Photos from Temple City Chamber of Commerce Meeting at FBC, Nov. 26

FBC hosted the November meeting of the Chamber of Commerce last Monday. Here are some photos, courtesy of Ralph Ramirez.

Greeting at the door

Good eats.

Miss Temple City.

If these are the bigwigs, how did I get into the picture?

If It's Not Actually in Scripture, We'll Find It Anyway

It's called eisegesis. It's the opposite of exegesis, the process of discovering the meaning of a Biblical text. An article in the U of Wisconsin/Oshkosh paper, the Advance-Titan, (below) is all about Erik Koepnick's reinterpretation of the story of Jesus healing the centurion's slave. Now we discover that the slave was the centurion's gay lover and ergo, Jesus is cool with homosexuality!

This all centers around his creative (or shall we shall destructive?) interpretation of the Greek word pais. It's funny how basic words get mangled in the gay theology machine.

In addition, it never seems to occur to Koepnick what a crime it would be for a homosexual centurion to make a slave into a "lover."

At least hat's off to the Advance-Titan's inclusion of Robert Gagnon's response to Koepnick's adventure in creative misinterpretation.

Oshkosh student seeks new significance in ancient text, personal faith

Kevin Kosterman of the Advance Titan

In the era of red states and blue states, where America’s cultural divide seems to be ever widening, homosexuality and religion could almost be considered polar opposites.
But for openly gay UW-Oshkosh religious studies major Erik Koepnick, these two worlds don’t just co-exist, they inspire him and drive him forward.
“I don’t think it’s a balance,” Koepnick said. “I think it’s all one and the same.”
Koepnick’s search for synergy has led him to spend more than a year researching the New Testament narrative “Healing the Centurion’s Slave.” His conclusion: Jesus knowingly healed a member of a same-sex partnership, passing no moral, social or theological judgment on the man’s sexual preference.
The actual passage accounts for just nine verses in the Gospel of Matthew — a mere drop in the Biblical ocean — but if Koepnick’s findings are correct, the implications are profound.
“Jesus never says anything about sexuality, but if there would be one place that he would say it, it would have been here,” he said. “If [denouncing homosexuality] was important enough to his ministry, he would have said that, and it would have been preserved with his story.”
Though details of the story vary by Gospel and translation — Koepnick said there are more than 250 English translations of the Bible — he said the parallels between the accounts in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke are striking. Because of these similarities and the story’s inclusion in the earlier Gospel Q, Koepnick concluded that the story originated from a strong oral tradition and was therefore true to historical Jesus.
According to the Scriptures, Jesus returned to Capernaum — following his Sermon on the Mount — when a centurion (Roman army officer) approached and implored Jesus to heal his ill slave. Jesus consented, but the centurion, being a Gentile, replied that he was not worthy to have Jesus come under his roof insisting instead that Jesus need simply say the word and the slave would be healed.
Jesus was so taken aback by the man’s faith that he immediately healed the slave.
Simple enough. But according to Koepnick’s research, there is much more to this story than the average miracle. The secrets, he said, lie in the details.
In the original New Testament, the Greek word “pais” is used to describe the ill person. “Pais,” Koepnick said, can be defined as “boy,” “girl,” “child,” “son,” “daughter,” “slave,” “handsome young man” and “beloved.” While he said most scholars agree that “pais” in this context refers to a slave, Koepnick asserts in his writings that clues in the hierarchy of Roman society present a more detailed definition of the word.
“Within slavery, every aspect of the slave’s personhood was controlled through ownership,” he wrote, “even sexuality.”
Koepnick furthered this claim with various historical records from the time in which “pais” specifically denotes a homosexual relationship. Homosexuality was a fairly common practice in the early Roman Empire, Koepnick said, especially in the ranks of the army where soldiers were not allowed to marry. It was likely, then, that the word “pais” was used to describe the centurion’s same-sex partner, he said.
Since Jesus was a citizen of that era and would therefore have been familiar with the language of the day, Koepnick argued, he would have been aware of the deeply affectionate sexual relationship between the two males.
“Yet he gave no commentary,” Koepnick wrote, “positive or negative, social or theological.”

