Books, books, more books! David Hawley November 23

My birthday present arrived from Amazon, a pile of systematic theologies, a book on the atonement, and a few  other goodies. Three months late, but now who cares!

• Biblical Eldership: Restoring The Eldership To Its Rightful Place In Church
  The case for a plurality of lay elders sharing pastoral responsibility.
• Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
• Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament & Contemporary Contexts.
• The One, the Three and the Many: God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity : The Bampton Lectures 1992.
  This Wow of a book deals with the age-old struggle between unity and plurality, and argues that the resolution is relatedness grounded in a rediscovered understanding of the Creation.
• Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
• Theology for the Community of God. On first look, very readable and lucid.
• Systematic Theology (PANNENBERG, WOLFHART//SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY)
• Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People Who Aren't Interested
• Contemporary Anabaptist Theology: Biblical, Historical, Constructive

And while I'm listing these up, a month ago I also bought the following good reads:

• Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity.
  A disciple of Francis Schaefer lets it rip.
• The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto Series), C.S.Lewis.  Lewis the scholar illuminates how it felt to live in an cosmos integrated around God.

Book-junky heaven!

Cults, emotionalism, philosophers and pesky Calvinists David Hawley September 3

Tired of Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons knocking at your door? Where did these people come from anyway?

The answer is very interesting; from Love Your God With All Your Mind (NavPress 1997) by Christian philosopher and former Campus Crusade staffer  James P. Moreland:

[regarding the Great Awakening and other revivalist movements]
Obviously there is nothing wrong with the emphasis of these movements on personal conversion. What was a problem, however, was the intellectually shallow, theologically illiterate form of Christianity that cam to be part of the populist Christian religion that emerged. One tragic result of this is what happened in the so-called Burned Over District in the state of New York. Thousands of people were "converted" to Christ by revivalist preaching, but they had no real intellectual grasp of Christian teaching. As a result, two of the three major American cults began in the Burnt Over District among the unstable, untaught "converts": Mormonism (1830) and the Jehovah's Witnesses (1884).

It appears that the reaction to cold formalism gave birth to its own nagging problems.

Googling around on "Burnt Over District" brought me to a number of Reformed criticisms of revivalism, and in particular of Charles Finney, one of the most famous revivalists in this area of New York state.  After bashing Finney for unorthodox doctrine and unstable converts in "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: How Charles Finney's Theology Ravaged the Evangelical Movement", he takes him out on a second "trip to the woodshed" for his innovation of the "altar call".  Finney's Systematic Theology doesn't bear out to me that criticism of his orthodoxy.  Incidentally, I responded to an altar call when I was 18 - without a clear apprehension of my own sin - and I'm still following Jesus.

It seems in every field  there are the neats and the scruffies. Did I become a Christian at the time I answered the call to walk to the front of the church hall?  Or was I born again after hanging around church long enough to figure what this faith thing was all about?  Well, since I fulfilled Romans 10:9-10 at that point (the church had us out witnessing on street corners almost immediately), my lack of doctrinal awareness not withstanding, I think the answer is yes - I was reborn when I answered the altar call.  Not because of walking forward, but because I had believed what the Holy Spirit was witnessing to me, and I submitted to his prompting to commit myself to him.  Doctrinally messy I guess, but life is like that (cf. the book of Acts).

So taking the Reformed critiques with a large grain of salt, here is the flip side of appeals to conscience: base the appeals on truth fed to the mind (Romans 12:1-2).  Read a challenging book from time to time. And follow up on converts.

[I claim very little grasp of church history and moderate acquaintance with the finer points of doctrine, but I thought the book (on my to-buy list) and the articles were interesting enough to comment on.  Professor Moreland sounds like a cool guy; I've ordered his Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview].

The other  David Hawley August 31, 2004

I'm not a sports fan, but I really did enjoy watching the televised Olympics, especially the  team rhythmic gymnastics.  Such gorgeous costumes! Incredible rubber-bone moves!  Flawless teamwork! Coordination to kill for! Breathtaking artistry!  The aesthetics just get better and better.

