Explicitly teaching “Every Member Ministry.”

Why does God give gifts to the church? So that every member can serve others in God's mission in the world. Ephesians 4:12 points out that all the gifts of verbal instruction are given so that all Christians can serve other people; growing even into Christ's character. Jesus did not speak much differently in the Sermon on the Mount. After he declared a stunning array of blessings (kingdom of heaven, getting to see God, being God's child, being filled with justice) for a stunning array of unimpressive people (poor in spirit, the depressed, those who lack righteousness, the persecuted), he called them the light of the world. He called them this while they were still not his best students [disciples].

So, when somebody signs up to follow Jesus, he says, in effect, “You are the light of the world. If you live as I say people will see how great God actually is, though they may not ever notice you.” Jesus are Paul share an affinity of teaching here. They both tell the down and outs, right where they are, that God has a plan for making himself known through their lives. Christian teachers need to teach this with the same goal in mind. Each Christian can participate in God's mission for the church. Each Christian must participate in God's mission in the world. Each Christian receives teaching, encouragement, and blessings from other Christians so that they can go be like Jesus at work, at home, in their cars, in foreign countries, on dates, on vacation, and even in church services!

It would seem to me that if we explicitly made the goal of our "church services" to make disciples or to train people to live as the light Jesus said they were, then evangelism and missions would take care of themselves, because each Christian would use their gifts to do the things God wants the whole church to do. There would be no need for expensive programs and costly mail outs because people who intelligently follow Jesus would find creative ways to do good in his name in their towns, over seas, and in their homes.

Things to Click

Greg Boyd tells us about the heresy of not loving.
Piper finally interviewed Rick Warren.
Jim West is just doing awesome stuff all the time, as usual.
Quintillian's old memory technique is given new life and remains useful here.
The lectures that became the new IVP book about N.T. Wright are available free on the interweb.
Intriguing interview in which Dallas Willard is interviewed by a radio host who lost his faith.

Summer Reading List

I have a great deal to do this Summer, including potentially life altering decisions, but in terms of my normal personal disciplines I have a few reading assignments/skill improvement exercises I intend to finish by August 1st. This is the list of books I will read unless some disaster prevents it. I will certainly read and review others, but these are the musts. I have too many things to master and am weak in too many areas, it would be disrespectful to those to whom I preach and those whom I teach not to do these things.
The asterisk* means I intend to review the book as well:

Math
Mathematics and the Quest for Knowledge by Morris Kline*
Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach by Meredith Kline
Finish every Khan Academy exercise
Thirteen book of Geometry by Euclid *
Greek
A Discourse Grammar of The Greek New Testament by Steve Runge*
Baylor Handbook on the Greek Text 1-3John and 1 Peter*
The Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek: An introduction by Albert Rijksbaron
New Testament
New Testament and the People of God by N.T. Wright* (I've read it twice, but would like to review it)
Why Four Gospels by David Alan Black*
Inhabiting the Cruciform God by Michael Gorman* (I've written half a review and will re-review it)
New Testament Theology by Kummel 
Education/Classical Tradition (I teach math at a classical school)
Symposium by Plato
City of God by St. Augustine*
Progymnastia: Greek Textbooks on Prose Composition and Rhetoric
Classical Rhetoric for Modern Students by Corbett and Conners
Genius in us All: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ by David Schenk
Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance by Richard Restack
Hebrew
Randall Buth's Living Hebrew Program*
Redo Seow's exercises

Further Thoughts About Christian Archy by Dave Black

I read this book and reviewed it some time back. I still hold a positive view of the book, but would like to note how reading it with a group from my church went.


Everybody liked it a lot. It was roundly appreciated and deemed helpful, though one person did not understand the importance of the concepts in the book. The idea was that all Christian ideas and concepts are so apparent that there can be no room for disagreement amongst them. My thought is that this person will discover over time that such an attitude is misguided. Many other people saw the importance of making Jesus central in the practicalities of life and have started trying to do so, though many of them had already had this idea, Christian Archy helped them to see it.
Where the book caused significant difficultly for the group was that it started out using rather unfamiliar theological language and mentioned a number of authors they were unfamiliar with without explaining who they really were or their significance. I wish the book had gone further in this direction, though it only had so much space due to the constraints of the series.
One other thought about the book would perhaps be a section, or even an html address to specific practical steps that could be taken by an individual and church community to live under Christ's archy. And I stress 'could' because it is Christ who is ultimate, not any list of steps.

Isaac Newton and Practice

Here is a marvelous paragraph about Newton by one of the most important historians of mathematics:

Except for a strong interest in mechanical contrivances, Newton showed no special promise as a youth. For the negative reason that he showed no interest in farming, his mother sent him to Cambridge, and he entered Trinity College in 1661. Despite several advantages of his study there-such as an opportunity to study the works of Descartes, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, and the opportunity to listen to the famous mathematician Isaac Barrow-Newton seemed to profit little. He was even found to be weak in Geometry and at one time almost changed his course of study from natural philosophy [science] to law. Four years of undergraduate study ended as unimpressively as they began. -Morris Kline Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge (New York, New York Oxford University Press, 1985), 107

Many people who are not considered good enough are self critical enough and improve their skills with such boring regularity that they eventually make some break through. This story is not evidence for the principle, but merely an illustration thereof. Many people say they are not good at math or cannot be good at language. Too many seminary students say, "languages are not my thing." The fact is that with long term deliberate practice they can be. Math and physics were not Newton's things, yet he invented the Calculus, created a workable theory of gravitation from incomplete knowledge, and made the way ultimately for space travel, radio, and any application using light waves for communication.
If there is something you need for your calling, never say, "It's not my thing." If it isn't, then you're wrong about your calling.