Man on a mission

Erik Koepnick was raised religious, but he said there have been times that have tried his faith.
When Koepnick was in middle school, the American Baptist Convention of which he was a member began to allow gay members into one of its San Francisco congregations. Koepnick’s congregation voted to leave the American Baptist Convention rather than be affiliated with a denomination that allowed gay members.
“By that time I hadn’t really realized my sexual orientation,” he said, “but I knew that my religious orientation said that rejecting people from a church is not right.”
Koepnick said he came out to his roommate and family his freshman year of college and, after moving away from religion in high school, he was invited to join the Campus Crusade for Christ. But his newfound desire to understand where his own homosexuality fit with his religious ideology met with resistance.
“When I challenged my small group leader’s ideas, I was kind of shut out,” he said. “They moved the time of our small group Bible study and didn’t tell me. They stopped answering my e-mails and stuff like that. So I took the hint that this was not the place for me.”
Dr. Kathleen E. Corley, associate professor of religious studies at Oshkosh, was instrumental in encouraging Koepnick to pursue his research and securing a Student and Faculty Collaborative Research Grant. She said Koepnick’s research plays a pivotal role in harmonizing his identity with what he believes.
“It’s important for gays and lesbians in the Christian community who are looking for evidence of same-sex relationships in the Bible and looking for ways to use Biblical text to argue for gay liberation in the Church,” she said.
“I think there are Biblical passages that need to be dealt with in Christianity, obviously,” she said. “But they’re not impossible obstacles, and Erik has learned how to overcome those obstacles.”

‘The Lord is my shepherd’

Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon, associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has written extensively on sexuality in the Bible including “Healing the Centurion’s Slave” and disagreed with Koepnick’s conclusions.
Gagnon contended that all references to sexuality in Scriptures are predicated upon the notion of a male and female representing two sexual halves merged into a sexual whole.
“Every single piece of legal material, every law, every proverb, every narrative, every piece of poetry, every metaphor that has anything to do with human sexuality in both testaments, always presumes a male-female pre-requisite [that] is absolutely bedrock,” he said.
Though Biblical acknowledgement of homosexuality is scarce, Gagnon said the book views same-sex relations as a dishonoring of the sexual self as created by God. He said he believes homosexuality is such a great violation of human sexual ethics, it doesn’t need to be addressed.
“There’s no reason even to ask why this is such a big deal,” he said. “If it’s not a big deal, then incest is not a big deal; polyamory is not a big deal. We might as well get on with it in society and begin issuing marriage licenses to persons of these modes of behavior.”
While Koepnick acknowledged that the Bible makes references to homosexual acts being an abomination, he said the message of the book, with its various translations and often-vague language, could easily be manipulated to further political and social agendas.
“It’s also an abomination to have a cheeseburger because it’s cheese and meat,” he said. “It’s an abomination to wear poly-cotton blend because it’s the cloth of two fibers.
“If you disobey your parents, you will be taken to the town gate and stoned to death. [Homosexuality] is one place where people still pick and choose, ‘All these other laws don’t apply, but this one does.’”
Finding oneself while embroiled in the often-conflicting worlds of homosexuality and religion can be an onerous task, one that Koepnick said he is prepared to undertake.
Koepnick plans on attending the Chicago Theological Seminary after graduation to become a reverend [sic] in the United Church of Christ. Corley said although finding a congregation that will be accepting of his lifestyle may be somewhat difficult, she thinks Koepnick’s research has helped him connect with his own personal faith on a deeper level.
“He’s a creative person and he’s looking for himself in the past in a way that is affirming to himself and his own individuality as a gay person,” Corley said.
Like the Biblical centurion of his research, Koepnick said he is prepared to stand at the crossroads of being and belief with only his faith to offer.
“It’s a hard life,” he said. “People put you through [explitive deleted] that you don’t deserve. And a lot of people base that crap on religion, which is ridiculous.
“My theology is that God made me, and I think that’s a common theology for people. The Lord is my shepherd and he knows I’m gay.”

A Rather Fun Opening Shot in the 2007 Edition of the Christmas vs. Happy Holidays War

Special thanks to Pastor Dick Sullender of FBC Monrovia, CA for alerting me to this quirky gem:

Images from Church Thanksgiving Dinner

Some images from our church Thanksgiving Dinner, which we took in a missional direction by emphazing our Christmas season outreach events and how members can get involved.


Dom Coe, Aubrey Oster and Christi Oster--part of the kitchen crew.

Karen and Michelle Ford. It was good to see Karen out. She's flying to Iowa next week to continue experimental treatments.


Ralph and Barbara Ramirez were in charge of the feast, and did a great job as always!


Marvin Bockie was joined by some of his out of town relatives for the dinner.

