ie:missional teaching. glocalizing. living. serving. repenting. incarnating. loving. repeating.

October 29, 2007

Education, Kids and The Kingdom

Filed under: Family,Mission,Missional — Marty Duren @ 1:19 pm

So, this whole education thing has been bothering be for a while. It seems that there is a tremendous misplacing of emphasis in the Christian community on the value and prominence of education in life and I’m not talking theological education. There is an appearance that many Christian parents value a good education (both middle and high school as well as college) over their child’s place in the kingdom. Probably this results from the parents concern that their child be able to gain a good employment and a steady means of income so that they do not have to live with the parents for the rest of their days. But, which kingdom holds sway in the end?

It is not uncommon for Christian parents to give their children a choice about participating in kingdom activities, while insisting that the child be in school and attend college. I’ve known many a parent who would restrict a child from a church activity (even student worship) because of poor grades, but never known a single parent who refused their child the Friday night football game because they had neglected their daily devotions. Many parents ask Little Johnny or Little Suzy if they want to go to the church’s youth retreat, but force them to go to band camp. And what is to be made of the parent who assents to the child’s not wanting to go to church, but would never assent to the same excuse made about school on Monday morning? Yes, I’m aware that there is some exaggeration to make a point, but it isn’t much.

Of all the excuses that I have heard, the one that has always just killed me is, “Well, if I force them to go to church now, they will not want to go when they are older.” If there needs to be one single example of the spirit of the age invading the church, this is it.

Scripture is explicit that it is the responsibility of the parents to raise children in the nurture and teaching of the Lord. The Lord informed the children of Israel that He desired “Godly seed.” It has never been God’s plan that Christian parents give their children an option toward Godliness, but that Christian parents lead and train in that respect. There are more than enough temptations abounding in the public school and college arenas through which kids have to negotiate on their own without the weight of inconsistent parents who don’t have a spiritual clue themselves. I’ve long believed that kids, rather than rejecting God and church, are actually rejecting the God and church of their parents, a quasi-religious Christian faith that was only exercised 1 hour of the week, never being witnessed in the home or in any practical sense. (This is not to say that all kids who abandon the faith have unfaithful parents, only that that particular diagnosis seems to be overlooked.) Several years ago I spoke with a high school junior who, up until that point, had been as faithful in attendance as her unfaithful mom would allow. She was really struggling with the the reality of faith, when she looked at me and said, “If what my Mother has is Christianity, then I don’t want it.” Case closed.

When our going-on-23 daughter was fifteen, she informed Sonya and I that she wanted to spend the summer in Canada doing missions. Not with a church trip, mind you, but she wanted to go and be a part of something that anyone was doing that would impact the kingdom. So, at the tender age of 16, she boarded a Northwest Airlines flight alone out of Atlanta to spend 7 weeks in Calgary to participate in Crossover Alberta and whatever else she was requested to do. She did the same thing for 7 or 8 weeks the summer of her 17th year. I’m praying now with out son that he, now 16, will spend some time this summer immersed in a kingdom opportunity somewhere.

It seems that there are too many kingdom opportunities that parents are letting slip through the cracks in relation to their kids. Do we remember that they are not our kids after all? Before our kids were even born, we had offered them to the Lord for His service to do whatever He desired. If He want to place them nationally, internationally or locally that is His business. If He wants them married or single, that is His business. I think that churches may be facing an ongoing situation where parents are so flagrantly living according to the priorities of the world that pastors are assuming too much to think that they have any kingdom knowledge at all.

I have a growing concern that the willingness of Christian parents to consistently prioritize the educational realm unwittingly pushes their children into an environment where philosophical naturalism has the upper hand.  It is as if parents, with the constant push for “good grades” are setting their kids up for spiritual failure, if education is not taught within the total framework of Christian living.  My hope would be that parents would awaken to the fact that kingdom living, not Phi Kappa Beta, is the priority of God’s economy.  That knowing God, not knowing trig, is the bearer of eternal fruit and that the missio dei trumps summa cum laude every time.

October 26, 2007

Reincarnated Dictator?

Filed under: Humor — Marty Duren @ 8:56 pm

Hitler CatA member of our church is currently on a business trip to South Korea. He snapped this photo while looking for a restaurant to eat dinner. Hmmm….

October 22, 2007

Gone Baby Gone, Movie Review

Filed under: Books,Culture,Movies — Marty Duren @ 10:59 pm

Friday marked the opening of the second Dennis LeHane book to be made into a major motion picture. Following the Clint Eastwood directed Mystic River comes Gone Baby Gone (see other reviews here), directed co-written by Oscar winning screenwriter (Good Will Hunting), movie actor and tabloid star, Ben Affleck. Affleck, in his first turn in the director’s chair, has given his audiences a remarkably well made film. I can’t remember a single wasted shot or scene and a scant few lines that I thought might have been better written. He is said to have used many locals for bit parts and it would not take much convincing of me to believe the truth of it. There are very few “actor looking” people in this movie.