Then it struck me: there will be such performances in heaven too.  Where God accepts all the gifts he has given to us that we have polished, and that we are blessed to give back to him.  And as at the Olympics here on earth, all nations will gather before him to worship (-- Graham).  After a few millennia of practice, just imagine the kind of show!  And the delight of the Father in his beloved twice-made children.  Make sure you reserve your tickets!

There will probably be sports too.

Appealing to conscience David Hawley August 29, 2004

What are we trying to do when we preach or teach?  So much information to deliver, perspectives to get across, challenges to make, decisions to call for, habits to instill.  Sometimes we start to forget the basics.

Thankfully, there are reminders like this gem from Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox:

People don’t come to Christ because they fear eschatological heat or because they follow a historical argument. They come to Christ because the honest truth about judgment and sin resonates with something they already know -- and the honest truth about the grace of the Father resonates with longings they already have. If we are going to be faithful in ministry, we must figure out how to stop addressing merely minds and sentiments and self-interest in our pulpits and start addressing consciences (my emphasis).

Somewhere in Manhattan a woman finds herself, inexplicably, in tears when she read in her New York Times about a triplet who will grow up an only child. She composed herself, and wrote out her monthly check for Planned Parenthood. But, even so, the tears are there -- and she just can’t figure out why. Who will tell her?

If I look back at what has been effective in our bible studies, this is it: appealing to conscience.  More than the point of contact with people who don't share the biblical perspectives, the conscience is where God makes an appeal to respond to him in repentance, faith and obedience.

So for those with a theoretical bent like yours truly: the truth is the driver, but don't forget to appeal to the heart.

True Myths David Hawley August 24, 2004

A few weeks ago I subscribed to BeliefNet.com (handle: VigiDivine), a multi-faith site with articles and forums on dozens of religions, faith and spiritualities.  Last week I got involved in a discussion with two people following Asatru, a neo-pagan religious practice based on Norse mythology.

I was very surprised at the way these post-modern religionists mix ancient practices with a view of truth reminiscent of a modernist liberal theology.  The really weird part was finding some aspects of the old rites that look very similar to Old Testament sacrifices, but realizing that since these icky bits are upper-story "spiritualized truth" in neo-paganism, there is no way to leverage the correspondence as an apologetic.  It made me realize again the corrosive effect of abandoning the unity of truth, and of calling belief what is only a desperate attempt to live off traditions we have hollowed of their witness and power.

Religions traditionally deal with themes of life and death, sin and divine wrath, the holy and the profane; they bear witness to realities beyond our power to control and to truths we attempt to suppress.  As C.S.Lewis tells it, the pagan myths do bear an indirect witness to the one God; they are "lies told through silver".   With that remark echoing in my head, I remembered his retelling of the Psyche story,  Till We Have Faces, and cracked it open for a a little inspiration.  It must have been those frustrating BeliefNet encounters,  because this time through I couldn't put the book down and wound up reading it twice.

From the first-person viewpoint of Psyche's sister who "has a complaint against the gods", this novel of self-discovery takes a powerful look at the nature of knowledge, faith, belief and self-deception, the war between good and evil in each person, the weaving together of flesh and spirit, the true nature of "the gods" and the liberation that comes when "the gods" in their severe mercy judge us by showing us our real faces: "Die before you die, otherwise its too late."

As for me, I'll pass on pale watery neo-whatever religions.  Give me instead a thick religion of blood and water and spirit. Grant me good companions on a journey that risks all for a great reward.  Let me make memories of chances taken, of suffering and loss, joy and hope, and trust in a God who is there.  A God who puts me to the test - in order that I will come to know how faithful and true he really is.

Showing thanks David Hawley August 24, 2004

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. (Ephesians 1:15-16)

A recent Gallup poll shows that 65% of Americans received no praise or recognition last year at their places of work.  Neglecting to give positive feedback for that long a stretch can't be right.

I wonder whether its the attitude of thankfulness that's missing, or just the determination to express it. And if thankfulness is expressed in praise to God, recognition is directed to one another.

Lord, please help us - especially me - to recognize each other's service in the Lord, be thankful, and encourage each other.

