Nu har Brian McLarens (i mitt tycke) bästa bok kommit på svenska på CorVita förlag. Jag har inte läst den ännu och är lite orolig för att de skall ha fuskat bort den i dålig översättning, vilket jag tyckte att de gjorde med "Mer redo än du anar" - den andra av McLarens böcker de har gett ut.

Är översättningen OK tror jag att detta kan vara en fantastisk bok att sätta i händerna på en tänkande kompis. Den ger svar utan att skriva läsaren på näsan. MYCKET läsvärd!

Inte helt fel:

"1. Spend time (lots of time) in contemplative prayer
2. Because we become like the thing we worship, we will eventually become more like Christ
3. As we become more like Christ, we will reflect his glory in our own lives, and our faces will become radiant with glory like Moses.
4. Because we are becoming more like Christ, we will want to spend more time with people and for people
5. They will see the beauty of Christ in our lives and be drawn to Christ as a magnet draws iron filings.
6. This will happen, because they will instinctively recognize in Christ the fulfillment of their heart's true desire.

This evangelization is effective because it is:

1. Appropriate for each person in a natural way
2. Totally the work of grace and not human effort
3. Free of personal ego on the part of the evangelist
4. Non-threatening and naturally attractive
5. Free of guilt, pressure of propaganda or coercion of any sort

In Evangelization, like all things in the Christian life, the most rapid progress is made on our knees."

"The thing about evangelism is this: People can spot it a mile off and they run a mile (so they generally end up two miles from it, depending upon the relative speeds of the evangelism and their running). I have found that evangelism is probably the least effective form of evangelism. If you want to communicate your faith to someone else the best way to do it is not to try."

Härifrån

En för mig välbekant lösning inför ett sådant val är att inte välja - att göra lite av varje, att satsa tunt, men brett.

Engelskans ord för lärjunge - disciple - har samma rot som ordet disciplin: En lärjunge är en person som förmår välja. Peter Halldorf skrev i boken "Ungt lärjungskap" ungefär så här:

"Disciplin
är förmågan att kunna välja bort en sak för att kunna välja en annan.
Disciplin är att välja bort det som är bra för att kunna göra det som
är bäst."

Vad tänker du stryka ur ditt veckoschema under det kommande året för att skapa tid för det viktigaste?

"Official culture still strives to force the new media to do the work of the old media. But the horseless carriage did not do the work of the horse; it abolished the horse and did what the horse could never do."

• Hur kan vi använda den nya tekniken?
• Hur skall kyrkan bli huvud istället för svans?
• Skall vi använda de nya möjligheterna till att lägga ut fler predikningar i mp3 och videoformat, eller finns det sätt vi kan utnyttja hela vidden av de nya kommunikationsmöjligheter som erbjuds oss?

"Penny Marler and Kirk Hadaway, veteran church observers, have documented that denominations grow, not primarily for ideological reasons, nor for primarily sociological reasons, but rather because growing denominations tend to start new congregations.
Old denominations are renewed as the percentage of new churches in their total number of churches increases."

Utdrag ur artikel om kyrkan som mission.

"As a campus minister at Duke, I marveled at the ability of the Trinity to get into the dorms and disrupt upwardly mobile sophomores. I decided that youth get along well with the Trinity because at their tender age they love to be disrupted, called, jerked around and generally destabilized.

The church has always wanted the Trinity to be parochial rather than processional. The church apostolic is not that church that is proud of being its succession of dead men; rather, to be apostolic is to be a body in motion, a church that is sent. It is not to seek permanence, stability or some significance of its own, but instead to be content to be apostolic and to serve at the pleasure of the One who calls and commissions."

Hela artikeln från Christian Century här.

What about using apologetics in an evangelistic sermon? There was a time in which apologetics had great force. I don't think that's as true today. In a postmodern age, to use that cliché, people aren't as impressed with evidences that demand a verdict. That's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of a lot of people who are skilled at reaching non-Christians, who have, in the past, used apologetics. Usually apologetics are more forceful for those who have come into faith, and having come to faith, have all kinds of questions.

Often a church that has small groups, that has warm fellowship, that draws people to an atmosphere of love, has something going for it. People are drawn to that, and then they want to talk about the gospel. People want relationships; they want to know there are people who care about them. When they find that, then they will hear the gospel, but I don't think apologetics is as strong and as needed today as it was 25 years ago.

Has anything taken its place?

Yes, and I want to be careful, but it's people telling their story. I'm not talking about the modern theology that you have your story and I've got my story, but there's no great story, no meta-narrative. I'm talking about telling your testimony, what's happened to you along the way. You're telling how coming to trust Jesus Christ has made a difference in your life. When someone hears that story, and it overlaps their story, there's a way in which that can connect. That's truer today than in the past. We've always used testimonies, but today the witness box has an appeal to people because, in a way, that's the way life comes to them.
 

Ur artikeln "Evangelistic Preaching in the Local Church" på Preaching Today

av Dwight Friessen

"...Here is one of life’s many paradoxes: the more we focus our energies and efforts on a single thing (mission) the more likely we are to sacrifice a more holistic way of living, while the more we focus on holistic living the more we risk sacrificing missional living...At this time I find myself preferring the language of incarnational living instead of missional living. The language of incarnational living more meaningfully emphasizes embodying Christ in every situation and cultural context...

Incarnational living more meaningfully marries mission with the wholeness of life. Incarnational living places the mystery of life with Christ at the center of each follower’s life and each faith community’s life together. "

Hela artikeln här.

En av de centrala aspekterna i hur evangelium såsom vi förkunnar det idag blir irrelevant för människorna omkring oss är att vi definierar frihet olika.

Modernismen växte fram i konflikt med kristendomen och därför var en central aspekt av modernismens frihetsbegrepp frihet ifrån, Gud, traditioner och auktoriteter. En nödvändig frigörelse, javisst, men också en frigörelse som omintetgjorde möjligheten att hitta fram (om du frågar mig). Det man skapade var inte en fri människa utan en autonom individ.

Eftersom en central aspekt av modernismens strävan var frigörelse från kyrkans makt, så ligger misstänksamheten mot kristna anspråk forfarande kvar, latent, outtalat, men som en stark ström under ytan. Detta visar sig inte minst i frihetssynen som i grunden inte är annat än ett fotonegativ av den kristna frihetssynen. I kristen tro är människan bunden av ondskan, maktlös i sin situation och behöver räddas av Gud in i en framtid tillsammans med honom. I modernismen är människan bunden av Gud och har förmåga att befria sig ifrån honom in i en framtid hon själv skall skapa.

Lever vi i en tid som hör "bundenhet" när vi försöker säga "frihet" så är det ju inte underligt att vi inte kommunicerar.

Är du intresserad kan du läsa mer i mitt religionsfilosofiarbete "Befrielse och emancipation".

Befrielseochemancipation.pdf