Comments for Cross-Cultural Impact for the 21st Century

Comment on 80. Talking about The Gospel in a Pluralist Society1 by Paul Dirks

Paul Dirks — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:57:17 +0000

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the good thoughts. Indeed we need to be the kind of people who listen and ask questions and honestly want to hear the answers people give and know their experiences from which those answers come.

I’m surprised you didn’t comment on 1 Peter 3:13-17 which is so excellent on this whole topic. We are to give an answer (or make a defence) with such gentleness and respect that any who would revile us may be put to shame. This text is set in the larger framework of our wilful subjection to others out of our ultimate freedom and power in Christ. (citizens to authorities, servants to masters, wives to husbands, husbands to wives in a certain sense, all of us to each other and believers to unbelievers)

We need boldness and graciousness. We should be full of grace and truth like our master.

Thanks for this article,
Paul

Comment on 57. Significant Conversations: Onion model of Culture by Mark Naylor

Mark Naylor — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:32:50 +0000

Thanks for your comments

Yes, this approach is based on conversation rather than proclamation. This does not mean other methods are invalid, only that this approach is distinctive from many traditional models.

Another book with similar concepts is Posterski, D 1989 Reinventing Evangelism: New Strategies for Presenting Christ in Today’s World. IVP

Comment on 57. Significant Conversations: Onion model of Culture by Judith Peet

Judith Peet — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:14:31 +0000

I think it sounds pretty good, but forces Christians to get to know people rather than just meet them to share the gospel. Am currently reading “Pre-Discipleship: the forgotten element in discipleship” and think there are some similar concepts the (by Kai Mark).

Comment on 77. The Pastor as Spiritual Coach (Part II) by Paul Dirks

Paul Dirks — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:53:35 +0000

Radical ideas Mark- sounds like the model proposed by the apostles!

Comment on 77. The Pastor as Spiritual Coach (Part II) by Janna Rust

Janna Rust — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:25:55 +0000

Lots of good stuff here. I have heard and said a lot of those comments regarding the state of our church members.

What I liked the most from this post was your reference to getting back in the people business. When we get to know someone on a personal level, we can help them integrate their faith and their calling into what they are already doing and into what God is doing in the world, desiring to make disciples of Christ. If they hate what they are doing, we can step along side them to help them change.

A good Christian resource to help individuals find their purpose and integrate it is Blueprint for Life (www.blueprintforlife.com). I teach this as a class at my church and am seeing good results from it.

Comment on 75. “God will not let me into Heaven” by Mark Naylor

Mark Naylor — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:58:08 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Tim. I like the phrase “meaningful connections”. Many people in our churches have “meaningful connections” with co-workers, relatives and friends outside of church. I would like to see church become a place where people find it natural to talk about those connections and significant conversations and find support, prayer and guidance as they live as salt and light in the day to day situations of their lives.

Mark

Comment on 75. “God will not let me into Heaven” by Tim Klaassen

Tim Klaassen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:48:15 +0000

Thank you Mark. This article made some great points and follows a life of Christ, or, a Christ-life. I think/feel it is so easy for Jesus to be an add-on to our lives so that evangelism also becomes an add-on, rather than a part of the ongoing daily process of living in Him.

With regards to events where we invite strangers: this Easter we invited our neighborhood (2200 homes) to come for dinner. We had 80 people come from the community that we did not know before. One man, a man who had been seeking for years, responded immediately, came to dinner, has come to church every week and has come to Christ. This was a man not one of us knew before and he lives a 3 min. drive from our front door.

We also had several families join us that we do know and that we have seen many times; these folks are NOT seekers and we haven’t seen any change. Of course, what is God up to in their hearts? We don’t know. Our hope and pray is that because we have had meaningful connections with these ones over the years, that when the time is right, they will know who to come to in their search for more.

Thanks for the article,

Tim Klaassen

Comment on 73. Expressions of church by Ron Rutley

Ron Rutley — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:02:13 +0000

Interesting that what you are saying here does not, in any way, contradict the Reformation concern for identifying “the true church.” In fact, I think if informs it.
Various “expressions of church” could all be “the true church.” Conversely, what people claim to be an “expression of church” could be so in name only, if heresy and doctrinal heterodoxy rule, no matter how much prayer and so-called discipleship may be present.
It all comes down to the fact that, in the NT, church is not something we DO, it is something we, as citizens of God’s kingdom and members of his people, ARE!

Comment on 73. Expressions of church by Gerry

Gerry — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:09:20 +0000

Interesting and helpful insights on this word “church” Mark. It seems to me that there is somewhat of a quiet revoluion going on these days around expression of church and what it means. The institutional expression of church seems to have lost its appeal to many sincere Christians. It will be interesting to see how things unfold as Christ continues to build his church.

Comment on 65. Which Bible Version is Superior? 2. Weaknesses of translation styles by Mark Naylor

Mark Naylor — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:23:55 +0000

Hi Rodney,

Thanks for your comment. But does not the phrase, “who ever converts the thoughts to english will have a predetermined interpreatation of their meaning based on their own beliefs” not also refer to you? Do you not also run the danger of guarding your own presuppositions against the meaning of Scripture by not accessing the clarity of a meaning-based version? I do not think you can escape the dilemma that understanding of Scripture only comes through interpretation, whether yours or another’s. It is the rare person who is more equipped to understand the meaning of Scripture than the translators who have the specific training, expertise and tools that aid in such a task. This does not mean that thought-for-thought translations are infallible, only that they provide clarity. My point is that clarity of communication serves the church much more than the awkward phrasing and obscure references often found in literal translations. Literal translations often serve to convince the reader that the meaning cannot be accessed without an expert pastor or teacher to explain the meaning which thus undermines the value of Scripture for the average person since they will come to doubt their ability to comprehend the Bible. The danger of misinterpretation is with us no matter the version, the difference is who is doing the interpreting. I suspect that more incorrect thinking arises from the misinterpretation of literal translations than through the correct understanding of wrongly translated meaning-based versions.

Blessings,
Mark