new tunes

good tunes to enjoy if you're in the market for getting rid of any accumulating loose change ...

me and emili

one of my dearest friends from ywam, emili, otherwise known as the "asian invasion"

evangelism's purpose

"Our concern in evangelizing people is not just to 'save their souls', but to restore the image of God to its proper functioning in all of life, to the greater glory of God." (Excerpted from Created in God's Image by Anthony A. Hoekema / Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986; p. 99.)

journal entry one

i was sitting in 16-F, but i moved. the couple sitting next to me were very nice, but my changing seats would afford them some valuable room for their beautiful baby girl sitting on her daddy’s lap. she started crying. she looked at me. i smiled. she’s stopped crying and smiled back.

so now i’m in 17-A. i’m still at a window, which is nice. i have a splitting headache and my head feels like a watermelon being cracked open on july 4^th. my tummy kind of hurts too, but i have my ginger ale and ice and i’m journaling, so it’s not all so bad.

the guy next to me is an interesting character. i don’t know if i should be amused or afraid. hardly the GQ type, that is his reading selection for the flight. dressed in jeans, a celery-green tee and a yellow baseball cap, he came across a fragrance sample he must have liked. out of the corner of my eye i watch. he openes up the fragrance flap and proceeds to wipe the sample off on his shirt.

i’m trying not to stare but it’s rather entertaining. i don’t think he was satisfied with the first attempt so he’s wiping again. and again. and again. back and forth, he wipes vigorously across his chest like a piece of clothing on a washboard until he’s satisfied and content, convinced he’s sufficiently transferred as much fragrance from the flap to his shirt as possible.

now he’s pulled out his laptop and just-out-of-the-plastic-brand-new headphones. watching a movie i suppose, lucky guy. if only i could pass the time as effortlessly.

there’s about an hour and a half left of the first leg of our flight from dallas to detroit. then it’s on to amsterdam (at least eight flying hours), arriving in budapest (two more flying hours) and a final eight hour van ride to cluj-napoca, romania. i’ll be glad to be done with two days (31 total hours) of traveling. bring on the dramamine.

true spirituality

“This is our calling,” Francis Schaeffer wrote in True Spirituality . “This is part of our richness in Christ: the reality of true spirituality, the Christian life... It is not to be practiced in a dull, ugly way; there is to be a thing of beauty, observed by those within [the church], and those outside. This is an important part in preaching the gospel to the humanity still in rebellion against God; but more than this, it is the only thing that is right on the basis of the existence of the personal God and on the basis of what Christ did for us in history, on the cross. And having come this far, true spirituality—the Christian life—flows out into the total culture.”

great find

so ... wandering through wal-mart, i'm looking for soap and find this. i was going to settle for being amused by it, but andrew chucked it into my basket and i thought, "why not?" a day later, i'm sold. it goes on thin and smooth, not thick and greasy like most. after it soaks in it feels like i'm not wearing anything. perfection. leaving my skin feeling like silk, it's now my favorite. none of this over-rated and expensive victoria secret crap. get me my farmer's cream and i'll be happy.

johnson family

the whole johnson family together for thanksgiving ....
erika, becky, danielle, andrew, greg, emma, matt, rachel, sandra and luke

continuity

mere change is not growth. growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth. - C.S. Lewis, They Asked for a Paper

konichiwa!

emily & erika

Cultural Influence

Perceptions Matter ...

How are American evangelical Christians perceived by nonbelievers? Should we care?

For many nonbelievers, Christians are the greatest single obstacle to Christian belief. We are genuinely offensive to them -- sometimes this is because of their biases, often it is because of their experiences.

There is little about our contact with nonbelievers that they would readily affirm as life enhancing and a beacon of goodness. Instead, we are avoided at all costs.

We tend to put off those who found Christ most attractive, and appeal to those who Christ most commonly criticized: somehow we have gotten it backwards. Peter asks, "Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?" (1 Peter 3:13) We need to take an honest look at our perception problem. Christians cannot expect widespread cultural influence until we change the general opinion nonbelievers have of us.

We need to pay close attention to how we are stereotyped. Of course, these stereotypes are unfair. Obviously, there are exceptions. However, the blame game gets us nowhere, and teaches no lessons. Until Christians face up to how we are perceived, and address the failures for which we alone are responsible, our neighbors will have few reasons to heed our lives and little motive to listen to our words.

If we are ever to convince another person about the rightness of our position, we must first seek common ground. This was Paul's strategy in his address on Mars Hill. We share a common humanity with every other person. The Manichean impulse to see reality in black and white terms fails to reflect either the depth of sin or the extent of grace. The media prefers polarities -- stark contrasts, simplistically positioned against one another. We do well to avoid situations where the nature of the medium makes finding common ground unlikely. It is far better to share a cup of coffee with a person with whom we disagree, than to put ourselves into a public debate with him before a live audience.

We will never reach those most in need of the gospel if we position ourselves as their intellectual foil or political enemy. Our methods must be incarnational as well as our theology. We must be "with" and "along side", instead of "against" or "opposed to", if we are to model Jesus to others.

If we are ever to convince another person about the rightness of our position, we must first accept disagreement without a judgemental attitude. As soon as we resort to judgment in tone, words, or deeds, we close the opportunity for influence. As Jesus clearly outlined, judgment reaps only judgment (Matthew 7:1-5).

We would do far better to always speak of those with whom we disagree as if he or she were in our immediate presence. When we speak in the abstract or to our own constituency, we do little to further mutual understanding.

Those who speak harshly about persons who are involved in homosexual behavior, for example, would do well to befriend such a person. Having a name and a face in mind does much to moderate one's rhetoric.

We must learn to disagree agreeably ....

(Selections from the article "Preconditions of Cultural Influence" by David John Seel, Jr.)

pinholes

"My personal life may be crowded with small, petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean; but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God." - Oswald Chambers

romania pics

in the garden with my coffee at the ywam base in cluj-napoca, romania


clock tower in sighisoara, romania


orthodox church in sighisoara, romania


the catholic church downtown cluj-napoca


ashleigh and erika checking out the view of the city


ashleigh and erika at the lake in the heart of cluj-napoca