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It’s tough being a girl

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Pretty girlsJohn Eldredge and his wife have recently written some books which state that while men want to be warriors and need to know they are strong and wild, women need to know that they are beautiful: Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul and Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul.

I think this is true, but sometimes, especially in our culture, we have problems defining “strength” for boys and “beauty” for girls.

Which is partly why I was excited to learn about a campaign by Dove to help girls in our culture understand true beauty.

These following videos should be watched by every man, brother, husband, and father.

Those women on the billboards? Not real. The women in the magazines? Fake and photoshopped. Your wife, your daughter, and your sister? The most genuinely beautiful women in the world. Have you told her?

This following video shows us what the females in our life are up against.

And one more…

So here is the question: How can we tell our wives and daughters they are “pretty” without encouraging them to follow the worldly definition of beauty?

In discussing this with my wife, here are some of her suggestions:

1. Love is more than words. It’s a cliche because it’s true. Don’t just tell your wife and daughters they are beautiful. Show them with hugs, kisses, holding hands, taking them on dates. If all you do is tell the women in your life they are beautiful, but never show them, they won’t believe you.

2. Affirm them in ways not related to beauty. Women, even though they strive to be beautiful, want to be more than just pretty. They want to be valued and know that they are contributing. Being pretty helps them feel valued. This seems to work in reverse. Since they feel valued when they know they are pretty, if you help them to feel valued, they will also feel pretty. So find what your wife and daughters like to do, and constantly affirm them in it.

3. Sometimes, a hobby or interest outside of self-beatification can help. Girls who love horses rarely spend lots of time brushing their own hair, but with brushing their horse. Girls who love art spend less time painting themselves than their canvas. Mothers are the prime examples. Good mothers are consumed with caring for their children and rarely have much time to spend on themselves. This is not to say that horse lovers, artists, and mothers are not beautiful! To the contrary, they are often the most beautiful. Why? Because self-focused attention creates fake beauty, while an outward focus allows true inner beauty to blossom and flourish.

If you have other suggestions on what true beauty is and how to help the women in our lives feel lovely, please post them in the comments section for others to read.

Help Keep Guatemalan Adoptions Open

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Note: this post is from October 2007 when my wife and I were trying to adopt a girl from Guatemala. The bill mentioned below did not pass, and all adoptions out of Guatemala ceased.

We were not able to complete our adoption process. As of this month, January 2012, adoptions have not reopened.

Guatemala AdoptionThis is the week for taking action on allowing Guatemala adoptions to continue.
Please read the previous post for more information, but you can start by signing the online petition.

Keep updated on this through AdoptionBlogs. Also, here are two people who have blogs about their Guatemala Adoption process. Bringing Gabriel Home and Our Little Pea.

CNN has also published an online article about the disaster waiting to happen in Guatemala if these current laws are passed. The article is here for you to read online, but I have posted it below for you to read here as well.

ANTIGUA, Guatemala (CNN) –For many years, Guatemala has been a place of relatively uncomplicated adoptions for American parents. The small country’s government estimates as many as 17 babies leave each day for adoptive parents in the United States.

Carolina, a 3-month-old Guatemalan girl, was bound for the U.S. until Guatemalan authorities intervened.

But that number could soon drop to zero because of concerns over alleged improprieties in the Guatemalan adoption process. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger announced recently that adoptions to the United States will be suspended on January 1, 2008, a decision that could leave nearly 3,000 babies currently in the adoption pipeline in legal limbo.

“This is our heritage, our future,” said Carmen Wennier, head of Guatemala’s Social Welfare bureau, who has criticized the adoption system.

Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption in the world and the United States represents the largest number of adoptions, with an estimated one of every 100 Guatemalan babies sent to the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. U.S. officials estimate more than 5,000 adoptions from Guatemala will be processed this year, an annual high which would make Guatemala the second biggest origin of adoptive babies to the United States, behind China.

Adoption has been a hotly contested issue in Guatemala for years. While adoptive parents in the United States undergo rigorous screening, adoptions in Guatemala are processed under a notary system that allows lawyers and judges to place children for adoption. Both Guatemalan and U.S. officials fear the system leads to practices such as paying birth mothers for children, or, some instances, using coercion.

“We have thousands of cases of Guatemalan children who have been adopted to the United States and have had terrific experiences as adoptive children there, and frankly, have probably experienced a life more full of opportunity and support than they would have if they had been abandoned in Guatemala,” U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala James Derham said. “What we want to do is make sure that all adoptions are consistent with these kinds of ideas.”

