Money

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

Source: Bible  -  Acts 8:18-24

From Israel Chaffin

He told me about his growing up in Tennessee’s rural Appalachia—in a community of (primarily) Catholic and Southern-Baptist. Although he has always been Presbyterian, the predominant duality in the environment gave him an opportunity to develop the question, “if you are so much alike, why are you so far apart?”

Fast-forward to college graduation, and despite having his heart set to travel to Nairobi to do ministry work, he ended up in Belfast—where political divides had given birth to blood feuds, and separations of heart that manifested with physical walls in the city—keeping the Catholic and Protestant communities partitioned and separate.

He shared with me about his experience here—things thrilling, sad, fruitful, and frightening. He also shared about his current ministry—some of the challenges, as well as his hopes and desires for growth. The door was open for me to share my dream and desire to engage with the diversity of humanity, and to help them engage each other under the uniting reality of God’s Spirit.


Source: Israel Chaffin  -  FB post about a new friend he met in Memphis, 20 Dec 2020

Nate-ional Prayer Breakfast

This week (as occurred two years ago) I was graciously invited by my Republican Congressman friend from Alabama, Robert Aderholt, to attend the National Prayer Breakfast activities.  Robert and I met and became friends on a summer mission in 1985, when we were roommates in London, England. It was that summer that I felt my call to ministry. Later when I began making more frequent trips to DC for faith-based community organizing events through PICO/ Faith in Action, we renewed our friendship, which has been quite remarkable.  Though we sharply disagree on many political issues, he has consistently listened attentively to stories from our ministry, and to the prophetic implications of the plight of the poor, He has been very supportive, gracious and hospitable to countless friends who have visited DC.  We can talk civilly around the divisive issues that are rending the very fabric of our families and our nation.  Our friendship gives me hope that difference does not necessitate dehumanization.

Source: Nate Bacon  -  Recounted in a personal prayer letter, 5 Feb 2020

"If I looked into my own heart ..."

"Trembling, I realized that if I looked into my own heart I could find seeds of hatred there, too.  Arrogant thoughts, feelings of irritation toward others, coldness, anger, envy, indifference - these are the roots of what happened in Nazi Germany.  And they are there in every human being.  As I recognized - more clearly than ever before - that I myself stood in desperate need of forgiveness, I was able to forgive, and finally I felt completely free." -- Hela Erlich, Holocaust survivor

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.36

Start with Biography

And that's why it's important for us, again, when we're thinking of ecumenism, when we're thinking of reconciliation, that's why it's so important not to start with theology, but to start with biography.  That's why we enter into the story.  Because the biography tells how the theology forms. 

Source: Daniel Malawkowsky  -  Daniel Malakowsky, The History and Nature of Church Divisions, Lesson 6, http://www.churchdivisions.com

Fr. Martin Magill

Fr Magill’s determination to push the boundaries in terms of ecumenical outreach is evident from his practice of what the late Michael Hurley SJ called “ecumenical tithing”.

This means that part of his time each week, usually on a Sunday afternoon or evening is devoted to worshipping in another Christian denomination, sometimes St George’s Church of Ireland in Belfast “a very beautiful very high church”.

He believes this commitment comes from “the imperative I get from Jesus Christ in John 17”.

Fr Magill reveals that it is “only a matter of time before I will worship in a Free Presbyterian church as part of ecumenical tithing”.

He is also working on a list of ten things that Catholics can learn  from other denominations and “top of the list is welcoming because 90% of churches do welcoming better then we Catholics”, followed by singing.

Source: Martin O'Brien  -  "A Quiet Peacemaker", The Irish Catholic, 11 Dec 2014, http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/quiet-peacemaker

Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address (1809)

Many Presbyterians, such as Thomas Campbell, his son Alexander Campbell, and Barton W. Stone, were fed up with the divisive spirit. This frustration is evident in Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address (1809), a sort of manifesto for unity in the church. Campbell insists: "that division among christians is a horrid evil, fraught with many evils. It is anti-christian, as it destroys the visible unity of the body of Christ; as if he were divided against himself, excluding and excommunicating a part of himself. It is anti-scriptural, as being strictly prohibited by his sovereign authority; a direct violation of his express command."

Source: Keith D. Stanglin  -  "The Restoration Movement, the Habit of Schism, and a Proposal for Unity", by Dr. Keith D. Stanglin, in Christian Studies, Volume 28, August 2016, http://austingrad.edu/Christian%20Studies/CS%2028/Proposal%20for%20Unity.pdf

George on Packer

Packer recognized that the deep division that had separated Protestants and Catholics since the time of the Reformation had changed in a significant way. The most important fault line today, he argued, was between “conservationists,” who honor the Christ of the Bible and of the historic creeds and confessions, on the one hand, and the theological liberals and radicals who do not, on the other. In this new situation, Packer argued that ECT has a vital role to play: “ECT … must be viewed as fuel for a fire that is already alight. The grassroots coalition at which the document aims is already growing. It can be argued that, so far from running ahead of God, as some fear, ECT is playing catch-up to the Holy Spirit.”

