My Thoughts on the Last Class...

It was really cool to see the documentary on the Azusa Street Revivals. It really encouraged me to see how a small group of people who made time to pray, read and seek God had such a move of the Spirit and revival like in the book of Acts. It made me wonder about our society today and how busy we are. We just don’t have the time like William Seymour had back then. He didn’t have a job and just stayed home reading and praying for weeks till he touched God. I wonder if there really was an economic crash and we couldn’t work if we would then have revival. If we were forced to not be so busy then we will have the time to pray and read to the point of bringing heaven down in a revival.

Thoughts on the last class...

The Professor discussed about the Anabaptists and how they were not accepted in the society to the point of prosecution for their bold testament. The Professor called it a “death warrant.” They believed that adults should be baptized and not children because one needs to have faith first in order to be baptized. Because of this they were often killed by being drowned when they were caught. Paying with their life by their testimony, so suffering because of the cross was a big part of their theology. They were persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants. Whenever anything is new or different from the norm the leaders of the church seem to try to put a stop to it. It is interesting how there is always a small group who will step away from the traditions and seek to know more at any cost even the cost of their very life.

My Thoughts on the Last Class...

The Reformation of the church that Calvin led beleived that the place for the administration sacraments were to be held high but did not believe in apostolic succession like the Catholics. There was no separation of Church and State and Calvin believed the entire city was to be the realm of the church. I found it interesting that the church was in control of who could and could not take communion ( because of sin) , it was not a personal decision and they controlled this. This reminds me of an article I read online about a leader in today’s Political realm who was told by his church that he could not take communion because of his stand on abortion. The political leader says he is Catholic but the church will not serve him communion because they believe strongly against communion. This strong stand on communion is still held today within the Catholic Church but not so much in Evangelical and Protestant settings.

Thoughts on the last class...Nov 18 class

I admire Martin Luther for standing up against the Catholic Church in his day and starting the Protestant Reformation. With the church being so powerful it took a lot of guts and stamina to do what he did and to risk losing his credentials among other things. Nailing his ninety five theses to the church door of the castle church in Wittenberg he created such uproar that he was excommunicated by Pope Leo IX and declared an outlaw at the Diet of Worms. He cared more about standing up for the truth of what he saw in the Bible and feared God more than the powerful church. His break from Rome created the Lutheran Church and he was and will forever be known as an amazing man and powerful leader. Its no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King was named after him and had a similar fire of spreading the truth without fear.

My Thoughts on the Last Class...

What stood out to me the most during the lecture was the 16th century, Robert de Nobili, a Catholic missionary, who incorporated the Hindu religion with Christianity. He mixed some Hindu practices with his Christianity while in India and reached the high cast in that society. He found the cultural practices of Hinduism a commonality and an avenue to reach those in India with the Gospel.This was not accepted my the Catholic Church and they booted him out. I think it is important to find what we have in common first when reaching others and incorporating ones culture and some forms of their religion is not necessarily wrong or a salvation issue.

Thoughts on the last class...

In the last class we had a Guest Speaker, Bishop Cray, speak about the church in England and the main line denomination in the UK. I thought it was very cool that they have congregations that focus on certain groups such as under five year olds/preschool congregation, youth congregations and special interests churches like surfing. He brought up the point that one can keep their culture and interests and create a congregation around it. In the Surfer Café the Surfers came right off the beach and into the café with their Surfer wear on and they had a gathering of worship and study as a church. I like how this shows one can come to God as they are and it is fine. God is not legalistic but many churches are. I’ve witnessed guests coming into a church with unacceptable clothing and being asked to leave. Legalism and exclusivism is not the nature of Jesus but only the nature of certain people.

My Thoughts on the Last Class...

November 11, 2009

The Professor brought up the point of "place and space." In most cultures—sharing place the physical place and space,the social engagement, was the same. We as a culture have been stretching in space over time through newspapers, phones, etc –we are now sharing social engagements by connecting with someone who we are not sharing ‘place’ with. We are sharing "space" with someone across the world ie. email , internet, phone, etc and not necessarily sharing "place" with them. We are also separated by time as well as space…and now time is almost meaningless…we can connect in seconds. We need to understand how our culture is changing and adjust to it. Instead of seeing "places" reached with the gospel maybe we need to see our NETWORKS or "spaces" reached with the gospel. Such as in a night club, cafe, or a group of friends we hang out…etc We need to have a radical change in thinking…