Stimulus Swamp

This is a swamp behind my house. It's actually much larger than this picture captures. I love hiking down to the swamp because one never knows what wildlife one will find. I've seen deer, ducks, frogs, and blue herons; there are beavers, bobcats, foxes, and coyotes. Walking through a swamp is difficult. I try to stay on the tops of the large clumps of swamp grass. Inevitably I will step on something that looks solid and end up in water up to my waist.

As I was walking through the swamp and meditating I thought of the latest stimulus bill signed today by President Obama. It's filled with potential pitfalls. It is guaranteed only to produce a dependency and socialization of banks, medical care, and the auto industry. There is no real guarantee of stimulating any real jobs. This is what happens when the foxes guard the henhouse.

There are many shoes yet to drop. The return of the "fairness doctrine" (to include the internet), the elimination of gun owner rights, the promotion of the homosexual agenda, the creation of life to be destroyed in stem cell research. Can God's judgment be far behind?

Apostle Paul as Leader

I'm working on my dissertation: "The concept of apostleship in the Pauline literature as it relates to Paul's self-identity and leadership paradigm." After reading several articles (with many, many more to go) it occurs to me that Paul's leadership could be characterized by the following adjectives: visionary, passionate, driven, daring, focused, and consistent. He had a distinct sense of calling and of having a Divine directive to do what he was doing.

In contrast, it seems that much of contemporary leadership lacks direction, lacks a clear sense of purpose, and as such, lacks passion. Too much of contemporary leadership appears to be driven by self-centered motives and the concept of personal sacrifice is anathema to many of our leaders who insist on benefits and bonuses while the ship is sinking.

Within ecclesiastical organizations there is an uneasy awareness that a crisis is looming and that something must be done. But what? Doing something, for the sake of doing something (such as passing a "stimulus package" of almost a trillion dollars without real dialogue with all parties involved) is not leadership. Leadership, such as the Apostle Paul epitomized, had a vision, had direction, and had a real sense of Divine directive.

There are some in ecclesiastical circles who advocate using "apostle" as a title and bringing this leadership title back into the church, but to what end. The title alone does nothing to bring about real leadership, and real leaders do not need the title to lead because they have a calling that compels them to do what is right, even if it is sacrificial. I'd agree with Vinson Synan that real apostles don't need the title, but wannabe apostles insist on having the title neatly printed on a business card as an artificial affirmation of a real call that does not exist.

Living In History

Okay. I haven't posted a blog since November 2008 and my wife keeps telling me that if I'm going to blog, then I need to write something. She's right of course, but honestly I've hestitated from writing anything in light of the last election because I didn't want to write anything that might be misconstrued, but let me give it a shot.

We are living in the middle of a historical time, and not just because a bi-racial man is president. More importantly, much more importantly, we are living during a time when America as we know it is changing. We are moving away from a Free-Market model to a Socialist model. This is not necessarily a moral issue. One can be a Christian and be a Socialist. However, the history of other countries who have embraced the socialist model reveals that the outcome of this shift has not been positive. In Europe inflation is a major problem, unemployment is and remains very high, healthcare is inferior to that offerred in America, and most importantly, Christianity has been declining while Islam has continued to grow. Many buildings that were once churches are now Mosques. In fact, the very church from which William Carey was sent forth on his missionary efforts to India, is now a Mosque.

I don't think that we can draw a straight line from Socialism to the decline of Christianity, but there seems to be a correlation that merits interest and futher consideration.

We are in a time of historical shift, so much so, that I believe ten or twenty years from now (if the Lord has not returned by then) we will look back and bemoan that fact that the world changed for the worse, and we stood by and watched it happen.