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Session One: Saturday, April 1 at 10:00 AM (Pages 1-12)

“The Story of the Bible: Two Weddings”

Most of my talks will be from the Bible, but not this one. It is mostly ABOUT the Bible. This talk is designed to offer three things:

• Offer an introduction to what the Bible is all about. • Present a brief discussion of why knowing the Bible is essential as a Jesus follower. • Capsulize the whole narrative in a description of the whole story as one tale.

Before we dig in, let’s place our hearts and minds in the right position for truth the changes us. If you have a Bible, turn to Ephesians 4.

The letter was written by Paul to a growing church in the first century. It had three parts: The Call of the Believer (1-3), The Conduct of the Believer (4:1-6:9), The Conflict of the Believer (5:10-20) with some end notes.

In the CONDUCT section, Paul made the point that God intended the believer to walk in a way that creates a happy, healthy and holy environment for all. Paul offered five ways to live a life relationally that pleases God. He used the word “walk” five times to help you see what he was calling you to do.

Mark the word “walk” in 4:1, 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15.

1) Live a life worthy of your calling (4:1) 2) Live distinctly from the lost world (4:17) 3) Live a life of Love (5:2) or more specifically, in relational matters (vv. 2-7). This means giving like Jesus (2). How do I walk in love? I cannot be greedy, sensual or selfish in lifestyle (3); I must not be lewd or filthy in speech (4-7). 4) Live as children of light: Exposed truths (vv. 8-14); Live the fruit (8-10), Avoid the rest (11-14). 5) Live Wisely: (“purposefully” 5:15-6:9) -Watch the times (vv.15,16); Watch the influences (18); The Spirit of God will transform your: Voice (5:19-20) and your relationships (5:21-6:9):

• Wives (5:22-24): submit • Husbands (5:25-33): love • Child (6:1-3): obey- honor • Fathers (6:4): understand-train • Workers (6:5-8): obey-work hard • Bosses (6:9): respect

In the section on walking DISTINCTLY, Paul made this statement: 2

Ephesians 5:14 As a result [of having God send us gifted trainers that help us grow], we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Look very carefully at what Paul said of those who do not know how to live differently:

• They are like children in the faith. • They are carried by the forces around them. • They are tricked by people who are crafty. • They are duped by schemes.

Now look at what Paul taught the response should be to them:

• We must speak the truth in love. • We should be growing up in Jesus, fitting into the Body of Christ. • We should understand it is the right of the Creator to define things, not the created. • The proper function of the body will come from the proper commitment to the Head.

God called the church to be a place where believers learned to do three things that would represent Him well:

• First, be increasingly connected to the Head – Jesus Himself. • Second, to be interconnected to each other – the Church. • Third, to make the vehicle of these two connections the Word – the Bible.

Fed by the Word of Christ and submitted to Him, I will lock arms with other believers and see the world through the lens of the Word. That is faith in action.

Years ago the Special Olympics was held in Seattle, Washington. One of the races was a 100 yard dash where nine physically and mentally disabled young people gathered at the starting line. The gun went off, and the nine began to run (as best as they) could toward the finish line. It wasn’t exactly in a dash, but they were obviously enjoying themselves. Then one boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back. Every one of them. One girl with Down's syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, "This will make it better." Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line together. They say that that 3

day everyone in the stadium stood, and cheered for what seemed like forever. What those children did that day… is what God calls us to do. God calls us to love each other so much that when one of us stumbles and falls… we all turn back to help them up. And we link arms and walk together toward the gates of heaven.

Our call is to do this directed by Jesus, and to do it together.

First, let’s ask: “What did God provide to help us offer truth to the world?”

By the work of the Spirit of God., the Bible is the primary vehicle of truth through which God has carefully made known His will.

It was written during 1050 years of a 1500 year period in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek - - on stone, papyrus, and parchment. It was written by scribes, scholars, and statesmen as well as by slaves, shepherds, and seers. There are 10 ancient mss of Julius Caesar’s works, the earliest copy from 1000 years after the original. Neither Plato, Thucydides, Tacitus have originals that are closer than 1000 years from the original – with 30 mss between ALL THREE authors. The NT has 5700 mss, the earliest parts within 50 years, and the first whole copies of total codices within 250 years. The texts are more solidly preserved than ANY other ancient text in the Western library.