The central characters of the story are Boston area private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Affleck’s brother, Casey) and Angela Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), who are called upon to assist the police in finding a missing 4 year old girl, abducted from her bed while her mother visited with a friend next door. Morgan Freeman plays Jack Doyle, Captain of the Missing Children’s Unit, while versatile Ed Harris is ably cast as a Louisiana transplant, Detective Remy Broussant. So well cast is this movie that no part stands head and shoulder above the rest and with each performance being top notch. Freeman (of course he’s played God, so this should have been a piece of cake) in no way overshadows the others, as some might expect, and Casey Affleck (known to moviegoers as one of the “Mormon twins” in the Ocean’s movie franchise) is remarkably good in the primary role. Amy Ryan, as the conflicted, weak mother, with Titus Welliver and Amy Madigan as her brother and sister-in-law, round out the main parts.

To tell any of the story would be to tell all of the story, so I’ll tell none of it. But like the book, the movie deals fully in shades of gray. There is no black and white in the world of LeHane and Ben Affleck, while making a few minor changes in characters and some intricacies of the book, leaves the story a moral mess. Affleck explores the human condition and the emptiness of soul of people who have long since given up any clue about a holy God, choosing instead the full depth of depravity. The Kenzie/Gennaro series of books always leaves one thankful that there is a God who cares, though, apparently, He rarely makes an appearance in New England.

I would recommend this movie to pastors who are spending too much time cloistered away in the ivory towers of sermon preparation and need to be shaken and reminded as to the depth of sin. There is no sex or nudity in the film, but there is graphic violence, a particularly disturbing scene involving a child molester, suspense and pervasive bad language easily earning its “R” rating. Apparently Bostonians are partial to the letter “F” and have become very creative in ways to employ it.

When leaving today, I said to a pastor friend who attended with me, “What did you think?” He replied, “That’s the world we live in.” I did walk away thinking how we live in a world in which there are not always easy answers, everything isn’t always black and white and sometimes our field of vision is a little clouded on the grays around us, yet ever hopeful with the knowledge that the good news of Jesus can cleanse from the most vile evil and wickedness both in and among us.

October 16, 2007

The Atlanta Falcons…

Filed under: Leadership — Marty Duren @ 10:00 am

are a train wreck.

I watched the Falcons last night on MNF just to see what would happen. It hurt. I actually feel sorry for those guys as players and as people. Taking the field week after week after week with virtually no chance of winning must be extremely disheartening. As I watched and contemplated the year to date for this team, some leadership thoughts came to mind.

Let’s assume for a moment (using Jim Collins’ analogy) that owner, GM and head coach are the right people on the bus and that they are in the right seats. At this moment, it would be hard to imagine it any other way: Arthur Blank owns the bus, GM Rich McKay was hand picked by the owner to drive the bus and head coach Bobby Patrino was hand picked by the owner and GM to sit in that assigned seat. Let’s further assume that the entire coaching staff (at least for this year) are supposed to be on the bus and are in their proper seats.

That only leaves the players (sorry, trainers and ball boys). The well chronicled woes of Michael Vick vacated the team of its star player, main draw, primary source of excitement and center of coaching plans. Imagine New England without Brady or the Colts without Manning, mere days from the start of the season, with only a journeyman backup and you get the idea. Then your most athletic back-up (DJ Shockley) is gone for the season with an injury leaving a fifth string as third string. In addition, the offensive line has suffered injuries, the secondary is typically porous and players have become mouthy about the coaches and each other. Sigh. Where to start?

We begin at the position around which the entire team rotates: quarterback. Joey Harrington is the perfect person to be in the slot for which he was hired–backup quarterback. Whenever Vick lost a shoe, got the wind knocked out of him or was beating a dog otherwise unavailable for a play or two, Harrington would come in and take a snap, hand the ball off to someone and return to the sideline to collect his check. I believe that Harrington is the right player, but he’s in the wrong seat. The problem is that he was forced into that seat when Vick jumped off the bus and then was run over by it. History informs us that Harrington is not a big time winning quarterback in this league, but when you have no options, you go with the option you have.

The running backs are also an issue for the Falcons. Warrick Dunn has dropped from over a hundred yards a game to 50 or so (I didn’t look it up) while 2nd year gazelle, Jerious Norwood, still averages about 5,000 yards per rush. I think that one of the problems is that the Falcons have changed their blocking scheme from smaller more mobile linemen to larger slower guys, who are supposed to be able to protect a less mobile, non-Vick quarterback, but Dunn is a small, stop and go runner who can’t really plow up behind a bunch of big butts for yardage. Norwood is on the bus, probably for a long while (unless he’s traded to move up in the draft, more to come) but they don’t have any idea what seat to put him in.

