Jesus is Building His Church in Cities, Neighborhoods, Towns, Communities, Subdivisions, Townships; i.e. in Urban, Suburban, Rural

In light of Bill Streger’s post yesterday, “Uncool People Need Jesus Too“, it seemed good to repost some thoughts from the summer. I’ve heard concerns similar to Bill’s in the round-table discussions of the Bethlehem cohort that I’m in.


We should beware–in the  name of ‘not wasting our lives,’ we could become  self-righteous and sadly uncharitable. We should beware of the wartime-lifestyle-go-to-the-hard-places-snobbery that thinks ministering in places vacant of gang graffitti and homeless people is somehow second rate. I believe in ministry of a radical flavor–holding our lives cheap, seeking that city which is to come, going to the places nobody else wants to go, heralding the surpassing worth of Jesus above all things. Amen. We should do this. And at the same time, we should understand that it takes more than a zip code to actualize this kind of ministry. And if we aren’t  careful, we’ll create this false picture of how it looks and we’ll form these nonspoken leagues–one Major and another Minor–there are superstars and rookie wannabees… ‘those guys go there and these guys come here.’ And this is wrong.

We should remember that the gospel is needed everywhere. This doesn’t mean that we just go anywhere. Be strategic. Seek the Lord. But never forget that the folks down at the hardware store where ‘everybody knows your name’ and the prostitute in New Orleans who sells her body for crack have one thing in common–they both need the gospel. The wrath-bearing death of Jesus Christ on the cross is their only hope, period. And God would say that same thing of Mayberry that he would say of Los Angelos– “I have many in this city who are my people.”  He sends servants to both to go and stay, and we should be thankful for that.

So let us not be weak and pass judgment on our brothers by the neighborhoods in which they serve. Each of us will give an account of himself to God. Instead, let us be grateful and pray for our brothers. Pray for radical ministry for these whom God has sent and is sending everywhere… and let us go to the hard places (that means urban and rural) with all that in mind.

2010
03/05
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True: He Will Make All Things New

We can rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that He will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, He will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes — and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and He that sits upon the throne will say, “Behold, I make all things new.”

David Bentley Hart, Tsunami and Theodicy

2010
03/05
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Day 12 (I think): Majesty and Relation are Not Opposed

Talk of God’s holiness denotes the majesty and singular purity which the triune God is in himself and with which he acts towards and in the lives of his creatures…. Majesty and relation are not opposed moments in God’s holiness; they are simply different articulations of the selfsame reality.

John Webster, Holiness, 41.

2010
03/04
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Grace, Grace, Grace

2010
03/03
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Melissa Marilyn Parnell
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Marriage: Three Years Later Today

I, Jonathan, take you Melissa to be my wife, before God who brought us together; to love and cherish you even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, to lead you and share all of life’s experiences with you by following God, that through His grace, Melissa, we might grow together into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Melissa,

I said these words to you three years ago today.

I mean them all over again right now.

Happy Anniversary!

I love you,

Jonathan

2010
03/03
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Ephesians
Melissa Marilyn Parnell
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Sunshine and Glory: What Spring in Minnesota Helps Me Get

March is here. Yes. The Lord’s kindness is easy to see amidst the slush of muddy snow and lake-like puddles stretching from one end of the street to the other. The sun is shining. Winter is on its way out.

S.A.D. may tarry for five long months, but springtime comes at some point in March.

Without making too big a deal about the weather, it is good that we soak in as much parable as possible. That is the attempt here. There is something reviving about sunshine. Our senses that have been numbed  by snow and gray skies are awakened to feel again. The sunlight smells good. We want it. And it is interesting that our desire for the sunshine is not some selfish craving that hogs it all. We don’t want to hoard the sunshine in some box to tuck away for our own pleasure.

In fact, our desire is not so much for the sunshine as it is to just be in the sunshine. We want to be dissolved in its splendor. We don’t want to possess it, but to be possessed by it. We don’t want to just observe it, but to move in it and feel its warmth.

