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

Enjoying the attention to the dynamics of migration and multilingual during Jesus' upbringing in Anne Rice's "Out of Egypt"

According to the latest Census data, one in four US chidren is Hispanic

Preaching three times this weekend.

Thinking of Patrick, a humble Scottish saint whose obedience forever impacted the destiny of Ireland, western civilization and many nations

Enjoyed the play "Beneath the Veil" at Glendale's Alex Theatre.

Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. C.S. Lewis in "The Weight of Glory"

Inter-Ethnic Marriages: Rapidly on the Rise

A recent Pew study indicates that a record 14.6% of all new marriages in the United States in 2008 were between spouses of a different ethnicity from one another. That figure is an estimated six times the intermarriage rate among newlyweds in 1960 and more than double the rate in 1980. In 2008, 9% of whites, 16% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 31% of Asians married someone whose ethnicity was different from their own.

Click here to read more...

The Logic of the Mission of God

Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music
inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation;
every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to
walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s
fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow nonhuman creatures;
and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God.” N.T Wright (Surprised by Hope, p 208)

Mega-iglesias: Lugares de Reconciliacion Racial?

En febrero del 2009, la famosa Iglesia Willow Creek había alcanzado el 20% el umbral de las minorías que significa una congregación integrada. Hoy sus miembresia esta compuesta en un 80% de euroamericanos, 6% de hispanos, el 4% asiaticos, 2% Africo-Americanos y un 8% "otros" grupos étnicos. Parece tratarse de una tendencia entre iglesias con miles de miembros!

Siga este link para leer el interesante reportaje de la revista TIME

Multiracial Americans: The Fastest Growing Group

The number of multiracial people rose 3.4 percent last year to about 5.2 million, according to the latest census estimates. First given the option in 2000, Americans who check more than one box for race on census surveys have jumped by 33 percent and now make up 5 percent of the minority population — with millions more believed to be uncounted.
Demographers attributed the recent population growth to more social acceptance and slowing immigration. They cited in particular the high public profiles of Tiger Woods and President Barack Obama, a self-described "mutt," who are having an effect on those who might self-identify as multiracial.
Population figures as of July 2008 show that California, Texas, New York and Florida had the most multiracial people, due partly to higher numbers of second- and later-generation immigrants who are more likely to "marry out." Measured by percentages, Hawaii ranked first with nearly 1 in 5 residents who were multiracial, followed by Alaska and Oklahoma, both at roughly 4 percent. (According to the Census Bureau, via Associated Press. Click here for the entire reporte)

Virtual Ministers in Scotland/Ministros Virtuales en Escocia

Para hacerle frente a la escasez de ministros ordenados en la Iglesia de Escocia (Presbiteriana) un consejo ministerial ha propuesto la utilización de "ministros virtuales" que pueden predicar y enseñar en vivo mediante un sistema electrónico de videos. Cada día aumenta el número de parroquias que no tienen ministros residentes y el futuro no parece muy alentador.

The Dignity of Difference- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at MIT

A thought on Crying and Pain

Sometimes in order to help He makes us cry.
Happy the eye that sheds tears for His sake.
Fortunate the heart that burns for His sake.
Laughter always follows tears.
Blessed are those who understand.
Life blossoms wherever water flows.
Where tears are shed divine mercy is shown.

-Rumi (Sufi Poet) , "Mathnawi"

"Promiscuity": A good old Calvinist word?

I can understand why the Canons of Dort are not the object of much consideration in PCUSA circles nowadays. It did, however, come to my attention that some old translations of the render the 5th article of the second main point as saying:
"the promise of the gospel is that whosoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel".
More recent versions read: "without differenciation or discrimination". We sure can use some of that missional "promiscuity" in our congregations today!

Partership for developing new congregations

San Fernando Presbytery, seeking to “relearn the art of starting new congregations,” has teamed up with Evangelical Covenant Church — a denomination with a long track record of successful new church development in its area.

The presbytery is currently interviewing and screening prospective church planters. In the meantime, leaders of the effort say they have discovered some things about successful new churches: they are organized around identity and concern, not around geography; they need visionary leadership more than skilled managers; they need to train disciples more than “provide services for consumers; and contrary to commonly-held opinion, they don’t cost that much money to start. (From Presbyterian News Service)

Bilingualism and US Economy

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey, approximately 80 percent -- or 223.2 million people -- of Americans use only English at home.

The remaining 20 percent -- 55.8 million people -- speak a language other than English. Add the millions of tourists visiting the country each year and you have a huge demand for workers who can communicate in more than one language.

Spanish is by far the most popular non-English language spoken at home with roughly 34 million speakers nationwide. Still, there are millions of people speaking other languages -- including French, German, Mandarin, Arabic and lesser known languages -- that also benefit from bilingual workers.

Press here to read the careerbuilder.com report

Above All, Trust in the Slow Work of God...

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown,
something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
-- that is to say, grace --
and circumstances
acting on your own good will
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser.

Amen.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin