We’ve been reading a book called Ethnic Realities and the Church: Lessons from Kurdistan. It is a record of mission work in Kurdistan from 1668-1990 and is packed with wisdom that is relevant to missionaries all over the world. Even the American church could stand to learn a few things from Blincoe’s research.
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Christian Life
How to be a better witness
If we are going to take the Great Commission seriously, then we need to know how to witness to unbelievers. Evangelism is a skill that we constantly need to develop, so let’s take a look at Paul’s insight on how to be better witnesses:
Conduct yourself with wisdom toward those who are outside, making use of the opportunity. In order to know how it is proper for you to respond to anyone, always let your doctrine be with grace, having been made savory with salt. (Col 4:5-6)
The command to conduct yourself with wisdom is a tall order. Of course, it is good to be wise all the time, but here Paul is referring to our relationship toward those who are outside, that is, those who are outsiders to the Church, meaning unbelievers.
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A blind poet described the sea… what happened next will change how you share the Gospel
One of these greens is not like the other…. Can you pick out which one?
Image from here.
If you were a member of the Himba tribe in Nambia, you probably could have picked out the square in the middle of the top-right quadrant as being unique. However, here’s a member of the same tribe struggling to pick out a blue square in the midst of green squares:
Ibid.
Let’s talk about Santa
Lately, there has been a resurgence back to European Christmas traditions. A few years ago, Dwight Schrute of The Office introduced America to the old German character, Belsnickel. There is also a new movie out this year about the Bavarian Christmas creature, Krampus. I like this resurgence. Too often, the American idea of internationalization is actually Americanization. Instead of expecting the world to appreciate and celebrate our Santa Clause, this resurgence calls Americans to seek out other traditions of the season from around the world.
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Have You Broken the 10 Commandments?
The following blog post is a verbatim transcription of a conversation between two people, whom we will call Jack and Joe in order to protect their identity, even though they and this conversation are completely fictional:
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Hocus Pocus Today
‘Tis the season for spooky Halloween movies! My favorite Halloween movie is Hocus Pocus, which features three witches from the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials who come back to modern day Salem… ok, so maybe 1993 isn’t so modern anymore, but you get the point. The theology is terrible, but it’s a cute Disney movie about witches.
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