Here is a google translation of an article that appeared in the Spanish (Spain) Journal “Pensamiento Protestante” on Nov. 14, 2021
Link to the articule in Spanish: https://www.pensamientoprotestante.com/2021/11/fundamentalismo-evangelico-e-integrismo.html
We are in the business of leading people to God, or so I assumed after I got baptized into a small church back on January 12 of 1969. I learned that God is there, ready to welcome anyone with open, loving arms. There… Where? In heaven, of course. One day, though, we will meet him face to face. Meanwhile, we can join his church, the people "marching to Zion... the beautiful city of God," located "far beyond the starry sky." That's what I thought.
"Would you like to go to heaven?" I asked people. "The Bible is the map. The road is there for us to follow. Every step is plainly defined." That was one of my favorite metaphors. Another one was, "the Bible is an instruction manual. We are broken, but the great Engineer of human life has written a manual to fix our brokenness. If you want to solve your problems, you have to follow the instructions of the manual."
These metaphors defined our church, our practices, and our context. It became natural for us to follow rules, conform to our traditional patterns, teach others the way to salvation, and envision our church wrapped in our place of worship. The pulpit, benches, blackboards, baptistry, and many other props needed to perform the routines of a true church on its way to heaven were there. People in our neighborhood were lost individuals who did not know the way to heaven. Since we knew it, it was our sacred duty to share our knowledge with others.
For a few years, the world created through these metaphors seemed to make sense. Working hard on persuading others, some people were added to our church. Besides, other churches seemed to be prospering. However, at some point, we realized that we had become stagnant and were even declining. What were we doing wrong? Maybe we needed to work harder and preach more vigorously. However, I began to suspect that faith is much more than learning to live a decent life, worship properly, and belong to a church with the correct doctrine.
In those years, I could not question my basic metaphors, assumptions, and religious imaginary. I am doing it better now, and I think this is a necessary step. If we want to surmount our stagnation and share a message that makes sense in our rapidly changing world, we must revisit our basic assumptions. They were probably formed in a world that no longer exists. They belong to the time when the West was enchanted with the optimism of the Enlightenment. In reality, according to the Bible, God is not far above the sky, hoping for people to accept his clearly written instructions and waiting for us to die to welcome us into his heavenly city of gold. We do not have a map to show people the straight way to heaven.
What is happening is that God is involved in the world. He is in our neighborhoods. Jesus did not resurrect to go to heaven and wait for us there. He is alive and actively engaged in transforming the world, while creating a new humanity, the radically new Jerusalem. He is building his city with "living stones." We are not in charge of reading his blueprints to build his church organization accordingly. We are called to work with him as he displays his creative power and ingenuity, making everything new in front of our own eyes. He kindly invites us to participate in what he is doing. We are laborers in his masterful spiritual construction. Our hermeneutics does not consist of discovering his commandments and patterns of deducing the correct inferences. Instead, it aims at discerning what God is doing among us now.
As we read the Bible, we can see what God wants, and how he has often disrupted the misleading histories we have tried to build. In the Scriptures, this always resulted in his creation of radically new realities. We can learn from those stories and improvise at his side actions and practices that reflect God's agency in what Branson and Roxburgh call "the space-between." This is the space where God meets his human creatures, where heaven and earth intermingle, where divine power operates through weakness.
In the biblical narrative, his creative activity was never limited to the constraints of homogeneous religious institutions. To discern what God is doing, we must be open to the other. We cannot hide in the comfort of our church, but we must go where God goes to meet the strangers, to work with the people who we often think do not belong. We need to join them, listen to them, and accompany them in their own journey, making a way as we walk side by side into the newly formed territories God keeps creating ahead of us. In other words, we need to live and lead in the shadow of an active God.
En el siguiente enlace encontraras unos diagramas con sus respectivas explicaciones sobre el modelo Actncial de A. J. Greimas para el analisis de las narraciones
Recomendamos que hagas el siguiente ejercicio cumplidamente.
