Tag: Davis

Beyond Words-Take 2- Faith Factors

 

One critical question needs to be asked when desiring to connect the Christian Message with people living outside the confines of the Christian bubble. Namely— What are the key elements that determine the expression and communication of our faith in a postChristian society? As a reminder, we can no longer “just give them the gospel.”The gospel” simply has no cultural pinning in a world so long removed from its Christian roots. Maybe a picture is worth a thousand words—

communication circles

In the next few EMPulses we will explore these 6 elements in more depth. For now, let us open a cursory unpacking of these ingredients.

First, to express and/or communicate our faith in this postChristian society we must establish a Biblical Mindset within our own practice of faith. Just going to church, saying the right words, and memorizing a few Bible verses conveys only s surface-faith to others.

Next, we need to understand that our faith is Personality Specific. Our personality filters our faith to fit who we are and who we must become. We must not squeeze ourselves into a faith-box. You cannot be like me or any other Christian. You must be you.

Thirdly, our Christian faith is Culturally Sensitive. We dare not continue to import a western faith into a postChristian Europe, emerging Africa, or a diverse Asia. One of the distinctives of our faith is that it fits into the heartbeats and lifestyles of the host-culture. Yet, in our Western, North American patchwork of cultural blends we must here, too, learn to be culturally sensitive.One size, or shape, does not fit all.

Fourth, as we offer people a relationship with Jesus Christ, we must remember that they must hear His offer of life in their context. “The Gospel” must be heard in their life context. Therefore, in many ways, the Gospel is Receiver Determined. How do they see the Christian faith? It is our task to express our faith in ways that they can respond to and receive Christ’s life into their own.

Fifth, the expression and communication of our Christian faith should be Community Networked. First, we should be networked within a healthy group of fellow believers who have a similar passion for the normal people around us. Second, our faith communication should be networked among those God has placed in our path. No need for commando raids or “debriefings” afterwards. We need to immerse ourselves into the lives of those around us who have no concept of the Christian message. [Warning: you may just come to love them.]

Finally, we, as genuine Christians, need to become more aware of the Holy Spirit of God within. We need to become Spirit Attuned. For we do not offer a person merely the Truths about Jesus, we are offering them Jesus Christ himself. We need to attune our spirits to be in line with God’s Spirit and also in tune with the lives of the people we have come to love. We cannot sense the work of Christ in the lives of others until we clean up our own inner-selves. No wonder God works in spite of us so much of the time.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

 

 

Beyond Words Reconsidered – Take 1

Gary, Davis, needinc, amherst, christian, books, At the same time the BEYOND WORDS BOOKSHOP opened in Amherst, Massachusetts, I was developing a training course for Christians on the nature of the gospel, titled, coincidentally, BEYOND WORDS. Since they were about as humanistic as they come I took my course into them and asked if they would display my brochures. When they found out what it was about we all had a good laugh and the brochures were set up on the checkout counter by the register. Let’s just say that the first time we held the course it was, er, fascinating.

That was 25 years ago. Today the course has morphed into something far more expansive, fun, and exciting. But the thrust still concerns the nature and offering of our Christian message to the normal people of this culture. I use the phrase normal people because “Christian” no longer describes nor defines the majority of individuals in Western culture.

The next few installments of EMPulse will re-address our understanding, expression, and communication of the Christian message, the Gospel. This Take 1 concerns itself with the problems we face as our society loses its Christian memory and assumptions.

For the last ½ century we have boiled down “the gospel” to what we believe a person needs to know in order to become a Christian. Knowledge can no longer be the extent of our message to them. We are now engaged in a battle to verify what we say we believe through our involvement with peoples’ hurts, needs, and failures.

We dwell in a society that no longer holds to an agreed concept about the existence and nature of God, an understanding of a definition of sin (other thangetting caught), a knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ, and the ramifications of belief on/in Him. Nor do we dare assume they sense a need for any kind of God in their lives. The thought of needing an external reference point to guide their life-principles sounds weird to them. We need an expression of the gospel that goes beyond words, that challenges minds and touches hearts.

Asking people to “believe on Jesus and you will be saved” is loaded with so many subcultural assumptions that it has become a non-content phrase.

It’s time we reassessed the nature and content of the Christian message for this antiChristian world. To ignore the misgivings in our culture toward Christian cluelessness would be a grave disservice to our Lord Jesus.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

The Task Before Us

Gary, davis, christian, Winston, Churchill, opportunity, accomplish“There comes a special moment in everyone’s life,

a moment for which that person was born.

