Posted by Mark Stephan
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:50:00 GMT
A friend emailed me the following YouTube video.
Watch this 7-minute video about Islam and the impact that it is having on the world and America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
Then read below.
I found this video very interesting. It’s actually quite true, but there are a few more questions that I have about it that it doesn’t answer.
- As the European culture and population wanes, will that affect the Islamic culture in Europe, and will not the second and third generations of the Islamic Culture also drop below the culture threshold? What is the trajectory of this, and will the European culture be dead before then?
- While the Islamic culture in the US grows, will it not also wane as it adapts to the economic and cultural presses of fitting into the US?
- Media is the big unknown in this. I think Media is the true propagator of culture. As we’ve seen in the US, the media has changed US culture.
- Because Media is the true modern way that culture is passed, shouldn’t we focus on media as opposed to making babies as a solution? If Muslims take over media, that’s when I would really start to be concerned.
- There are many different variants of Islam all spread between liberal and extreme literal Muslims. What impact does this have on culture? Which of these groups are infiltrating Europe and the US, and what is their integration on the initial generation who immigrated, and then on the subsequent generations?
While this video’s goal was made to instill fear, I think it prudent not to be fearful, but to consider it and its ramifications. Identify the true problems, and consider how we as individuals can influence those changes.
Ultimately I believe Islam isn’t the biggest problem we have as Christians, but rather the media, and having control over how the media ‘brands’ us is ultimately the power of the culture war.
Things to consider.
Posted in Politics, Christianity, Islam | Tags Christianity, Islam, Politics | 1 comment
Posted by Mark Stephan
Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:08:00 GMT
One of my friends replied to this posting via email. I thought it was so good, I wanted to paste it here.
Please read, "Authentic Community is against our Culture" first. Then read this response.
Enjoy,
—–
I think that generally, at least these days, perhaps in other days as well, the "church" generally reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the surrounding larger culture:
- American culture in general is miserable at hospitality and community. [I’m still sorry/sad I wasn’t able to receive you and Erdal better when you came through here. I’ve really just been in survival mode for a little while.] Christian American culture scores perhaps one percentage point better than non-Christian American culture, but still deep in "failure" territory.
- Arabs are great at hospitality and community (at least on a superficial level). Muslim Arabs do far better at this than Christian Americans. However, Arab culture has its own weaknesses; such as rampant pride, distrust, and dependence on forceful, iron-fisted leaders to hold people together in the midst of it all. And yep, that spills over into the church just as much as independence, and lust for "freedom" and "rights" does in the American church. Now, to give the Americans a mark of credit, although I might take issue with several trends in the American evangelical pastorate, I would have to say that relative to Arabs American pastors are quite humble and responsive to their sheep.
- Chinese culture is obsessed with prosperity, longevity, "luck" and "fortune". Chinese also give full authority to a person with "certified credentials" (such as a degree), and aren’t very likely to question what such a person says or examine validity of truth claims for themselves. All of this flows tragically through most of the Chinese "church", with very fertile ground for the prosperity anti-gospel, and quick, ready willingness to follow (secular or clergy) leaders into immorality rather than stand up for righteousness and "rock the boat". In favor of the Chinese, they are much more interdependent in helping each other out than the Americans, and much more meek than the Arabs, generally.
So, in summary, I think the main thing that I’m trying to say is that in general what I’ve seen is simply that "Christian culture" is a near replica, with slight modifications, of the surrounding culture that it is in. In other words, "becoming a Christian" doesn’t change people all that radically. I conjecture that the main reason for that is that most of those "becoming Christians" (i.e. those who "say the sinner’s prayer", "start going to church", etc.) are in fact not born-again, counted-the-cost, true-gospel believing, disciples of Christ. In other words, they are lost.
The consequence of having churches full of lost people are twofold. The first is obvious, the second is a bit less obvious but equally, if not more, important. First, of course, lost people will not manifest the Spirit-filled, new life in Christ. Yes, our psychological sermonizing and plethora of "programs" (inspired by the self-help section of your local pagan bookstore, since that is all that makes sense to the lost people who are fueling these programs, lost people cannot understand spiritual truth) might result in slight superficial alterations to people’s lives, but not the deep down fruit borne from a resurrected spiritual union with Christ.