Beeley, Christopher A., Leading God's People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today, Eerdmans, 2012
Berkeley, James D., Lidership of Management and Administration, 2008.
Bolsinger, Tod. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory. IVP, 2015.
Bullard W. George, Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict, Chalice Press, 2008
Bullard W. George, Pursuinf the Full Potential of Your Congregation, Chalice Press, 2005
Cook, Norma Everist & Craig L. Nessan, Transforming Leadership: New Vision for a Church in Mission, Fortress Press, 2008
Cormode, Scott, Making Spiritual Sense: Christan Leaders as Spiritual Interpreters, Abingdon Press, 2006
Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, & Anny McKee, Primal Leadership: Realizing The Power of Emotional Intellegence.
Hammett, Edward H., Recovering Hope for your Congregation: Moving Beyond Maintanance, TCP, 2014
Harder, Cam, Discovering the Other: Asset-Based Approaches for Building Community Together Herndon, VA: Alban, 2013.
Heifetz, Ronald, Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky, The practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing your Organization and the World
Hull, William, Strategic Preaching.
Humphrey, Ronald H., Affect and Emotion: New Directions in Management Theory and Research.
Cambridge Leadership Associates, 2009
Friedman, H. Edwin, A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of Quick Fix, Church Pubiishing, 2017
Friedman, Edwin H. Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue. Guilford, 1985.
Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty; Grashow, Alexander. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership (p. 1). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Heifetz, Ronald A.; Linsky, Marty; Grashow, Alexander. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership (p. 2). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Johnson, Spencer, ¿Quién se ha llevado mi queso?: Cómo adaptarnos en un mundo en constante cambio (Narrativa empresarial) (Spanish Edition), 2019
Keifert, Patrick, Ed., Testing the Spirits: How Theology Informs The Study of Congregations.
Koten, John. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Buisiness School Press. 1996.
Linsky, Martin & Ronald A. Heifetz, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading, Harvard Business Review Press, 2002
Moschella, Mary Clark, Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice: An Introduction, Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2008
Oden, Thomas C., Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry, HarperOne, 1983
Oswald, Roy M. and Arland Jacobson, The Emotional Intelligence of Jesus: Relational Smarts for Religious Leaders. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015
Oswald, Roy M. and Barry Johnson. Managing Polarities in Congregations: Eight Keys for Thriving Faith Communities. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2010.
Senior, Donald. The Gift of Administration: New Testament Foundations for the Vocation of Administrative Service.
Scazerro, Peter. The Emotional Healthy Leader.
Scharen, Christian, Faith as a Way of Life: A Vision for Pastoral Leadership, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008
Shawchuck, Norman and Roger Heuser. Managing the Congregation.
Soriano, Claudia Hernandez, Etnografia para no Antrlpologos, Open Edition Books, 2020.
Steinke, Peter L., A Door Set Open: Grounding Chnage in Mission and Hope, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010
Wildavsky, Aaeon, The Nursing Father: Moses as Political Leader, 1984
A continuación usted encontrará varias hojas de trabajo para estudiar y reflexionar sobre el libro de Nehemías. Al fina de cada hoja ha han trraducido las preguntas al ingles. (The list below includes a series of Worksheets to study and reflect on the book of Nehemíah)
Hoja de trabajo 1 -- Introducción (Worksheet 1 - Introduction)
Hoja de trabajo 2 -- Contexto Histórico (Worksheed 2 - Historical Context)
Bilingual guides for small group reflections to search for Jesus
N/1 Who is control? (¿Quién está en control?)
N/2 A Different Jesus (Un Jesús diferente)
En el siguiente documentos colocamos en columnas paralelas el texto de Daniel 11:2-35 (BLPH) y una paráfrasis del texto para ayudar en su interpretación. Descargue el documento y estúdielo con cuidado.
Personal Inventory
Descarga el cuestionario de inventario persona
Descarga el siguiente archivo en PDF para una guia para hacer el inventario moral de la vida.
