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Pray for Dave and Ethiopia Team
Off to the races early tomorrow morning. I’m flying space available to save money, and the flights from Dulles to Frankfurt are all overbooked. Prayers appreciated!
I mean that. We would love to have your prayer support while we’re gone. Not only for the team members but also for the families we leave behind. B and I could not do this unless Nate and Jess were here to take care of the farm and the herds. They are as much of the “team” as we are. Here’s the July 2010 Prayer Itinerary. Feel free to copy and distribute it as the Lord Jesus leads. If God is willing, I will be able to post an update or two here during the trip. If not, we’ll publish full reports of the trip when we return.
Joyfully,
Dave and Becky (for the entire Ethiopia 2010 team)
(From Dave Black Online, used by permission.)
Tags: mission
Violating Turf
Think about this. When Jesus went to the Samaritans (John 4) He had no business being there. Becky and I likewise violate turf rules by going to the Gujis. Guji territory is outside the Burji box. But just as Jesus wandered into enemy-controlled territory, so the Christian has the privilege of invading territory controlled by a rival religion. Interestingly, Jesus deliberately defiles Himself by asking for water from a vessel that an unclean woman has touched. I have to smile when I think that Jesus’ ministry to the Samaritans began with a drink. That’s exactly how my ministry among the Gujis began. This picture is no joke – I choked when I “drank” this coffee. (It was full of roasted coffee beans that one was expected to eat. It is a Guji tradition.)
Tags: David Alan Black, evangelism, Jesus, mission, The Jesus Paradigm
On Philippians 2:16
From Dave Black Online:
Question for you. In Phil. 2:16 did Paul say we are to “hold fast to” or “hold forth” the Word of life? My personal preference is the latter interpretation because I think it better fits the context (“shining as lights in the world”). Plainly, however, Paul could have intended both meanings (thus making the expression a case of intentional ambiguity). His point, then, would be that while it is important, vital even, to hold fast to the Gospel (i.e., preserve and protect it from error), that is never enough. We must protect and proclaim the life-giving Word. This notion is consistent with everything we read in the Pauline epistles. Paul was no mean theologian, but he was every bit as much a great evangelist, perhaps more so. And, since he invites his readers to share his attitude in these matters, he implies that doctrine is never sufficient in itself, unless that doctrine is applied in practical ways. This dual emphasis upon the sanctity of the Gospel and our responsibility to share it with others is present again and again in Paul. To put it another way, a church should never be centered on itself. Every true Bible church is also a missional church.
(Dr. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy as well as co-editor of the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues series. His material is used by permission.)
Tags: David Alan Black, Philippians, preaching
On Learning from the Anabaptists
From Dave Black Online:
Arthur Sido makes this astute observation about the Anabaptists:
The original Anabaptists and their modern progeny have much to praise but likewise they have much to be cautious about. I try to remember when praising the Anabaptists that they have their flaws and that we should not seek to “become Anabaptists”. Anabaptism is not the answer, but Anabaptism does help point us to the answer.
Point well-taken. I put it this way in The Jesus Paradigm:
I hope no reader will suppose that Anabaptism is being put forward as an alternative to the Word of God, as if any man-made movement is preferable to the testimony of inspired Scripture. The record of Anabaptism is by no means a spotless one. Like every movement of the Holy Spirit it is the story of a weak, stammering church that moved over a field of ecclesiastical rubble. I’m not condoning everything in the movement or offering pious panaceas. If I have left an overly positive impression, it is because I believe that an appreciation of Anabaptism can prove fruitful in many areas of Christian life and witness. The important point is this: Anabaptism was a valid, if incomplete, representation of Christ’s Body – nothing more, nothing less. I also hope that this chapter might have a mollifying effect on those modern-day traditionalists who view dissent as inherently misguided and dissenters as mere fanatics or Schwärmer. (The parallel with Luther and Zwingli will not escape the reader.)
Learn from them; but don’t worship them.
(Dave Black is author of Energion Publications titles The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy as well as co-editor of the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues series. Material from his blog is used by permission.)
Apologist Only for the Gospel
From Dave Black Online:
Life is too short to be an apologist for anything but the Gospel. That thought came to mind yesterday when I was asked to grant permission to someone to republish something I had once written on constitutional politics. My initial instinct was to give it. After all, the DBO byline reads, “Restoring our biblical AND constitutional foundations.” I have long been a keen student of American politics, its process of development, as well as its relationship with biblical Christianity. Indeed, not too long ago I would have considered myself an “apologist” for the Constitution Party. Anyone who reads this website site knows that I have written very little lately on this subject.Why?
The more I read the New Testament the more I see that it would have us hold tightly to Jesus Christ, to whom we must accord preeminence, and hold every other loyalty loosely, including our political affiliations. I have come to see that any political movement, perhaps especially one supported by Christians, is a part, not of Christianity, but of Christendom, which itself is a very complex mixture of truth and error. The tragedy is that this connection is not always acknowledged, and the resultant impoverishment has often made Christianity prone to syncretism and to an unwarranted and shameful triumphalism.