Every receiver the Falcons have are in the wrong seats–they should be defensive backs because they specialize in knocking balls to the turf. In defense of Michael Vick’s often poor passer rating and having watched the guy pretty consistently during his career, for every pass he threw that was completely uncatchable, two hit Roddy White, Peerless Price, Michael Jenkins or Alge Crumpler right in the chest or hands and were dropped. This year, Joey Harrington is suffering the same fate with passes being dropped at least twice a game, sometimes five or six times. Without a doubt, this is collectively the worst receiving corp to ever take the field in an NFL game. Most of them need to be thrown off the bus entirely. Less expensive guys can drop the ball with regularity. I’ll do it for $10k a game and save them all kinds of money.

I don’t have time to go through the defense, but suffice it to say that a few guys are in the right seats, but continuity and injury continue to be problems.

Now, as this bus is traveling the season’s road, there are certain considerations: First, what do you do if you are in the last year of a contract? Do you play as hard as you can to try and hit the jackpot as a free agent?

Second, what if you are in the middle of a contract? Do you play as hard as you can, risking injury, during a year that is and most likely will continue to be a disaster?

Third, will there be an effort to “give away the season” in order to secure the #1 pick and hope to get Brian Brohm from Louisville, who would doubtless be the choice of the head coach? Do you trade away one future (Norwood) to pin hopes on another (Brohm or Colt McCoy)?

Fourth, do you give rookies playing time at the expense of the veterans who know their shot at winning the big one has been put off for at least one more year and are already voicing the strain?

Fifth, how do you motivate guys to take the field and give their all in a season like this? If there are no incentives in the contracts, is it likely that they will continue to play hard?

October 15, 2007

Pastor’s Wife Appreciation Month

Filed under: Family — Marty Duren @ 6:57 am

Years ago, Focus on the Family (I think), deemed that October should forever be Pastor Appreciation Month. As a pastor, I really like this emphasis as it has become the impetus for cards, calls and gifts received throughout the month. I ain’t complaining.

Today, I’d like to focus on the person at our church who makes Pastor Appreciation Month possible for me: Sonya Duren, my wife. If it wasn’t for her I don’t think I could survive from October to October to receive all the appreciations.

When Sonya and I were dating, I made the grievous error of buying a book about the pastor’s wife by some well meaning woman who was obviously writing from a context of the 1950’s or maybe even the 1940’s. It nearly scared her to death. I’m not sure why she decided to go ahead and marry me, but she did and has never tried to match up to the cookie cutter model advocated in the book. She is the perfect wife for me.

She doesn’t sing in the choir or play the piano, she’s never led VBS or taught kids Sunday school and she sits on the back row during church. But, for me and a number of women in our church she is a repository of wisdom. She’s read the Bible completely through more times than I’ve started. She’s in her 16th year of homeschooling our three kids, with the only graduate (so far) from the Duren Home School graduating in December from Georgia State University with a degree in Philosophy and a 3.8 GPA. Not bad for a teacher who only took one college class.
If there is a spiritual gift of hospitality then she has it. She is a marvelous interior designer who frequents Hobby Lobby and yard sales for our home decor. I’ve often joked with our congregation that, “We’ve probably got some of your stuff hanging on our walls.” Our home has a warmth that is recognized and commented on by guests. She has a great eye for color and has more plans for remodeling our yard than we could accomplish in 10 lifetimes. If we ever build another house, she has a notebook crammed with pictures and ideas torn from Southern Living and House Beautiful. She could give Ty Pennington a run for his money.

She’s gone with me on many adventures, some of which she was more than a little uncertain when we started, but we’ve managed to go together and stay together. From small church to mega church to medium church to not sure about church, she’s always been with me and I’ve never once thought that she might leave.

There’s no place that I’d rather be than in a north Georgia or North Carolina cabin making love to Sonya Duren. If marriage is about the completion of two people, then there can be no doubt that these two puzzle pieces were meant for each other. She is the love of my life and I’m taking this moment to say, “Happy Pastor’s Wife Appreciation Month, honey.”

October 11, 2007

So, Which One Do You Read?

Filed under: Humor,News — Marty Duren @ 8:22 am

I received this from a friend:

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country, but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country if they could find the time and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country, and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.

10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if someone is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped, minority, feminist, atheists, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.

11. The St. Petersburg Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.

October 10, 2007

What are the Questions?

Filed under: Mission — Marty Duren @ 7:50 am

The previous post had to do with the need for churches to engage UPGs. The discussion, which was very good, raised a thought: What are the questions we need to be asking about UPG engagement? We will never reach the answers we seek until we are asking the right questions, so what are they?