Like every great story, it follows a number of “Story Lines.” These are all introduced in the first twelve chapters of the first book. Let me offer you five:

1 God

2. The Enemy

3. The Mutiny

4. The Human Condition (self-sufficiency if move toward mutiny; submission is move toward discipleship).

5. The Redemption and Restoration

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Second, let’s face the fact that the world isn’t poised to receive our message. In fact, there is an “attack on the Bible” and an erosion in the right response of Believers.”

Once Jesus was taken up to the Father, the testimony of His very existence began to be attacked. At the same time, God provided overwhelming, irrefutable and detailed evidence of His existence, His specific works and the impact of those works on the men of His time.

Key Principle: The Gospel story is not a cleverly devised myth (2 Peter 1:6), but a carefully reconstructed story held together by a myriad of Providentially preserved details.

I want to establish two critical and foundational truths that we will build from this weekend:

1) It is perfectly reasonable to believe the record of the Gospel writers is both an accurate reflection of actual events.

2) When taken seriously, we can employ a mixture of disciplines like geology, geography, history, and archaeology to set the text more fully in context – and the story becomes even more compelling.

We are here at an important time in our nation. We are experiencing a wall of cynics being held back by a deeply weakened church. We are responding. Let me share it this way:

Daniel B. Wallace offered this insight: "Those in ministry must close the gap between the church and the academy. We have to educate believers. Instead of trying to isolate laypeople from critical scholarship, we need to insulate them. They need to be ready for the barrage, because it is coming. Intentional dumbing down of the church for the sake of filling more pews will ultimately lead to a defection from Christ.

Our increasingly secularized culture has confused people both INSIDE and OUTSIDE the church about the Gospel accounts:

• “The Da Vinci Code” along with other movies and TV shows, have tried to form the notion that the Bible that is in your hands is not a reliable translation of original documents, but is a biased production, based on the politics of theology over the last 1500 years.

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• ABC TVs “The search for Jesus” program by Peter Jennings was virtually unrecognizable in the story of Jesus to the average Christian. The story as told by Jennings was about a Jewish cynic who was born in Nazareth (not Bethlehem) and became a political dissident against Rome. He was executed, but before he could be buried was eaten off of the cross by dogs. More recently, Morgan Freeman and Reza Aslan have tried to do for CNN what Jennings did for ABC – offer alternative theories to the Biblical record.

• National Geographic has challenged the objective reality as well as the historicity of the New Testament Gospel accounts. Over and over, the secular world offers the impression that the Bible is somehow missing parts were deliberately left out the text we now possess. People boldly assert that the Bible is filled with errors, or that it was altered for the political expediency within the church to specific time.

• Popularly marketed books such as The Orthodox corruption of Scripture; Lost Christianities, lost Scriptures; and Misquoting Jesus -- all by a once evangelical and now agnostic Prof. Bart Ehrman have made their way into the hands of even Christian students.

If you know the terrain from which the Bible purports to tell its story, that there is a massive amount of evidence to lead to a reasonable conclusion that the Christian Biblical writers offered actual history based on the evidence of collaborating disciplines.

I will illustrate with two disciplines: archaeology and historical statements:

Archaeology: I have first hand knowledge of most of the places of the Bible. I have spent my career traveling to the places where the Bible events occurred. I have not seen them all, but have become intimately familiar with a majority of them. I have seen the Bible assaulted, but I believe it is often imposed upon by those who desire to prove naturalism. The methods employed to find historical evidence elsewhere in the world are viewed with cynicism when it applies to the Bible.

• I recall when the notion of Moses’ writing was thought to be spurious because he was “from an illiterate culture” – something now found to be false based on epigraphic evidence widely available.

• Scholars suggested the Hittites were mythological warriors until their capital at Hattussus was discovered.