In order for the church to fulfill her glorious worldwide mission, its structure must be a global structure. This means that the church is essentially a trans-national body, centered in the Great Commission of her Lord and in the spiritual life and mission of its total priesthood of all believers, regardless of their political views or national loyalties. In this way our churches can be revolutionized by a partnership of grace in which every member has his or her own contribution to make and function to fulfill. No doubt when we begin to look at the Body of Christ universally we will find ourselves acting less and less like “apologists” for our own brand of national politics.
Truly, life is too short to be an apologist for anything but the Gospel.
(Dr. David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy as well as co-editor of the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues series. His material is used by permission.)
The Jesus Paradigm as Book of the Week
The Jesus Paradigm has been selected as book of the week by Energion Publications. This offer is only available via Energion Direct. That means it’s available today and tomorrow for $10 – shipped (within the U. S. + sales tax where applicable). International shipping is just $7.50, or $17.50 shipped during this sale. Sale ends at midnight May 14, 2010.
On Constantinian Sacralism in the Modern Church
From Dave Black Online:
Thanks so much, Eric, for raising again the perennial question about the Reformers’ insistence on maintaining medieval ecclesiology. I attribute today’s neo-sacralism directly to the Reformers and their faulty theology of the church, against which the Anabaptists inveighed. Under the tutelage of such sacralism church leaders today continue to accommodate biblical Christianity to the Constantinian distortion. Not least is this seen in the return to medieval theology in which “the Son of Man goes forth to war, a kingdom to subdue.” I continue to maintain that the Anabaptists were not indebted to the Reformers, were indeed not even a part of them. I spend a whole chapter in The Jesus Paradigm on this subject mostly because missions cannot thrive in a climate of sacralism. The Anabaptists were oblivious to national borders, and so am I. The New Testament plainly teaches that every Christian is a fulltime minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, a missionary even, and that every true believer will experience something of the cross. To this day there is a hesitation, even on the part of Christians who plainly acknowledge a debt to the Anabaptists, to import biblical ecclesiology into their churches. I say shame on us. We should know better.
(Dr. David Alan Black is the author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy. This extract from his blog is used by permission.)
Tags: ecclesiology
On Social Labels
From Dave Black Online:
It’s human nature to employ social labels. We love to put people into our little boxes according to race, social status, level of education, country of origin, etc. — and the labels on the boxes determine to a great degree how we think about ourselves and how we treat others. Everyone we know generally fits into one of these boxes. Occasionally we place people in the wrong box. I think this is true of people who have a formal education. We assume a particular person has greater knowledge of the Scriptures if he or she has a theological degree from a Bible school or seminary. In fact, some of the most biblically illiterate people I know have degrees in theology. I believe that God wants to transform our social interaction completely. Jesus taught that external labels have so significance in His kingdom. It’s not that the title “Dr.” Black is inherently sinful. The problem is when we see other people as doctors or students or Republicans or Democrats or home-schoolers or government-schoolers or males or females rather than as siblings in the family of God. This is the upshot of Andy Bowden’s latest blog post, which I am very grateful I stumbled upon this morning. On the surface there is probably nothing harmful or positively evil in referring to me as “Dr.” Black. The danger is when we allow our titles to keep us from each other. When this happens, the tail of social convention wags the dog of Christian unity.For what it’s worth, I could care less about formal titles. The early church did without them. And they did just fine. Look at the way they called each other by their first names — Paul, Peter, John, Barnabas. They seemed to truly believe that the kingdom of God is flat. Titles that emphasize status differences are neither necessary nor healthy. Why not just call each other by our first names or — if an epithet is necessary — by “brother” or “sister”?
(David Alan Black is author of Energion titles The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy, as well as co-editor of the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues Series. This extract from his blog is used by permission.)
Tags: David Alan Black
The Jesus Paradigm in Ethiopia
While author Dave Black was practicing the Jesus paradigm (no, I didn’t ask his permission to say that) in Ethiopia, his Ethiopian son Nigussie was reading his book.
As Dave said:
I thought you’d be interested in these pix I took when we were packing the vehicle for the drive from Alaba to Addis. I gave a copy of The Jesus Paradigm to our son Nigussie, who literally took the book with him wherever we went. It’s not every publisher who has his books read on top of a Land Cruiser in Ethiopia.
Yes indeed! And I’m acquainted with that mode of transportation.
Dave and Becky Black have just returned from a visit to Ethiopia where the served in various parts of the country. You can find more information and pictures of their trip on Dave’s blog at Dave Black Online.
(David Alan Black is the author of Energion books The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy.)
Tags: David Alan Black, Ethiopia, Pictures