Greek_Polytonic_Easy_Accent_Instructions.pdf
El enlace abajo es para descargar la presentación en pdf de las clases sobre las setenta semanas en el libro de Daniel.
On the road to Emmaus, two somber disciples were trying to leave behind the atrocious outcome of their short experience following Jesus. They were striving to cope with the brutal images in their memories of the death of whom they believed to be a powerful messenger from God. They followed him because they had hoped that he was the Messiah, the redeemer of Israel. They thought He would rescue their people from their humiliation, poverty, oppression, and pain. Yet, he agonized on a cross, like thousands of other victims, taking with him to the tomb their only hope of liberation (Luke 24:13-16).
Not only these two, but all the disciples were confused, scared, and disillusioned. The mean plans of false religious leaders and the relentless ambition of the Empire were once again overwhelming. The disciples were filled with a sense of powerlessness and total defeat. They had no clue what was really happening on that cross when their beloved teacher died. Three days later, things started to become clear. Fifty days later, it was obvious. The event of the cross was an astonishing miracle.
Two thousand years have passed since these amazing events happened. The story has been told over and over again. Great thinkers have pondered about its significance. But the church today can still miss the power of the cross. We often try to explain what happened on the cross in legal, personal, and individualistic terms. Our story is something like this. In Calvary, Christ suffered the punishment that we deserved. If we believe that and go to church, God will count God's suffering on our behalf. We will not be punished. On the other hand, if we do not do that, we will be tormented in hell forever. However, the story that the first Christians told was somewhat different.
The apostle Paul captured the essence of that faith in Colossians 1:19-20. It reads, ”For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." These words were not an exercise on rational metaphysics. They were part of a hymn to praise Jesus, a poetic expression of the faith. Bible scholars are not sure whether Paul composed this hymn or if it was already part of the Christian repertoire of praising songs when the letter was written. Most likely, many churches had already been singing it, and the readers of Colossians could express their faith with these lyrics.
On the cross, Jesus was reconciling unto himself all things, "whether on earth or in heaven." The word ἀποκαταλλάσσω often refers to the restoration of interpersonal relationships. It points to the reconciliation of people who had become enemies. Yet, in this hymn, it includes much more than that. It describes the unification of the spiritual and the material cosmos in Christ. The Greek word “strictly [refers to the ] transfer of one state to another quite different state.”(1) In this case, it points to the transition for a state of chaos to a state of harmony. In Ephesians 1:10, the apostle also says that God's ultimate plan is "to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
The word he uses here is ἀνακεφαλαιόω. it means to unify, to bring everything under the control of one person. To sum up everything under the same generating principle.(2) Both words ἀνακεφαλαιόω and ἀποκαταλλάσσω serve as a context to understand “atonement.” Primarily Atonement means unification. But in the light of the cross, it is not merely the personal reunification of a sinner with his or her Creator. It does not only address the forensic liability of a person who has broken the law. It is not restricted to the necessity of punishment to satisfy the sense of legal justice. Atonement is needed in a violently crashed cosmos. It points to the state in which creation can share the infinite peace of its Creator. In the words of the prophet Isiah, it fulfills the hope and the promise that,
"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:6-9, ESV).
What Jesus accomplished on the cross was a miracle of extraordinary proportions. It is parallel to what happened at the beginning of time when God transformed nothing into a life-generating and supporting cosmos. It is not strange that the Colossians' "hymn to Christ has two uneven stanzas, but their themes are consistent. The first relates Jesus to creation; the second, to redemption."(3) Jesus is "the image of the invisible God." He is the Son par excellence in all creation. Every detail in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him, all things hold together."(4)
However, the first creation has not reached the "telos" God intended. There are still chaotic thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. Consequently, Jesus is now the head of the church. This does not only mean that he is the authority over church matters. Instead, it points out that He is the source of life in the church. He is the beginning (ἀρχή) of the new creation, as he was the initiating source of the first. He is the firstborn of the dead, just like he is the firstborn of the first creation.