Second though, and here is the real stinger, is that the inundation of lost souls in the church (both into congregation and leadership) results in a "lowering of the bar" for the genuine born-again disciples. Let’s say we have a hypothetical true Christian, let’s call him "MS". Say that MS goes around amongst America "Christians" saying, "Hey, what’s the deal? Acts 2:42-47 is simply not happening here! We seem leagues and leagues away from genuine Christian community!" What’s going to happen? Well, one thing is that it is likely is that MS will be in contact with certain lost souls who are in good standing in the "church" because they "prayed the sinner’s prayer" at some point, and have been attending church regularly and perhaps even going to weekly Bible studies. Perhaps some of these lost souls MS will be in contact with are even deacons, elders, and pastors. They will say, "Oh now MS, that sounds incredibly legalistic to me. What about the gospel of grace that says we are not saved by our works? If you say that genuine Christian community has to look like Acts 2:42-47, then you are essentially saying that the vast majority of people in our churches are not Christians, or at least they are not acting like true Christians. You wouldn’t dare say such things about your brothers and sister in Christ, would you?"
Moreover, likely even some genuine, born-again, disciples, who through a combination of lack of discernment, fear of man, succumbing to peer pressure, and even an unfortunate misapplication of genuine God-given humility, have been indoctrinated and assimilated into the suffocating heavy wet blanket of the pseudo-Christian culture all around them. And these true (though misguided) genuine Christians will come and challenge MS with the same message as the lost "Christians" did, that he needs to back off lest he risk turning to a "legalistic gospel of works" and thereby condemning many of his "brothers and sisters in Christ" (many of whom, in fact, are actually not his brothers and sisters and in fact already stand condemned before the Lord).
In the end (in our hypothetical scenario) MS caves in to the pressure. And guess what? Satan has once again succeeded in lowering the bar to such an extent that being a Christian in America doesn’t really imply that anything will be manifestly different in your life than that of the surrounding pagan world. Satan has succeeded in keeping his lost souls in the bondage of false assurance (until that day comes when they say "Lord, Lord…" and the Lord says, "I never knew you"), and Satan has also succeeded in placing a lampstand to quench the Spirit in those in whom the Spirit is genuinely working.
Don’t get me wrong, Satan does not ultimately succeed. Christ IS building the Church He always intended to build for Himself and the gates of Hell WILL NOT prevail against it. But the Church that CHRIST (not man) is building consists of the FEW (note: the relatively FEW even amongst those who profess Him as "Lord, Lord"!) who enter through the narrow gate and follow the hard way.
Love you bro,
Zach H.
Posted in Christianity | Tags Community, culture, groups, Small | 4 comments
Posted by Mark Stephan
Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:02:00 GMT
Christian Community, Small Groups, Missional Community, etc… Everyone seems to be about community. But really how are we to do it? I spent 7 years in Turkey and recently have come back to the US. Now I’m having to rebuild community which has had to be one of the hardest things for me to deal with in reentry. Of course there were the things that Turkey did to me that messed me up, that’s to be expected. But also it’s the things about America that I’m really having a problem understanding, and I suspect, Americans are having trouble understanding about me. I have had really odd feelings of loneliness in the midst of a lot of people. This is a tell-tale sign of lack of authentic community. While I thought my Christian community in Istanbul was weak, I find it even harder now that I am back into the states to deveop authentic relationships that go beyond schedules and appointments and meetings.
Now relationships are two ways, and ultimately we all need to find out what is it about us that makes building community difficult.
Two things I have deduced.
- Unsaved Turks are closer to the model of Act 2:42-47 than saved Americans. (As a generality of course, there are always exceptions.)
- That while I found things in the culture of Turks that needed to change to make fertile soil for the gospel to start, so are there things in the American culture that need to change to make us fertile soil for the gospel to make us into what it wants us to be.
While in Turkey other obstacles (such as hedonism etc..) kept Turks from believing in the gospel, it doesn’t help that the missionaries were hard pressed to really show authentic community similar to Acts 2:42-47. because of this inability to be community, the Turks really don’t see a reason to convert because if they did, they would be giving up an authetic (albeit unspiritual and shallow) community of their family and friends and replacing it for a much smaller and much weaker community of the so called ‘believers’. Community is important to the Turks, and they know what it ‘is’, and what it ‘isn’t’. Though the depth of it may be in question, they at least have it. The problem with Americans is that we have no clue what it ‘is’. This is not a problem of ignorance, but rather our culture simply has been formed to go against the comcept of any community. Much like the Turks cannot trully understand forgiveness as it is foreign to their culture, we cannot understand community. We are a country that values independance and self reliance. It is the protestant work ethic gone mad.
So the problems I’m having is part of my reentry reverse-culture shock. I am so used now to Turkish community, the closeness, the lack of distant boundaries, the constant intrusions (a.k.a. divine appointments ) that now that I’m back here in the states, it’s incredibly lonely.
