Thursday

Bus-Churches & Relational Chicken

Here's a couple clips from Enoch Wan at Cape Town 2010.  The first is a fascinating illustration of "people on the move" and how our concepts of "church" often require a major paradigm shift in diaspora.  The second is a powerful call to "put the chicken back in the chicken soup!" I love what Enoch says about relationships and diaspora mission.

Tuesday

Campus Ministries Sign Agreement - News - InterVarsity.org

A great start . . .

Campus Ministries Sign Agreement - News - InterVarsity.org

Population loss in Chicago slows Illinois' growth - USATODAY.com

Population loss in Chicago slows Illinois' growth - USATODAY.com

Why our Worship Must be Multicultural

I'm doing some great reading today on diaspora missions. Came across the following fantastic passage.  Enjoy!

Our music and our worship must be multicultural, not simply because our society is multicultural, but because the future from which God is calling us is multicultural – Not just so that those from other cultures may feel at home among us but also so that we may feel at home in God’s future – Because like John of Patmos, our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.  Because we know and we believe that on that great waking up morning when the stars begin to fall, when we gather at the river where the angel feet have trod, we shall all, from all nations and tribes and peoples and languages, we shall all sing without ceasing, “Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, casting down our golden crowns before the glassy sea, cherubim and seraphim, Japanese and Swahili, American and European, Cherokee and Ukrainian, falling down before thee, who wert, and art, and evermore shall be!  Amen.”

-          Justo Gonzalez on Revelation 5:9

      If you are interested in reading more from Gonzalez, the above quote came from his book For the Healing of the Nations.

Sunday

The Basis of Interfaith Dialogue

Today, I wanted to share a really cool missiological design that my dear friend, Vincent Lee, created for me.  I came across a simple diagram in an article by another friend, Knud  Jørgensen in an article he had written on the subject of interfaith dialogue and missions.  I thought the diagram could use a little sprucing up, so I sent it to Vincent.  What follows is a few paragraph's from Knud's paper and Vincent's diagram:
We may not set limits to God’s grace, but at the same time we must reject an inclusivism that regards other religions as instruments for salvation in a Christian sense. Perhaps, says Newbigin, we could use a simple sketch, developed by Walter Freytag, to indicate the basis for dialogue between Christians and those of other faiths:
The staircase represents the many ways by which we learn to walk up towards God’s purpose. Here we find all the ethical and religious achievements of humankind, including the Christian religion. But in the middle of them and at the bottom is placed a symbol that represents something different – the historic place and the historic deed in which God exposed himself: God comes to meet us at the bottom of our stairways, not at the top – “I came to call not the righteous, but sinners” (Newbigin 1978: 204f). As I meet my neighbour, I meet him or her at the bottom of the staircase.

Saturday

The Questions Jesus Brings (English & Hindi Message)

The following is a message by my dear brother, Anil Yesudas.  He is speaking on "The Questions Jesus Brings". The message is translated by Vinod Isaacs into Hindi.  This is a nice example of a narrative sermon on the life of Jesus.  Enjoy!

Friday

Orality Strategies- Great resource!

Today, I just want to recommend a resource to those of you that are utilizing a storying approach to sharing Biblical truth in your evangelism and discipleship. Orality Strategies is a "go to" site for me because it contains tons of information, resources, case studies, videos, storying sets and more.
I was just using it today as I was trying to choose stories for a 10 Commandments series that I am teaching. I enjoyed seeing the many different themes that have been used to create story sets. Take a look and I'm sure you'll find some very useful stuff.

Orality Strategies

Indigenous Jesus: Interview with Contextualizaton Pastor Cody C. Lorance

My friend, Scott Rayl, recently featured an interview with me on his really cool blog.  I hope you'll check it out.  While your are there, do check out all the other cool stuff he has on his site.  I really like Scott's blog.

Indigenous Jesus: Interview with Contextualizaton Pastor Cody C. Lorance

Thursday

Sanskrit Bhajan: Sat Guru Yeshu Namo Namaha

Today, I'd like to share another song.  This one is in Hindi/Sanskrit and is so simple yet it provides a profound meditation upon the person and work of God's unique Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The lyrics, translation, and chords follow.