Both U.S. and Guatemalan officials say gaps in the regulation and the high sums of money at play – adoptions can cost up to $30,000 to complete — may have created unintended incentives in a country where the U.S. State Department estimates 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.

For prospective adoptive parents awaiting children in the United States, the recent developments are wrenching. But despite the State Department warnings, dozens of Americans still fill major hotels in Guatemala City meeting babies they expect will soon be theirs.

Several hotels in the city offer adoption packages and baby-friendly amenities to prospective adoptive parents. The couples stay there when they come to first see the babies while waiting for paperwork to be processed or to pick them up at the end of the adoption process.

Many of those couples say the charges of coercion of birth mothers are overblown and that thousands of abandoned children will be condemned to a life of poverty if greater restrictions on adoptions are imposed.

“Nobody reports on what will happen to these children if the adoptions are stopped,” said one American parent who asked not to be identified. “The city will be filled with street kids.”

The increasing scrutiny of adoptions from Guatemala already has thrown some adoptions into flux. Carolina, a 3-month-old Guatemalan girl, was just months away from joining her adoptive parents, Ellen and Sean Darcy, in their Boston, Massachusetts, home, when she and 45 other babies were seized from Casa Quivira, an adoption agency, by the Guatemalan government.

“Casa Quivira was the last stop on an assembly line,” Wennier told CNN. “They had the final product and they had to sell it at the best price.”

Guatemala police arrested Casa Quivira’s lawyers and charged them with child abduction. No plea has yet been entered, but the agency’s owners, American Cliff Phillips and his Guatemalan wife, Sandra Gonzalez, deny doing anything illegal.

“We can respond for the work of Casa Quivira and we will make all the efforts to clear our name, to get these kids home,” Gonzalez said through tears. She adamantly denies Casa Quivira wanted to do anything more than help save children from poverty and make American families whole.

Carolina’s adoptive mom in the United States, Ellen Darcy, is worried about Carolina’s future, but she wants the investigation to go forward so she’ll know if the adoption was legitimate.

“We want to know. We don’t want to complete an adoption that is anything but completely legal and where this little girl has been relinquished willingly,” she said. The Darcy’s already have one child they adopted from Guatemala, a boy named Dylan, and they were excited for Carolina’s arrival.

In Guatemala, birth mothers are required to sign a document in court in which they state they are relinquishing their child, but they are not interviewed by a judge as to their reasons. To stem corruption, the U.S. Embassy has added its own requirement that birth mothers appear with the baby when proceedings to request a Visa for the baby begin. In August, they also began requiring two DNA tests to confirm the identities of mother and child.

But proponents of stricter adoption guidelines in Guatemala said that even those tests are not sufficient. The Guatemalan Office of the Attorney General said it has 80 confirmed cases so far this year of adoption irregularities, including baby stealing and false DNA tests.

The Guatemalan Chief Prosecutor’s Office recently launched a criminal investigation into the two laboratories contracted to take DNA samples from birth mothers and the children.

The U.S. Consulate and adoptive parents said those allegations do not taint the more than 4,000 adoptions that were processed legitimately last year. But due to the uncertainty expected from then anticipated changes in process, the State Department has recently issued a warning advising American citizens not to initiate any new adoptions from Guatemala.

Like other parents and prospective parents, Ellen Darcy, as she waits in her Boston home for baby Carolina, is concerned about the children.

“I’m not worried about the American couples. That’s a non-issue. I’m worried about the kids,” she said. “If they aren’t given an option to be raised abroad, that they will perish and spend their entire childhood in an orphanage in state custody with nobody to encourage them or be a parent or take a vested interest in them. The American parents will be fine. It’s the kids.”

The Lives of 1000’s are in your Fingertips

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The children of Guatemala get food from the city dumpsNote: this post is from October 2007 when my wife and I were trying to adopt a girl from Guatemala. The bill mentioned below did not pass, and all adoptions out of Guatemala ceased.

We were not able to complete our adoption process. As of this month, January 2012, adoptions have not reopened.

—————-

My wife and I have been in the process of adopting a little girl from Guatemala. Most of the orphans in Guatemala live in the streets, and get their food and clothing from city dumps. There are currently about 5000 such children who were slated to be adopted between now and December 31, 2007.

But this week, the US Department of State has encouraged the Guatemalan congress to pass the Ortega Law which would effectively put an end to all adoptions from Guatemala. This bill, as it now stands, has no funding plan, no child care plan for the children currently in the process of getting adopted, and no plan for future children to even enter the process. Private orphanages will no longer be allowed to accept donations for taking care of children, and so many of them will have to shut their doors. This means that within six months, thousands of children waiting to be adopted could instead be turned out onto the streets. This is truly a human rights and child welfare nightmare waiting to happen.