ACT member David Hawley August 11, 2004

Just got the formal acceptance letter from Artists In Christian Testimony appointing yours truly as Volunteer Staff (#270) in connection with my work with JapanCAN and KantoEastWorship.net.

I guess its time to start working on promotional materials.  Man, I need another pair of hands...

1st pre-service prayer time David Hawley August 9, 2004

We had our first pre-meeting prayer time yesterday.

Lord, gather us to pray. Teach us to pray.
Build your church as we come before you in prayer for your loved ones, for those who don't  know you yet.  Glorify yourself in our midst.

Study in Groups David Hawley August 9, 2004

Our study yesterday was an introduction to the key concepts of atonement, justification and redemption mentioned in Romans 3:21-26.  After a short introduction, we broke up into 3 groups of 3 people to look at each concept based on provided scripture references.  Then I sat back and watched.

Its interesting to see the dynamics in these little groups.  The natural leaders come out, those with leadership or teaching skills, those with more knowledge or better reading skills (native speakers!) help others to deal with the text.  Fortunately, the distribution between the groups was good.

Maybe we've stumbled on a better way to balance participation and content?  And possibly a way to informally nurture leaders as well.

Japanese is difficult David Hawley August 9, 2004

"Japanese is difficult" was the comment that marked my debut preaching in Japanese this last Sunday at Nishi-Kasai International Church. True enough. Definitely makes sense to leave it to the Japanese to preach in their own language :-)

From my perspective though, it was a great experience to team with Izumi and Kentaro for the service, dear people that I've gotten to know and feel comfortable with through NEWS. Sunday marked Izumi's first time MC-ing the Japanese service. I was very grateful that Peter Younge the pastor of Nishi-Kasai had trained a number of the ladies, and that he suggested her as a good candidate for leading the service, something that I'd also been eager to ask her to do.  Way to go Izumi!  Kentaro also looks very confident and relaxed leading the music.  I'm very thankful for him!

Teamwork led by God's Holy Spirit is just a wonderful thing.

Fantasyland meets Mom David Hawley August 5, 2004

On Tuesday, Pfc. Lynndie R. England appeared in military courtroom to face charges on prisoner abuse in Iraq according to a report in the New York Times, which describes Pfc. England's mother looking on stern-faced as investigators described pictures of her 21 year old daughter abusing prisoners and other pictures of her daughter having sex with the man by whom she is now pregnant.

I doubt  Pfc. England thought her mother would find out about what she'd been up to in Iraq.  Hopefully she wasn't thinking at all.  If you've ever done anything you kick yourself for doing and hope to God that no one ever finds out about, you'll sympathize with her.  At least that's what her lawyers would have us do as they profess how embarrassed she is, embarrassment that unfortunately she doesn't appear to have shown in the courtroom.

RANT: What is it about people that allows us to mentally wander off to la-la land, where a few seconds of sober reflection would have us running off in the opposite direction? And farther into the clouds of dullness, how is it we can so abuse our minds and consciences that we no longer feel shame even when our noses are rubbed in it?

I think this is the kind of moral and mental fog the apostle Paul describes in Romans chapter 1:

²¹What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. ²²They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life.

We're all prone to turning off our conscience when it interferes with our appetites.  Fantasyland is addictive and progressively destructive.  And although the fear of stern-faced Mom may not cause us to walk the straight and narrow, we can't escape God so easily.  But where redemption is possible, judgment is mercy.

So pray for the spiritually and morally confused young woman who faces up to 38 years in prison.

9 marks of a healthy church  David Hawley August 4, 2004

A friend (who is now board member of a small Japanese church - cool!) recommended www.9marks.org for measuring the health of a church.  Compared to the Saddleback 5 purposes framework, 9 Marks is basically a drill-down on the theological you-got-to-get-this-right issues, but simply and approachably presented.  9Marks recommends concentrating on expository teaching.  Strangely enough, it seems somehow I'm naturally going in that direction too.  Hmm.

Humility lost and found  David Hawley August 4, 2004

Interesting article at the Christianity Today website on philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff's reevaluation of the modernist fathers Locke and Reid.  Ever since I became aware of  the post-modern criticism of "rationality ueber alles" (it takes longer for engineering types like me), it struck me that the right attitude is humility about what we can know, and a trust in God that he has made us so we can know enough to live appropriately.  It's nice to know that these thoughts are not original with me :-)

But it's sobering to consider that such humility at the roots of modernity was somehow discarded along the way, and we have suffered accordingly with the two extremes of modernism and pomo nihilism. Wannabe chatterers take note.

God's backward wisdom David Hawley July 27, 2004

It's really cool when threads of God's wisdom revealed in the bible start to weave together in your mind. Here's a wonderful teaching from Xenos on the theme of God's power shown through our weakness, including a very moving testimony.  There are other teachings in this series I'm looking forward to checking out.

Knowing that our weaknesses drive us to Christ - who has real power - makes me glad I'm not a natural-born leader.  Hope it encourages you, dear reader, too!

Having Conversation and Cuisine David Hawley July 27, 2004

My old co-worship-leading buddy from UICC, Hitoshi Machida, asked me if I was planning on trying out the Conversation and Cuisine idea mentioned in the July 7 Weblog entry.  He seems to think it would work in Japan.

There are a number of people in our fellowship who really love to cook, so this could be a good fit for us.  Its an exciting idea; maybe we actually could go for it?  So what's the target audience, and based on that which topic and language (J/E/C) and speaker.  Should someone's home be the venue?

Think I'll bring this up, and then start to pray and think about it.

Update - How we're doing David Hawley July 27, 2004

Seems I've been too busy with other projects to update this Weblog.  How about a little state-of-the union to start the creative juices flowing...

We're up to a solid nine attendees every Sunday + occasional visitors.  We're a pretty eclectic mix: five nationalities and three languages, mature Christians, young believers and a few seekers.  In terms of Saddleback's 5 purposes of the church:

• Worship: needs work; corporate prayer often gets short-changed.
• Fellowship: We enjoy each others company.  Fellowship is becoming deeper, showing concrete expressions of love.
• Discipleship: Bible studies are serving seekers and new Christians better.  Changes in other areas show that spiritual growth is happening.
• Ministry/Service: spreading beyond the original founding members, with some take up of Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 14.
• Evangelism: one or two members are inviting seekers, and the bible studies incorporate evangelistic elements.

So worship is the weakest point - particularly prayer - which is a problem since it is the link with power for the rest.  It might be a good idea to take a short break from Romans, or better, work in an aside of 2 weeks to talk about worship again; I could dig out material from Hebrews I used at UICC for a starter.  The other idea that I have is to leverage the interaction between the means of spiritual growth; e.g. spiritual ministry drives you to pray and to study.  Since ministry is happening, perhaps the Holy Spirit will work in us so that we start a pre-meeting prayer session to support the ministry.

Hey, here's my new slogan:  just like "Trust and Obey" to be happy in Jesus, I'll coin "Preach and Pray" to see Gods power.  [Well, actually "Teach and Pray" in our case].  So there's the plan.

It's exciting to experience how Christ, our head and master builder, will build his church out of the "spiritual stones" he has assembled here.  As the Muslims like to say, "God is Great!".

Cross-Cultural Communication with Postmoderns David Hawley July 7, 2004

The Christian message  is offensive.  From its beginnings to the present day, there has always been something about the gospel that flies in the face of cultural values and presuppositions.

So how do you talk with someone who thinks your perspective is offensive? The Postmodern Puzzle: When there are no absolute truths and no rules of logic, how do we defend the gospel? shows how, by challenging the prevailing Western culture's "postmodern consensus", a space can be opened for mutually respectful discussion of different viewpoints - even the Christian worldview.

In the article, Xenos Christian Fellowship's Dennis McCallum goes on to describe Xenos' Conversation and Cuisine home parties designed as a vehicle "to engage (adults) in substantive conversation and relationships".  The purpose of these outreach events is not to evangelize, but tear down the barriers to cross-cultural communication between post-moderns and Christians.  McCallum presents how he presents an example topic "To judge or not to judge", and lists other possible topics (cf. annotated list of topics).   By gently confronting postmodern assumptions  in a loving atmosphere we appeal to both reason and experience.

The approach reminds me of the presuppositional apologetics of Francis Schaeffer, who is quoted in the article, but somehow gentler than I remember from Schaeffer's books. If I didn't believe in reincarnation, I'd swear that  Francis senior is back among us.  Francis Schaeffer the White?

I'd love to attend one of these little Conversation and Cuisine dinner-and-discussion parties - they sound like relics from a more civil, confident era - or even better have our little community host one :-)

I wonder if with some adjustment this concept might fly in Japan too . . .

Patience David Hawley July 6, 2004

Don't put a plastic cover over your potted cilantro seedlings to help them grow.
They fry in the hot 30 degree-plus sun :-(

Sigh... time to sow again.

Go to the source David Hawley June 29, 2004

So many voices, so many interpretations.  How do you know what to believe?

For last week's study on evangelism I had originally thought to analyze some canned presentations of the gospel like the Roman Road or Four Spiritual Laws, and if time permitted ask people to try to express the gospel in their own words.  Instead I wound up assigning sections of the book of Acts to individuals to look over for 10-15 minutes and report back summaries of the New Testament church's gospel proclamations.

The main reason I altered my original plan, from analyzing other people's modern presentations of the gospel to going directly to the biblical source, was the criticisms of the Roman Road I found on the Web, a purported major deficiency being a missing emphasis on turning away from our former lives. But our own go-to-the-Bible study didn't have that problem; the apostles in their preaching clearly point out the need for repentance, and the group picked up that aspect from the texts.

So a little serendipity hammers home the message: read the Word. Even though it helps to study together with people who have spent more time learning and applying God's Word to their lives than you have, its a real confidence builder to read the bible for yourself!  You'd think I'd have learned something from this famous quote:

I defy the pope and all his laws; and, if God spares me, I will one day make the boy that drives the plow in England to know more of the Scriptures than the pope does!
(William Tyndale, translator and publisher of the first bible in English, martyred AD 1536.).

e.g. you can't leave it to the experts to read for you.

[Added treat last week:
  Izumi shared a passage she had found relevant to the previous week's study.  Way to go!
]

More experiments with group bible study formats David Hawley June 25, 2004

This week marks the final session in the 6 Habits of Faith topical series we've been covering on Sundays. The study approach has morphed very rapidly over the 10 weeks or so we've spent on the Habits.

First of all, we were charging away at 1 Habit section/week. Then I was away one Sunday, and when I came back the rest of the group had only gotten halfway through the next study.
Hmm. Had I been too structured? Others not structured enough?

Second, I wasn't as happy with the level of some of the later sections. So I started picking a chapter (or three) of scripture to treat the same theme, but with more biblical context. That was the I Corinthians 12-15 section on fellowship (refocused on worship as a participatory corporate activity). I used some slides from Xenos.org on the "organic" church, and a short audio section. We followed that up with a practicum along the lines of I Cor. 14:26, i.e. a "potluck" service where people bring things to share. The "potluck" was great! Izumi shared the incredible modern hymn "In Christ Alone", Bibi shared a poem, David S. a section from "Purpose-Driven Life".
Great time together and very encouraging to witness what God had been teaching each other!  Lots of sharing as well.

Topical Exposition

If you're expecting everyone to minister (Ephesians 4), you need to be thinking equipping.  So I was more convinced after the I Cor.12 study that studying the scriptures together is preferable to looking at thoroughly predigested study materials.  I.e. even when doing a topical study (a top-down approach), its much better to take verses in context, looking at whole passages.  You get to give a taste of what study can look like and raise the bar.  When people start buying study bibles then you know the culture is taking root.

Anyway, with this idea of addressing topics through looking at major passages in mind, last week we attempted to get through 2 Corinthians 5 on evangelism/discipling (with a brief look at the "exchanged life" for appetizers). Unsurprisingly enough, we got stuffed on the appetizer, and an extra 30 minutes on Q&A afterwards just on that. So this week it looks like we'll go back and revisit 2 Corinthians, finish off the topic, and spend a major fraction of the study time on sharing, and hopefully prayer as well.

