Archives for October 2006

For many years I have been doing focused reading in the area of Christology. During that time I have come to admire Ben Witherington as he has made many valuable contributions in that field.

So, I was very pleased when I discovered his blog some time back. Now I enjoy reading his blog as well as his books.

Today he posted his thoughts on a topic that we have discussed several times here — our disappearing youth.

I include a small excerpt below in hopes that it will spark your interest and that you will go on over to his place and read the whole article.

My word today to Youth Ministers is this— one key to retaining the youth is this— have they been captivated, caught up in love, wonder and praise of the Lord, or have they merely been entertained? There is a difference. Does the event not merely make them dance but make them kneel and confess their sins and pray? Does the event not merely move their emotions but challenge their thinking? Does it bring them to repentance, or are you offering some kind of forgiveness withoutrepentance, crown without a cross, encounter without commitment? And are you integrating them into a caring Christian community where they will be planted deeply, richly in God’s Word? The key to retention is surrounding a new Christian with a caring, supportive and yes challenging Christian environment that involves more than just worship. It also needs to involve some profound Christian education, as our youth will never get that from our culture these days. Youth ministry is often failing because in general the Church’s Christian education is failing. Less than a third, on average, of people who go to worship stay for Sunday school or Bible study or its equivalent. We should have noticed this warning sign a long time ago.

According to a study conducted by Lifeway Christian Resources, more that 1300 staff members were terminated from Southern Baptist churches in 2005.

According to the unofficial Kevin Poll conducted by talking with preachers from all over the country, 1300 is just the tip of the iceberg. Most pastors and staff members are not fired, they are pressured out through threats to their reputation and livelihood.

When I worked for a major corporation I had a supervisor tell me that unless there was a compelling reason, never fire anyone. Just sit them in a room and make it clear, without saying so directly, that if they did not choose to move on, that they would ultimately be fired. That is the modus operandi of most churches as well.

So, if you take the numbers offered by Lifeway, and multiply them by ten, I think that you are probably closer to a meaningful number.

What are the most frequent reasons given for forced termination?

1. Control issues (who’s going to run the church)

2. Poor people skills

3. Churches’ resistance to change

4. Pastor’s leadership style being too strong

5. Churches already in conflict when the pastor arrived.

What about ethical misconduct and doctrinal error? Those are on the list, also, but they are much further down the list of reasons offered. It would seem that Baptists believe right, and behave right, WE JUST CAN’T LIVE HARMONIOUSLY TOGETHER.
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I received several comments today, both on and off of my blog, about the translation mistake I posted last night. So, I thought I would share another one with you. I am pretty sure that this is just an apocryphal tale told by professional translators and language teachers. Nevertheless, it makes me smile and that is reason enough to pass it along. I hope you smile, also.

When programmers fed the phrase “Out of sight out of mind” into an English-Russian program and then, to check the accuracy of the translation, back into a Russian-English one, what they obtained was “Blind idiot.” And for “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,” the same operation yielded, “The vodka is good but the meat is rotten.“

I have said on several occasions recently that Muslims must rise up and condemn the Islamo-fascists if they expect us to believe that the extremists are not normative. Otherwise, their silence seems to implicate them as having similar views.

It is for that same reason that I now revisit a previous post in which I claimed that God hates Westboro Baptist Church.

Westboro has indicated that they will be protesting at the funerals of the five young Amish girls murdered this week in a schoolhouse in Lancaster, PA. It is important that Christians in general, and Baptists in particular, rise up to condemn the Westboro hate-cult.

Westboro is NOT BAPTIST. In fact, Westboro is NOT EVEN CHRISTIAN. Westboro has corrupted the gospel message and worships a false god of their own making rather than Yahwew of the sacred scriptures. Jesus, the Logos, became flesh to reveal the Father to us. Jesus, is the image of the Godhead bodily. It is by Jesus that all things consist. And, what Westboro is doing has nothing at all to do with God who has been revealed to us perfectly in His Son Jesus Christ.

To all those who question the tactics of Westboro, please hear me. Westboro burns incense to the god Hatred. Westboro is a hate-cult. Westboro is not a Christian church.