• Sergius Paulus in Acts 13 was not found in any Roman record until the C20 – and therefore thought to be a fabrication – until an inscription was uncovered. Uncollaborated by any other source prior – the Bible was thought incorrect until the stone appeared. 6

• In 1961 Antonio Frova’s team at Caesarea Maritima uncovered a collaborating piece of evidence for Pontius Pilatus.

• “Magistrates” in Philippi went by specific titles that were not known until modern times apart from the Bible, but now we have that term in inscriptions.

• In 1929 this inscription was found mentioning Erastus as the one who paid for the paving of the street in return for his appointment as a city officer. It is likely that this is the same Erastus mentioned by Paul as sending greetings to the church at Rome (Rom 16:23). If so, Paul's influence apparently extended to wealthy and influential Roman citizens of Corinth.

My point is that what ONE GENERATION asks as “overwhelming evidence against the Bible” in one generation, the next generation digs up in archaeology.

Historical Cross References: There are historical reasons why I believe as well. You would expect collaboration from what few histories we have available today:

• Thallus (c.55): A third-century Christian historian, Julius Africanus, composed a History of the World down to around ad. 220 in five volumes. In one of the surviving fragments, Julius discussed the three-hour darkness which occurred at the crucifixion of Jesus and makes this comment: “In the third book of his history, Thallus calls this darkness an eclipse of the sun--wrongly in my opinion.” (5.50).

• Cornelius Tacitus (55-120) wrote Annals: Book 15.44 mentions “Christ as a person executed by Pontius Pilate during Tiberius' reign.” However, as Tacitus does not disclose his source of knowledge and specific details are not given, the authority of Annals is controversial among Biblical scholars such as Bart Ehrman. (Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

• Seutonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquilla, 76-138) Blamed the followers of Christ for Roman troubles. "Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ], he [Claudius] expelled them from the city [Rome]." Suetonius' Life of the Emperor Claudius, chapter 25 (excerpt). "During his reign many abuses were severely punished and put down, and no fewer new laws were made: a limit was set to expenditures; the public banquets were confined to a distribution of food, the sale of any kind of cooked viands in the taverns was forbidden, with the exception of pulse and vegetables, whereas before every sort of dainty was exposed for sale. Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. He put an end to the diversions of the chariot drivers, who from immunity of long standing claimed the right of ranging at large and amusing themselves by 7

cheating and robbing the people. The pantomimic actors and their partisans were banished from the city." - - Suetonius' Life of the Emperor Nero, chapter 16 (excerpt).

• Pliny the Younger (c. 112): (To Emperor Trajan): “…Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. …Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ--none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do-- these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

The point is that not only is the archaeology pointing to the veracity of the record, but the Bible’s events were not recorded in a vacuum un-collaborated by history.

There is every reasonable evidence to assert that you can trust the record. That having been said, I would like to move to the second part of the presentation through a brief visual reminder in the land of the Bible. We will study the parts more in depth as the weekend progresses.

OK, you say, then what is the Bible all about?

Finally, what is “The Story of the Bible?”

First, it is, in fact, a story.

We miss it when all we see is a list of rules; sixty-six books that comprise an all- encompassing manual of how to kill our fun and reorder our lives into a black and white existence of “do's” and “do nots.” The Bible is so much more. It is God's enduring truth. It is the irreducible and essential information He wanted humankind to know about Himself. And it is a grand story – a story that spans across space and time, a story of love, a story of two worlds, two marriages and two gardens. It is the story, declared to all creation, of the God who is.

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The Bible is a romance book. It is a relationship book. The center of the story of the Bible is a story of two marriages. Let’s step back and look at the whole landscape of the story…In the beginning God created a world of angelic beings. One of those beings rose up in mutiny, and took with him a third of the angelic kingdom. God’s strategy was not to simply wipe out His creation – for He is a relational being. His choice was to be creative a second time, and craft a story before the angelic world of a second world – a physical world we call our universe. In that universe, God would show Who He is – and the angels would understand His true glory.