Here is a list of values that a Turks and Americans have about community:
Turks:
- Visit without advance notice
- Stop by frequently
- Invite you over all the time
- Always immediately drop everything for an invitation
- Are always very friendly (even though this is superficial it’s still friendly)
- Their relationships take a lot more work, but that’s how you show relationship. ( i.e. if you don’t talk to them every few days they think you’re mad at them)
- Stay and Stay and Stay sometimes for days.
- Turks always have time and are able to go out of their way. They value being available.
Americans:
- Rarely visit without continued harassment, and then they schedule it weeks in advance often canceling.
- Don’t stop by once and certainly not more than once. That would be ‘intrusive’. Christians may have a once a week bible study, but Lord forbid they actually hang out more than that.
- Invitations are for Weddings, thats about it. Few hold dinner parties anymore, movie nights, just hang-out time, etc…
- Americans don’t ever do anything spontaneously.
- Americans simply are not friendly until they have had a long chance to get to know you, then they are ‘friendly’.
- ‘Neediness’ n American relationships is seen as a large negative, and avoided at all costs. Independence is a value, not mutual dependance.
- An American is always measuring the subtle clues from others on when to leave. They do not want to out-stay their welcome, and do not want others to out stay their welcome.
- Americans value being busy and think it makes them seem important if they act busy and feel busy. They don’t want to seem lazy, so they train themselves to feel busy, whether or not they really are.
Some of you may say that these are good things about Americans, but really think if they are ‘God’ things about Americans. Is this how Jesus behaved? Your culture has brain-washed you, and we as a culture need to repent of this.
Back here in the states it’s actually rather hard to recreate a community for myself. I invite others to my home all the time, invite them to be in community, hang out, do activities, but rarely does it happen. Very rarely do people ever visit my home even though several times a week I invite people to come. They often say it’s too far or some lame excuse like that, but come on, it’s really not too far from anyone. What they are really say it’s too far for the value they put on it.
Even my neighbors who are believers as portrayed by their bumper stickers, I’ve invited to come over, talk, bible study, etc…. have never shown up after months of invitations.
While sharing the gospel and seeing a Turk become a Christian is very hard and rare, seeing a Christian American being a real, active, ‘follower of Christ’ is also hard. Acts 2:42-47 is what a community of people who are true ‘Followers of Christ’ looks like. Yes, I know Churches are working hard to change this (small groups, missional communities, etc…), but really it’s our job as individual believers to see Christ change us, not the church, and be a community as a whole no longer individuals, but a body of Christ. Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves are we a Christian, or are we a ‘follower of Jesus Christ’?
Read the comments below, and also the response, "Authentic Communit is against our Culture" written by Zach H.
Posted in Christianity, Turkey | Tags Christian, Community, Turkey | 4 comments
Posted by Mark Stephan
Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:01:00 GMT
I went to a Singles Forum/Study last night for the Austin Stone Community Church. The Austin Stone has been going through I Corinthians, and the past month been focusing first on the issue of Marriage, Sex, and most recently, Singleness.
To summarize last week’s sermon (check it out on their podcast if you like, it was good) Singleness is a gift from God, and as long as we have it even for our entire life, we should look at it as a gift that allows us to enjoy God even more with an undivided heart. As with Marriage our focus must be spread between God, Wife, and children if there are any.
So, I agree completely with everything said, and have nothing more to expound on that in itself. In addition to the Sunday topic, the church had a special session for singles who wanted to discuss it further on Thursday night so I decided to go to see what they had to say. First off I thank John for leading it. He did a good job of starting to eat the big elephant that this undoubtedly is. That said, I must say that scheduling 1.5 hours for a talk about Singleness, its meaning, and its impact on our lives is almost laughable. We have a lot to talk about. Such an issue needs delved into much more deeply, and perhaps a special ‘Get Trained’ session needs to be done on it spread across a semester if not more.
So below are random thoughts I came back with from this forums. They are in no order, but are thoughts. Take them as they are.
- Singleness is not a stage in life. To say singleness is a stage is to say that we are not finished, incomplete, and in part immature. Singleness in itself can be complete as a marriage can be complete. On the same token, singleness can be incomplete as a marriage can be incomplete if our focus and direction is not focused on God’s will and desires, but on our own. Marriage and Singleness are both statuses of our lives. I am not single until I get married. I am single because I am single.
