We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

“You” Means “Y’all”

Self Portrait of a self portrait of a self portrait of a self portrait 

Mrs Logic via Compfight

Justin Hiebert over at Empowering Missional wrote a piece last week titled The Bible isn’t for you. Justin rightly points out that our individualistic mindset has caused us to misread huge portions of the Bible. He challenges us to read the Bible as a community rather than as individuals. It seems like a small thing, but it has important implications not only for how we read scripture, but also for how we understand ourselves and our mission in the world.

From the blog post:

If we leave the focus on the singular (what you personally need to do) it is really hard to build genuine community. We entrust that each person has to do it all, and do it all by themselves. But then when we gather, we are not a community but a collective of individuals. God calls us to more than collective individualism but to genuine community. A place where people are transformed together into the perfect reflection of Christ in the world.

Related Reading

God in Our Image

zen Sutherland via Compfight We came across this piece written by Jonathan Storment earlier this month and we had to share it here. The title of the piece is Everyday Idolatry: My God. He does a great job of outlining the ways that we twist God into whatever we need him to be to prop up…

Are Evangelicals an Endangered Species?

Joits via Compfight Tim Suttle offered some thoughts on the Huffington Post a few days ago about the state of evangelicalism and what is needed to keep it from going the way of the dinosaurs. In an atmosphere of increasing division and conflict, he offers mission as a unifying center that will keep evangelicalism vibrant.…

Jesus, the Center of Scripture

Paul declared that Jesus was nothing less than the very embodiment of all of God. This distinction of “all of God” is important for us to understand what it means for us to see Jesus and God rightly. Battling proto-gnostic teachers who were apparently presenting Christ alongside other manifestations of God, Paul declares “in Christ…

Topics:

A Dialogue with Derek Flood: Is the Bible Infallible?

I’m happy to see that Derek Flood has responded to my four part review of his book, Disarming Scripture. His response—and, I trust, this reply to his response—models how kingdom people can strongly disagree on issues without becoming acrimonious. And I am in full agreement with Derek that our shared conviction regarding the centrality of…

N.T. Wright on the Whole Sweep of Scripture

Here’s a really fine video message from N.T. Wright on how to read Scripture. So many of the misunderstandings we take away from Scripture happen when we pick out a verse here and there and neglect the whole story. We hope this will bless you and encourage you to “press your nose against the window.”

What’s the Point of Missionary Work? (podcast)

Greg talks about the role of the missionary. Episode 533 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0533.mp3