Crowd Sourced Questions: Bible

We wanted to know what questions people are really asking.  For about two months, we asked our people to turn in their own questions and to poll their friends.  I even put my writing class students to work on this through homework assignments.  This Sunday, we'll try to answer as many questions as possible in a rapid-fire two minute answer format.  

Yesterday, I posted the first category of questions: Questions about Theology.

Here is the second category: Questions about the Bible. 

Feel free to offer up your own answers or questions in the comment section.  I'll try to post the audio of our Q and A time after we do it.  But for now, it may be helpful just to take a little refresher course on what questions people are actually asking - not just what questions do we think others should ask.

What is the mark of the beast?

What did they do with all that meat sacrificed at the temple?

What is a Nazirite, and how is it related to a Nazarene?

How was the Bible formed?  What about the Gnostic gospels?

Why is the God of the OT so different from the God of the NT?

Progress and Stuckness

OK, so maybe I just coined a new word there - stuckness - the state of being stuck.  In our Crowdsourcing series, as we address the big questions that we and our neighbors have about faith, what really stands out is that they are the same questions we’ve had for many decades (even centuries): science and faith, the problem of suffering, Christianity and world religions, judgmentalism and hypocrisy in the church.  We seem to be stuck with these.

But let’s talk about the progress, too.  Last week, as I looked at the rough and broken sheetrock that is still visible around our new and newly stained doors, two beautiful truths about our church hit me.

1. We are obviously a work in progress.  Our interior paint job is better but not finished.  We still have temporary walls and curtains.  We have a thousand different improvements on our wish list, and it seems like at least a hundred are halfway done.  But we’re still welcoming in new people.  We’re a work in progress, and we know it.  We aren’t trying to hide it.  Come on in, and don’t mind the dust.  That describes not only our building but our people as well.
2. Our progress is obvious.  The old joke asks, “How do you eat an elephant?”  -- One bite at a time.  We bought a $500,000 elephant with this old building, but we are steadily chipping away.  Paint, chairs, door stoppers, curtains, couches, carpets.  If you pay attention, you can probably see something new each week.  And that describes our people too.  We are growing in faith and mission.  Tribe, Free the Girls, Kairos Outside, World Vision at the Chicago Marathon, and local hospitality and love.  As individuals, people are taking steps of faith and courage and hope to actually live more like Jesus.  It’s beautiful. 

Maybe that progress is the answer to our stuckness.  As we live open and honest lives following Jesus with love for our neighbors, people will find the answers to their biggest questions in our lives and in our community.  May people find answers to their questions in the love and truth they find in us.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #5 - Small Town Feel in a Big Town

We live in a 15 story apartment building, and there are skyscrapers all around.  There are more people in our apartment complex than in all of Sarah's hometown.  Yet it feels like we live in a small town.
Just consider the list of people we know enough to chit-chat on the street:

• all three regular workers at the bakery
• our realtor
• the lady at the fruit stand
• most of the workers out our local grocer
• the folks in the Kimbap Nara (a restaurant) across the street
• John David's daycare workers
• the dry cleaners
• the folks in the pizza shop
• a few neighbors
• the mentally disabled guy who always asks where I'm going
• the security guards in our apartment complex
• a few of the security guards in neighboring apartments
• some of the bank workers
• some of the teachers in Emma's school
• the mom and pop owners of the nearest stationary store
• the folks at the nearest coffee shop
• our florist
• Sarah's hairdresser
• the convenience store
• and the old men who sit in front of the convenience store drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.  

We see all of these people on the street or in their shop anywhere from everyday to once every few weeks.  That doesn't even count folks from church or KNU that we see while walking down the street.  It is a rare walk home when I don't pass someone I know, and it's fairly common to be a few minutes late because two or three different people wanted to stop and chat.
Sarah and I have talked a lot about why there is this small-town phenomena in a city of almost 600,000 people.  We think it comes down to population density and localization.  We don't know the people at the big stores (places like a Wal-Mart).  There are too many workers and too many customers.  But when you've got 10,000 people living within a few square blocks, you can have a thriving network of mom and pop places that really get to know their customers.  Also because so many people are walking instead of driving, you just run into a lot more people face to face.  (For an actual view of our street, click here.)
I love this about Korea - or at least our neighborhood in Korea, and I'm going to miss it.

Leadership Fundamentals

An MDiv student just interviewed me about leadership.  Here are my answers. 

1. In your opinion, what does good leadership consist of in your organization? Good leadership is: "to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:12-13). My job is to help our people do their jobs which helps us all grow up into the people God wants us to be. This plays out by investing heavily in our pastoral team, working closely with them to help them grow as leaders. Also, I need to spend time helping our board be equipped and inspired to lead - not just to fill a post. This is always something that I can do better. My natural tendency is to try to be the loan leader rather than to lead by equipping leaders.

2. What qualities are needed to effectively lead at the top?
  A) Humility. First and foremost, we must know our own weakness, fallibility ...