Preaching the Gospel

Here is a paper I wrote for the church leadership training program I am going through. We had to answer the question:

On page 39 of Announcing the Kingdom, Glasser makes the point, “When Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom of God, these two mandates [cultural and redemptive] will fuse into one fundamental task. The New Testament does not separate evangelism from social responsibility.” In your essay, take a stand for or against Glasser’s statement. Use Scripture to support your position.

I would appreciate any comments people have on my paper, especially when dealing with if you agree or disagree and why.

Velvet Elvis

by Rob Bell

Most have probably already read this paper I wrote on the the book, however, I wanted to put it up here so that it can be refrenced once again. If anyone has comments, critisims, or anything else please leave a comment. As an added introduction I figured I might quote G.K. Chesterton:

Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher, who made a remark which I had often heard before; it is, indeed, almost a motto of the modern world. Yet I had heard it once too often, and I saw suddenly that there was nothing in it. The publisher said of somebody, "That man will get on; he believes in himself." And I remember that as I lifted my head to listen, my eye caught an omnibus on which was written "Hanwell." I said to him, "Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide you to the thrones of the Supermen. The men who really believe in themselves are all in the lunatic asylums." He said mildly that there were a good many men after all who believed in themselves and who were not in lunatic asylums. "Yes, there are," I retorted, "and you of all men ought to know them. That drunken poet from whom you would not take a dreary tragedy, he believed in himself. That elderly minister with an epic from whom you were hiding in a back room, he believed in himself. If you consulted your business experience instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter. Actors who can't act believe in themselves; and debtors who won't pay. It would be much truer to say that a man will certainly fail, because he believes in himself. Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one's self is a hysterical and superstitious belief like believing in Joanna Southcote: the man who has it has 'Hanwell' written on his face as plain as it is written on that omnibus." And to all this my friend the publisher made this very deep and effective reply, "Well, if a man is not to believe in himself, in what is he to believe?"

Why call this blog "A Shamgar Moment?"

This blog is named after a man in the Bible who acted when God called. He was most likely a simple farmer at work when God called him to save Israel. He used an oxgoad to slay 600 men and an oxgoad was a tool used by farmers to prod, or goad, oxen on while plowing a field. One end would've been pointy like a spear while the other end had a spade like tool used to clean the dirt and clay that would lodge itself onto the plow.

We know very little about Shamgar, except that he was used mightly by God. The question is are we willing to be used by God? Do we long for those Shamgar moments when we can be used by God in our everyday situations; at work, the gym, or out with friends?

My hope is to encourge, equip, and impress upon you the need for Jesus Christ.

The picture is a rendition of what Kevin Rolly thought Shamgar would look like.