Think Thank Thunk

The glory of God is man fully alive.                 St. Irenaeus

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Location: Aztec, New Mexico, United States

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Grace Works

Our small group is going through a book called "True Faced" (I.E. No Masks). The chapter we went through tonight was called Grace Works. The starting point for grace is humility. The following sequence summarizes the concept.

Humility requires trust. It is her core feature, that I can trust God to teach, direct and protect me and that he has put others in my life to do the same.

• Humility attracts grace
I.E. (When those around me understand that I know I’m not perfect and don’t expect to arrive soon, it frees them to act in grace toward me, they don’t have the same need to protect themselves and are free to love me.)
• Grace changes our life focus
I.E. (Grace is based on my value by God’s definition and statement and not based on my performance. He says we are loved and valued now and before we accepted his provision. I can affirm and love my friends without requiring good performance first and trust that God is doing his work in them and while I may be able to help, it is primarily God’s responsibility and not mine.)
• Grace lets God handle sin
I.E. (God can change us, we will have few results from trying to perform to God’s standards, even when we have good Intentions.)
• Grace melts masks
I.E. (We wear masks because we are afraid of what others will think and fear that if they really knew us, they would reject us. When I am loved and affirmed simply because I am, I can safely discard my masks.)
• Grace changes how we treat each other and our sin issues.
I.E. (When humility is the norm and grace is the environment, I am safe.)

Living?

It seems incredible to me that God is thrilled when we are fully alive. I remember Tony Campolo once said that he thinks we are really alive only minutes in a lifetime. I think I might be fully alive only in a crisis. I generally like a crisis.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Social Safety Net Failure Inevitable?

I’ve been thinking about an implication of Ruby Payne’s message from "A Framework for Understanding Poverty". She says among other things that people are locked in poverty because of a lack of resources only one of which is financial; that even if someone gets a job that provides the financial means to escape poverty, they will probably not escape because of other limited resources.

One of those resources is a mentor. One quote illustrates her perspective; "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." The implication of this statement is terrifying if true. If every person born in poverty needs a mentor to escape, then that puts an enormous burden on teachers but teachers will never be enough.

Is it even conceivable that to eliminate poverty every person wanting to escape must have a mentor from the middle or upper class?

The implication I’ve been thinking about is that people in poverty tend to have more babies than families from middle or upper class and as a result it would appear inevitable that a society be overtaken by poverty. All social safety nets should inevitably be overwhelmed.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Book - Informed and Unfilled by Weston Fields

Unformed and Unfilled is a critic of the Gap Theory – the idea that the time required for evolution can be found in a multi-million year gap between an original creation in Genesis 1:1 and the re-creation of Genesis 1:2. An alternative version is the Day Age Theory in which each day of the creation account of Genesis 1 is a multi-million year gap which again is supposed to bring the Genesis account in line with 'modern' evolutionary theory. The book copywrite date is 1976 and is now in it’s 6th printing

Weston Fields argues from Hebrew grammar and vocabulary that it is possible to believe the Genesis account is false, but not that the text allows for either the Gap Theory or the Day Age Theory.

This book is heavy slogging for one unfamiliar with the Hebrew language but well worth the effort. It presents a strong argument for a traditional interpretation of the creation week and for a short age of the cosmos, one that does not allow enough time for evolution to take place.

A web site that presents similar information is: Creationsm.org

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Corporate vs Individual Relationships

Psychologists tell us that for people to be happy, they need significant relationships and meaningful service.

Christianity could be summed up as an invitation meaningful relationships and significant service. Love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and don’t forget your neighbor. We are reminded that we have service to perform that was identified before the world was made. The reality of this is often evident. There is little in life that is more satisfying then time spent with a friend unless it is when we are helping someone. I’ve seen this work for children in summer camp.

Does the local church organization/organism have similar needs? A significant focus of large churches today is the small group. In a meeting of several hundred to several thousand there is little opportunity for knowing name of the person sitting next to you let alone an opportunity to help them grow. A natural response is to become part of a small group for relationship/community and service, but what is the church as a whole doing?

Is it possible that for the corporate group to be healthy there needs to be significant corporate relationships and meaningful corporate service? Does an individual need to be able to say; “Our church is partnering with ……. and we are doing ………..”?

It appears to me that this is something missing in my corporate life. I personally have meaningful relationships and am performing significant service. I’m happy with that; I believe I’m doing what God wants of me, but I have little pride in my church about either communal relationships or corporate service. I’m not truly a partner with the rest of the local body. I think I need that.

If true, the implication is that healthy churches need meaningful relationships with other organizations, churches, or people groups and significant service activities that are carried out as a community. For example, individual members need to be proud (healthy) of their church, to be able to say my church is partnering with Habitat for Humanity and we built a house for local family this year.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Book - A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne

This book by Ruby Payne is one of the most interesting books I've read in the past year, a must read for anyone interested in education, poverty or social issues. The author divides people into wealthy, middle class and poverty; each of which has hidden rules that identify and separate the classes.

Poverty is defined as “the extent to which an individual does without resources”. Dr. Payne says; “Typically poverty is thought of in terms of financial resources only. However, the reality is that financial resources, while extremely important, do not explain the differences in the success with which individuals leave poverty nor the reasons that many stay in poverty.”

The book examines the non-financial resources needed to leave poverty and why so many well meaning programs fail to alleviate poverty. I will focus on one illustration from the book that relates the role of language and story telling to why children from generational poverty homes do poorly in school from the first day they attend.

All languages have five registers:
• Frozen – I.E. Lord’s Prayer, wedding vows, swearing in ceremonies
• Formal – Has the standard sentence syntax and word choice of work and school. Information flow is linear.
• Consultative – Formal register when used in conversation, discourse not quite as direct as Formal
• Casual – Language between friends and is characterized by 400-800 word vocabulary, conversation dependent on non-verbal assists with sentence syntax often incomplete. Information flow is circular.
• Intimate – Language of lovers or twins


The language register of poverty is casual with many unfortunate results for those whose only register is casual. People speaking in the casual register in a job interview with fail the interview within two minutes. In school and on the job, all tests are written in the formal register.

Because sources of entertainment that cost money are relatively unavailable to the poor, they tend to place value in and grant status to the person who can entertain. That bad boy who can tell a great story will have status even if in trouble at school or with the law.

Stories only work well if there is surprise. As a result, the story line tends to be circular and isn’t a good story unless it is unpredictable. This is a characteristic of the casual register. People whose only register is casual grow up expecting to be unable to predict the ending – story or life itself. This extends to predicting next year or even tomorrow. What is the point of saving money for a tomorrow that is unpredictable? Logical consequences that require prediction have no meaning to the person with only the Casual register.

When students with only the Casual register are asked write a story, they have an almost insurmountable problem. First they are expected to write in the formal register (proper syntax, grammar, and vocabulary) without the basic skills and then they must write without all the non-verbal assists of the story teller. When they finish writing the story they was spoken with success, they realize that what they have written makes no sense. Conclusion – writing is stupid.

Ruby writes; “We can neither excuse students nor scold them for not knowing; as educators we must teach them and provide support, insistence, and expectations.