Christlikeness

"Scripture and tradition tell us that formation into the likeness of Christ is not achieved by always getting what we want."

--Skye Jethani

A message from Service Sunday

Hi There-

I've just been working on finalizing all the follow-up from the Grace Chapel/Hillside Church Extreme Community Makeover day on May 31st and I wanted to share that info with you so you realize the huge impact you had in one day of serving!

* 6 people signed up for Denver Digs
* 12 people signed up for the City's recycling program
* 23 people signed up for Groundwork Denver
* 61 projects completed
* 295 people involved
* 885 hours invested in the community

We would love to have you join us again at any time with a small group, a company group, a neighborhood group, really any group you want to put together... Thanks again for partnering with us. :)
www.extremecommunitymakeover.org

A quick note for the Billionaires out there...

"Give it away, you'll enjoy it," Gates tells rich

Gates has given much of his wealth from Microsoft, the U.S. software giant that made him the world's richest man, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic powerhouse.

"I think all billionaires should give away the vast majority of their fortunes -- though I don't say they shouldn't leave anything to their kids," Gates told a gathering at Oslo's opera house.

"I think they would enjoy it, their kids would be better off, and the world would be better off," Gates said.

"I'm a great believer that great wealth should go from the richest to the poorest," he said... [read article]

On 1 Cor. 6:12-20...

Somehow Paul envisages the Christian's relationship with the Lord Jesus not simply as a 'spiritual' one, but also a physical one: not of course in the sexual sense, but in the sense that Jesus wants to know us and work through us as fully physical human beings, both here and hereafter. After all, God raised Jesus the Lord, and will raise us too; so what you do with your body matters.

--N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians

What are we teaching our kids about God?

This article about the religious/spiritual views of American teenagers interacts with a book on the same subject, which calls the dominant creed today "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" (MTD). Here are some interesting points...

Rather than transformative revelation from God, religion has become a utility for enhancing a teenager's life. Smith and Denton lay out the five points of MTD:

1. A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

Surely American teenagers did not invent this new religion. A quick scan of bestseller lists, television guides, or public school curricula will reveal MTD's appeal. Indeed, the God of MTD sounds like the "cool parent" teenagers adore.

Obviously, we've got some weak and bad theology. But other than that, I'm wrestling with the two parts I bolded above.

I'm wondering about the connection between revelation and transformation. If we saw "our religion" as revelatory, would it be more transformative?

And, secondly, if teenagers are expressing spiritual views they've learned, what are we teaching our kids about God and what a relationship with Him entails? What are they hearing at home? What are they seeing in your life as a parent? Is it the kind of transformation that comes from revelation?

I'm going to chew on this some more, but what do you think...?