That special opportunity, when he seizes it,

will fulfill his mission –

a mission for which he is uniquely qualified.

In that moment, he finds greatness.

It is his finest hour.

~Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

(1874 – 1965)

 

How’s your job going? If it’s just about making money ‘till the next paycheck then you’re missing something. You’re missing out. If you find yourself arriving home after a good (or hard) day’s work looking forward to a night of television, something is wrong. You are wasting away the hours and minutes God has allotted to you.

Here are some questions you would do well to tackle but will find it difficult to address. —

What gets you up in the morning?

What gives you a sense of accomplishment?

Actually, what ARE you accomplishing?

How has your complaining changed the future?

What ARE you doing to change/challenge the future…, your future? AND the future of others?

What is the particular task God has given you to accomplish on earth?

What skills or abilities will you need to undertake that task?

How do you overcome your uncertainty in life? How do you face your fear?

How will you know when you have completed what is required of you?

Really, you have to think about these questions.

 

Now go to bed.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

The Day After

easter, christ, risen, needinc, gary, davis, sundayYesterday marked the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, called Easter and/or Resurrection. It is celebrated often alongside the Passover Commemoration, coinciding with the lunisolar calendar, used by the Jews of the first century, to celebrate the pass-over of the Death Angel in ancient Egypt.

 

But what about the day after Easter?

 

At that point in 30 AD, only 2-3 women had actually seen Jesus. Announcing this to His disciples, the men found their report incredulous. Skeptical and confused, they remained hidden.

 

In Western Culture today, Christians merely go back to their everyday lives with little to no change. Back to business-as-usual. Unless you live in a monastery, the dominant culture of our time has supplanted the formerly prevailing “Christian” underpinnings with the bottom line of progress and profit. Very little Christian influence remains in our nation’s preferred secular-religion-free society.

 

The Resurrection of Jesus should remind us of some characteristics that should pervade our lives as genuine Christians. Like the reminder that we are truly forgiven; forgiven for our rejection of His Godhood, our ignorance of what He wants from us and of what He wants to give us. We should be reminded that our imperfections are being made perfect, that we don’t need to feel so guilty when we are already forgiven. We need to remember that the penalty of eternal separation from the God who made us is no longer an option. We are now saved from that fate…, and from ourselves.

 

So the next time your world seems to be coming apart at the seams, remember Jesus on the Cross. Remember that He is in charge of your life, bringing together the various streams and roadways to merge in the perfect pattern for your fulfillment, AND for His glory. Never separate them: they are woven together within you.

 

But the day after, take some of those remembrances and reasons to celebrate along with you. Know your place in our world and move with grace.

HE IS RISEN!

The Christian Way?

dr, gary, davis, highway, christian, way, politics, religionIf you’ve ever driven across this nation’s highways you know that at times roadmaps, GPS, and Road Signs, and actual roads seem to be at odds with one another. My proof for this? LA. ‘Nough said.

The same convoluted mess can often be found among the many theological/political roads the Church has followed over the last two millennia. Os Guinness puts it well in his book RENAISSANCE (2014).

“Whenever God has not given us clear and authoritative instructions as to how we are to conduct our lives, we are free to pursue our own solutions within the guidelines of the principles God has given us. But that means that our best solutions will always be a Christian way of doing things. They are not the Christian way.

 “In light of God’s principles, we can say that certain ways of doing things that contradict those principles are not Christian, but we can never say that one way alone is. In that sense, there is no one ‘Christian economics,’ any more that there is one ‘Christian retirement plan,’ one ‘Christian political party,’ or one Christian anything… .

 “This caution applies equally to our attitudes to cultures. Doubtless all Christians have their favorite periods of Christian history; which to them represent the golden age of faith. The Orthodox prize the age of the early Fathers. Catholics talk reverently of the medieval world and ‘the great age of faith.’ Protestants elevate the Reformation and its ‘recovery of the gospel and the Scriptures.’ Evangelicals take great pride and courage from the First Great Awakening and its potent combination of the preaching of the gospel and the spawning of myriad social reforms. And Pentecostals and charismatics hard back to the Azusa Street revival and its triggering one of the greatest and still continuing missionary advances in the history of the Christian church.

 “Yet all these periods were at best more or less Christian, and today their flaws, their blind spots, their unintended consequences could be enumerated along with their undisputed blessings.” (122-123)

Navigating one’s faith journey along today’s spiritual and ecclesiastical highways is just as fraught with individualistic potholes and theological blind spots as in previous generations. Do not be so presumptuous as to assume my way is best.

