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Scot McKnight (Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University) recently published an article in RELEVANT Magazine about the misuse of the term “Kingdom.” Seeing how I use that term a lot, I thought it would be good to point you all towards this article (granted, McKnight stops just short of the eschatology nature [...]
Kingdom Theology (A Brief Summary)At its core, Kingdom Theology is an inaugurated eschatology system that seeks to focus on the Kingship of Jesus. Within this framework, the present time in which we live is caught between two ages – the present evil age ruled by sin and death and the Age to Come, which is ruled by Jesus Christ into eternality. Through the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus (plus Pentecost) the Age to Come has broken into this present evil age, existing together in a tension that will be removed at that last day when all is set right and God dwells among His people face-to-face. Covenant Theology (A Brief Summary)By far the largest stream of Protestant theology, Covenant Theology is based upon an understanding of three main overarching theological covenants (redemption, works, grace) that are said to be interwoven into one over-all eternal covenant. The three covenants are considered ‘theological’ in the sense that they are not explicitly outlined as such within the Bible. Within the Covenant Theology stream there are many, many variations as different groups seek to focus on certain parts of each covenant. There are also disagreements on how the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and New (Jesus) covenants related to each other and/or either they fit within the three larger theological covenant systems. My good friend Steven Schenk (a Jesus follower in intercity Buffalo, NY) just wrote a wonderful piece about checking our motives when choosing a church. Below is an excerpt from his blog post, “Consumerism and Mission” – please give it a look and then wonder over to his website to read the whole thing: [...] I just finished listening to a Taunton Vineyard (UK) sermon podcast about personal finances and I have to say it was the BEST teaching I have heard about money. It was powerful, real, honest, and compassionate. Give it a listen – believe me, it is nothing like you have ever heard before (well, nothing [...]
Today we are going to be completing this series with a look at why we engage in compassionate ministry with the lost, the poor, outcast, and the outsider. Along those lines, I have asked some folks to come and share with us a little bit about why they work at the food pantry. {Click here to listen to the full audio version of the sermon including testimonies} Thank you both for those wonderful stories… God is moving and changing lives! Isn’t it exciting to be used by God? To be a part of what He is going in this community? Why?Why do we do it? What is our purpose? Good questions to which there could be many, many answers….each person in effect has a story about why they do what they do. Yet as a community I think it is important to have an overarching answer to these questions – to why we engage in compassionate ministry. Why we feed the hungry and clothe the naked…. It all goes back to our very first core value – the theology and practice of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God – this was Jesus’ central message throughout the Gospels. He was declaring that God’s rule and reign had entered into the world and was driving out evil. Jesus’ life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension was for one purpose – to overcome evil, deliver humanity from its power, and to bring us into the blessed covering of God Almighty.
Continue reading Vineyard Values Series: Compassionate Ministry
Full audio version can be found here. Kingdom Theology and PracticeLast week we started a series looking at who we are as a church – what are our values?
We started this series off by talking about how we are a center-set people focused on moving towards King Jesus – living a life of doing what God is doing and saying what He is saying. Today we are going to be talking about the theology and practice of the Kingdom of God. Now before you all get scared or nervous about “theology” – let me tell you that is really just about fried chicken. Juicy, buttermilk batter, on-the-bone, deep-fat fried chicken – the kind that clogs your arteries the moment you take a bite. To a Southern boy like myself, that is a description of a piece of mouth watering fried chicken. Right?! Continue reading Vineyard Values Series: Kingdom Theology and Practice
The first one was “The Mission of God” by Christopher Wright and was read in the neonatal intensive care unit while cradling my newborn son. (sadly, I have not gotten around to writing a review of this book even though it was the best one of the three – that and it is the only book I’ve read that actually made me WANT to go back and read Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy!!!). Months later I read Daniel Fuller’s book “The Unity of the Bible” – which proved to be less about the unity of the Bible and more about a Calvinist approach to theology. The last overarching book was written in a totally different manner then the other two and is the subject of this post. As you probably guessed by the image on the right, the book in question is “God’s EPIC Adventure” by Winn Griffin. Written more as a text book with wide margins, side notes and study questions, “God’s EPIC Adventure” seeks to challenge the fragmentation of the biblical story in modern society by teaching the church to understand what “her story is and how to become the people of God living as his recreated humanity”.
A dusty order drifted up to my nose as I gently cracked its pages. Scanning the table of content, my mind wondered how this jewel found its way to the library used-book sale. Tearing my eyes away, I quickly scanned the table searching for a mate… sadly; the mountain of ink only relinquished one jewel that morning. Yet, what a jewel. Published in 1953, “The Kingdom of God” was written during that grand period in scholarship when everything was being unturned. The first bundle of the Dead Seas Scrolls had just been discovered, casting new light on last Second Temple Judaism. The time was dawning when the theologians would begin to recognize the cultural understanding of Jesus’ words in Mark 1:15, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Continue reading Mining the Ink Mountains
Today though, I would like to introduce you to Allen Wakabayashi. Allen is the Associate Pastor at Twin City Bible Church and the Teaching Specialist for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana. More importantly for our purposes, he is the author of “Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World.” This is a book that seeks to “bridge the gap from the scholarly literature about the kingdom to the normal Christian who is not familiar with the academic material.” Hands down, Allen pulls it off. “Kingdom Come” is a great introduction book to Kingdom Theology – i.e. the theology of that Jesus is King of everything (created and uncreated; spiritual and physical) and He is in activity involved in the world today, bring the future Age into our world today. Interesting enough, Allen credit George Ladd as an influence – which is pretty cool seeing the influence Ladd has made on me. Continue reading Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World |
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I am hereby dubbing 2010 as the “Year of the Big Picture” as I have read three thick books seeking to tell the grand story of the Bible.
Its dull broken binding stood out among the shinny full-color books that covered the table. Leaning over the top of a plethora of self-help books, I pulled 
Knowing that I read some…um…strange books, I’m always on the look out for books that simplify the Kingdom message of Jesus. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of books out there talking about the ‘here and not yet’ of the Kingdom – instead, most Christian books tend to be of the self-help variety; or some kind of cheesy Christian romance (
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