As usual my pacing sucks as I bite off more than we can chew; not having a longer-term plan is a major contributing factor. So setting a multi-month study program is a high-priority agenda item. I've suggested we cover Romans next, which will certainly take several months.

Balancing different needs

The amount of free discussion is also an issue.  People are all over the place in terms of scriptural background and maturity, so I'd like to have some structure (exposition either by teaching or by structured questions) with the needs of the younger in mind, but still allow for people to express their understanding and questions.  This isn't so easy, and it also requires the leaders to switch between different modes of interaction.  Foghorn Leghorn here finds this difficult to do!

I seem to be moving towards splitting our study time up into a structured section (either a mini-sermon or a structured bible-study aimed at understanding the passage) followed by a discussion time. If the structured time is a bible study, then that usually takes the whole Sunday, and the discussion time has to happen the following Sunday. Its probably better to bite off smaller chunks, and then overlap.

Deja Pensee

And that requires better planning.  Isn't this where we started 1 year ago?

Lament David Hawley June 23, 2004

I think I love the sound of my voice and the echoes of my own thoughts.

Wretched me.

Happy anniversary NEWS David Hawley June 22, 2004

Congratulations to everyone in NEWS on the 1st anniversary of the start of the Nishi-Kasai English Worship Service.

Thank you Lord for leading us this far, and prodding us to continue when we wanted to quit!

Believable Web site statistics David Hawley June 5, 2004

I've spent the last few days analyzing Web statistics for JapanCAN.com, this site and a few others I run.  I host with ExpertHost.com and they provide two packages, DeepMetrix and AWStats.  Both offer statistics on visitors, pages, top URLs, etc.  DeepMetrix is very nice looking and offers simple historical comparisons on most statistics.  AWStats doesn't offer any trend information.

But the numbers coming from DeepMetrix looked a little odd, and there was this enormous, inexplicable surge in hits last November on JapanCAN.com.  Finally, I figured it out: DeepMetrix combines web crawler hits (i.e. when the search engines come to analyze your site so that people can search for it later) are combined with hits from normal human visitors.  Usually that's not a big problem.  Except sometimes.  Or for sites that aren't so popular.

AWStats, on the other hand, distinguishes crawler hits and page accesses from normal visitor accesses.  It runs off Web server log files, so you can reanalyze historical data if need be.  AWStats is customizable, open source, and free.  Gets my vote.

Church in Japan in chains David Hawley June 3, 2004

The Christian church in Japan is 1% of the total population, but only 0.2% attend services regularly.  So 4 of every 5 baptized believers won't gather for worship this week - at least not in the organized church.

Why would believers not gather together with their brothers and sisters?  How can you turn away from sharing your joy, from being fed and encouraged, from the chance to pray for one another?  Why not take respite from a hyper-competitive and unforgiving society?

One reason might be that the church is too often seen as a burden factory, not a fountain of encouragement and support?  (here's an alternative explanation)

Jesus has set us free

Last night I watched a videotaped lecture series from Jesus to Japan (JTJ), the seminary in Tokyo where Kentaro studies.  The series is on correctly understanding the gospel.  It seems there is a big gap between the God of the New Testament, the gospel of forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus, and the twisted understanding that many Japanese believers (and pastors) appear to have and have imposed on them.

Ancient Japanese beliefs in "heaven's punishment" taking root in the church.  Horrific stories of judgment and condemnation.  Legalism.  Burdens that only the strong and disciplined could ever hope to bear.  And while some Japanese can; many -- unsurprisingly -- don't.

Is it really this bad?  I don't know.  But I do know grace is a hard concept to grasp and integrate into heart and mind.  The glorious freedom of a son or daughter of God - the freedom to live out the life of Jesus without fear of failure or censure - is easily lost to our desire to justify ourselves to ourselves and to others. Without even realizing it, we fall back on looking at performance, by which we alternatively boast and berate ourselves, and by which we judge and condemn others.  Me too.  But it is God who pronounces us worthy.  It is God who has decisively and finally paid the price for our freedom.

A new generation

If schools like JTJ and CLTC have their way, the new generation of Japanese leaders will be characterized by a deep personal understanding of the love of God, and will bring the fresh wind of the Spirit, the God of forgiveness, healing and mercy, peace and joy into the churches.

