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stay-at-home dads are safe from hell…i think

Update: Folks, please keep your comments respectful or they will be deleted.  This post is not intended to bash MD or MH and not an invitation to such.

I’ve gotten my share of emails the past couple weeks asking for my thoughts about Stay-at-Home Dads – primarily because of some recent teaching from Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  I didn’t listen to the entire sermon but did manage to catch a glimpse of the video re: that specific section indicating the stay at home dads would be subject to church discipline. 

I have immense respect for Mark and Grace.  Minhee and I are still feel very grateful that when we were checking out MH about 8 years ago during our transition between churches, they showed much care to our family.  Grace actually prepared food for Minhee and the family for several meals after the birth of our 2nd child.  It wasn’t Korean food but hey, no one’s perfect. We weren’t living in any form of community at that time and so, this was incredibly meaningful to us.  On a side note, Minhee hates it when I write about other pastors.  I’m sorry, honey.  I’m not dissing other pastors but trying to address the issues… Continue reading “stay-at-home dads are safe from hell…i think”

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the new [evangelical] voter?

Okay, I’m not trying to self deprecate but the fact that my Quasi-Angry, Asian, Christian Man face covers like 68% of the cover of the new Sojourners magazine is a little embarrassing.  I don’t mind publicity and love contributing my voice anywhere outside my own head but that cover is scary, no?

After seeing the cover, I now know why several of my friends emailed to jokingly say that they’re going to cancel their subscription to Sojourners.  Hey, it was a joke, right?

The article,The Meaning of ‘Life’, is well written and captures some thoughts from 21 people [including several from Quest Church] across the country on how their faith in Christ informs their politics – including the ethics of life.  Click on the Quasi-Angry, Asian, Christian, Man magazine cover to read the article.  I would encourage you to forward the article to as many people you know of that think that Christians are a monolithic group that don’t live in any tension.  I’m constantly amazed at the misperception and distortion of Christians in our culture.

QUESTIONS:  But seriously, how about you?  Whatever your faith or faithless background may be…Does it come down to one or two issues?  What’s most important to you as you discern your choice in the upcoming President/VP elections?  Continue reading “the new [evangelical] voter?”

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faith and money [3]: control or controlled?

I read once that a person spends about 80% of their time awake engaged with MONEY:  earning it, spending it, and dreaming about it.  And so while money is a tool for us to use, if we’re not careful, it’s easy to see how the “love of money” can grow to become an idolatrous force in our life.

Richard Foster wrote in his book, Money, Sex, and Power:

Just the very act of letting go of money, or some other treasure, does something within us. It destroys the demon greed.” If you’re enslaved by greed, you will not lead others with integrity.

He goes on to say that if we don’t learn how to control money, money has such a seductive element that it will control us.  This marks the distinction between money and mammon.  Money – when it controls us – becomes godlike and thus, mammon in our lives.  And so, we have to ask the question:

Do you control money or does it control you? Continue reading “faith and money [3]: control or controlled?”

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faith and money [2]: what is money?

The basic lesson that all people need to learn about money is that it is a tool as a medium of exchange.  Money has a purpose in our society.  In this post, I want to simply cut and paste a good defintion of money that explains what it is.  In the next post, I’ll expand on the idea that money is neutral in the eyes of Scripture.  It is neither inherently evil or good.  Simply, money is what it is.  But because it is neutral, one must choose how to use money.

And while some Christians are misled in thinking that money is the root of all evil, the Bible and Jesus makes a distinction between money [tool] and mammon [lust].  Continue reading “faith and money [2]: what is money?”

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faith and money [1]: where is your treasure?

I made a decision on Saturday to put the study through the book of Acts on hold and devote a few weeks teaching about Faith & Money. I’ll continue this series for the next two Sundays. I’ll also be chatting about Faith & Politics on Sunday, Nov 2 for obvious reasons.  While this series of posts [over the next two weeks] are broadly entitled “Faith & Money,” my hope is that it will resonate with a broader audience so feel free to forward this onto other folks.  I’m not an economist, a financial planner, or someone who has it all together…I’m writing simply as one person bumbling and stumbling my way as a follower of Christ and a person that wants to help change the world – while constantly being changed. Continue reading “faith and money [1]: where is your treasure?”

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in the middle of nowhere for a retreat

After 8 days of complete isolation, I’m on my way back home to Seattle.  I’ve been away in the middle of nowhere which I’ll share more tomorrow or so.  It’ll be good to come back home…I’ve missed Minhee and the kids so much that it was driving me a little insane.  But it was also good to be completely isolated in this small town in the middle of nowhere.  No TV, no internet, no radio…nothing…minus two cheating incidents of “borrowing” some bandwidth outside a Quizno’s shop Dairy Queen to post the last blogpost and to tend to other matters.

I did a lot of thinking about the past and future, more thinking about my calling as a pastor, working on projects on a friend’s farm, praying, some reading, working on the poverty organization, and lots of this: Continue reading “in the middle of nowhere for a retreat”