Source: Timothy George  -  "Packer at Ninety", First Things, October 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/10/packer-at-ninety

Vatican II - 3 Important Changes

True Significance [of Vatican II] IS

That it was fundamentally altering  three convictions central to historic Evangelical objections, which understood (whether accurately or not) Roman Catholicism to hold:

1. an exaggerated exaltation of the Catholic Church as an institution whereby it communicated that the institutional Catholic Church was in itself a salvific agency serving, in an exaggerated way, as a continuation of the ministry of Jesus;
2. an exaggerated view of its sacramental ministry, seen to be the key to ministering salvation (either in baptism or in penance (described as “necessary”, D. 839, 894-896, albeit with the usual emergency alternative of the “desire of the sacrament,” D 898) or in the Eucharist);
3. “Rome never changes” and hence, until the Council of Trent’s decrees are explicitly renounced, all appearances of change are superficial at best.


All three points are implicated in one single decision taken at Vatican II: its acceptance that Protestants who had no membership in and no sacramental ministry from the Catholic Church were yet regenerated Christians.  When one considers the change in the first point alone – termed by some as the Catholic “tendency most suspect to Protestants”  – this is a sea change of huge proportion.  With this change the focus has been removed from the institution itself as a salvific institution and switched back to the underlying Gospel message.  



Source: Paul Miller  -  "Evangelicals Cooperatively Evangelising & Discipling with Catholics in Faithfulness to Evangelical Distinctives", by Paul Miller

Engle & Calisi in Azusa

The music quieted while the constantly boisterous crowd fell to a noticeable hush as the “men-in-black,” collared Catholic priests and their friends, who were incidentally wearing black, took center-stage. Standing with my right foot about one inch from the stage drop, I looked out on the crowd to see trepidation on faces and looks of curiosity, and even a noticeable pause of breath.

Matteo Calisi, former president of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, was introduced and began to address the crowd in Italian with Dr. Bruno Ierullo translating:

“We are a delegation, a Catholic delegation. … I come from Italy. And, I bring you a salute from 150 million Charismatic Catholics.” As the crowd cheered, Calisi then spoke to the crowd about the influence of the Asuza Street Revival on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Following these remarks, he ceremoniously laid prostrate on the stage and kissed Lou Engle’s feet in an act of reconciliatory love. “We are just in a holy moment right here,” Engle emotionally cried out. Then he continued to call out the other church elders onto the stage while he fell to his knees reciprocally kissing Matteo’s feet.

“Jesus, I thank you!” cried out Calisi while Engle kneeled before his feet, “because you are breaking the spirit of division! You are preparing a great revival in the event of this call, like you did 100 years ago. Do it again! Do it again! Holy Spirit let your Spirit come again for a billion Catholics.”

Source: Jennifer Wing Atencio  -  "Christians pack Coliseum for revival: Catholics join thousands of  believers to mark 110th anniversary of Pentecostal Azuza revival", Angelus News, 13 April 2016
https://angelusnews.com/news/christians-pack-coliseum-for-revival-catholics-join-thousands-of-believers-to-mark-110th-anniversary-of-pentecostal-azuza-revival

Can the US learn from Europe?

And frankly, I think the church in the United States, the more it embeds with politics… Europeans understand where that goes. When the church and the state are seen like this [joins hands], and then the state proves what it is - a flawed and sometimes corrupt system -  then the church is judged by this, and rejected. There are countries in Europe where the church is set back for decades and decades, because they have been stained by how they sold their soul for power, I would say. As the United States grows more and more secular, I tell the people there: ‘We are becoming more like the fertile soil in which the early church did best’. Like the Roman Empire, this was a pagan and hostile society in which Christians stood out by being different. When you are in a place like the United States or Europe in its recent past, where the majority will claim to be Christians, but then they look like everyone else, then the people do not understand what the gospel is. But when Christians look radically different from the world around them, then the people can see the difference.

Source: Philip Yancey  -  "Philip Yancey: US evangelicals should learn from Europe’s history of religion and power", Evangelical Focus Newsletter, 23 September 2016, http://evangelicalfocus.com/world/1951/Philip_Yancey_US_evangelicals_should_learn_from_Europes_history_of_religion_and_power_

Where is our repentance?

We sinned, but where is our repentance as Christians?  The Lord expects us to face up to facts. ... We Christians need to face our catalogue of failures squarely.  The scandal of division.  Impenitenace for our crime against Israel.  Complacency and self-righteousness.

Source: M. Basilea Schlink  -  Repentance: The Joy-Filled Life, p. 35

Matt Maher in KC

I think what I've come to realize in the past couple of years is that times of worship where no one knows what it is, it's because we're all together.  It's just that simple.  I mean, you could bring Christians from different denominations together and not say anything, and it would be the most powerful expression of worship - because it's a fulfillment of Jesus' prayer in John 17.  God's not a liar.  The things that He says, His word won't return null adn void.  So when Jesus prays before Calvary that we would be one, whenever that happens, we are agreeing with the Lord, and whenever we agree with the Lord, there's a goodness about it, we're in right relationship.  And so I think whenever the church worships together, it's going to be palpable ... it's not about the gifts and the talents, it's about the fact that we're all together.  That's the gift.  That's the anointing.  The anointing isn't in a person, it's in the body of Christ, and when the body of Christ is reconciled by worshipping together, that's where the anointing is.