Here are some of mine: How do we connect the financial resources of the west with the peoples of the east without creating dependency?

How do we get churches to realize that there is no “or” in Acts 1:8?

How do we get pastors to realize that there is no “or” in Acts 1:8?

For what will American churches be held accountable regarding the mission dei and our role in it? (I can think of the English language, ease of travel and wealth for starters.)

What is the best way to affiliate churches into pods for engaging UPGs?

In the last comment section, Caleb said,

“Somewhere along the way, the churches handed that responsibility over to the parachurch professionals and allowed themselves to become â??volunteersâ? in the IMBâ??s program, deferring to the organizationâ??s strategy and missiology.”

How do we change this?

Ken said,

“I have spoken to pastors who see missions as a drain on their budgets instead of a call from God to work with Him in being glorified among all the peoples ( with an s) of the earth.”

How do we change this?

I have had the most success in sitting down with pastors who are already visionary and casting the vision of God’s mission worldwide. We have international partnerships currently that have involved three churches near us and another on board for T–a. This has just seemed better for me than going to the Monday morning “Pastors’ Conference,” talking to a bunch of bobbing heads and going home frustrated.

October 6, 2007

The Local Church Engaging Unreached Peoples

Filed under: Leadership,Mission — Marty Duren @ 7:33 am

Over the last couple of days I’ve been at the Catalyst Conference held at the Gwinnett Arena just a few miles from my home. It was good to see Kevin Bussey and Chuck Bryce both of blogging fame and reconnect with some pastors and friends who I had not seen in a while. The conference, IMO, was good but not outstanding. It seemed that the speakers were given less time than in years past and many of the speakers were repeats from Q that I had attended earlier this year.

Yesterday, there was luncheon hosted by the International Mission Board of the SBC. I was able to see some old friends, folks that I met during my earlier travels to the trustee meetings. Our staff was blessed to sit with an M from Barcelona and hear just a bit of his story. We also got to know the co-pastor and two members from Grace Community Church in Clarksville, TN.

The meeting was hosted by the multi-talented and apparently multi-purpose Ed Stetzer whose topic was “Speaking in Tongues.” Since we were not all SBCers in the room (at least I don’t think we all were), I thought we might see a demonstration, but no. His subject, of course, was that some from every nation, tribe, tongue and people were going to bring praise to God in eternity and what were we doing about it??

He quoted an estimate that 3,000 additional missionaries (I assume from any and all denoms) could engage all the remaining unreached peoples in the world. This is thrilling, but is it the answer? Following the conference, it dawned on me that my denomination has more than 3,200 church in Georgia alone. The national structure of the Southern Baptist Convention has more than 45,000 churches. Unless my math deceives me (and that is a distinct possibility), that is 15 local, SBC-related bodies of Christ for every UPG left on the planet.

Let’s assume for a moment that NO more M’s are sent through agencies, but instead, churches large and small partner together in groups of fifteen (“pods”) to adopt and engage these peoples. Let’s assume that agencies are willing to spend some of their manpower on training these churches in missiological principles that better prepare them for engagement. Let’s assume that these churches restructure their giving to create the UPG as a level one priority, even if it means cutting the fat from the denom portion of their annual budgets. Let’s assume that some M’s on the field become the hands and feet of this “Pod” of churches who commit to send teams regularly until a viable church planting movement happens, or until viable “church at Jerusalem” is begun.

There are enough churches in Georgia to engage all the remaining UPG’s. There are enough in the southeast to engage them multiple times over. Why are we waiting for another 3,000 people to commit full time?

October 3, 2007

Kept, Book Review

Filed under: Books,Missional — Marty Duren @ 8:58 am

Kept cover Pastor, helper, friend, thinker, innovator, student, prolific source of IT information and unofficial tech support for many bloggers across America, David Phillips has added a new title to his resume: author. The recently published Kept is a devotional commentary on the book of Jude. Very readable at a scant 80 pages, Phillips uses a mix of scholarship and easily accessible teaching to explore this sometimes enigmatic penultimate book of the canon.

Included is David’s own translation of the book of Jude, which, paragraph by paragraph, also serves as the intro to each chapter. I would recommend this book to any lay person as a short intro to Jude or to a pastor looking for a supplement to his own study series. It is available at Missional Press Story for a mere $7.49 through the end of October.

As an aside, Publishing Mogul should also be added to the list of David’s titles as Missional Press is his own brainchild. If you are considering publishing an academic work, commentary or book otherwise missionally aligned, but have been put off by the daunting prospect of a bunch of money up front, consider Missional Press. The book that I am co-authoring, Journeys, will be released by Missional in the upcoming months and I have been very impressed with the process and the product. Check it out.

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