Ismael Felix setting up for sound. We did some video clips and powerpoint off the laptop there. Thanks, Ish!

Some youth plus an adult (can you guess which is which?)


JH Intern Chris Watkins with some of the gang. Chris is a student at Fuller and hails from Texas. (Pronounced Takes Us.)


Brendan Flanigan and yours truly.

The Kappas family. Michael is from DC; Cherry Lynn is from the Philippines.

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

General Thanksgiving

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America

A PROCLAMATION

---

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

TransMin Progresses--and Expands

Two Items:

First, this was included in an eblast from TransMin received yesterday:

_________________________________________________________________
The feedback received from the Transforming Churches conference stated overwhelmingly that it was a homerun! Here are some of the comments received...

"The conference helped to equip me with knowledge for starting a [young adult] ministry at my church."

"Transformation Ministries knows where it is going and is focused on its mission."

"The conference was outstanding! Inspiring speakers and program."

"If there was ever doubt that Transformation Ministries had a future, after this conference there is no longer any doubt that it has a very strong future ahead."

Thank you to all who took the time to evaluate the conference. Your suggestions and input are greatly valued.

Our prayer is that you have been challenged and re-energized to do whatever it takes to connect with the younger generations for the sake of the Kingdom.
Dale Salico
__________________________________________________________________________

Item Two:

News has reached me that a group of churches in a western state well outside the bounds of the old ABCPSW is considering an en masse affiliation with TransMin. (I could name the state, but I don't think that would be wise).

TransMin is rapidly maturing into a missonal network of Baptist churches--not a denomination, but something new and equipped for the 21st century.

A Missional Primer

I wrote this for our church newsletter and though other might want to use it to explain the concept of a missional church. Feel free to nab!

WHAT IS A MISSIONAL CHURCH?

That may be a new term for you—“missional church.” It almost sounds like “missionary church” and that’s very close. To me, to be a missional church means three things:

1. That we recognize that our community is a mission field. It’s not the home field; it’s truly a mission field. The gospel of Jesus is just slightly better known here than He is in Bangkok or Casablanca. People here need to know Jesus! We recognize that as part of our calling from God.

2. That we recognize that we ourselves are called by God to be missionaries in our community. As missionaries, we are called to make Jesus known in ways people can understand, that we are relational in our approach and incarnational in our emphasis. As missionaries, we don’t think in terms of people coming to us; we think in terms of going to them. (Elsewhere in this newsletter Rick Warren is quoted: “The measure of a church is not its seating capacity; it’s its sending capacity.” That captures the idea very well.)

3. That we don’t send others to do ministry; we do it ourselves. As missional church doesn’t raise money to reach people; it reaches people. A missional church demands every member participation. A missional church redefines the meaning of “member.” Most American Christians think of church membership as a religious club membership. Missional churches redefine that as membership in a team of world-changing, passionately involved Jesus-followers.

God is speaking to us about increasing being this kind of roll up your sleeves, participatory missional church. We’re on the journey; let’s not let up. God has called us; let’s roll!

NOC is a Winner!

I doubt they'll have room for everyone who wants to go to the National Outreach Convention next year! We were maxed out at the Town and Country Conference Center in San Diego on Thursday and Friday at somewhere around 2,500-2,700 people. NOC was solid to the end.

See some upcoming blogs on the so-called emerging church--I finally have a term I kind of like--Organic Churches--and I'll be blogging on what makes a church a Missional/Organic Church. (I'm still holding out for my own term, Fourth Reformation Churches.)

Until then...

NOC Keeps on the Practical Track

Above image from the film discussed below...

More on the National Outreach Convention...

In a words, more practical ideas per square inch than any similir conference I've attended. I've just come from the third fourth workshop I've attended (two more to go) and one thing about this convention: it's workshop-driven as opposed to plenary session driven, and for that Outreach.com deserves kudos. Last night was a "break" in the form of three lives clean comedians (they would have been a $100 ticket in Las Vegas) and the world premiere of the film Magdelana: Released from Shame, a telling of the Jesus story from the point of view of Mary Magdalene (well done, and the DVD is now in my bag).

I should be able to squeeze in one more post later today.

Miles McPherson Urges NOC to Heed God's Dream

From the National Outreach Convention...

2,300 people filled the San Diego Room at the Town and Country Conference center in San Diego last night to hear Miles McPherson, pastor of the The Rock church urge leaders to hear and heed the "dream of God" for lost people.





