In his book To Own A Dragon, donald miller writes:

More than 70 percent of students who drop out of school come from fatherless homes. Reading the statistic from the National Principals Report a few weeks ago came as no surprise. With no father to ground the home, the mother works and is exhausted, and is in no way free to nurture and support. I don’t believe the sinful nature can be summed up easily, but I know part of it means a person left alone doesn’t grow or get strong, not emotionally anyway, and certainly not academically.

I don’t believe “sinful nature can be summed up easily” either. Fatherlessness is a tragedy. So is motherlessness. I believe that God in the gospel deals with these issues. However, all too often people tend to reduce adolescent misbehavior and adulthood failures to the absence of a father. True, fathers exert a significant influence on the family, positively and negatively. But at the end of the day, aren’t we responsible for how we act with or without a parent?

It is no compliment to tell someone that their issues can be reduced to “nature” or “nuture”. Reducing our behaviors to nature or nurture is an insult to human dignity. Nature tells us that we have no choice; we are biologically pre-determined to succeed or fail. Nurture tells us that we have very little choice also; we are sociologically pre-determined to fail or succeed. However, the gospel tells us that we are valuable, responsible, sinful people that are actually worse that we dare believe, but in Christ more accepted and loved that we can ever imagine.

Biologically and Psychologically driven interpretations of humanity are destiny-focused, denying humanity a role in their own lives, for good or for ill. Christian theology offers an alternative. We are valued, as people in the image of God. We are sinful, as people in the image of Adam. And by choosing Christ, we may become new people in the image of Jesus. Instead of determinism, the gospel offers us hope. Hope for a better, everlasting future. God offers us much more than fixed fathers or successful careers or stable families. He offers us himself. God gives us the gift of himself, and in receiving that gift, we gain the whole world, a world that we would freely give up for re-union with the creating, redeeming, perfecting, loving, all-glorious, all-satisfying Father, Son and Spirit.

Check out the write-up by Eileen Flynn of the Austin Statesman on The Hope Arts Festival, where Arts pastor of Hope Chapel, David Taylor, is interviewed about the intersection of Art and Faith. David is a rare breed of artist, who rigorously tries to integrate theology, arts, and community.

Flynn writes: “Over the past decade, he has struggled against attitudes about Christian art and tried to show that it doesn’t have to be utilitarian or cheesy or even obviously religious.”

Check out the Transforming Culture Conference, which David is also involved in.

Read David’s Blog.

I just started listening to Paul House and Scott Hafemann’s series on “Preaching and Teaching Judgment Without Being Judgmental” via the Ockenga Pastor Builders series. Both House and Hafemann are committed to “whole Bible theology”–Biblical Theology. In fact, Hafemann advocates a paradigm of radical unity, arguing that there is just one covenant in the Bible, not two (works/Law vs. grace/gospel).

They advocate four elements in order preach/speak/believe/teach judgment without being judgmental: 1) God is the Judge, not us 2) Covenant is the context and standard of judgment, not us 3) Judgment is not the condition for people to be our friends 4) Redemption is always the goal of judgment.

I have avoided missional conversations with strangers and family members because I was afraid of what they would think of me, not of what I thought they would think of Christ. In these moments, I forsake Jesus and put myself in his place. Not talking to people about the most important thing in the world is set aside because of my own selfishness and insecurity.

Here are a few thoughts that address this weak-hearted, wrong-headed way of conversing (or not conversing) with others, ways to evangelize our own fears.

God opens hearts, not arguments. Neil Cole has a saying: “Wherever you go, the King goes, and where the King goes, people bow.” In other words, King Jesus woos and wins people, not well-honed apologetics. I need to face my fears with faith in the King who opens hearts and renews minds.

Don’t win the argument; speak with compassionate truth-telling.” This saying reminds me to open my heart and my mouth when talking to others, being alert to the needs of others that the gospel of compassion can fit into and channeling my energy in that direction.

You have an AK-47, use it. If you showed up to a medieval sword dual with an AK-47, you wouldn’t be afraid or doubt who would win. Others might think you were crazy, even mock you, but your weapon would secure a win. Although I don’t like the destructive metaphor, this does remind me that when I talk to others “all authority and power” is in the gospel, which is mighty to save.