Constantly return to the Scriptures in the context of fellow believers to learn afresh the principles God has given us live healthy lives before him.  Let me leave you with this—a line from a song written by Hillsong United, sung by Taya Smith. “I touch the sky…, when my knees hit the ground.”

 

You have my prayers,

Gary

Treadmill

The Treadmill. Once you get moving on one it’s hard to stop. You know what I mean. That daily routine you repeat day after day. Not that it’s a bad routine; but it may not be a necessarily good way to live, day after day after day.

Some of us come to hate our jobs, our family life, even our own lives. We just get bored with the same ol’ same ol’. Frustrated! Isn’t life supposed to be more than this?!?

well, yes.

But how to make it more is the trick. Here are some ideas that have worked for me—

  1. Sleep! Start your day the night before. Then get up at the same time every day. (Except on vacation.)
  2. Breathe in…, breathe out. Start your day with stretching, breathing exercises, even walking a mile.
  3. Drink lots of coffee. It has produced great energy in laboratory rats before it killed them.
  4. Quiet your soul in prayer; 5+ minutes at least.
  5. Listen to heart-thumping, heavy base music on your way to work. Classical music (which I love) just doesn’t get me pumped for what lies ahead.
  6. Drink apricot-mango juice. It will clear the crap out quite well.
  7. Process work frustrations with a friend, not your partner. Show up at home ready to serve.
  8. Sell the kids if you have them…, or at least get a baby sitter so you can have one night OUT a week. AND, one Saturday a month, escape your present environment. Go…, anywhere. Just leave, with or without the kids.
  9. Drink tea…, and carry on. Or, for some of us, a good dram of single malt scotch. Jus’ sayin’.
  10. Before you go to bed that night, say you are sorry for whatever you did today to wound another person. And mean it. Call them from bed if you have to. You want to start tomorrow with a clean slate.

I realize these ideas will not work for everyone. Sometimes they don’t even work for me. But if you want your life to have a little more oomph, a little more pizzazz to it, YOU have to make it happen. No one else will.

Back to the Treadmill…, with more gusto, less crap!

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Ugly Feet

Gary_ Davis_ Hobbit_ Christian_ NEED_ Feet_ uglyThanks to J.R.R. Tolkien, Hobbit feet are IN! Well, maybe not so much in real life, but at least in alternate specie realities. Progressive Cubist artist Marcel Duchamp thought that feet were the ugliest part of a woman’s body. Today’s cosmetic advertising would have us believe otherwise; that we must have the cute widdle feet of Tinkerbell. As for men’s feet…, that’s why God invented shoes.

Feet take us where we want to go. Feet kick futbols & footballs. Feet balance the rest of the body vertically. Feet ride snowboards & surfboards.

Best of all, feet tickle.  ‘Nough said. STOP IT!

To the point—where do you want your feet to take you? Your feet can place you out in front of the tribe, and you will become a paradigm pioneer. [Do guard against the arrows aimed at your back.] Your feet can place you on the right track of a disciplined, purpose-driven life, where you can accomplish great things. Or your feet can lead you to become a faithful follower of a great cause or person. Still one more path is available for our feet— dragging feet can leave us behind as stragglers in life’s great adventures. We adopt a wait-and-see-what-happens attitude.

In any case, our feet, well, my feet (not pictured above), will remain ugly. But we can train them to get the job done, or pamper them while others get on with the work of life and make a difference.

Just don’t ever settle for de-feat. (I’ll keep my day job.) Also note Isaiah 52:7, Christian Bible. Maybe there’s a chance for our ugly feet afterall!

For what it’s worth,

  Gary

Be a Hero

gary, davis, hero, purple, heart, Looking over a dog-eared, parchment-like copy of When Dreams & Heroes Die: a portrait of today’s college student, (by Arthur Levine, 1980), I was taken back to a quite different time in our history. It wasn’t so much the time difference, or the cultural/time-distance warp, as it was the way Levine analyzed the characteristics of that period’s college culture. Boomers, busters, Gen-X, Gen-Y, yada, yada, yada. ALL of us have experienced the sadness of childhood disappointment of “heroes” who have disappointed us, let us down, deceived us, or who lost our trust through betrayed belief.

Heroes become real human beings with real failures, real flaws; some dissolve into the fantasies of their foundation, real illusions with no connection to real life; comic book/computer game avatars which have no association with the reality of actual beings. Yet, to be sure, there are real heroes: and most of us hold onto dreams that we truly want to become realities. Dreams are good, in fact, great! NOT to dream is to resign oneself to the humdrum of a dreary life, to personal anonymity and an interior death. It is to become a non-person, a mere cog-in-the-wheel, grinding out a life’s work as an automaton.