Basing his comments on Daniel 2, where the King demands that his wise men (the forerunners of the Magi) tell him his dream. If they do not know his dream, Nebuchadnezzer's decree was that they should die. In a similar way, if God's "wise men" do not know God's dream, the dream of reaching and discipling the lost, their ministry deserves to die as well!

This was the culmination of a great day of networking, significant conversations about ministry and outreach, and the sense that this is a place where questions get answers.

Today much of the day is taken by an array of practical workshops and a general session with Dan Kimball (author of The Emerging Church and They Like Jesus, But They Don't Like the Church) and Leonard Sweet (author of just way too many books to list). Our church staff worked through The Emerging Church, and I remember when Sweet was the token conservative on the staff of the liberal Dayton Theological Seminary (United Methodist); that was when I was serving a church twenty miles north of Dayton.

I should be able to post an update later today.

NOC Update

Above: San Diego Cityscape

I'm blogging this at the Internet Cafe at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego. So far,just been browsing through the exhibit hall. I'm impressed by (1) the youth of the organizations and organization staff here (average early 30s), and the excitement of a convention wholly focused on reaching lost people. I had a quick conversation with an exhibtor from Tampa who's focused on city-wide service evangelism, a subject near and dear to my heart. I should have an update here around 8 PM Pacific.

NOC, NOC, Who's There?

Just a programming note: Wednesday through Friday I will be at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego and will be blogging on trends in evangelism as well as giving a report on plenary speakers. I should be able to file a report nightly, with Friday's info blogged sometime Saturday.

For Day After Reformation Day

This is a slightly re-phrased re-posting of an item from June of '06. It seemed appropriate for the day after Reformation Day. Maybe we should designated Nov. 1 as "New Reformation Day." By the way, the image above is the new church logo at FBC Temple City.

The Fourth Reformation

Where are we now? I would suggest that the convulsions in the mainline denominations observed since 1965 are part of a larger pattern that is indicative of the fact that we are in the Fourth Reformation. Each Reformation was part of a rediscovery of Bibical truth, each overturned the established order and each was associated with a change in technology.

THE FIRST REFORMATION

The First Reformation was the one that we came to revere in seminary--the Reformation of Luther and Calvin, the overturning of the oppressive rule and unbiblical teaching of the Roman church. The technological innovation that helped carry this Reformation forward was the printing press. The First Reformation was Eurocentric.

THE SECOND REFORMATION

The Second Reformation was one of piety and missions. The Pietist movement and its parallels (such as Puritanism) reformed personal devotion while at the same time this era saw the dawn of the world missions movement. The great advance in technology that accompanied this Reformation was long-distance ship travel--especially as the New World (the Western Hemisphere) moved to the center of action. Both Europe and the new European settlements in North America participated in the Second Reformation.

THE THIRD REFORMATION

The Third Reformation occurred in the early and mid-20th century. It consisted of two key developments: the rise of Pentecostalism and the resurgance of essential reformational theological developments (the "solas": only faith, only the Bible, only Christ, etc.). That resurgance can be broadly called Evangelicalism. Both brought the supernatural elements of the faith to the fore. Both added fuel to the world missions movement. The technologies association with the Third Reformation were rapid travel (steamship, rail and auto) as well as the rise of radio and the dawn of television. The Third Reformation was centered in North America, but because of its close connections to world mission has had international impact. For example, in many developing nations varieties of Pentecostal churches dominate at least the Protestant side of church.

THE FOURTH REFORMATION

Now we have entered the Fourth Reformation. Historians will probably pin its beginnings to the 1990s, but as early as the early 20th century there were harbingers such as the rise of independant churches in Africa. The First Reformation was primarily doctrinal; the Second, devotional; the Third was combined the two with a strong emphasis on missions and evangelism. The Fourth Reformation is building on the first three with an emerging and transforming approach to structure and relationships.The shape of a new era is always the hardest to see in its earlier stages. This much is clear: the technology of the Fourth Reformation is the Internet. The platform of the Fourth Reformation is both worldwide and in cyberspace. At this stage, it is easier to apply adjectives to the Fourth Reformation than nouns: missional, relational, international, post-modern, and post-denominational.

As at the other Reformations, we can expect some organizations (such as denominations) to be swept away and some new ones to rise, but the new ones will be small, focused and nimble. The era of the big bureaucratic church organization is lurching to an end. We can expect that this will dominate the churchly landscape for the rest of most of our lifetimes.