DownshoreDrift

I've got some more stories and pictures from our recent trip to the Gulf Coast coming this weekend, but in the meantime, I thought that I'd point to this article:

Ritzy missions trips aim for wealthy


    HAMILTON, Bermuda — This year, instead of helping a missions team build a church sanctuary in Honduras, Bill Taylor of Open Bible Church in Wichita is evangelizing at beach resorts in Bermuda.
    "Now this is missions work," says Taylor while striking up spiritual conversation with wealthy resort guests.
    As more church-goers tire of spending vacation time in the Third World, churches are taking a break from poverty and targeting the luxury class with the gospel.
    "Our worldview had gotten too narrow," says one pastor. "Rich people need Jesus, too."
    Grace Family Church of Littleton, Colo., recently started a ministry called Higher Calling and sent a missions team to tony boutiques in Milan’s fashion district. The group reached out to watchmakers, jewelry store workers and super-wealthy patrons.
    "People who were never interested in missions trips are jumping at the chance to go," says the pastor.
    Team member Joyce Andrews says the salespeople "will tolerate a lot of evangelizing if you are committed to buying a diamond necklace or a watch." Andrews says she felt vastly more effective evangelizing luxury jewelry shop employees than on her last three trips to Central America.
    "I feel useless in poor places," she says. "But I found I fit very well in wealthier environments. Striking up spiritual conversations at the perfume counter is right up my alley."
    Pastor Brent Keefauver says his congregation in Miami was suffering from "poverty fatigue" because of the malnutrition and generally dismal motif most missions trips offer.
    "We were gaining a global perspective, but losing the joy of the Lord," he says. "We had to switch gears fast."
   

So, I thought I'd start the week off with some thoughts concerning the upcoming Baptist Conference on the Holy Spirit at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, TX. I've been asked to take part in a panel discussion on Saturday morning. I am also speaking at 3pm on the topic "Defining and Defending the Continualist Position." I've planned and led quite a few conferences, and my great hope in my participation in this one is that I'll be speaking at 3pm on Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, that time period takes the pressure off greatly.  Generally, only family members, the church custodian, and some guys moving chairs and tables in the back are around at that time, as most have retired to their homes and hotels for a much needed afternoon nap before returning in the evening. Those left in the room usually begin to sink down in their seats and drop their heads in an attitude of prayer that goes on for some time. If not careful, some have been known to actually fall out of their chairs as though they were slain, charismatic style. The 3pm crowd is quite pious, actually.

I'm thinking I really should blow the dust off the old family Bible, crack it open and prepare for this, since I will be surrounded by incredibly qualified people with academic degrees and what not. But, then I thought, why not just wing it?  Since many in the SBC consider those who believe in the continuation of miraculous Spiritual Gifts to base their sketchy theology on experience alone, I thought I'd just show up and see what happens. I'm sure it will turn out all right in the end. I have about 45 minutes to speak, I think, so I thought I'd show a video of people speaking in tongues to each other without interpretation for about 20 minutes. I could get some clips of all types of charismatic phenomena, like people barking, rolling around, and running around the church. It could be entitled, "Coming to a Baptist Church Near You If Continualists Get Their Way!"  Then, since we are experience based after all, I could divide the room up into small groups and ask people to share their feelings about the video. Was it scary? How did it make them feel? After that, I'd blast them for not having enough faith or something. I'm still working on my closing, but I don't want to put TOO much thought into, remember? Spontaneity and all.

In case you didn't realize, this was an experiment in satire. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence by stating the obvious, but I have read comments on some blogs that would lead me to believe that nuance is lost on more than a few. In all seriousness, I am VERY excited about this coming weekend. I feel that it will provide a much needed forum to discuss and debate one of the central controversies in Baptist life today. I am incredibly honored to be speaking and am very excited about the 3pm time, because I will get to go last, in a sense, and I will be able to respond to the statements made by the cessationist speakers before me, Bart Barber and Robin Foster. I am preparing as best I can, and do not plan to just wing it, even though I am sure to be dwarfed by the theological and mental heavyweights that will be my counterparts. So, I appreciate your prayers this week as I get ready for what should be a great experience.

I ran across this article today and thought it was pretty funny. It just goes to show how we can make the Bible say just about anything we want based on our presuppositions, eh? As you read this, think about other passages that can be taken out of context, viewed in isolation, and used wrongly.

MINOT, N.D. — Jack Crocker, a beer-loving machinist and "part-time Christian," finally agreed to read Proverbs with wife Reanna. He's glad he did.
    "I'm a Proverbs 31 husband all right," says Jack, then quotes Proverbs 31:6-7: "Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more."
    "That's my permission to crack open a cold one," Jack says, having a Coors after dinner.
    But Reanna, a new church member, is pushing Jack hard to stop drinking. She insists he is neither "perishing" nor "in anguish." But Jack researched the Bible on the Internet and found 2 Corinthians 4:16 and 5:2 which say, "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day," and "Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling."
    "Everyone is perishing and in anguish," Jack says. "Until we're delivered from these bodies, the Bible says to drink up."
    As part of the escalating family tension he created a "Proverbs 31" category on their weekly budget and listed "beer" under it. He also wants to start a Proverbs 31 Men's Group with his buddies.
    "We're trying to find where the Bible talks about buffalo wings," he says. •

And, in case you didn't know, I found it on Lark News, which is a Christian satire site. They try to make points about how ridiculous we can be through satire, which is usually lost on most people.  I don't approve of everything there, but they usually make pretty good points that get me to think about things in a different way.