The cross was more than an instrument of punishment or satisfaction of divine justice. It was actually the powerful beginning of a new and different cosmos. Through the cross, Jesus came into the center of a chaotic universe to release the forces that can pull it together, in heaven and earth, toward him (εἰς αὐτόν). Mighty forces continuously threaten the peace of creation. There is darkness, death, falsehood, hatred, uncontrollable selfishness, guilt, remorse, intense pain, and incredible violence. Satan has opened deadly wounds all over creation. History is worst than an enraged sea. Anytime, the entire universe can shake fiercely. But in the most astonishing way, Jesus’ cross has the power to restore, transform, and liberate.
Nothing other than the cross could have withstood the violence of the chaotic powers of the universe. Nothing else can be the center of attraction to pull heaven and earth together. Violence does not remedy violence. It can only add force to its deadly cycle. The cross is the generating beginning (ἀρχή) of a peaceful new world. And the resurrection is the source of eternal life. In the cross, the one who enjoyed the "fullness of God" faced death, embraced it, and created again from nothing a new life. No one could have done it, only the Son of God.
Our souls reflect the chaos of the universe, or maybe the universe reflects the chaos in our souls. Maybe we released the chaotic forces of creation with our lies and our selfishness. That seems to be what Genesis tries to tell us. We were the ones who contemplated the idea of creating our own world separate and distinct from God's. Far from getting the power and the wisdom we desired, we brought a horrendous turmoil to our hearts and we damaged what God was doing.
Guilt is a destructive psychological force that can only be appeased by forgiveness. But forgiveness is not enough. In the depth of our heart, we feel that there needs to be restitution. When we hurt someone, we need to make restitution to show our repentance, and the other needs to see our acts of restoration to be at peace. These are not just legal provisions. They are deep dynamic forces that shape our lives. Sincere repentance, sincere forgiveness, and appropriate restitution are essential to experience the possibilities of a new at-one-ment. There can be no new creation without these three elements.
The same can be said about resentment and remorse. On an individual basis, we cannot participate in God's cosmic plan, unless we personally feel that we have been really forgiven and that we have made appropriate restitution. There is no reconciliation without opening our souls to the sacrificial atonement of God's Son, who guarantees our forgiveness. Believing the message of the cross is bringing healing to our wounded hearts and our badly damaged relationships. However, suppose we just want quick selfish relief for our tormented conscience. In that case, we may only find another coping mechanism in the doctrine of the cross, and we will continue living our chaotic lives.
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(1) Friberg, T., Friberg, B., & Miller, N. F. (2000). Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Vol. 4, p. 67). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
(2) See Friberg, T., Friberg, B., & Miller, N. F. (2000). Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Vol. 4, p. 50).
(3) Melick, R. R. (1991). Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (Vol. 32, p. 214). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
(4) Colossians 1:15-16
In the following article, we discuss the significance of the Trinity from the perspective of Romans 8
Chrysostom
To each of you fathers and mothers, I speak: Just as we see artists fashioning their paintings and statues with great precision, so we must care for these wondrous statues of ours. . . . Like the creators of statues, give all your leisure time to fashioning these wondrous statues of God. As you remove what is unhelpful and add what is lacking, inspect them day by day, to see with which good qualities nature has supplied them so that you can increase these qualities, and to see which faults so that you can eradicate them.
J. Chrysostom, De Inani Gloria, ed. A. M. Malingrey (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1972), § 22.
A Theology of Family Ministry, Chapter 9, Logos
Writing about the divine nature is a humbling experience. Finite, sinful creatures must be cautious regarding how they reason about the infinite, holy Creator. Maybe the place to start is always a recognition of the great distance that separates us from God. As David Bentley Hart would say, God is on the other side of "the ontological difference."
We know about God primarily by his self-revelation through the Scriptures. As Karl Barth says, God "stands over and against humanity and everything human in an infinite qualitative distinction, and is never ever identical with anything which we name, experience, conceive or worship as God."(1) As one reads the Scriptures, one sees God acting in and through history, and, through his works and his self-revelatory words, one starts forming a mental image of who He is.
