FROM JOINERS TO TRANSFORMERS

Empowering unusually diverse 
new members for missional leadership

A workshop at the 
gathering of the 
Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators

Facilitator's Notes

Presentation

WHAT DO I LOVE WHEN I LOVE MY GOD?

"What do I love, when I love Thee? not beauty of bodies, nor the fair harmony of time, nor the brightness of the light, so gladsome to our eyes, nor sweet melodies of varied songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers, and ointments, and spices, not manna and honey, not limbs acceptable to embracements of flesh. None of these I love, when I love my God; and yet I love a kind of light, and melody, and fragrance, and meat, and embracement when I love my God, the light, melody, fragrance, meat, embracement of my inner man: where there shineth unto my soul what space cannot contain, and there soundeth what time beareth not away, and there smelleth what breathing disperseth not, and there tasteth what eating diminisheth not, and there clingeth what satiety divorceth not. This is it which I love when I love my God".

THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, Book 10, Chapter 6

Parshall on the Historical Roots of so much Anger

Phil Parshall was among my most influential professors while attending Fuller Seminary. While in Brazil  I had enjoyed two of his books on contextualization but being able to interact directly was even better than reading them. The deep love for people of the people of the Muslim faith with whom he served had for long years came across everyone of his lectures. Two decades later I am pleased to have come across some audio that presents some of the historical development of tense relationships between many expressions of Islam and Western societies. I hope you enjoy it!

(the lecture starts 15 minutes into the podcast)

Knowing and Caring

In his biography of Apple's founder Steve Jobs, author Walter Isaach tells that when Jobs was thirteen a Jobs  and confronted the church’s pastor by asking him. “If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?”
The pastor answered, “Yes, God knows everything.”
Jobs then pulled out the July 1968 Life magazine published with a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra and asked, “Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?”
“Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that".
Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshiping such a God, and he never went back to church.
Answer to those questions are never easy. May we dare to say and show that God not only knows but that God profoundly cares. 

Daily Steps towards a Missional Spirituality

La Fe- National Staff Conference

Pasadena, Ca- March 8, 2013

A Radical Still

Openness and Opposition 

Hispanic Churches Adopt More English To Appeal To U.S.-Born Latinos

"As the nation's Hispanic population has grown to 50 million, so too has the Spanish-language church, one of the largest segments of U.S. Christianity. But compared to previous decades, when the growth in the Hispanic population came from immigration, and when many of the nation's biggest Spanish-speaking congregations blossomed, the growth of Hispanics in the last decade has been led by second-generation and third-generation Hispanics... The latest national census showed that native-born Hispanics, who tend to prefer English, now account for nearly two-thirds of the group"
Click here to read the entire report

Our Multi-Ethnic Savior

"The biblical world of Jesus thus spans Africa, Asia, and Europe, which means that Jesus walked the earth as a multi-ethnic human being, not as Black or White. None of these ancestors dominated his identity, unlike the days of slavery in the United States when a person who was even one-eighth Black (which amounted to a teaspoon of Black blood) was classified as Black. If this race rule were applied to Jesus, he would have been considered Black. But race rules don’t apply in scripture or in the kingdom of God. Jesus both transcends and dismantles race. The fact that he was multi-ethnic as a human being is significant.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross and the blood was dripping from his head, hands, and feet, that was multi-ethnic blood. When we say that Jesus died for all of our sins, that is true both figuratively and literally because all humanity was pumping through him and pouring out of him. He was the sacrificial lamb of all of sinful humanity and therefore embodies all of humanity in both the carrying and shedding of this precious blood. This truly is in this sense a substitutionary death. That is why the multi-ethnic and missional church must find identity in the multi-ethnic Jesus who is the Son of man and the Son of God. Through the Holy Spirit, this multi-ethnic Jesus lives in us. In him is new life and new identity" Efren Smith in “The Post-Black, Post-White Church: Becoming the Beloved Community in a Multi-Ethnic World” (Jossey-Bass)

Read the whole article 

Leadership and Yearning...

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupery  “The Wisdom of the Sands”

Teologia de la Adoracion y Sacramentos- Presbiterio de San Diego

Subscribcion a Ayudas Liturgicas Semanales (Gratuito)

The "Browning" of US Denominations

Ed Setzer shares some interesting trends within denominations in the US...

Church of the Nazarene
1980 - 94.6% Anglo
1990 - 90.7% Anglo
2000 - 85.7% Anglo
2010 - 79.5% Anglo

Assemblies of God
2010 - 60% Anglo
• Since 1991, the number of predominantly black churches in the Assemblies of God has expanded by 176 percent
• More than 20% of weekly attendees are Hispanic

Foursquare Church
• 1 in 6 churches is Hispanic
• Approximately 20-25% of churches in the US are distinctly ethnic
• Ethnic church planting is among the fastest growing segments in the denomination

Southern Baptist Convention
1990 - 95% Anglo
2000 - 85% Anglo
2010 - 80% Anglo

To read the report click here

GOBIERNO DE LA IGLESIA

Programa de Adiestramiento para Lideres

Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 9 de Junio del 2012

Recursos de Apoyo: 
Prontuario
Confesiones
Forma de Gobierno

Nouwen on Traveling

“Traveling – seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people – is exciting and exhilarating. But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, “How was your trip?” we might be less eager to go. Traveling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories. This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people … and be happy to return home.” -Henri Nouwen

From a prayer attributed to St. Patrick

I arise today Through the strength of heaven: Light of sun, Radiance of moon, Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning, Swiftness of wind, Depth of sea, Stability of earth, Firmness of rock.

Latinos to be 74% of the Growth in the US Labor Force till 2020

According to the Pew Center the share of the labor force that is Hispanic is projected to increase from 14.8% in 2010 to 18.6% in 2020. That is partly due to the relative youth and higher growth rate of the Hispanic population and partly due to the aging of the non-Hispanic white population and projected decline in its labor force.

From 2010 to 2020, Hispanics are expected to add 7.7 million workers to the labor force while the number of non-Hispanic whites in the labor force is projected to decrease by 1.6 million.

Consequently, Hispanics will account for the vast majority—74%—of the 10.5 million workers added to the labor force from 2010 to 2020.

Press here for the Pew Report

MLK Jr About the Future of the Church

"If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century"
1963, Letter from Birmingham City Jail

A Prayer by Desmond Tutu

Disturb us, O Lord

when we are too well-pleased with ourselves
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord

when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord

to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas
where storms show Thy mastery,
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow.

Amen.
(From Church Then and Now by Kurt)

A Reflection for the Third Sunday of Advent- Henri Nouwen

Keep your eyes on the prince of peace, the one who doesn't cling to his divine power; the one who refuses to turn stones into bread, jump from great heights and rule with great power; the one who says, "Blessed are the poor, the gentle, those who mourn, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness" (see Matt. 5:3-11); the one who touches the lame, the crippled, and the blind; the one who speaks words of forgiveness and encouragement; the one who dies alone, rejected and despised. Keep your eyes on him who becomes poor with the poor, weak with the weak, and who is rejected with the rejected. He is the source of all peace.

Where is this peace to be found? The answer is clear. In weakness. First of all, in our own weakness, in those places of our hearts where we feel most broken, most insecure, most in agony, most afraid. Why there? Because there our familiar ways of controlling our world are being stripped away; there we are called to let go from doing much, thinking much, and relying on our self-sufficiency. Right there where we are weakest the peace which is not of this world is hidden.

Bonhoeffer on the Praxis of Churches

The church is only the church when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live solely on the free-will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men (sic) of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others (Letters and Papers from Prison).

Juan J Sarmiento (@juanjsarmiento) has shared a Tweet with you:

"bobhyatt: Muslim world is largely closed to Xn evangelism. What if God is bringing millions of Muslims to the US so we can love them towards Jesus?"
-http://ping.fm/mtIMH