- The relationship between singles and marrieds is a precarious one. Marrieds have problems dealing with singles as peers, and singles tend to be afraid of marrieds. Marrieds tend to think the solution to a single’s loneliness and other issues is marriage. They could not be more wrong. Singles tend to think marriage brings happiness and joy that they do not have. Singles could not be more wrong. Marriage is a God-given calling, much like Singleness is a God-given calling. If you call yourself to either without actually having a God-given calling, misery will ensue. However, having said that, all of us are certainly called to singleness until a point at which we are called (if we are ever called) to marriage. One of my pet peeves is being treated like something is wrong with me by marrieds, or like I’m their little pet ‘project’ or their child. I’ve literally had mission teams (couples of course) when I was in Turkey start praying for me to find a wife WITHOUT them even asking me if I wanted them to. I am an adult, and I am their peer. I am not a toy to be played with, hooked up, prayed for, et. al. unless I specifically request it. Feel free to ask me. :-) At the same time, we singles tend to defeat ourselves in this. We ‘try’ to hang out with marrieds, and in doing so have them cook for us, and invite us to ‘family’ events. This only reenforces their view of us. Instead, I invite and cook for marrieds before I ever accept an invitation to their home. I also invite them to activities. I am a person with my own activities and my own (christian) family. I can cook, clean and take care of myself.
- The issue of lust and burning with lust (1 Cor. 7:9 ) is an issue that cannot be answered with platitudes of, "if God wanted you to marry he would have brought someone to you so that you would not be tempted ‘burn’ with lust". Thus if you are burning with lust, there should be someone near you that God wants you to marry, or, if you are to remain single, lust would not be an issue at all. I do not believe lust is merely a physical condition to be dealt with, but also involved in lust are emotions (psyche) and our spiritual selves. I think there really is a need to delve in deeper here and understand how to deal with something that singles deal with daily. In the times when 1 Cor. was written, the average person was married in their early teens. Even today in the middle east and other places, teenagers are married very early. Simply put, when a guy wants to have sex, he goes to his parents and says he wants to get married, and within a month he will be married. So if you were called to singleness during Paul’s time, you would probably know by the age of 18. Our culture today is very different than the culture of that day. Today people tend not to get married (if they do) until their late 20’s or early 30’s. So a lot of us are still pondering at the age of 30 whether or not we’re ‘called’ to marriage as it is still a very viable possibility. Today we are expected to get a great education and start our career before we start to think about marriage. While I believe the Bible does speak to every ‘time’ in history we need to understand that it does not speak in detail to every ‘time’. So we need to delve deeper into this issue of how do singles cope with singleness in the modern day. Ultimately the answer revolves around focus on God. But that’s not very practical advice. We already know what the goal is, the question is how? We need to understand and figure this out as singles, how do we focus on God.
- Not discussed really at the meeting was how our culture looks at us as singles. One of the biggest most bigoted things I have seen our culture do, and I am afraid and ashamed to say this is HUGE in christian circles I’ve been apart of, is that if you’re single, in your upper 20’s and above, and you’re not pursuing any girl, then there is something wrong with you, and the ‘G’ word while might not slip out initially, but is inferred often and eventually will slip out and create a rumor without confronting the person, that will spread and smear their targets name. I have seen this happen on the mission field, and particularly to me. Yes, I am upset about this, as well I should be, as well should anyone who is a believer. Believers should know better. If you ever have concerns, go to that person and talk about it with that person. It’s simple, and it resolves itself instantly glorifying God.
- Dating… We actually spent a lot of time on this at the talk. The biggest question was, how do we date, and when do we know we should date, does someone who is single date? What is the purpose of dating? What happens and should happen to a single’s undivided heart when we are dating, yet not married? We tossed this around a bit, gave some examples, and I spoke about how I think about it. I see that whoever we are, we first are a child of God. Our main purpose is to glorify God through our lives, and to enjoy Him forever. So through our singleness or our marriage, the goal should not change. So I think the ultimate question as to whether we are called by God to marriage or singleness isn’t whether we have lust issues, or need someone, but whether we as individuals or marrieds give off the ultimate potential of glory for God that we can give. 2 Corinthians talks about being equally yoked, and in this I think God has made a major revelation. As a single we are like 1 ox. We can pull a certain weight, and are very flexible. We can go left to right and do the flexible work. If we are yoked with another ox that is much weaker or much stronger, we go too fast or too slow, trip, fall, go in circles, can’t pull a bigger load, break the equipment, and basically become miserable. However, if we are yoked with an ox that is very close to our abilities, same goals, same training, same passion, and work well together, then we can go faster, pull more, and while not as flexible, can certainly make up in that flexibility by the load we can bare together. So the end result of whether we should date, get married etc, should not be dependent on how we feel, but whether God brings someone into your life that is running the same race you are, they encourage you, make you do more and better, and that you enjoy working together with that person, and ultimately you DON’T enjoy working without the other because you have not only become accustomed and enjoy the other (I’ll call this ‘love’), but you know you are better, do more, and produce a bigger ‘glory’ for God than you would otherwise. If that happens, then get married fast and run the race together. If it doesn’t stay single continue to run the race knowing that you do have a price you are aiming for.