Humans know God by discovering Him in his story of redemption. It is a progressive and relational knowledge that involves rational thinking, but it is not limited to it. Often this knowledge comes from contemplation and meditation. Anselm of Canterbury is an example. As McGrath points out, "Anselm clearly wishes to affirm that God knows that humanity suffers and that God has compassion on humanity in its plight. Yer Anselm does not feel he can move on the affirm that God suffers with us, or that God, in some sense, experiences suffering." (2) As we come to know God through scriptures, we try to understand him with our reasoning abilities. However, we always come short.
On the other hand, to know God, one has the get involved in his redemptive plan. The theologian who reflects about God from a detached philosophical position cannot begin to know the real God, who has chosen to get involved in the turmoil of our history. As Schaab points out, the global consciousness, scope, and impact of suffering, pain, and death in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have often driven the debate [about God's relationship with suffering] to an acute pitch."(3) We cannot imagine a God who created the universe and billions of living beings to populate it enthrone, far away in haven looking impassibly as pain and injustice reign in his creation.
As one reads the first page of the Bible, God emerges as an extremely wise and powerful being. We can reason about the creation story and conclude that God must be infinitely powerful and wise since he is beyond everything we can imagine in creation. Yet, one sees everywhere death, suffering, and evil. However, as one continues reading the story, one discovers that God is committed to redeeming his creatures. One comes to know a God who loves with infinite love. As we reflect on his love, one is forced to realize that God's love must be substantially different from our human love. Our love is infected with selfishness. Hart points out that "love is not, in its essence, and emotion, --a pathos-- at all.” (4) However, we cannot understand this assertion in the sense that God is stoically detached from his creation. God's love is not extrinsically provoked or intrinsically selfish.
Maby John of Damascus's differentiation between "energy" and "pathos" can help. (5) Nevertheless, even in its purest imaginable form, love does not need to be separated from long-suffering compassion. In the long history of Biblical events and especially in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the ancient believers discovered that God's patience (makrothymia) and love and learned to trust in His goodness (Romans 2:4, Psalms 86:15). For this reason, Paul was eager to participate in Christ's suffering and death, knowing that he would also participate in the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10-11).
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(1) Alister E. McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader, Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2017, 191
(2) McGrath, 178
(3) Gloria L. Schaab, The Creative Suffering of the Triune God: An Evolutionary Theology, Oxford University Press, 2007, 11
(4) David Bently Hart, No Shadow of Turning: On Devine Impassibility, 195
(5) Hart, 195
Margery Williams (1983) en su libro infantil The Velveteen Rabbit, define poderosamente lo que significa "real" en una forma tal que se aplica a lo que convierte a la familia en algo autèntico. En la historia, un viejo cabello de juguete le està explicando algunas cosas a un conejito de peluche que llegó en un paquete debajo del árbol de navidad. Están tirados en el piso del cuarto de juegos. El conejo le pregunta al cabello sabio. ¿Qué es real? ¿Para ser uno real tiene que tener cosas dentro de uno que suenen cuando lo aprietan y una cosa que le salga colgando del cuerpo? Entonces el caballo le explicä:
"Lo real no es como está hecho uno. Cuando un chico te ama por mucho, mucho tiempo, no solo para jugar contigo, sino porque realmente te ama, entonces tu te vuelves real. No pasa de un momento para otro. Poco a poco tu te vuelves real. Generalmente, cuando llegas a ser real, ya se te ha caído casi todo el pelo, tus ojos se te han salido y tus coyunturas se han quebrado y eres muy flácido. Pero estas cosas no importan, porque cuando eres real, ya no puedes ser feo, salvo para la gente que no entiende."
El caballo explica lo que es la familia. No es como està hecho uno, ni qué propiedades tiené; sino cómo nos amamos unos a otros a través de los años, sin importar lo que la vida nos ponga por delante. (Garland, Comprehensive Guide, Loc. 1630, Kindle Edition)