He made man and woman and placed them in a beautiful garden. He allowed the enemy access to them, and they joined in mutiny against their creator – just as that third of the angelic host had before them. Angels that followed God gasped as God allowed a stolen world to corrupt the whole of His once beautiful creation. Without missing a beat, God promised a Redeemer – a Son that would make his entry through the womb of a woman. The enemy tried to corrupt the race of men and woman and ruin the blood lines. God fired back in protection and flooded the world, saving a family with clean blood, and started anew – penalizing permanently any fallen angels that wanted to try to ruin the race. Time passed and men grew in numbers. Eventually God separated their attempts to unify and they became ethnic groups, language groups, and even nations. God chose from among the nations one that He would offer a special relationship… and He declared that nation to be His wife. He wrote her love sonnets, cards and poetry – but she was not faithful. His love was ever promised, and hers was fickle. She cheated on Him. Then she cheated again. Then again. He wept over her, but declared that divorce was necessary for her to learn what she needed to know. What wasn’t learned in His warm arms would have to be learned in a cold and cruel world. She was put out – but not until she was pregnant.

The woman bore a Son of the Father. He was one of her nation – but His Father was the One in Heaven. The Son grew up, and the estranged wife of His Father caused some of the deepest wounds to His heart. The Son visited her and cried over her. –but she wasn’t ready to listen. The Son grew up.

The Father told the Son to take a wife of His own. He was not to choose a nation, but rather a PEOPLE, defined by love to Him, and not by any ethnicity or national ties. The Son took a bride and engaged her – leaving to His Father’s house until the Father called for the wedding to take place. The bride was left to prepare herself for the wedding to come, and to offer example and comfort to the estranged bride of the Father.

One day the Father blew the trumpet for the wedding to come. The bride of the Son was swept into glory, and the estranged wife of the Father was not invited to the feast. In fact, in one last and giant effort to get her away from her addiction to others, the Father punished her suitors and caused them to show her their real disdain for her. When she saw they did not truly love her, and that she could only count on her ex-Husband, she cried out to Him. He sent His Son to call her back home. When she saw the Son, she recognized Him as one she wounded, and she wept a mixture of tears of joy for her rescue and sorrow for the pains she inflicted on the Son. When the family was all joined 9

together – the story concluded with God remaking the universe and restoring things to His original design for them. The angels nodded – they got the message. God isn’t fickle, and the original relationship failure, in spite of the rumors spread by the Deceiver – wasn’t God’s fault.

Two worlds, two marriages, two gardens, and story within story within story. God has made Himself known to all creation. He has chosen a people through whom to bring salvation to the world. He has made a way to redeem this unfaithful people and in the process rescue countless others born outside the patriarchal lineage. God has loved and does love each person intimately and personally. The tapestry of His story is enormous and intricate. The bigger picture must be known and understood, but in seeing the whole we must not forget that each thread is lovingly and intentionally designed. Everything He wants us to know about Himself and about the grand purpose of our lives is in His Holy Scripture. That is God's story. That is the story of the Bible.

Second, it is a tapestry with differing ways of illustrating God’s love.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NAS) “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Three Problems we must confront to make sense of the Bible:

1. False Division: Not “OLD” and “NEW” Testaments, rather seven types of literature.

Hebrew 8 and the confusion over the meaning of the “New Covenant” has caused us to separate the “profitable” parts of the Bible from the old stuff we “don’t really need”. The problem is we miss the heart of the story (consider Acts 2).

2. Faulty Interpretation: Not set in the CULTURE of the day.

The classic issue of divorce and remarriage has become a battle ground largely because of our failure to contextualize the problem and the restrictions in the time and culture to which they were addressed.

3. False Application: Not written to US, but written for OUR BENEFIT.

When we forget the principles are what we follow, we end up binding people to restrictions that God never intended us to follow. He closed the canon when His heart and priorities were fully disclosed to produce godliness. He didn’t imply those were the only problems we would ever face.