I have been translating all night – – Hebrew – – Greek – – Latin . . .English . . . back and forth, forth and back. So, I took a short break and was pleased to find this little article about someone else’s translation woes:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Something always gets lost in translation, but usually not an entire city.

“Jerusalem. There is no such city!” the Jerusalem municipality said in the English-language version of a sightseeing brochure it had published originally in Hebrew.

The correct translation: “Jerusalem. There is no city like it!”

Carrying a photograph of the brochure, Israel’s Maariv newspaper said Wednesday tens of thousands of flyers had been distributed before city hall realized its mistake.

If you are feeling sorry for yourself, or are tempted to fall into that trap, you absolutely MUST WATCH the videos below: (HT: Linda Carlton)

You can find more details about nick HERE. But, I want to share this excerpt that I copied from his website.

Funny Stories

I love how I get different reactions from people who see me for the first time – especially kids! I have so many stories I can tell you, but I’ll mention only a few…

I think I was asked by a little boy, “But how do you tie up your shoelaces?” I’d get some kids brave enough to look up my sleeves and asking me where I’m hiding my arms.

My cousin is studying Nursing. They were learning about blood pressure etc. he puts his hand up and asks, “how would you take the blood pressure of a person who has no arms?” The lecturer thought he was being a bit “smart” with her, and replied that they’d simply then check it on the legs. And then guess what my cousin asks, “What if they have no legs either?” The lecturer feels threatened and furious and my cousin is sent out and told not to come back. We later find out that in an emergency, they’d have to stick a rod straight into my heart if I really needed it measured. So I’m in no hurry to measure my blood pressure.

You have the little kids on bikes who smash into a pole or something because their eyes are focused on this ridiculously surprising thing – AND IT SPEAKS!!!

Now for the classic: I was picked up by my Brother in the 4wd and we wanted to swap cars at my Mum’s work. So we get out and we lock it and while he goes and gets the key, I am sitting in the car park on the road with no wheelchair, and I wait for him. In the time that I was waiting for him, there were around 10 people who walked by and noticed me.

It’s so cool to see the different reactions. Some people pretended they didn’t see me, and others smile or say hi and one asked if I needed help. There was a woman with two kids, a girl and boy aged around 5 and 7. As they were walking by, I smile and the boy does the usual thing that kids do and points letting his Mummy know that I’m there. She’s a bit embarrassed and tries to anchor his arm down. But that little girl was so cute!

She had a pink dress with flowers and had blue eyes, blonde hair, the lot right? Anyway as she walks by all she does is look at me and smiles. Now I’ve seen some cute smiles before, but this one will be remembered forever. As she walks by beyond my side’s vision, behind me, I wonder what is she smiling about. I wonder if she still is smiling. So I turn to see her, and sure enough, she’s still looking and smiling. She stops, turns to me, points with her finger, still smiling, and says in a loud cute voice, “YOU’RE JUST TRICKING US!” Oh I laughed so hard! It was so cute!
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Okay, it is “really” Monday night this time. So, here is my regular Monday night edition of quotations drawn from this weeks personal reading:

I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat.
— Winston Churchill, in Roving Commission: My Early Life

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
— Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted on Following An Unknown Path

Et au plus eleve throne du monde si ne sommes nous assis que sur notre cul.
— Michel Eyquen de Montaigne, in Essays, Book 3, Ch. 13

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
— Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu, in The Spirit of Laws , Bk. 6, Ch. 2

Commerce is a cure for the most destructive prejudices.
— Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu, in The Spirit of Laws , Bk. 20, Ch. 1

Peace is the natural effect of trade.
— Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu, in The Spirit of Laws , Bk. 20, Ch. 2

Disrespect for women has invariably been the surest sign of moral corruption.
— Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu, in Thoughts and Judgements

The story of humanity, ever since Eve, is the story of the efforts made by woman to diminish man and make him suffer, so that he may become her equal.
— Henri de Montherlant, in Les Jeunes Filles

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
— John Morley, in On Compromise

The small reform may become the enemy of the great one.
— John Morley, in On Compromise

Those who would treat politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other.
— John Morley, in Rousseau