Romanized Sanskrit:
Jeevanadata Yeshuji, namana karu main sat sat baar
Muktipradata Yeshuji, namana karu main sat sat baar
Shantipradata Yeshuji, namana karu main sat sat baar
Jeevan Jyothi Yeshuji, namana karu main sat sat baar
Iswar Sat Prabhu Yeshuji, namana karu main sat sat baar
Mrythujaya Prabhu Yeshuji, namana karu main sat sat baar

English translation:
Jesus the life giver, we reverently bow again and again
Jesus the savior, we reverently bow again and again
Jesus the peace giver, we reverently bow again and again
Jesus the light of life, we reverently bow again and again
Jesus, God the true Lord, we reverently bow again and again
Jesus, conqueror of death, we reverently bow again and again

The chord progression is simple: Em, C, D, C - I uses a capo on the first fret in this version

Wednesday

CANCELLED: Free Orality Training (Feb. 15, 2011)


PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BELOW EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO SOME UNFORESEEN HEALTH ISSUES

Trinity International Baptist Mission will be hosting a free training workshop on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 on using Bible Storying in cross-cultural missions. Our special guest will be veteran missionary and orality expert Dr. Johnny Norwood.  The training will be held at Glenfield Baptist Church at 670 S. Lambert Rd., Glen Ellyn, IL from 6-9:30PM.  I've know Johnny for some time and recommend this training for anyone who is involved in cross-cultural missions.  In fact, our whole team will be there.  So please come on out and take advantage of this free training.  We'd love to see you there and have a chance to hear about how God has placed the nations on your heart.

Roundheads: A Bhutanese Pizza Review

This may seem strange.

Odd content for a missiology blog, right?  Well, keep in mind that mine is a kind of missiology "on the way" blog -- lived missiology.  With that in mind, sometimes you have to just take your mind off things.  Last weekend was kind of a nightmare and in the midst of it, a few of us just needed to unplug and eat pizza. I went with a couple individuals from our Bhutanese-Nepali community with whom I am very close and we decided to try a pizza place that was totally new to all of us.  We ended up at Roundhead's Pizza and Pub.

leftlogo4As we were eating, we thought that it would be good for us to visit every local pizza place around and to review them, just for fun. And, well, I suppose as long as they're buying, I'm game.  So here's the deal: I had to come up with a point/scoring system that would make sense to them. Scales of 1-10 or A-F are a bit foreign.  So, we decided to use Little Caesar's as a base line.  Around here, the $5 "hot and ready" pizzas are the standard for the Bhutanese-Nepalis.  So, after we finished eating our tasty, medium double-dough, pepperoni and jalapeño 14-incher, I asked my fellow food critics, "How many Little Caesar's pizzas would you trade for one of these?" Our scores:

Critic #1 -- 1.5 Caesars
Critic #2 -- 2 Caesars
Critic #3 -- 2 Caesars

So there you have it! Roundhead's gets a score of 1.83 Caesars in our first-ever Bhutanese Pizza Review.  Since this is our first review, I have no way of knowing how good a score that will prove to be.  But, I know we all left feeling full and having enjoyed the tasty fare.

If you've eaten at Roundhead's, let us know what you think of it.

Peace!

Tuesday

From the Rising of the Sun (Nepali)

Per the request of a friend who is trying to launch their first Christocentric Satsang among Nepalis and Bhutanese in another city, I have recorded this Nepali version of "From the Rising of the Sun".  Below the video, you will find some lyrics and translation along with the chords.  Native Nepali singers will be able to do a much better job than me, but this is my humble attempt.



Lyrics in Romanized Nepali:
Suryaadayadekhi suryaastasamma prabhuko prashansaa hunuparchha (2X)
Prashansaa gara unkaa sabai sewakharu ho
Unko naumko prashansaa, unko naum dhanyako hos
Ahiledekhi sadasarwadaa.

English Translation:
From the sunrise to the sunset, the Lord's name must be praised.
All his servants, praise him.
Praise to his name, blessed is his name.
From now on and forever.


Chords:
E                         Esus     E                         Esus
Suryaadayadekhi          suryaastasamma        

A                Bsus             E
prabhuko prashansaa hunuparchha (2X)

A                                                 Bsus
Prashansaa gara unkaa sabai sewakharu ho

                          A                                        Bsus                
Unko naumko prashansaa, unko naum dhanyako hos

C#m      A
Ahiledekhi (3X)

                E
sadasarwadaa.

Monday

Watch the John 3:16 Ad that was Banned from the Super Bowl

Alright, here's the "controversial" commercial that Fox rejected from nationally airing during the Super Bowl.  It was deemed to be offensive.  Unlike Kim Kardashian's, right?  Well, the word is that it somehow snuck through in a few local markets and aired anyway.  Personally, I kind of like what they did with it and applaud the effort to connect with fans who often see the reference to the verse flashed around at games, but never really take the time to look it up.  The ad (and website) make it easy. Good stuff.

2010 Bhutanese-Nepali Christmas Program

We're finally getting some of our own videos edited and posted on YouTube.  Here are the first two.  Eventually, we'll have the whole program available online.  These two songs were presented by the youth of TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali, two fun and worshipful welcome songs.



Thursday

Stingy Evangelicals?

So, by the look of it, Christians are only giving about 2% of their income to churches. Only about 2% of that goes to "foreign missions". So much for tithing.

How Evangelicals Give | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Here's a quick and solid book to get you started in thinking biblically about giving:

Unreached Peoples in the West

I like what JD has said here. Take a look:

» Unreached Peoples in the West-Part 2