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Seven Types of Literature in the Bible Library:

The Bible is not a single document, though it has a single Spiritual authorship. If we think of it more as the library of God’s instructions on a life that pleases Him, we come closer to the intent of the Author and His various writing helpers. If the text was written for the expressed purpose of changing the lives of believers, we must press each portion to see the life changing truths that are contained in its pages. Using the text as mere historical lessons rob it of the real purpose for which it was given.

Each type of Biblical literature has a unique path from the text to the heart (love languages). Timeless truths and principles are found throughout, but the path to consistently finding and applying them is specific to the type of literature. Some books contain more than one type of literature and require more than one path to find the principles. That’s the bad news; it is not as simple as some would like it to be.

The good news is the interpretive method of each type of literature is consistent within that type. It can be “unlocked” with a specific set of questions that, if carefully responded to, yield the same principles regardless of how many years of experience you may have at interpreting the Word. The literary types of the Word have been divided many different ways by different authors of commentaries and Bible study books. We offer these seven as a simple guide that will help any student draw truth from the rich pages of the Bible.

Type One: Biography (includes the Patriarchal and Matriarchal Narratives of Genesis; Moses in Exodus and Numbers (and small selected stories of men like Korah); Joshua; Ruth; Selected characters of 1,2 Samuel (Hannah, Eli the Priest, Samuel, Saul, David; Selected characters of 1,2 Kings and 1,2 Chronicles (Solomon, Various kings of Divided Kingdom); Ezra (Zerubbabel and Ezra; Nehemiah (Nehemiah, Ezra); Esther; Daniel (from chapters 1-6); Jonah; Matthew; Mark; Luke; John; Acts.

• Narrative Biography: Divide into dramatic “Acts and Scenes” asking the key principle questions. • Polemic Biography: Tie the Acts and Scenes to the overall purpose of the writer. “In this way, we see the writer offers evidence that…”

Type Two: Prescriptive Epistles (includes Epistles- Romans; 1,2 Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians; 1,2 Thessalonians; 1,2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon; Hebrews; James; 1,2 Peter; 1,2,3 John; Jude): Ascertain the problems that gave rise to the writing of the Epistle. If the epistle represents the answer, what is the question?

• Corporate Epistle: distinct in that it is written to a group, and must not be applied to an individual. • Pastoral Epistle: distinct in that it is written to a leader, and does not always reflect the path of every believer. 11

• Personal Epistle: distinct in the personal style, reveals something important about both the writer and the reader. • Sectarian Epistle (Messianic): distinct because of the unique set of standards God made for the believing Jew of the Church Age. • Sectarian Epistle (Gentile): distinct because of the pagan background of the believers of the Gentile community.

Type Three: Lamentation: (includes Lamentations, Habakkuk, selected Psalms) move from the human to the Divine perspective, care must be taken not to use the opening as precedent to behavior.

Type Four: Legal Code and Covenant Treaty (includes part of Exodus; Leviticus; Deuteronomy): Divide the type of behavior to the consequence. Seek to determine what God’s chief concern was in the behavior.

• Exodus (Shemot)/Numbers (Bemidbar): Declarative Law (the declaration of the people to trust in God; the declaration of God that He accepts the people). • Levitical (Vayikra): Holiness or Redemptive Law (the laws given to the spiritual leader expressing the way one is tainted by sin, and the way one can be redeemed). • Deteronomic (Dvarim): Constitutional law (what makes a Jew a Jew).

Type Five: Wisdom Literature: Focus on the “truism”, not a promise or absolute. These are wise instructions that offer guidance, not covenants that guarantee success.

Type Six: Poetics: Poetic text should be treated like the illusive figures of song lyrics. A careful understanding of the images used is essential to understanding the veiled truths. There are many types of poetic portions. Some of the main ones are:

• Psalms: Praises (Ps. 30; 65); Corporate or National (Ps. 44); Imprecation (Ps. 7; 35;55;58-59; 69;79;109; 137; 139). • Poems and songs (Ex. 15) • Parallelism

Type Seven: Prophetic Works: There are subsets that include apocalyptic works as well as “political commentary from God” sections.