It is a reality of life—heroes do die, let us down, disappoint us: dreams also die; we settle for 2nd best, 3rd best, etc. Some of us give up our dreams altogether. And we have lost all (or most) of our heroes to time, fantasy, or failure. We have arrived at the blank wall of the convoluted definition, without role-models to provide us with points-of-reference or moral character.

Allow me to offer an alternative scenario. Could our loss of dreams and heroes actually be a trigger for us to rise to the occasion? Is it time for you to become the hero? To become the role-model for those who already look to you as someone they would seek to emulate? Is it time for you to help people dream their dreams? Fulfill their dreams?

Instead of hanging onto your fantasy-heroes of the past, your dreams for significance, maybe it’s time you became the hero for so many others, or even one other. Actually, maybe you already are significant; not in your eyes, but in the eyes of this generation’s emerging leaders.

So review what you’ve accomplished in your life. Is it enough? What more is there that you must do to make a difference for God and for humanity? BUT…, but— Who will be your protégée; what legacy will you leave in the people in whom you’ve invested? What’s your plan? Don’t have one? Why not? WHO are the people God has given to you to nurture to greatness? HOW do you care for them, train them, feed their souls?

BE the hero: make the dreams work! So help you God if you shy away from this great responsibility, this great honor.

Have a nice week.

Gary

Hidden

051048048057054055054050124053048048124052048048Why are we hiding? Or— What is it we try to hide? Too many of us exert a lot of energy trying to hide, or trying to hide something about ourselves that, if revealed, would expose us.

The artistry of Bev Doolitle (1947-   ) depicts objects hidden to the casual observer. We are so much like the horses in her paintings. If people were to look intently at our life, what is it we would try to hide? I’ve worked with some people whose biggest fear in getting married was being known. I tried to assure them that being known, and still loved, was the best part of being married; I’m not sure they bought it.

What drives us to hide things? Insecurity, fear, shame, dishonesty? Or worse, why do we hide ourselves? Of course, if you’ve been betrayed or used, there is some warrant for it. You don’t want to be hurt that deeply again.

The issue, basically, is one of safety. We ALL want to feel safe. So we hide the parts of us that would expose us. This is wise…, to a point. But our need for safety can also choke the spirit within us. It can bind us in a box with just slits through which we take in the outside world.

Would you like to escape your box and take in more of the outside world? Here are some ideas—

  • Spend time with people. Reflecting off of them will give you insights into yourself. You’ll surprise them; they’ll surprise you.
  • Try something that engages your soul. Doesn’t matter what. Just not too much over the line. Deeper discussion, life challenging experiences. Hold back on sky-diving.
  • Build one-safe-friendship. Create a confident.
  • Create a private novel about the kind of life you’d like to live. Then, slowly, start to live it.

Hiding takes a lot of energy. Think what you might be accomplishing if you didn’t have to work so hard at hiding your true self. Think of the energy you could invest in developing new dreams, new skills or new relationships. Be intentional. Remaining hidden, if pursued over a long period of time, results in further isolation; and that creates further fear of being known.

You do not need to stay hidden. Make the decision to be known.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Etiquette for Enlightened Evangelism

Gary, davis, Christian, manners, care, pray, Many people would agree that manners matter. In the case of how we interact with people outside our Christian culture it is just as important. Here are 10 rules to help you in your etiquette within society.

1. PRAY– Ask God to prepare you to offer Him to people you don’t know.

2. Do your homework-Learn about yourself, your culture and the gospel.

1 Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience…”

3. Go where people go– Jesus didn’t sit around and wait for people; follow His example.

4. Shut your face-Much of the work we need to do has already been done by the Holy Spirit. Ask questions to see what is important to them. Find out what the Lord has revealed to them already.

5. Be interactive in conversations-Let feedback determine the way your express God’s love to another. (This requires you to listen)

6. Become transparent– Relax, you don’t have to be perfect, but you MUST be open and honest. Let others see that Christianity can be messy, because it is REAL!

7. Develop the art of caring-People are not a sting operation: they are not projects or targets. We must learn how to love them in the process of life. Meaning caring take time.

8-Make time for people– Now take some time with them. The gospel is best communicated with action more than words.

9- Find out how people it in life without God– This is critical! If a person feels no need for God because he can make it on his own, then how will they ever respond with a NEED for the kingdom? Another reason to take your time and learn more about a person.

10-Pray with people– Ask first, then watch how God becomes visible in their lives.