Thanks.

In case you're looking for some reasons to be thankful this week, here are a few:

1. In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty".

2. Every year 15 million children die of hunger.

3. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.

4. Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people.

5. 3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.

6. Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

7. Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.

Gives us some perspective...doesn't it?

"When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been intrusted with much, even more will be required." - Luke 12:48b NLT

The Forgotten Ways.

I've been reading the book The Forgotten Ways - Reactivating the missional church by Alan Hirsch. Hirsch is a pastor/church planter/missionary in South Melbourn, Australia. Here are a few quotes that have resonated with me:

"Mission must take place in and through every aspect of life. And this is done by Christians everywhere. Both forms of mission - the apostolic mission of the community - as well as the individual expression of God's people must be activated if we are to become a truly missional church."

"I have come to the unnerving conclusion that God's people are more potent by far when they have little of what we would recognize as church institution in their life together."

"Phenomenal Jesus movements grow precisely because they do not have centralized institutions to block growth through control... remarkable Jesus movements have the feel of a movement, have structure as a network, and spread like viruses."

"...we ought to try and see how we can engage our culture on its own turf (missional), rather than expecting them to come to ours (attractional)."

Emerging vs. Emergent

Emerging.

Name.

Dream.

Yesterday.

Yesterday my wife and I took our two month old baby girl (Reese) to get her shots. Five shots in her tiny legs. Three in one…two in the other. To be honest, I didn’t want to go…but I sucked it up and went anyway. My wife held our baby as the nurse did the deed. I sat there next to her…powerless…as my child experienced pain unfelt before in her brief life. My wife cried. I cried. The nurse cried. I wanted to yell out “Stop!” I can only imagine what Reese was thinking…”What did I do?” or “Why aren’t Daddy and Mommy protecting me?” She had no way of knowing that what we were doing WAS protecting her. Even if we told her, she wouldn’t be able to understand it. I wished that I could somehow let her know that this was all for her benefit. That we still loved her…that we where allowing this to happen because we loved her. Then I remembered a question that I’ve been asked by a number of hurting people. A question you’ve probably heard or asked yourself: “How can a caring God allow so much pain in the world?”

I think I understand this a little bit better…after yesterday.

“And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” – I Peter 1:5-7 NLT