Why is the US and Guatemala doing this? Guatemala seeks to become “Hague Compliant” which is well intended inter-country treaty to stop illegal adoptions. Babies were getting stolen and then put up for adoption. The kidnappers received money from the many adoption fees charged to adoptive parents. So the Hague Treaty is intended to stop this, which is good. But what has happened in Hague Compliant countries is that adoptions have ceased almost completely.

Countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Bolivia have become Hague compliant. These countries used to allow inter-country adoptions just as much as Guatemala. But in the past decade, all these countries enacted similar laws as the one we now see Guatemala taking steps to pass. The result in Guatemala will be similar to what we now have in these other countries: the streets are overflowing with orphans, the orphanages are underfunded and overcrowded. Over the last 14 years, hundreds of thousands of children who might have benefited from the opportunity of adoption have instead become statistics, adding to the numbers of children who die on the streets, or are forced into slavery or prostitution.

You can read about all of this at the following links:

The Ortega Law

Congress Bio Letter

Please don’t let this happen! Use your finger tips to make a few calls and send a few e-mails. Below is what our adoption agency, All God’s Children International, is asking people to do.

Dear Friends,

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to suspend all intercountry adoption with American families on January 1 2008.  The Joint Council on International Children’s Services strongly opposes such a suspension and asks for your support in their efforts to ensure that all children retain the right to permanency through Intercountry Adoption.

President Berger’s plans also call for the suspension of adoptions currently in-process.  Such a suspension would be extremely detrimental to the children referred to adoptive parents.  If President Berger’s plan is actually implemented, up to 5,000 will unnecessarily remain in foster care or orphanages indefinitely.

This situation represents a pending crisis for the adoptive families who have lovingly chosen to provide permanency, safety and love to a child in need and most importantly a crisis for 5,000 children of Guatemala.

What can you do?  Make six simple phone calls and one email.

1.       Call your U.S. Senator.

·         You can find your Senators’ phone numbers at www.senate.gov

·         Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

2.   Call your second U.S. Senator.

3.   Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative.

·         You can find your representative at www.house.gov

·         Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

4.       Call or fax UNICEF Headquarter

·         Ask to speak with Ann Veneman, Executive Director

·         Their number is 212-326-7000

·         Their fax number is 212-326-7758

5.       Call or fax UNICEF Guatemala

·         Ask to speak with Manuel Manrique

·         Their number is 011-502-2327-6373

·         Their fax number is 011-502-2327.6366

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

6.       Send and email supporting Intercountry Adoption to gu***********@***cs.org

·         Write briefly or at length

·         Joint Council will use the cumulative email petition in our advocacy for Intercountry Adoption

When should you call?  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (October 9th, 10th 11th)

·         For maximum affect, we are asking you to make these calls within a 72 hour window!

What should you say or write to member of the U.S. Congress? Speak from your heart and give them the following information.

·         Inform them that you are calling regarding Guatemala 5000

·         Ask them to sign the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) sponsored letter to President Oscar Berger

·         Ask them to sign the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF

·         Inform them that the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008.

·         Inform them that President Berger’s announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process.

·         Inform them that if children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care.

·         Ask that their office get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF.  These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sample Statement:

Hello,

We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.  We, as your constituents, are asking that the Senator/Congressperson add their signature to two letters.  First, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute sponsored letter to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger.  Second, the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF.

As you may be aware, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. Your office must get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF.  These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,

<your name and contact information>

What should you say or write to UNICEF? Speak from your heart and give them the following information.

·         Inform them that you are calling regarding the Guatemala 5000

·         Ask them to support the right’s of children and lend their considerable influence to ensuring that intercountry adoptions currently in-process be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

·         Inform them that the Guatemalan government has announced that all adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008.

·         Inform them that President Berger’s announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process.

·         Inform them that if children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care.

·         Ask them again for their support of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.

Sample Statement

Hello,

We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.  As financial supporters of UNICEF (through our tax dollars), we are asking that UNICEF lends its support and considerable influence to the Guatemala 5000 initiative.

As you may be know, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. UNICEF must get involved and help ensure that all intercountry adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,

<your name and contact information>

Can you explain the problem behind the pending crisis?  Here is some additional information…

·         Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to effectively stop all adoptions into the United States including those children who have already been referred to adoptive parents

·         Over 5,000 children have been referred

·         The birthparents for these children have already relinquished their parental rights.  As a result, they currently have no family and the Berger suspension will result in these children having no prospect for a permanent, safe and loving family

·         The government of Guatemala currently does not have the finances or facilities to even provide housing for these 5,000 children

·         The Berger plan is a crisis waiting to happen

What else can you do?  In addition to your primary calls to U.S. Congress and UNICEF, you can call the following.

