the eulogia files

Preaching Preparation

Darrell Buchanan — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:04:09 +0000

This is the last step in my weekly preparation for preaching on Sunday. However, I think orange-coloured file folders produce a better tone.

Barely Talking

Darrell Buchanan — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:28:49 +0000

The Flight From Conversation is an opinion piece from the New York Times about how our fascination with digital communication has resulted in conversation being “sacrificed . . . for mere connection.”

FACE-TO-FACE conversation unfolds slowly. It teaches patience. When we communicate on our digital devices, we learn different habits. As we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers. To get these, we ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters. It is as though we have all put ourselves on cable news.

Media FAIL: Easter

Darrell Buchanan — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:51:49 +0000

Let me offer a brief list of the errors in this lead sentence from the local paper:

Spring is in the air and the holiest of Catholic holidays has the Moose Jaw Co-op celebrating Easter with a live baby chick display in the front of the store.

It fails in that it defines Easter as a Catholic holiday rather than a Christian celebration.
It fails in that it infers that live baby chicks are associated with the celebration of this Catholic holiday. Sorry, Jesus, we don’t want to mess up the sweet and sentimental with the real story!
It fails in associating the “holiest of Catholic holidays” with a display at the local Co-op (Consumerism trumps Faith).
It fails in that it infers that there is a connection between the season of Spring and event of Easter when there is no such connection.

Some basic research or checking of facts would have resulted in a more accurate and less bothersome lead sentence.

Book Blogging The King Jesus Gospel: Chapter 10

Darrell Buchanan — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:19:00 +0000

How do we go about creating a gospel culture instead of a salvation culture? In the final chapter of his book The King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight has five ways:

We need to become people of the Story, i.e., people who are shaped by the story of the Book (the Bible).
Even more, we need to become people of the Story of Jesus, i.e., “reading, pondering, digesting, and mulling over in our heads and hearts the Four Gospels” (153). McKnight emphasizes that it is important to understand that the Story of Jesus completes the Story of Israel.
There needs to be a continuous and contemporary application of the Story of Jesus to new and changing contexts.
The false stories of our age (e.g., individualism, consumerism, moral relativism, etc.) need to be challenged and refuted by the Story of Jesus. Here McKnight suggests that the practice of baptism and the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper) are two stories that, if emphasized, can counter the stories that dominate contemporary culture (158).
The story must be embraced so deeply that the result is our transformation into the image of Christ.

McKnight makes clear that a “gospel culture” is a “church culture that is being transformed – together – into a gospel culture” (159). The gospel culture is also about serving others through love and compassion (160).

Book Blogging The King Jesus Gospel: Chapter 9

Darrell Buchanan — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0000

In his chapter on “Gospeling Today,” Scot McKnight sets forth six points of comparison between evangelism in the Book of Acts and today.

Here’s my summary of McKnight’s six points of comparison:

Evangelism in the Book of Acts called listeners to confess Jesus as Lord and Messiah compared to evangelism today that focuses on persuading listeners to confess their sin and accept Jesus as their Saviour.
Evangelism in the Book of Acts did not focus on reconciliation, justification, or redemption but on how the story of Israel is completed in the story of Jesus.
Although it is not at the forefront as it often is in evangelism today, the fact of God’s final judgment cannot be avoided in sharing the gospel message.
In the Book of Acts, the declaration that Jesus is Lord and Messiah calls people to live lives submitted to the Lord and become the true people of God compared to evangelism today that reduces the gospel to personal salvation.
It May be stretching the evidence to claim that the gospel proclamation in the Book of Acts reflected a subversive anti-imperial theme compared to the claims of some contemporary scholars.
The apostles evangelized by telling the story of Jesus compared to evangelism today that tells the story of how to be saved personally.

In the final chapter of The King Jesus Gospel, McKnight will offer his thoughts on how the current “salvation culture” can be replaced by a “gospel culture.”