Drew in Contemplation

As many of you know, I was recently on a family vacation to Colorado. It was strange being back in parts of the state that I know so well. Before I drive anywhere in Thomasville I triple (more like quadruple) check where I'm going and have lots of second guesses along the way! Maybe it's my fault. I don't drive very much since we live only a few blocks away from the church. Maybe I should drive more... Anyways... the trip was good, and I enjoyed seeing family and old friends. One of the highlights was being able to dig into a book by Philip Yancey called Reaching for the Invisible God (2000). The book was given to me by Theresa Brown (Thanks Theresa!) and, so far, I've found it incredibly insightful and refreshing. Yancey, in the book, speaks honestly of the complexities of faith, doubt and longing for God that's becoming increasingly common to talk about today. It's refreshing. Here's why: Yancey points out, as  Christians, we tend to be idealistic pe...

I think it’s about time that I write the follow up post to my Short-Term Missions blog back in March. In the first blog, I talked primarily about the Savior Complex. The Savior Complex is the idea that we as Americans/Westerners are the ones who are to “save” those in poverty, as if we have all the answers. As much as we might have good ideas and the know how to help those in poverty, the Savior Complex creates an “Us” and “Them” mentality, which, in my mind, is heretical according to the overall teaching in Scripture. Simply put, this teaching in Scripture is we’re all created in the image of God and everyone (regardless of income, education and culture) is need of a Savior, which should cause us to embody a radical sense of equality in cross-cultural Christian work. Christians are called to humbleness because, at the very core of our faith is the reality, Christ did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. Humanity was in an unrecoverable mess without the intervention of...

This statement won't surprise you: we're all different. This is one of the greatest challenges of Christian community. Somehow, we're expected to love God, love each other and work together as God's people, the Church. That's easier said than done! On one hand, we are called to learn to love and see ourselves, our unique traits, as valuable (Gen 1), but on the other hand we are "[...] Buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" (Rom 6:4). The word the Apostle Paul uses in Romans 6:4 translated here as "new" comes from the Greek word kainos which may be better translated as "a new quality(or state) of life". Paul isn't saying that baptism "freshens" us up, as the translation seems to say. Paul is literally saying that the Christian life is a transformative experience and we're not, in his mind, the same ...