Source: Matt Maher  -  Worship Leader Q&A Panel, Catholic/Ecumentical Track, Onething 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pesyj1nVo

Civil War

I believe this is urgent, my brothers and sisters. We have had one civil war in our history that the Church made no effort to stop but in fact aided and abetted by our conflicting messages and inflammatory rhetoric. Another may take a different form where our political factions take up arms (Lord knows we have enough of them) in our cities if they cannot resolve their differences or be heard in the halls of Congress and the office of the President. We could fall into anarchy or tyranny. I like to say that children who play with matches inside the house often do not realize they can burn the house down until they do. Our incendiary and inflammatory speech may not stop there. It didn’t before the Civil War. Church, I’m asking, is it time to say “we must reconcile our differences and lead our country in doing the same?”

Source: Robert C Trube  -  rtrube54, "The Scandal of the Church in America: Part One", Bob on Books, 13 Feb 2017, https://bobonbooks.com/2017/02/13/the-scandal-of-the-church-in-america-part-one/

All Catholics Exhorted To Be Active In Ecumenism!

At the second Vatican Council, in its decree on ecumenism the Catholic Church officially embraced the ecumenical movement in its goal of restoring the full visible unity of the one body of Jesus Christ:

"Today, in many parts of the world, under the influence of the grace of the Holy Spirit, many efforts are being made in prayer, word, and action to attain the fullness of unity which Jesus Christ desires. This sacred council, therefore, exhorts all the Catholic faithful to recognize the signs of the times and to take an active and intelligent part in the work of ecumenism."


Source: Fr. Peter Hocken  -  Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 19 [Unitatis Redintegratio 4 Decree on ecumenism of the second Vatican Council]

Good Answer, Gideon!

22 The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

23 But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.”

Source: Samuel  -  Judges 8:22-23 (NIV)

Should Children Represent The Parent's Anger To Each Other?

As a father I'm thrilled beyond words when my kids tell each other how much I love them, because in representing me they're just representing themselves. Imagine if one of your children told the other, "Dad loves you so much. Dad talks about you all the time. Every time Dad looks at your picture a genuine smile crosses his face and there's so much love in his eyes. Dad can't wait to see you. Dad is so proud of you and his face lights up whenever he hears your name."

But I would be rocked to my core if any of my children presumed to represent my anger, because in representing me they're just representing themselves. Imagine if one of your kids ever told the other, "Dad is so mad at you. Dad is going to punish you. Dad hates you. Dad is furious with you. Dad is going to disown you and send you away because he never wants to see you again. Dad can't even stand to look at you."

God is our Father, and we are His children. How you want your children to treat one another should give you great revelation into the Father's heart.


Source: Bill Vanderbush  -  Posted on FB 4 Feb 2017

"You Shouldn't Leave Like This"

A colleague (we’ll call him “Andrew”) told me this story while we were working together on a project.


It was Andrew's first year of marriage.  He was due to leave ~ 10:30 pm to drive to Louisiana and go offshore for a long work assignment.  That evening, he and his wife had an argument.  As Andrew related it, “I didn’t respond as well as I could have” … and he left the house around 10 pm, 30 minutes early, while they were still arguing.  He drove away angry and unresolved with his wife.

As per his usual habit, he first headed to a nearby gas station to fill up the car for the trip.  As he was pumping the gas, another vehicle pulled up on the other side of the pump.  A man got out and started also filling up his car.  Suddenly, the man spoke to Andrew:  “You shouldn’t leave like this.”  “What?” Andrew replied.  The man said again, “I felt led to say to you - you shouldn’t leave like this.”

Wow!  A word from the Lord.

Andrew finished filling up his tank, and instead of heading down the road, returned to the house.  His wife met him at the door, weeping, and they embraced and reconciled before Andrew left the second time for his work assignment.


My friend later said, “That could have been the end of the relationship if I hadn’t come back” - at the very least, it would have caused a wound in the relationship that would have caused strife and tension for months / years, until resolved.  But God saw, God cared, and God intervened!

Source: Thomas Cogdell  -  Personal story

The Question of a Young Calvinist

The first independent idea about religion I ever remember thinking was a question I asked my father, an elder in the church, a good and wise and holy man. I was amazed that he couldn't answer it. "Why do we Calvinists have the whole truth and no one else? We're so few. How could God leave the rest of the world in error? Especially the rest of the Christian churches?" Since no good answer seemed forthcoming, I then came to the explosive conclusion that the truth about God was more mysterious—more wonderfully and uncomfortably mysterious—than anything any of us could ever fully comprehend. (Calvinists would not deny that, but they do not usually teach it either. They are strong on God's "sovereignty," but weak on the richness of God's mystery.) That conviction, that the truth is always infinitely more than anyone can have, has not diminished. Not even all the infallible creeds are a container for all that is God.

Source: Peter Kreeft  -  Hauled aboard the Ark, http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm