in general when it comes to assessing anything: the argument of quantity vs. quality. Pick up any review of a statistical reference on the church (e.g. Operation World, the World Christian Encyclopedia, World Christian Trends or the recently released Atlas of Global Christianity, reviewed in [...]

November 2, 2009

Getting small to scale big

Luke 3, John 1, and John 3 record a remarkable progression about the life of John the Baptist. He bursts on the scene, seemingly out of nowhere. It is as if his life blazes suddenly into being, a bonfire that explodes up into the night. He inspires people to action: his message seems to draw [...]

July 2, 2009

A promise is not a call

J. D. Greear at Resurgence.com has written a passionate post on The Confusing Language of “Calling” in which he says in part: “Jesus made it clear that his will was for people of every nation to know the gospel. Why, then, are so many Christians waiting on a warm and fuzzy sensation—for God to spell [...]

June 2, 2009

Christianity on the cheap

Every weekend, in any given city, you find yard sales. Somebody has decided they have too much “stuff.” Perhaps they are moving and don’t want to box it all up. Perhaps they need to make way for newer stuff. For whatever reason, the pattern is the same. Go down to city hall and for a [...]

April 16, 2009

Are missionaries only about words?

Today Ted Esler wrote the first entry in a blog series about megachurches. Most of what he had to say seemed pretty good to me, but I had qualms with the final couple of paragraphs and decided this was a big enough issue to write about it here. In his post, Esler wrote: Missionary work is [...]

March 19, 2009

More than 650 people groups left to reach, not done by 2025

Over the last couple days I’ve been noticing some various twitter spurts about “only 650 people groups left to reach” and “all of the people groups will be reached by 2025.” I’m not sure of the precise source of these quotes; I’ve twittered back but haven’t received a response. However, I think it’s important to [...]

March 4, 2009

Metrics, misunderstood

Today Ernest (Missions, misunderstood) wrote an interesting piece, “Metrics,” where he questions some of the ways we measure success. Since its a piece dealing with statistics, research and measurement, the subject is near and dear to my heart. Ernest thinks: If you believe that God does the saving (not us), then measuring the number of [...]

February 4, 2009

Can a problem be too big to tackle?

Is any problem too big to tackle? For example, consider: 200 million antipersonnel landmines in the world Over 1 billion unevangelized people in the world Over 170 million alcoholics in the world Over 60 million abandoned children and infants (1990) Whether these problems are too large depends upon the available resources. They are too big [...]

September 18, 2008

How not to be distracted

It’s the political season, and even though I live in Southeast Asia, it seems like news and opinions about the American elections are everywhere. And, they are mostly dominated Friendfeed, which I use mostly to give me a heads up about leading events. And, of course, there’s plenty of other economic news, plus the typical [...]

September 17, 2008

When it is beyond our ability

We talk a lot about our desire to see the Great Commission completed, but the simple reality is that some pretty big portions are beyond our reach. Afghanistan is a classic example. If you want to see the whole world reached with the Gospel, then Afghanistan must be reached. Yet much of “reaching Afghanistan” is [...]

June 29, 2008

The missional path

The term “missional” has become widely used especially by bloggers having to do with the emergent church. Recently (June 23rd) a number of bloggers participated in a “synchroblog” on the topic of missional. Without necessarily having read every single one of the more than 50 blog entries that participated, it seems that an online publication [...]

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