This is where I try to bring together several blog posts from the interwebs which is a lot like herding cats.

First up is JD Payne who gives some Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters. Well worth the read, but they are meant to be practiced.

Second, my friends at The Upstream Collective have been in Copenhagen all week. You can read about how they are learning to be cozy and content.

Also check out this video on how one church uses short-term mission trips in their overall disciple making strategy.

Third, Almost M suggests that we Cross Culture Through Literature.

Next, Ed Stetzer started back blogging every Monday on all things missional with Converts to What?

Ed’s post prompted some well thought out push back from JR Rozko. However, I do feel that JR missed the intent of Ed’s article which only touches on one aspect of all things missional which this video over simplifies (I give some thoughts here).

And David Fitch thinks we all worry to much about whether the emergent, organic, missional church is a Movement or a Fad [don't you love all the modifiers we come up with for the word church ].

Finally, the most interesting post of the week has to be Christopher Hitchens getting the atonement right.

From Blind Beggar:

Christopher Hitchens was in Portland recently for a speaking engagement. Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell interviewed him for a local publication, Portland Monthly. The interview was pretty much what one would expect, but I did find the following a fascinating observation from Hitchens:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Feel free to leave any and all links in the comments to posts I missed this week.

Poet Gabrielle Bouliane performs for the audience at the Austin Poetry Slam.

This would be her last public performance.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

(James 4:13-17, ESV)

[HT: Seth Godin]

The arrest of 10 Southern Baptist church members on a “rescue” mission in Haiti provides churches with a sobering reminder – we do not always have the “right.”

As an American I realize the difficulty of breaking outside of our culture. It is unusual to hear about international issues on the nightly news unless of course its about the war or because a tragedy strikes. But even these issues tend to fall out of collective consciousnesses rather quickly as this video points out.

Our American isolation and cultural illiteracy creates weakened ministries for those who do nothing about it. However, we can also become cultural sponges if we are willing to humbly learn. This church group is now paying the consequences of their arrogance and not learning how to navigate the cultural/legal waters of Haiti.

Now I am not criticizing their motives, their compassion for orphans, or their devotion to Jesus and his mission in the world. But I am criticizing their arrogance; their seemingly unwillingness to obtain even a vague understanding of the Haitian culture/law.

I wonder if anyone on the team spoke Creole?

I wonder if anyone on the team researched Haitian adoption laws?

I wonder if anyone considered the fact that these 33 kids, ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years, may have surviving parents? They do.

We should never assume the way we do it (the middle class American way) is always better. And we should always be careful to presume that we understand how others are feeling until we do.

How arrogant we can all be sometimes. We think we are helping and end up doing more harm than good.

Believe me when I say that if I had a certain skill sets as a medical doctor, or engineer, or any type of disaster relief training, I would of been on the first plane into Haiti. But the last thing Haiti needs are pastors with a camera crew in tow and other groups of well-meaning people soaking up what little resources Haiti has. [One of the Americans is being treated in a makeshift hospital for severe dehydration and possibly the flu - medical care that needs to be going to Haitians].

But I want to “help” and giving money isn’t that sexy and I don’t get any pats on the back.

[I would argue that the money it cost this group to obtain vaccinations and get on a plane could of been put to better use by giving to a Relief Organization. This crisis is not going to be solved overnight. There will be plenty of opportunity to follow Jesus into Haiti.]

In my arrogance, I want to go. And the *experts* could be wrong. Maybe what is needed more than anything are unskilled followers of Jesus to show some simple compassion which are probably not as rare in the midst of the devastation as we think they are.

So what are your thoughts?

From the North American Mission Board web-site:

The “Buckets of Hope” ministry is just one means by which we can follow the Jesus and feed the hungry.

A “Bucket of Hope” consists of a plastic five-gallon bucket packed with selected foodstuffs. For approximately $30 anyone can purchase the materials and assemble a “Bucket of Hope.” The food contained in a single bucket will feed a Haitian family for a week. You are also requested to include a $10 cash contribution, placed in an envelope and attached to the lid of the bucket, to offset the cost of transporting the relief buckets to Haiti.

Every bucket must be exactly alike with a specific list of items inside. Please follow the detailed instructions carefully. This will ensure that every bucket quickly passes through customs and into the hands of the Haitian people.

We will be assembling Buckets of Hope Sunday Feb 7 during our Super Bowl Party at the home of Michael and Amanda. If you cannot attend please drop off an assembled bucket anytime at Java Joe’s.

How soon we forget:

But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

Luke 6:27-30 (ESV)

Love, doing good, blessing, praying for those who are our enemies assumes the reality that we are in relational contact with our enemies, our haters, our cursers, our abusers, and those who would seek to harm us.

To be struck on the cheek means that we are in striking distance.

To give to those who beg assumes that we know where beggars can be found.

To love as we wish to be loved means acknowledging the dignity of other people as made in the image of God.

Because God gave, we can give.

Mercy, love, and grace should dominate our character, even if it requires great risk. These cost Jesus his life.