SOSEP (Guatemala)

·         Director Teresa Echeverría de Bastarrechea

Office Phone- 011-502-2383-8400

·         Assistant Director- Edin Palma- Same office phone

Office Phone- 011-502-2383-8400

·         Jaime Tecu

Office Phone – 011-502-2239-0000 ext 2766

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Guatemala Ministry of Foreign Affairs

·         Minister Gerth Rosenthal

Office Phone 011-502-2410-0000, 2410-0010

·         Vice Minister- Marta Altoaguirre

Office Phone  011-502-2410-0020

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

PGN (Guatemala)

·         Carlos Victor Hugo Barrios Barahona

Office Phone 011-502-2248-3200 Ext. 207/208

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Procuraduria of Human Rights

·         Dr. Sergio Morales

Office Phone 011-502-2424-1717

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Embassy of Guatemala in the U.S.
2220 R Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Office Phone  1-202-745-4952
Office Fax 1-202-745-1908
Website: www.guatemala-embassy.org/

Is it okay for a church to meet in Bar?

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Church in a BarI’ve been mulling this idea around in my head for a long time (six years or so), and finally found someone who is doing it!

Check out the video at this link:

Forefront Church in Virginia Beach Meets in a Bar

The video is no longer online… Sorry! If anyone knows where this video can be found, can you let me know in the comments section below? It was back when Vince Antonucci was the lead pastor. Thanks.

Until then, see my previous posts about this idea:

Dirtbags in Montana

St. Pete’s Church, Bar and Grill

The Mom Song

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The Mom SongMy wife Wendy has decided to play this song for our three girls every morning, just so she gets it all out of the way in 2 minutes and 55 seconds.

If you are a mother, have a mother, or know a mother, you will laugh!

The lyrics are included below the video.

Lyrics:

Get up now
Get up now
Get up out of bed
Wash your face
Brush your teeth
Comb your sleepyhead
Here’s your clothes and your shoes
Hear the words I said
Get up now! Get up and make your bed
Are you hot? Are you cold?
Are you wearing that?
Where’s your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat
Don’t forget! You gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it’s the most important meal of all
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today
Don’t forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play
Don’t shovel
Chew slowly
But hurry
The bus is here
Be careful
Come back here
Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don’t play rough, will you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don’t forget to share
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare
Get along! Don’t make me come down there
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone! Get off the phone!
Don’t sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table
No more computer time tonight!
Your iPod’s my iPod if you don’t listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you’re coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam
You’ll appreciate my wisdom someday when you’re older and you’re grown
Can’t wait till you have a couple little children of your own
You’ll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate
Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate
Use your fork, do not burp or I’ll set you straight
Eat the food I put upon your plate
Get an A, get the door, don’t get smart with me
Get a grip, get in here, I’ll count to three
Get a job, get a life, get a PHD
Get a dose of,
“I don’t care who started it!
You’re grounded until you’re 36”
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven’s sake
And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said at least a thousand times before
That you’re too old to act this way
It must be your father’s DNA
Look at me when I am talking
Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place
Stop crying or I’ll give you something real to cry about
Oh!
Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on
Get in bed, get a help, say a prayer with mom
Don’t forget, I love you
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom’s work never ends
You don’t need the reason why
Because, because, because, because
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so
I’m the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!!
Ta da!!!

Church Additions

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One of the blogs I read daily is The Ongoing Adventures of the ASBO Jesus. The author is a pastor in the UK who writes a comic strip about Jesus, Christianity, and the church. Most often, I find his comic strips spot on.

The one below is true on multiple levels.

Additions

This is true first of all as he has shown it. The church has made so many additions to what the church is supposed to be and do, that we barely represent the church any more. We need to strip all this away, and get back to being and doing what Jesus intended.

But also, this comic strip could be true of the offer of eternal life, how to be a follower of Jesus, and just life in general. Simple is always best.

The Missional Imago Dei of Reformissional Glocal Cruciform Cohorts (WHAT??!!)

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Thinking MissionalLark News, the Christian satire website, posted this humorous article about Missional churches:

Emergent leaders call for ‘missional re-understanding of Jesus-followership and Christ-focus imbued with passionate creativity and emotional authenticity,’ whatever that means:

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — At a recent conference-like “gathering” of emergent church leaders, various factions sparred over competing visions for the future of the movement.

Leaders on one side called for “deepening and continuously beautiful efforts toward emotionally true self-divulgence and confession.” Other leaders countered with a call for “a theological re-purposing of our objective and subjective missionality within a framework of God-love.” Because few in attendance actually understood what either side meant, both ideas were tabled.

