Skip to main content

Rick Warren / Greg Boyd on Charlie Rose...

Last night I caught an EXCELLANT episode of the Charlie Rose show. He hosted Pastors Rick Warren and Gregory Boyd. I must admit that I was somewhat turned off by the commercialism surrounding Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life" and I can be critical of mega churches. So, I didn't give Warren much attention. I must say that I was floored by his comments. He spoke about the intersection of the 'evangelical' and 'social' movements in the church calling for a new focus on both the centrality of Christ and a outward focused faith. He is calling for the church to seek a commonality of purpose centered on the call of Christ to fulfill the Greatest Commandment of loving God with everything and serving our neighbor. It appears that a few years (through his wife) became aware of the issues surrounding AIDS in the world. This impacted his faith. I'm VERY impressed and hope to hear more from Rick soon.

Rose tried to nail Warren down about the health of the church. Warren, I believe rightfully, said the church is gaining influence and is truly 'alive' in South America, Africa and Asia and is waning in influence in the US and Europe. He said that the church is 'going south'. This is certainly what we experienced when we lived in Mexico. The Gospel is having great impact in Latin America...

The second interview was with Pastor Gregory Boyd. Boyd just wrote a book called, "The Myth of a Christian Nation. How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church" I haven't read the book yet but his premise is that Jesus called the church to be the church, to be 'salt and light' and not strive for political power. He mentions that in every instance starting with Constantine when the church has gained political influence it has been as corrupt and debase as anything 'secular'. That's not to say that the church isn't to have influence on society, but the influence is based on morality and service not power. There was an article about him in The New York Times. Read it here.

This is refreshing stuff. I'm encouraged with what Warren is saying. IF we can have more church leaders of his stature talking about issues such as AIDS and poverty we may see the sleeping giant of the evangelical church beginning directing funds and energy toward some of the world's great issues. I agree with Boyd and his call for Christians to be the church that God called us to be and not a wing of a certain political party.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:15 AM

    You can also watch that Charlie Rose episode online via Google video, for how long it'll be available I don't know, but it's linked at http://www.djchuang.com/2006/08/d1351

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YWAMers Praised for Faith and Leadership

The Denver Post reports on the memorial service at the Denver YWAM base: "We're going to celebrate a life, we're not accentuating a death," said Faith Bible Chapel pastor George Morrison, in opening a memorial service today for two people killed at a missionary training school in Arvada . The service is called "A Celebration of Life for Tiffany and Philip." Philip Crouse and Tiffany Johnson died Sunday when a gunman opened fire at the school's dormitory. Youth With a Mission director Peter Warren said today both Crouse and Johnson embodied the spirit of the group. First the service focused on Crouse . "Phil gave his life to Jesus Christ and was never the same again," said Zach, a friend of Johnson's who met him years ago at a youth ministry in Alaska. At the time, Crouse was tough and wouldn't let people get close to him. "Over the years, Phil became a humble, teachable, sweet guy" who was able to reach kids with rough e

PageMill, Wells Fargo and Sam Zell

Dear Friends,  Normal.dotm 0 0 1 888 5066 Northern California Urban Development 42 10 6221 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false As many of you know we've been in discussion recently with Wells Fargo and Equity Residential, the proposed buyers of the former Pagemill Properties on the west side of East Palo Alto.  As an East Palo Alto resident and leader I view this issue, and how Wells Fargo handles this important portfolio as a milestone event for our community and it’s residents. First, a little background (from my perspective):  A few years ago over 80% of East Palo Alto's multi family housing stock was purchased piece by piece by a predator equity group, Pagemill Properties. After the purchase Pagemill began systematically dismantling our rent control ordinances and aggressively evicting working class families. The community was in shock. However, the Pagemill group went bankrupt in 2009 and lost the property to Wachovia, soon to be

Untitled

Posted via email from JOHN's posterous