God willing, under their leadership we will see multitudes of Japanese laying down their burdens at the feet of the Savior, the Good Shepherd who calls for us to come "and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:29-31.

Talk and Walk David Hawley June 3, 2004

Still struggling with the balance between teaching and facilitating in our bible studies. Last week I tried a new tactic: teaching followed by a practicum; in this case, directed bible study on fellowship (I Cor 12-14) followed by a I Cor 14:26 "bring your own worship offering" (BYOWO) the following week.  Looking forward to see how it works out!

I'm also thinking about trying the format of a short message followed by a participative bible study. Kentaro suggested this a few months ago... or longer ... Has it really been a year since we started NEWS?

What is law good for? David Hawley May 31, 2004

The rule of law is what makes America great.

So claims Frank Rich in his NY opinion piece entitled It was the porn that made me do it.  But is it necessary make laws to tell people that sexually degrading someone is wrong?  If such actions aren't self-evidently immoral, evil, how can we possibly hope to create moral codes by looking inside ourselves and then expect all of us to follow the rules?

Oh, I see, that's why we make laws - for coercion.  But if it isn't self-evidently wrong to torture, then punishing people for torturing prisoners is just an exercise of power.  Just like the torture itself.

Law at its best discourages wrongdoing, encourages the doing of good, and educates.  Law at its worst excuses wrongdoing, rewards selfishness, and misleads.   What makes the difference?

For the letter (of the law) kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Is weeping all that's left? David Hawley May 26, 2004

As the lid comes off on the sordid details of US troop misbehavior in Iraq, the size and scope of the problem expands to fill the newsprint dedicated to it.  Apparently, it wasn't just a handful of morally warped individuals that perpetrated torture and abuse on Iraq prisoners.

And the whole sexual angle. After the buzz and public debate following Janet Jackson's Super Bowl half-time escapade, the sexual abuse handed out to Moslems looks less like tactics and more like a reflection of a national epidemic of moral rot.

And the mirror isn't done yet. In a recent LATimes opinion piece, Barbara Ehrenreich wails her disillusionment that even female soldiers were guilty of abusing prisoners. Its not testosterone that brings forth this evil.  And what are to make of the fact that Christians in high political offices- our champions! - professing the noblest motives are among those responsible for policies that appear to have contributed to this debacle?

But for you, kinder, gentler reader, I offer a quote for consideration:

C.S. Lewis writes, "For (Alexander Whyte), one essential symptom of the regenerate life is a permanent, and permanently horrified, perception of one's natural and (it seems) unalterable corruption. The true Christian's nostril is to be continually attentive to the inner cesspool.  Another author, quoted in Haller's Rise of Puritanism, says that when he looked into his heart, it was "as if I had in the heat of summer looked down into the Filth of a Dungeon, where I discerned Millions of crawling living things in the midst of that Sink and liquid Corruption.'  (C. S. Lewis)  I won't listen to those who describe that vision as merely pathological. I have seen the 'slimy things that crawled with legs' in my own dungeon. I thought the glimpse taught me sense. But Whyte seems to think it should not be a glimpse but a daily, lifelong scrutiny. Can he be right? It sounds so very unlike the New Testament fruits of the spirit—love, joy, peace. And very unlike the Pauline programme: 'forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before.'…I know that a spiritual emetic at the right moment may be needed. But not a regular diet of emetics! If one survived, one would develop a 'tolerance' of them. This poring over the 'sink' might breed its own perverse pride." (CS Lewis. The Inspirational Writings of CS Lewis. (New York: Inspirational Press. 1994) p. 307.)

Wretched men and women that we are!  How can we fight and win when "we have met the enemy and he is us"?

Yet as Lewis makes clear, the apostle Paul  seems to have had something else in mind than endless introspection and repentance. Something more positive, something that gives us a way to move forward; a spiritual growth program based on Grace and the mysterious ingredient S.

The potent mixture of  Grace and Suffering is the therapy that God has chosen to deal with the sin that besets us.