The sides did agree that emergent leaders should continue to take every opportunity to make casual, cool cultural references to popular television shows, movies and Internet phenomena to introduce quasi-intellectual spiritual points about the state of the American church.

They also pledged to maintain their reputation for being “more spiritually honest than the millions of people who attend institutionalized churches every week and blindly go along with the programs, sermons and mindset that make American Christianity the colossal failure it is today.”

After toasting themselves with various hyper-cool micro-brews, the audience adjourned to begin 7 and 8-hour theological bull sessions in their hotel rooms and local bars.

Conference organizers say they will meet again to do the same thing next year.

Emerging Missional Church

I laughed at this for several reasons.

The Mission of Emerging Leaders is Coining New Terms

I have read (and am reading) a lot of books by emerging church leaders, and it seems that when they don’t have a word to describe what they are trying to say, they just invent one. One term being thrown around today which is not mentioned in the satirical article above is “glocal” which refers to how Christians must be both global and local in their missional mindset.

Missional WordsThere was a time about a year ago, when I thought that if I heard the word “missional” one more time, I was going to throw up. Now, I have somewhat resigned myself to the fact that it is a term that is going to stick, and to a large degree, I am trying to live “missionally.”

One term that still gets me queasy, however, is “Imago Dei.” It’s Latin for “Image of God,” which I don’t mind at all. My question is, “Why use Latin, when the English is just fine?” There is only one reason I can think of: “Imago Dei” sounds smarter and cooler.

Emerging Church Isn’t so Relevant After All

The terminology of the Emerging Church brings up the second reason I found the Lark article funny.

One of the criticisms leveled at traditional churches by the “emergent/emerging” crowd is that they use too much technical language, theological terms, and Christian jargon that nobody understands. They say we should root out of our vocabulary words like “justification, sanctification, glorification, dispensationalism, eschatology” and other similar terms.

But ironically, they have gone and created their own vocabulary that nobody understands except those who are “in.”  And yet, people who are excited and intrigued by what the emerging/emergent churches are doing are willing to learn the terminology and begin using it themselves.

You know what this means? Getting our message heard is not about weeding out tricky terminology. It’s speaking and writing with a passion and excitement so that others are not only willing to listen, but also to learn and adopt the language.

Look at text messaging as an example. Text messengers have developed their own entire language. I understand very little of it, but those who want to communicate with other cellphone users have learned the language and terms and created their own sub-culture. To see what I mean, check out this list of texting acronyms.

So can you use words like justification and sanctification? Sure! These words are more Biblical than words like “missional,” “emerging,” and “glocal.” But whatever terminology you use, don’t speak and write in a way that is dispassionate and cold toward God, His Word, and all those in the world who are seeking direction (whether believers or unbelievers). While we want to be as clear as possible, if you use terminology that people don’t understand, they will try to learn that terminology if they catch your passion and vision.

In other words, if you cast a vision you are passionate about, people will follow, even if you use words like “glocal,” “imago dei,” “missional,” and “justification.”

And just in case you don’t know what “missional” means, here is some explanation. In a recent article, Brad Brisco shows how impossible this is. Missional is a whole new way of doing church. Here is an excerpt:

Despite the fact that missional language has been in use for at least a quarter of a century, it is being applied today in a wide variety of ways. Unfortunately, many times resulting in confusion. Some view missional as the latest church growth strategy, or a better way of doing church evangelism. Others see missional as a means to mobilize church members to do missions more effectively. While still others believe missional is simply the latest Christian fad that will soon pass when the next trendy topic comes along.

I would argue that those who believe missional is merely an add-on to current church activities, or perhaps even a passing craze prevalent only among church leaders, have simply not fully grasped the magnitude of the missional conversation. While it may sound like hyperbole; the move towards missional involves no less than a complete and thorough recalibration of the form and function of the church of Jesus.

In other words … do you want to be truly “missional”? Great! Just talk like other people and use words that everyone understands. Speak to be clear; not to be cool.

Do you HAVE to believe in the resurrection? This woman did … sort of …

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Resurrection of JesusI ran into someone this past week who would pose quite a dilemma for some, especially if we are trying to determine if people have eternal life based on what they believe. (NONE of us do that, do we?)

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, so I am throwing it out here for you to weigh in on…

It was a woman who called about some questions related to whether or not she had eternal life.

Asking the Kennedy Questions

As we talked, I asked her some diagnostic questions to help me determine where she was coming from.

