Archive for September, 2009

True Community: A Holistic Gospel Witness

September 22nd, 2009 by Braxton Alsop

In this essay, Kelsi Johns writes with her usual simple profundity and keen eye to the blood, sweat, and tears of true discipleship.  She reflects on her own experiences to draw out what it means to live the gospel rather than simply preach the gospel from a safe distance.  To love is to risk, and as Kelsi explains, the church is called to show the same “messy, generous, limitless love” that God has shown to us in Christ.  Community development, Kelsi asserts, must begin with developing relationships, with truly loving our neighbors and serving  with and among them, rather than just to them.

True Community

One Saturday At Picadilly’s

September 12th, 2009 by admin

This thoughtful reflection piece from Barbara Echo-Hawk provides us a window into the world of segregation which she experienced while growing up in the 1960’s. While reading it, consider ways in which we still face segregation of various forms, and what we can do to expand our horizons and engage redemptively in the process of reconciliation in our own day.

One Saturday at Picadilly’s

Is the Consumer Church Being Exported to Africa?

September 3rd, 2009 by Alex.Mutagubya

In this essay, Alex Mutagubya laments a troubling trend he sees in the Ugandan church: the appropriation of consumeristic tendencies from the Western church.  He addresses the divisions that this trend has caused, builds a biblical and theological basis for correcting this trend, and then offers practical solutions, all within the historical and cultural context of Uganda.  His hope is for the Ugandan church “to see the beauty that God intended for it in having all these tribes and people live and worship together,” as we all will soon enough with Christ’s return.

The Church Viewed as a Voluntary Association

Jacques Derrida and Structural Evil

September 3rd, 2009 by Braxton Alsop

Is the much maligned (and praised) philosopher Jacques Derrida, father of deconstruction, a misunderstood liberator in need of a little liberation himself?  In this essay, Braxton Alsop gives a sympathetic ear to Jacques Derrida as a liberation theologian in his own right, analyzing how well Derrida addresses human suffering caused by structural evil. Braxton then sets forth his own views on God, salvation, and the church, explaining how a Trinitarian perspective better addresses the shared concern for structural evil.

Jacques Derrida and Structural Evil