I recommend checking out a really great teaching on this subject by Xenos pastor Dennis McCallum,  Suffering and Spiritual Growth.

Another interesting site David Hawley May 24, 2004

Check out www.xenos.org for lots of good tools, essays and other helps for studying the bible, equipping and discipling people.  Very content-rich site, and easy to use.

I ran into their website by accident. According to the site, Xenos ("sojourner") Christian Fellowship is an evangelical church with a strong emphasis on home groups, which actually function more like house churches.  They expect a lot from their home group leaders, and are serious about equipping them.  They also explain their philosophy of ministry, and how and why their methodology differs from church-planting movements.

Well worth a visit.

The discipline of thanks (and getting to bed earlier) David Hawley May 19, 2004

After the morning am prayer meeting, I was supposed to to meet up with Mayumi and my in-laws in front of Maihama station for a day at Disneyland. But a friend called, so I wandered over to his house for a chat, and after sending his two (adorable!) little girls off to kindergarten we took the train to Maihama to hang out a bit before the rest of the Disney-goers showed up.

Well, the meeting at Maihama station never came off.   I was teed-off.

Never mind that my buddy and I had a great time of fellowship. And never mind that I knew that the fellowship was the better thing. Never mind that we were talking about God working good through our trials.  I was annoyed, and a touch judgmental as well.

Well I can excuse myself, and say at least I don't sulk as long or badly as I used to.  Or that I'm cranky because I'm a suffering from lack of sleep.  Jesus did better than that.  So I can too!

Maybe I need to develop a discipline of thanks.  Center myself with, say, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5:

 ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

when I start to get irritated and then do what it says.  Yeah, that's the ticket!
[Besides getting to bed at a reasonable hour.]

Site has Really moved David Hawley May 18, 2004

After a 3 day wrestling match with our registrar GoDaddy.com, the forwarding seems to have kicked in. GoDaddy claimed I just needed to be patient, but as far as I understand it using nslookup to the nameservers should work immediately. So back and forth with the emails to the support center, saying the same thing over and over again until the light clicks on and they spend the extra 10 seconds to actually think about the problem instead of picking a canned answer offered by their handy-dandy-efficiency-boosting-customer-infuriating call center application.  And at the end neither one of us admitted to error, which makes it worse.

This kind of useless back and forth, having to say the same thing 3 or 4 times (each with a several hour delay) until overworked staff actually "get it" always tempts me to get unpleasant. Especially when it means a site goes down for more than a few minutes, or worse for a few days.

I hope I'm getting a little better at the patience thing, but in the arms race between rage-fueling low-touch high-tech complexity and the Spirit's work in my life, I'm not always sure who's winning :-(

I also need to try harder to get to bed at a reasonable hour so I'm not gnawing on the desk while I clickety-clack out the late-night emails . . .

The Baptized Imagination David Hawley May 17, 2004

In the post-modern era, biblical interpretation needs to be spiritual as well as true, and formation of a Christian mind and application to life is as important as fine exegesis of the details of individual passages.  That's the thesis of the article Hermeneutics and the meditative use of scripture: The case for a baptized imagination.   It goes on to admit the deficiencies of the standard evangelical approach to interpreting scripture and  the spiritual danger whenever head-knowledge outdistances soul-growth.

To correct the imbalance and shortcomings of a traditional approach heavy on scholarship, we are encouraged to balance study with meditation on scripture:

Spiritual reading, by contrast, is designed to encourage longer and more accurate retention of truth. And through it we enter into the text and the text then enters into us. It is an important key to the elusive desideratum of personal wholeness and integration. We may be very learned and still remain unchanged until the truth actually begins to alter the default settings of our mind and character. The first great value of meditation is that it is an aid to internalization of the truth. As Peter Toon describes its function, spiritual reading is a particular way of receiving the revealed and dynamic Word of God into the heart from the mind so as to direct the will in the ways of God's guidance. It is profoundly formational.

A mind and heart trained and formed by the scriptures and obedient to them is the foundation that keeps study and meditation aligned and true.

Now all of us need to learn how to "correctly handle the word of truth"; we must all heed the apostle's command to "watch (both) your life and doctrine".   Lord God, help us to do so.