Fantastic Friday Foto

IMG_0944, originally uploaded by a_dOgshOw.

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Bitter Lessons in Ministry

As a young guy seeking to understand God’s will for my life as a minister of his Gospel, i have been introduced to some bitter lessons about ministry.  i do not have much experience in ministry, i have not been involved in full time paid ministry, nor have i had the opportunity to experience the nature of ministry Sunday to Sunday.  For the last year and a half i have run a youth group while studying at Bible college full time and being trained for ministry.  Despite this minimal exposure i have learnt that ministry along with its joys of seeing people acknowledge the glory of God, their need of his grace and the love of Christ, i have seen that ministry is at times thankless and your work will often go unrecognized.  This post is not an attempt to gain some pity from anyone who may read it, but i have been reminded that the work of the Gospel is not for the glory from man but the act of those who serve the Word and the King it speaks of.  A good lesson i think, although a bitter one to learn; this work is for his sake and his glory!

Beth Uriel

This is a link to Beth Uriel, its a ministry that has been established in Salt River seeking to reach out to young men from very difficult backgrounds.  Check it out, they even have a clothes label to support their work!

Chris Wright

Today our church leaders of various Cape churches gathered together for a day of training and fellowship.  We were privileged to have Dr. Chris Wright of the Langham Partnershiphas come down to South Africa as a part of a number of Easter events CESA are putting together.  He did an exposition of Nehemiah 8 on the dynamic of God’s Word in the life of believers as well as a session on the place of the Law within historical redemption and the life of NT believers.  I really appreciated his approach to to whole subject, as one who is sensitive to many of the arguments involved, he brought in a helpful balance that sees the Law as both fulfilled in Christ and yet applicable to the life of a Christian as part of his/her discipleship.  It was a stimulating day with a lot of food for thought…

Hout Bay Outreach

I have been involved with a Church plant in Hout Bay since the beginning of the year.  It’s been really exciting to see people come in and despite the small beginnings, have become very excited about the plant.  Which is why this week and next week we are looking forward to our two evangelistic meetings.  Tomorrow night we are looking at why Jesus needed to die.  The idea behind the evening is to explain the necessity of  the death ofChrist and how that impacts this world.  We’ll also be having an open Q&A session after that on just about anything, an open forum for the skeptics to be able to ask hard questions about Jesus, the Church and Christianity in general.  So if you know anyone living in Hout Bay, let them know about it.  Please pray for us as we try to reach out to this area!

Hout Bay Museum

7:00pm – 9:pm

Any other details can be found if you phone 021 715 1104

Friday Frenzy Foto

 

IMG_0948, originally uploaded by a_dOgshOw.

What a privilage to live here!

The African Mindset. Prt 2

I wrote a post (some time ago it seems…) where i was trying to ask what the African mindset is.  i guess i take my cue from the fact that we talk so much about the modern/post modern mindset within the Western world that i often wonder if that really applies to our situation here in Africa.  Are Africans (i know this is a generalizing question) modern? Post modern? Pre modern?  Or something completely different?  The reason i ask i hear a lot discussion goingon about missions philosophyand practise with a presumption that we all live in a “post modern” world.  Since when did the world turn postmodern?  Did i miss a memo or something?  And i think that one of the struggles i have as a white South African is that i do not understand the African way of thinking very well.  So i guess if i am going to take the Gospel to the other white South Africans only, since i sort of understand them better, then my missions focus is minute.  I guess i don’t want to take false presuppositions into cross cultural ministry and feel the need to better understand the African mindset (for lack of a better term).

Wright or wrong, all these play on words are getting a bit much!

It’s funny, but the first thing i have noticed when looking into New Perspectives teaching is all the play on words of NT Wright’s name.  Who said theologians don’t have a sense of humour?  I guess we could debate about the standard of humour though!  But as it is, my studies have taken me down the inevitable road of the New Perspectives debate.  Not knowing much about this fairly recent development in NT scholarship, i am looking forward to getting a comprehensive and fair understanding of the issues at stake in it.  Whatever your point of view on this issue may be, we cannot overestimate the necessity of understanding first century Judaism when interpreting the New Testament.  One of the things that NPP proponents have been able to highlight is the tendency for modern day scholars to be anachronistic in reading sixth century categories into first century material.  This kind of debate (whatever side you fall on) is always helpful in that it challenges our pre-conceived and rarely thought through presumptions about the times of Jesus.

Another important aspect i hope to jump into is understanding what second temple Judaism looked like and taught.  After the return of the exiles a second temple was constructed and met with mixed responses from the retrunees.  Some cheered and celebrated for they had returned home at last, but others weeped in bitterness and anguish.  This temple was not the glorious building that housed the presence of God when it was first built.  The question i suppose is, how did the Jewish cultus change? How did the people perceive themselves? What was their understanding of their status before God?  Where they still in Exile?  These types of questions i think will impact how we understand the context in which Jesus came proclaiming, “The Kingdom is at hand!”

If you have any links of resources that will direct myself and others in understanding this important issue, let me know!

The African Mindset?

One thing that really confuses me is that we are very good at generalizing our friends across the pond when it comes to worldviews, epistemology and favourite breakfasts.  A recent trip to the States allowed me to test some of those generalizations and in some ways they are not too far off.  None the less, we act as if we are certain experts about foreign forms of philosophy and yet we are (well, i am at least) clueless about local epistemology or thinking.  South Africa is great because we have a melting pot of people and thinking, so we can’t use broad brush strokes, but as far as i can see no one is really talking about this issue, not even at Bible colleges.

 My request is that if anyone knows of research or resources that are availiable in this field it would be a great help in developing a contextualized theology.

Have a great weekend!

Freaky Friday Foto

The Amazing bean, originally uploaded by a_dOgshOw.

A recent trip to Chicago meant a few surprising finds…