Friendship Counseling – 2

Posted on October 3, 2008

Powlison continues his series on Friendship Counseling. In part two he makes the point that the two key questions we should be aksing our friends are the same questions we should be asking the Bible:

  • What are you facing?
  • What about God is relevant to you and your situation?

He notes that the Bible is not primary systematic or biblical theology, but practical theology dealing with everyday life in everyday stories. So, he tells us to:

“Live your life within God’s Story. But the Bible itself is neither a storybook nor the grand story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. The Bible is some other kind of thing.” The Bible is a book communicating a multitude of ways that God intersects life. If I had to pick one descriptive term, I’d say that the Bible as a whole is practical theology happening in real time. We see and hear God revealing Himself into particular struggles and tensions of actual human lives.

Here is an example of how to do this to better counsel yourself and others.

Deacon Candidate Interview Questions

Posted on October 2, 2008

In preparation for our Fall Deacon Training, I found these interview questions from Tim Keller very helpful:

  1. Purity. Are you leading a sexually pure life? (What do you consider a sexually pure life?)
  2. Possessions. Do you understand the Biblical tithe to be for Christians of the giving to the Lord’s work? Are you giving out of your income in Biblical proportions, or are you moving toward that standard?
  3. Personal walk. Describe your prayer and devotional life. Has God been real to you in prayer of late; is your relationship with him vital? Is anything hindering your communion with God? Are you making progress against it?
  4. Ministry Involvement. Tell us of how you have been involved in people’s lives in ministry through _____ or through other organizations in the City. Do you have any non-Christian associates that you are regularly praying for and sharing faith with?
  5. Office affinity. Describe for us the duties of deacon/deaconness. How do your gifts, abilities, interests fit this office?

Taken from the Redeemer Church Planting Manual

Kate Moss Statue

Posted on October 2, 2008

The British Museum has unveiled a new statue in their Statuephilia exhibit. Sculptor Marc Quinn crafted a solid gold statue of Kate Moss, said to be the largest gold statue created since the time of Ancient Egypt. The statue is uncomfortable in posture, exposure and cost, a hefty $3 million dollars.

Quinn’s commentary on the statue: “The sculpture is really about whether we make images or they make us. It’s about trying to live up to impossible dreams and immortality.”

Perhaps making more of a commentay on our time than he intended, Quinn’s remarks fail to justify a solid gold statue of this value when there are so many other things that could have been done with that money. Was solid gold really necessary? The near anorexic version of Kate is also telling of contemporary views of beauty, especially when Quinn claims she is the “ideal beauty.”