I asked her that if she were to die tonight, if she were sure she would go to heaven. When she answered, “Yes” I asked her why. She said something along the lines that since Jesus died for all of her sins, and she has believed in Him, she gets to go to heaven when she dies. Though she could have been a bit clearer, this answer was initially satisfactory.

But I asked some follow-up questions as well, to see if she was in any way relying on her past, present, or future good works in order to earn, prove, or keep her eternal life. For example, I asked her if there was anything she could do in the future that might prevent her from going to heaven when she died. From her answers, she seemed certain that since she did nothing to earn her eternal life, there was noting she could do to lose it either. Though I am not the judge of her spiritual condition, I was once again satisfied with her answer. To the best of my knowledge, she understood that simply by her faith in Jesus, she had everlasting life which could not be lost.

Confused Christology

Then we started to talk about some of her questions, and in the process, she mentioned about how she knows Jesus is going to come again when He rises from the dead.

It was an odd way of phrasing it, and so I asked her what she meant. She stated that she knew Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago for her sins, and that He was right now in heaven, and He was coming again in the future. I said, “That’s good, but what was it you said about Him rising from the dead?”

She said, “You know…when He comes again. He died, went to heaven, and when He comes again, He will rise from the dead.”

Wait… what?

Apparently, she didn’t know that Jesus had risen from the dead.

I talked a bit more with her about this, and as it turns out, somehow, here in America, she had never been told (or had just never understood) that Jesus had already risen from the dead!!! I didn’t even know this was possible, but I discovered she doesn’t read her Bible, and doesn’t go to a church that teaches the Bible much.

I asked her if she saw The Passion of the Christ, which she had. I asked, “Didn’t you wonder what was going on at the end of the movie when Jesus rose from the dead?” She said she didn’t think anything about it, because all it shows is Jesus with a glow around Him, and so she thought that was supposed to be Him in heaven, which matched her theology perfectly. (Go look at the end of the movie! She’s right. The ending is very vague.)

After taking her to some passages in the Gospels, and then to 1 Corinthians 15 (which Paul partly wrote to prove the resurrection has taken place), she said she now understood and believed that Jesus had already risen from the dead.

Did She Have Eternal Life?

So here is the question: Did she have eternal life prior to understanding and believing that Jesus rose from the dead? I say “Yes.” She was justified the moment she first believed in Jesus for everlasting life. I was able to disciple her some more this week and teach her some things about the Jesus she had believed in that she did not previously know.

However, even though I would say, “Yes, she had eternal life before she believed in the resurrection of Jesus,” there are lots of Christians who would probably say, “No.” They might argue that until she believed in the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus she does not have eternal life. Although she believed in her own sinfulness, the deity of Jesus, His death on the cross, and that she had eternal life in Him alone, she did not have eternal life until she believed the whole package. Even though she believed in a future resurrection of Jesus, this is not sufficient.

To me, this is incredulous. Antonio da Rosa has posed a similar situation as I have encountered here. He stated somewhere (I can’t find it now) that to consign someone like this woman to hell for not knowing all the Biblical facts about Jesus that are on a man-made list is the height of legalism. This woman believed in Jesus for eternal life, and by Jesus’ own promise, whosoever believes in Him, has everlasting life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Note as well that on this account, the woman is just like all the disciples of Jesus. The disciples believed in Jesus for everlasting life, but not a single one believed that Jesus would die and rise from the dead until after He died and rose from the dead! Does this mean that none of them really had eternal life until after the resurrection of Jesus?

No, again, this is an example of one of those central doctrines of the Gospel which help a person believe in Jesus for eternal life, but are not required for a person to believe in order to receive eternal life. Don’t get me wrong, without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no Gospel. But one does not have to believe the entire Gospel in order to receive eternal life. Most of the Gospel message provides supporting facts and evidence for why and how Jesus can offer eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it, and how to live in response.

But the single “message of life” in the Gospel is this: Whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life (cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Does this help you in your evangelism and discipleship endeavors? Does it help clarify the Gospel message? What do you think about this lady who didn’t know Jesus had risen from the dead? Have you ever encountered someone like this?

Do you have to believe that Jesus is God?

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the ChristDo you have to believe that Jesus is God in order to receive eternal life? Some people think so because of what John says in John 20:31.

These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Since most people assume that “Christ”=”God” and that “Son of God”=”God” they think that it is required to believe that Jesus is divine in order to receive eternal life.

But is this assumption correct? Is it true that the title “Christ” (or “Messiah”) means “God”? How about the term “Son of God”?

“Christ” and “the Son of God” do not require divinity

Many people believe that the terms “Christ” and “Son of God” refer to the divinity of Jesus – the fact that He was God. While that certainly has been a popular view in the past, and is the “traditional” view, more and more students of Scripture are realizing this view does not fit all the Biblical data.