• Coming Judgment and Blessing (Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi) • Exposing sin (Haggai) • Sermons and Political commentaries (Amos; Micah)

No matter what the Bible is, it contains the message of a Father Who loves His children. That is what should stay with us the most…

“I have many memories about my father and about growing up with him in our apartment next to the elevated train tracks. For years we listened to the roar of the train 12

as it passed by. Late at night, my father waited alone for the train that took him to a factory where he worked the night shift. On this particular night, I waited with him in the dark to say good-bye. His face was grim; his youngest son had been drafted. I would be sworn in at six the next morning while he was at the factory. My father didn’t want them to take his child, only 19 years old, to fight a war in Europe. He placed his hands on my shoulders and said, ‘You be careful, and if you need anything, write to me and I’ll see that you get it.’ Suddenly he heard the roar of the approaching train. He held me tightly in his arms and gently kissed me on the cheek. With tear-filled eyes, he murmured, ‘I love you, my son.’ Then the train arrived, the doors closed him inside, and he disappeared into the night….and I left for boot camp. One month later, at age 46, my father died. I am 76 as I sit and write this. I once heard Pete Hamill, the New York reporter, say that memories are man’s greatest inheritance, and I have to agree. I’ve lived through four invasions in World War II. I’ve had a life full of all kinds of experiences. But the only memory that lingers is the night my dad said, ‘I love you, my son.’” 13

Session Two: Saturday, April 1 at 2:00 PM: Pages (13-37)

“The Jew, Gentile and the Church”: The Galatian Diversion: How a Bible misunderstanding ripped a hole in the community of Jesus’ followers (A Study in Galatians).

In our last session, we described the Bible and noticed there were many tests pressing believers today to drop the Bible as their central theme.

In this session I want to do three things:

1. Introduce Paul, the premier writer of Christian Scriptures.

2. Set up the issue of the Law and what it is meant to do for believers today.

3. Skip a stone across the main texts of Galatians, and show how the misuse of the book became the single greatest problem in understanding the message of Paul for modern believers.

To set up the talk, let me ask you to listen in on a conversation I had not long ago…In a meeting with mission leaders a few months ago, one of the principal speakers made a comment that set in place something I had been feeling for quite some time. When you hear it, it may not make immediate sense. Think it through and perhaps it will help us discern a path to some changes about how we reach out, and about how we set the pattern of our teaching in the coming days.

He said, “We have come to many fields with the Gospel, seen genuine conversions to faith in Jesus Christ, and raised a generation of pagan followers of Jesus. They know the Gospel and are regularly a part of the church, but they live thoroughly immersed in pagan thinking and superstitions not at all compatible with their faith.”

He went on to express that although the “way” to God was clearly expressed to them, the “walk” with God was not. His prescription was this:

“If we would teach the Old Testament stories to the people, they would see more of the daily practice of a God-walk.”

All the leaders in the room identified with the notion that we don’t seem to be moving deeply past the Gospel into its implications in daily life in many of those who claim to come to Jesus on mission fields around the world. For instance:

• There are still quite a few who claim Christ as Savior who are wrapped up in practices of a type of “Voo Doo” in a few fields, even among those who hold church positions on Sunday morning on the island.

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• There are many Christians around the world who continue to carefully consider the feelings of their long-dead ancestors before holding any celebrations in their homes because of their pagan superstitions.

These are just a few slight indicators that in finding Jesus, some we have reached may have found a new afterlife, but not a new lifestyle for daily living now. The strength of their cultural surrounding seems to overpower the lessons of the Word of God. It is heartbreaking for those new to the field to realize how far into paganism and false teaching many Jesus followers still live. Though that is a very real problem, my concern today, however, isn’t simply about far-flung fields of people who are being reached by our mission efforts – it is perhaps a bit closer to home. I believe we may be doing the same thing right here in our hometown churches. Let me explain. One news cycle this past week illustrates my chief concern about the way we train a generation of Jesus followers here at home:

A social media content provider once named the “bored at work” network is now called “Buzz Feed.” It has become a globally distributed digital media organization read by about 80 million people every month. You cannot