Monday Fun

You might think your small group is an unusual mix, but not compared to this one...

Children Again

Shepherding A Child's Heart was the theme of a conference held at Mars Hill Seattle recently.

Videos and audios are available here to download for free. Worth a look.

What they sang before the party was over

The national anthem of what was the Soviet Union is a great piece of music. I do find it staggering that something so stirring can be used to celebrate an ideology that turned out to be so brutal and misguided.

Hard to believe now that communism once seemed so strong. A reminder that no ideology or religion that goes against Jesus has a future.

Pentecostals in Politics: The unfolding tale of Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin's appointment as John McCain's running mate was big news a couple of months ago. Predictably, the media had a field day. First of all it was a kind of grudging awe at her barnstorming speech at the Republican National Convention. And then, came the send ups and the revelations about her "weird" religious beliefs.

One of the clips below is of an African pastor, Thomas Muthee, praying over her. He will be known to some from the Transformations 2 dvd. He was the one who saw revival after the power of witchcraft was broken in his town.

The other video is a kind of press demolition of Palin and her church and its practices.

Unfortunately this is the kind of prejudice Pentecostal belief and practice still faces. I found it amazing in the latter clip that the presenter was sympathetic to the witch who had fallen through Muthee's ministry.

It seems that its ok to hound a creationist out of his or her post, but not someone who keeps people controlled by fear and superstition.

It has to be said as well that even though we might be at ease as Pentecostals with our theology and practice, it doesn't make particularly good tv. It tends to attract the wrong kind of attention and fuel the suspicion and prejudice that still exists with respect to Spirit filled ministry.

I'd love to know your thoughts.

Faith and Politics

American politics is much more highly affected by religion than European or British politics.

American politicians are much more keenly aware of the religious sensibilities of voters.

Many American Christians would never vote for Barack Obama because of his stance on abortion. You can read some of the opinion here and you can hear the man in his own words in the video below:




And for a bit of commentary from the Christian right on the legal implication of some statements Obama has made here

Tomorrow we'll take a look at Sarah Palin and the perils of being a Pentecostal politician.

Train up a child

Once you have children, you really do begin to appreciate children's ministry and think (worry?)about how you are going to bring your children up in a way that pleases the Lord and shapes them in the things of God.

I know there are lots of course these days and books as well.

I thought the following posts were helpful.

Buzzard Blog has some very practical and very down to earth advice on modelling a love for God.
Desiring God has a load of resources - 16 web pages in all of audio and video.


Love this video clip from Piper:

I'm back

I have been absent from blogland for a few weeks. I have been busy - honest!

Trying to get into gear again with blogging. I'll bring you up to speed with some of the things that I have been up to - like Street Pastors, and an Ofsted interview.

A few things have caught my eye and I'll post on the later this week. I'll do a post on the American presidential elections. There is some controversial stuff out there. I'll put some of it up in a post.

I'll also return to Grudem and systematic theology. I hope this whets the appetite of any of my faithful readers.

Monday Fun

Gekko had a point until he got to "Greed is good". In fact the first part of the speech made him sound like a socialist!

Crunch Time

If you watch tv news or read the papers it is unlikely that you haven't heard the term credit crunch.

As someone who has no training in economics or banking it is a little bit hard to understand it all. The issue at the moment seems to be whether or not governments should use taxpayers money to try to prop up the economy. For people of the left that shouldn't be such an issue, for those on the right, it should be heresy! What seems to be messing things up is that the recipients of the money from Joe Public would appear to be the big banks, whom the right traditionally like, and the left don't like! Nothing like money to mess with ideology.

What seems a little worrying is that politicians are arguing for injections of government money but indicating that the day of reckoning is yet to come - without defining what that means.

Where does this leave us as Christians? In the same boat as everyone else - but with faith.

Whatever happens, God is faithful. I am reminded of the experience of the hymn writer H.G. Spafford. He was a successful businessman who lost all his material possessions in the great fire in Chicago in 1873. A few weeks later his wife and four daughters set sail for France. The ship they were travelling on was rammed by another liner and sank. His wife survived and telegrammed her husband from Wales with the stark words "Saved, alone".

Out of deep grief Spafford wrote these words:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."

For some Christian commentary on what's going on in the markets (America in particular) see A Christian view of the Economic Crisis