2010
03/02
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Day 11: The Biblical Character of the Work of Theology

If it acts in accordance with this given norm, the work of theology must demonstrate what can be described in the most general terms as a biblical character. That is to say, it must be characterized above all by a deference to the reality of the gospel that is announced in Holy Scripture. That deference is expressed in many ways: by refusal of speculation; by resistance to the pressure to soften the imperative force of sola scriptura or tota scriptura; by the transparency of the language and concepts of theology to the scriptural canon; and above all, by the persistence, joy and humility with which holy reason addresses itself to the task of reading Scripture, not as master but as pupil, and by a willingness to learn it its school.

John Webster, Holiness, 20

2010
02/27
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A Letter to My Wife on Her Birthday

Dear Melissa,

It is a sweet thing to grasp the sense of your utter dependence. The mirage of perceived autonomy vanishes at the reality of our creaturely status. We are derivative beings. Recipients. What do we have that was not given? We are products of God’s mercy. We are creatures of His grace.

And it is not enough that this reality is so. It must be recognized. How can we live in its freedom and move in its joy if we fail to acknowledge it? So how does that happen? Grace, of course. God gives us grace so that we would recognize His grace. And one means by which He does that is the richness of His goodness interwoven in the things most immediate to us (this is where you come in).

“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
(Proverbs 31:10 )

You are my wife. We live together. We have two daughters. We sleep together at night. We wake up together in the morning. We eat together. Brave the winter together. Talk together. Pray together. And you are excellent.

You are more precious than a jewel tucked away in the depths of the ocean waiting to be discovered. People give their whole lives to that–the finding jewels. And today as you turn 24 it occurs quite dramatically to me that I have already found mine. Or more accurately, mine is already given to me. See, there is grace. Grace right in front of me that makes me recognize grace all the more.

Happy Birthday.

I love you,

Jonathan

2010
02/26
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Melissa Marilyn Parnell
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The Reason Why I Decided Not to Terminate my ‘Christian Blog’

I am broken either way, blog or no blog, and Jesus saved me.

The problem of distractions in prayer is the problem of my own sin. If it were not the blog then it would be something else. I’d be too much of an idealist to think that terminating my blog would then allow me to come to God in a way other than messed up.

The blog is not what makes by mind fragmented, affections askew, and my heart cold. That is my sin. That is why I need the cross. I do not, indeed, I cannot, come to God any other way. There I am, a mess with my heart laid out bare before Him. My mind chasing every little thought that comes by, a blog post or dinner that night or why the book of Leviticus is a lesser favorite than the Psalter…

And there I am, a sinner in need of salvation. A sinner who needs to get out of himself and look to the work of Jesus Christ. And look again. (That would make a good post.) Look again. And again. And again. (Post the ‘again and again’ part, too.) Look again. And come to write the post while looking again.

I pray broken and I write broken, and I pray and write as one saved only because of the work of Jesus Christ for me. Still looking, by His grace.

2010
02/25
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Reason #2 of Some Reasons Why I Hate My ‘Christian Blog’ and am Contemplating Its Termination

#2 I am really questioning the overall benefit of Christian media

I work for a resource ministry and absolutely love it. The global Church is in need of good resources. The Father has blessed the Church in America with great training for ministry and scrupulous theology. Spreading is good.

And on the other hand, there are some serious dangers. Doctrine III class was helpful last night in this discussion. We were talking over Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. Bonhoeffer’s description of the ‘ideal’ dream of Christian community versus the divine reality of Christian community is particularly illuminating (Go read the book, it’s short). He writes,

He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial (27).

Christian media lets people hear really good music by really gifted artists and hear really good sermons by really gifted preachers. That is all wonderful until the Christian individual imports these things as expectations on their local Church. Your pastor will not preach like John Piper, get over it. Your worship leader will not sing like Hillsong United, get over it. I fear that the asset of Christian media (though unintentional) has become an impetus for the individual Christian to complain. We should be grateful for our community that is “in and through Jesus Christ” and not frustrated about what it is not.

I’ve talked to people, one sweet lady in particular. She loves Jesus and has some solid theology. However, she is so affected by a fellow sister’s cell phone ringing in corporate worship that she is derailed with vexation. “There are no good churches around here.”

Our expectations are askew. We have done exactly what Bonhoeffer warns against. I forget that this was about why I hate my ‘Christian blog.’ I guess this Reason #2 matters only inasmuch as I see my blog contributing to this negative aspect. Only insofar as my blog is a child of that system. Hmm…

2010
02/24
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