by | Dec 8, 2023 | Uncategorized
This verse can be misconstrued as a justification for systemic poverty. But what does it really mean?
In some Christian circles, whenever an argument is made in favor of eliminating poverty, someone is bound to retort, “Have you never read Matthew 26:11? The poor will always be among us!”
Thus saith the Lord—case closed.
When read in a certain light, this verse can be misinterpreted and even weaponized as a justification of wealth accumulation or apathy toward the plight of the poor. So, what did Jesus really mean when he said the poor would always be among us?
First, let’s consider the structure of the statement. Jewish teachers in first-century Judea would often quote just the first line of a text, and their studious disciples would immediately understand the reference.
Take, for instance, Jesus’ words on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is decidedly not a desperate cry of despair. Jesus is not saying that God has abandoned him, nor is he questioning his faith. In fact, he is doing the exact opposite. Jesus is quoting verbatim the first line of Psalm 22—a beautiful declaration of surrender, trust, and faith that God wins in the end. To the Roman guards, Christ’s words would have sounded like defeat. For the disciples, however, it was a cry of victory.
When Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” in Matthew 9:13, he’s telling the Pharisees they’ve neglected the Old Testament teaching found in Hosea 6:6. When Jesus says, “From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah” in Matthew 23:35, he’s referring to the entire Old Testament canon from start to finish.
Likewise, for Deuteronomy 6:4–5—one of the most famous and frequently recited Jewish …
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by | Dec 7, 2023 | Uncategorized
I learned how to mourn when my mom lost her mind, and then her life, to dementia.
When my mother passed away last winter, I discovered the gift of grief.
In the span of a single year, my mother went from a vibrant, constant presence in my life—through phone calls, texts, and when we could, in-person visits—to a swift decline in mental and physical health.
The first sign, for me, was an unexpected call at 5 a.m. one morning. Mom had many skills but being active at 5 a.m. was not one of them. Calls at 10 a.m., lunchtime, or late in the evening were much more likely. I immediately answered, thinking something had to be urgent.
“Mom, is everything okay?” I asked, pretending I had been up for hours while clearing the cobwebs from my mind and the frog from my throat.
“Oh, I’m just calling to see how you are doing,” she said, “but I hope I’m not interrupting dinner for you guys.”
Maybe she’s just confused. Maybe she had a bad night’s sleep, I thought. I didn’t want to believe this was what my sister, Laura, had been gently warning me about. My sister and her husband had recently moved back to Illinois to live near my parents. And in recent weeks, they had told me that Mom had forgotten how to write a check. Well, that’s not that crazy. Who writes checks anymore? I had rationalized at the time.
“Mom, you do know that it’s five o’clock in the morning, right?” I offered.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. You know, I keep getting my times mixed up, with daylight savings and all,” she replied, though we were nowhere near a time change. After talking a bit more, we ended the call. When I told my sister about it, she said these sorts of incidents were becoming more common.
A few days later, I got another call from …
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by | Dec 7, 2023 | Uncategorized
How Christian outreach has come to look like the YMCA, call center ministries, and the “Christward” movement model.
India’s swift urbanization is reshaping the nation’s identity, with over one-third of the population now in major cities. For many missiologists, this new demographic reality calls for a recalibration of the church’s approach, one that moves beyond traditional rural missions to address the complexities of urban life.
In recognition of this shift, in 2014 the Evangelical Fellowship of India created the National Centre for Urban Transformation (NCUT) to educate and train Christian leaders to reach migrants, professionals, the poor, women, and students in urban environments. NCUT develops urban ministry courses for Bible colleges and seminaries, conducts research, and is working in 32 of the country’s cities with populations ranging between 500,000 to 9 million residents.
This September, the organization released Rethinking Urban Mission and Ministry in India, edited by urban missiologists Atul Aghamkar, who is also NCUT’s national director, and James Patole.
CT spoke to Aghamkar about India’s shift from village to city life, how Christians are reaching call center employees and other professionals, and why the rest of the world should pay attention to “Christward” movement models.
How have Christians historically engaged cities?
Christian missions historically began in cities, evident with the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries in Tharangambadi (a coastal city in southeastern India) and William Carey’s leadership in Kolkata (the capital of West Bengal State). Recognizing the strategic importance of cities, missionaries established their bases there, initially focused on reaching the upper castes, especially Brahmins. When this strategy struggled to take hold, they …
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by | Dec 6, 2023 | Uncategorized
Faith is dividing families. What does lament look like in our relationships to God and our loved ones?
Traditionally, the phrase “home for the holidays” has conjured up feelings of warmth and welcome. So much so that advertisers give us an annual slate of commercials linking their particular product to our shared longing for family connection and tenderness.
But increasingly, the holiday table is marked by frustration as families live out the demographic realities of an increasingly divided society. The holidays can be especially fraught for those questioning their religious upbringings—the very upbringings that the people sitting across from them were key to creating.
At first glance, religious deconstruction appears to be a question of changing one’s beliefs. Because evangelicals tend to center the experience of conversion, de-conversion also takes center stage. As scholar Karen Swallow Prior observes in her new book, The Evangelical Imagination, “what experience gives, experience can take away.”
But faith is a complex matrix of believing, doing, and belonging. Yes, we confess certain things as true, but we also act in ways that accord with them and live in relationship with like-minded people who bolster our confession. As a result, exvangelicals are not simply dealing with changing beliefs—they also face shifts in community, with family relationships often taking a direct hit.
As an elder millennial leading a multi-generational congregation, pastor Ben Marsh finds himself in the unique position of walking with families through this process. “I just sat in a room with several of my older members who shared the pain of separation from their children who have cut them off,” he recently posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “When …
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by | Dec 6, 2023 | Uncategorized
God showed me that if he could change me, he could also change a broken border town.
Surrounded by lush jungle mountains drenched in tropical fog, the Thai town of Mae Sot near the Thailand-Myanmar border is famous for its trade in precious gems and teak. Yet beneath its picturesque façade, the town is the center of illicit cross-border trade, drugs, and human trafficking. Myanmar’s decades-long civil war is felt in Mae Sot: Residents hear gunfire, experience an occasional mortar shell dropping in the streets, and see thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into their town.
In the midst of the chaos, Thai pastor Somphon Sriwichai is seeking to create order. His church operates a school for migrant children from Myanmar and safe houses for children at risk of sex trafficking, and they also provide shelter for refugees and relief for disasters. Sriwichai’s life story—from a Buddhist monk to a gangster to a missionary and pastor—demonstrates the power of Christ to change lives, communities, and even places like Mae Sot.
Here is Sriwichai’s story, as told to Kelly Hilderbrand, his friend and colleague for the past 27 years.
Dedicated to the temple
I was born in 1959 in the village of Nong Bua in the Chiang Mai district, a mountainous region of northern Thailand. My mother died in childbirth. As a baby I became very sick, but my family didn’t have the money to take me to a hospital.
Instead, they invited a Thai traditional healer and a shaman to heal me. They prepared herbal medicine, conducted rituals, and sacrificed a chicken, but nothing worked. With no other option, my father took me to the local temple and made a vow to the Buddha idol that if I was healed, I would become a monk. From that moment, I began to recover.
At eight years old, I went to live in the temple …
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