Instead, the terms seem to refer to the role or function of someone who is being used by God in a special way to carry out God’s will on earth. Here is what I believe about the terms “Christ” and “Son of God”:

The terms “Christ” (or “Messiah”) and “Son of God” did not originally refer to someone who was divine, but to someone who had a special relationship with God and was therefore given a God-appointed task, which was often related to some sort of deliverance. However, as Jesus performed His ministry as “the Christ, the Son of God” the terms grew in significance to include the idea that the God-appointed task of Jesus required Him to be God in the flesh. The Gospel writers (especially John) emphasized the divinity of Jesus to prove that everlasting life is freely given to those who believe in the name of Jesus for it.

I believe this for many reasons. First, the term “Christ” (or “Messiah”) simply referred to an anointed deliverer. In Jewish literature, mere humans were often referred to as “Messiah.” No Jewish person thought that the promised Messiah would be God in the flesh. They were looking for, hoping for, and praying for a human deliver who would be specially anointed and gifted by God to lead the Hebrew people back into their rightful place among the nations.

Support for this idea is seen in the fact that the disciples believed Jesus was the promised Messiah long before they believed He was God incarnate. But the disciples do not appear to understand that Jesus is God incarnate until sometime after Jesus rises from the dead. Even at the Last Supper, they ask Jesus to “reveal the Father to us” and Jesus says, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Secondly, regarding the term “Son of God,” it was a term that was commonly used for Kings, Emperors, and Caesars. It was thought that Emperors and Caesars were the offspring of a deity, but were not themselves deity. An Emperor or a Caesar could become a god once they died, but they were not considered to be fully divine while alive.

Much more can be said about this. But the point is that the terms “Christ” (or “Messiah”) and “Son of God” are not, in themselves, equivalent with deity. One could believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, but not realize that He was also God incarnate, God in the flesh.

What does this mean for John 20:31?

The Gospel of John is often seen as “the only evangelistic book of the Bible.” I am not completely convinced that this is the case. In fact, I think every single book of the Bible is “evangelistic” but this is primarily due to how I understand the word “evangelism” than anything else.

I believe that John, in his Gospel, is trying to get people to see that Jesus is God, and is possibly trying to inject more meaning into the terms “Christ” and “Son of God” than the average person in the first century would have understood or immediately grasped.

In other words, one of the primary purposes of John is to impregnate the terms “Christ” and “Son of God” with new meaning and significance that cannot be used of any other human throughout history.

If this is true, John is not trying to teach that believing that Jesus is God is how a person receives eternal life, but that believing that Jesus is God brings a person to the place where they can believe in Jesus for everlasting life. There is a vast difference.

While I don’t think a person necessarily has to believe that Jesus is God in order to receive eternal life, I do think that believing that Jesus is God will help get a person to the place where they understand why and how Jesus can give eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it. A person does not need to believe that Jesus is God to receive eternal life, but why would they believe in Jesus unless they believed Jesus was God?

So while believing that Jesus is God may be logically necessary for receiving eternal life, it is not theologically required.

Yes! Jesus IS God

I do believe that Jesus is God, and I do believe that some of the later uses of the term “Christ” and “Son of God” in the New Testament refer to the divinity of Jesus.

Jesus is God! Jesus is fully divine.

But there is a difference between believing that Jesus is God and believing that it is required to believe that Jesus is God in order to receive eternal life.

I do not believe that to receive eternal life, one must grasp and understand the divinity of Jesus. According to Jesus Himself, He gives eternal life to everyone and anyone who simply believes in Him for it.

Of course, who would believe in Jesus for eternal life without understanding that Jesus is God? So in this sense, it is unlikely that anyone will believe in Jesus for eternal life without believing that Jesus is God, but once again, there is a difference between something being likely and something being required. After all, none of the apostles believed that Jesus was God until after Jesus had risen from the dead, but they did believe in Jesus for eternal life.

Anyway, let me get your thoughts on the subject in the comment section below, and if you want to learn more about how the gospel truth that Jesus is God fits in with the offer of eternal life through Jesus, take my online course on the gospel:

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Is Pastoral Theology Inconsistent Theology?

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pastoral theologyI sometimes hear pastors say that they don’t have systematic theology; they have pastoral theology.

As a pastor myself, I used to nod my head in agreement. I too am concerned with the way some theologians seemed too caught up with dotting every theological “i” while neglecting the task of serving others.

However, in recent years, I have come to develop some reservations about the whole “pastoral theology” concept.