Thoughts comments?
Posted in Christianity | Tags Marriage, Singleness | 1 comment
Posted by Mark Stephan
Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:29:00 GMT
Preface:
I started writing this post yesterday, was halfway through it (5 pages), and the web page refreshed and destroyed it. Oddly I wasn’t frustrated. I realized that it might have been a blessing in disguise. So now I have re-written it, and instead of one long drawn out painful posting, this will become a series. Each posting will be short, and something you can consider and think about before the next one. For His Fame…
Intro:
I’ve been in ministry in some shape or another for 18 years, almost half my life. For the last 7 years I have spent overseas in the Mission field working with a local persecuted church and developing a Business As Mission company. Now, I am back in Austin Texas, thinking and recuperating from 18 years of not only amazing things, but also amazing frustration and tragedy. For in the midst of trying to do a great good, I and most like me have indeed done good, but not doing what we were supposed to be doing, and that is what this series is about. This is for every person who has striven to make the world a better place, but has only gained frustration, pain, and picking up scraps of happiness here and there. The good news, this is not what is meant to be. The best news is, you can change it today.
The Greatest Evil:
I have seen a great evil in the world. This evil is by far the greatest by magnitude and by our indifference if not laud to its control in our lives. For not only those who we (the good) call evil (Hitler, Stalin, Hedonists, et. al.) do it, but so much the more we who claim to be ‘good’ do it more than those who are evil. This ‘sin’ is done by all men alike, and often is boasted in the doing.
This evil is mistaking what is ‘good’ for what is of/by/for God. The mistake is an easy one to make, and I myself have repeated it again and again, over and over. For originally the word ‘good’ came from the word ‘God’ meaning one who is following the standards of God’s holiness. For originally all good came from God. But somewhere, long ago, the term started its etymological descent to non-meaning. This descent began with the original sin which was not so much a deep seeded rebellion against God, but rather a slight self-deception in choosing what appeared to be ‘good’ opposed to what was of/by/for God. This slight deception and the fall resulting from it only emphasizes the chasm between what we call good and what is of/by/for God. In the end, what is truly good, cannot be seen by what we do, nor (as many would presume) by the core motivations of doing what we do, but rather what is truly good can only be discerned in comparison by its alignment with what God wants us to do.
As a result, our concept of doing good often is rooted in our original sinful nature of choosing what appears to be ‘good’ rather than trusting and seeking what is of/by/for God. Whether this good is in the form of Works (helping the poor, homeless, sick, etc.), Strategy (creating structures to reach the purposes of good works), Lifestyle ( picking lifestyle choices that are good i.e. recycling, pollution, green, nice to neighbors, parties, living in an impoverished neighborhood, etc.), Decisions (good decision making like job, marriage, dating, ministries to get involved in, etc..), and so on and so forth, ultimately unless what is good is indeed rooted in God, instead of being rooted in the relativeness of the world around us, it is sin and leaving us less satisfied, less empowered, and more and more enslaved to mediocrity.
There is good news though, as we read in Psalms 139: 13-16, God knew us in our womb. He formed us and created us, not only physically, but he ‘formed our inmost being’. Wherever you fall on the nature or nurture aspect, the Bible is clear, we certainly have a nature part to us, and originally that was formed by God. God created us with an instinct, and to each person their own skills, passions and potential founded for the true goodness of His ultimate supremacy and glorification, and as a result of, our own in reflecting His. Yet it is our environment and of course the flip-side of our nature (the cancerous nature that has eaten away at our God-given nature) that causes us to fall away slowly, slip by slip from the plan and passion God has created in us for His pleasure, and ultimately for our own joy and passion.
In this series I will discuss:
1) How we were meant to be
2) Where and how we go wrong
3) How to come back to living a fulfilled, passionate and built to last for eternity life
Questions to ask yourself:
1) Do others consider me a ‘good’ person? If so, why?
2) What ‘good’ things do I do as part of my life?
3) What ‘good’ things do I do in my life that wear on me, frustrate me and even burn me out?
Posted in Christianity | 1 comment