Not Pastoral Theology

In the minds of some today, the pastor who claims to have a pastoral theology is often just saying that his theology is not fixed and consistent. Instead, they adjust their theological views to fit the pastoral concern being faced. This approach often leads to contradictions in theology. Like the situational ethics of the 70s, many pastors have a different theology depending on the situation they find themselves in.

Pastoral theology might be better to call it situational theology.

A Conversation with a Pastoral Leader

This was brought to my attention through a recent conversation I had with another pastor. He and I did not see eye to eye on certain issues of soteriology, and it was not long before he expressed some some serious logical contradictions. When I pointed these out to him, he said that he lived with these contradictions because he had “pastoral theology,” not systematic theology.

When pressed to explain the difference, he relayed the following story which he said actually happened to him:

I was in my office and a man came in who was a serial adulterer. He shared that although he is married, for the past seven years he slept with at least one different woman every month. I asked him if he thought he was a Christian, and the man said, “Yes, I accepted Christ as my personal Savior when I was in high school. They told me I was secure forever, and so I know that even though I’m sinning, I’m still going to heaven.”

Personally, I would have stopped and asked the man for further clarification on what he thought he had done in high school. Why did he say, “They told me I was secure forever”? Why didn’t the man point to Jesus’ promise of eternal life? What did he mean when he said, “I accepted Christ as my personal Savior”? Until these questions are answered, it is still uncertain whether or not he has believed in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. But this particular pastor thought that the man’s statement was fine, and so his story continued:

In such a case, my pastoral heart tells me to put the fear of hell into the man. I told the man that if he was ever saved, he certainly wasn’t saved now. Such adultery was a serious pattern of sin. Unless he repented of his sin, and returned to a monogamous lifestyle, he would not enter heaven.

This is classic Arminian loss-of-salvation theology. It was a little surprising for me to hear these words coming from this man who claimed to be a Calvinist. But he continued his story:

Later that day a different man came into my office. He too admitted to being an adulterer. He was married for seven years, and in that time frequently looked at pornography and had committed adultery twice. He sat in my office with tears streaming down his face, worried that he had lost his salvation and that God would never forgive him.

But I saw that this man had a repentant heart, and he knew that what he had done was sinful. He was a genuine Christian, not in need of chastisement and the fear of hell, but in need of love and forgiveness. I told him that God still loved him, and that Christ had died for all of his sins—past, present, and future—and that there was nothing which could separate him from God. He was secure in the hand of God. Of course, I warned him that he needed to turn from his sin, or else it may prove he was never saved in the first place.

So in one day, this man’s pastoral theology led him to espouse Arminian theology to one person and Calvinistic theology to another. The two systems are contradictory, but he didn’t care, for his theology was “pastoral.” He admitted the two views were contradictory, but only if viewed apart from the individual situations. He molded his theology to fit what he thought the person in front of him needed to hear. This was his pastoral theology.

Inconsistent Pastoral Theology Helps No One

I do not believe such an approach helps anybody. Such contradictions only lead to confusion. This sort of situational pastoral theology does more damage than good, because it allows love for people to drown out the truth of God’s Word. And when truth gets neglected in the name of love, love dies too. It is not loving to tell a lie in a kind way, even if we think the lie is what a person needs. It is far better to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). It is also far better to be Biblical, rather than pastoral.

Consider the first man. Not only was he not given the clear message about how to receive eternal life, he was also given a false message. If this man was indeed unregenerate, he went away with a message in his head that would make it harder for him to be born again. He was told that to enter heaven, he needed to be monogamous. While there certainly are practical benefits and blessings for monogamy, the Bible nowhere lists monogamy as a condition for going to heaven.

So although this pastor thought he was telling this man what was necessary to get him to change his lifestyle, the message he gave was wrong. How practical, how pastoral was that? Doesn’t God know best?

And what about the second man? He also was given a false message. He may have gone away feeling better, but if he wasn’t already born again, he left this encounter more confused than ever. For although he might have been temporarily encouraged, he too was told to refrain from pornography and adultery if he wanted to go to heaven. Once again, the Bible never says this.

So this situational approach to theology is neither loving, nor pastoral.

When pastoral theology becomes situational theology, it helps no one, and only confused those who hear it. If our goal in pastoral theology is to help those who are in our care to understand God and live according to His Word, wouldn’t it be best to have a theology that is consistent and which doesn’t shift with each new counseling session?

If we want to have true pastoral theology, we would be wise to give people what God said! For example, Jesus gives everlasting life to anyone who believes in Him (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; etc.), and a life of obedient discipleship is important for fellowship and rewards. That is an encouraging, loving, and pastoral message. Best of all, it’s true.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

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