Moved to a New Site!

I have started a new blog here as a continuity and mirror of this one.

http://faithculturetoday.wordpress.com/

Charles G Finney's Revivalism

I am working on McLoughlin's 'Modern Revivalism - Charles G. Finney to Billy Graham'. As I am writing an essay on Charles G. Finney, referring to this book is inevitable. It is interesting to see some different views from McLoughlin in this book, compared to Iain H. Murray's excellent work - Revival and Revivalism. McLoughlin's account of Finney is much more positive compared to Murray's. He stressed the role historical context played in shaping Finney's revivalism, while Murray tends to focus more on the split among the Presbyterians as a consequence of Finney's influence. The best book for reading pleasure is Stuart Piggin's 'Firestorm of the Lord' which deals more directly with the issue of revival and revivalism. The definition of revival and the difference between revival and revivalism are discussed in all three books, with Murray's being a history account, while Mcloughlin looks at the larger American context of its revivalism, and Piggin includes more pastoral concerns.

Made to Stick

One of many books that I value highly is 'Made to Stick' by Chip and Dan Heath. You can find its excerpts here.They were also interviewed in the 2009 Global Leadership Summit organized by Willow Creek Community Church.

Their idea matches the format of the Revivalists in the nineteenth century America, where concreteness, emotion, stories and to a certain extent, unexpectedness played a part in shaping the 'new measures' of revivalism. Applied to preaching, this can be used to distinguish a revivalist from an 'old school' (as per Finney's definition) preacher. Today, such difference is evident between charismatic preacher and his more conservative counterparts.  

Education and Young People

We teach young people to prepare them for their jobs and tasks later in life. But what really do we teach them? The message seems to be: we want your knowledge, your time, your power and your creative ideas - but not your self! This leads to frustration, resignation and aggression. We need a Church which brings new hope to the next generation - a hope that our world with its narrow horizons cannot give.

Rev'd Uwe Langsam, Pastor at Evangelische Kirchengemeinde, Rot am See, Germany
The Gospel and Our Culture in Germany 2009

Newbigin on Church and Gospel as Public Truth

The church could have escaped persecution by the Roman Empire if it had been content to be treated as a cultus privatus—one of the many forms of personal religion. But it was not. Its affirmation that “Jesus is Lord” implied a public, universal claim that was bound eventually to clash with the cultus publicus of the empire. The Christian mission is thus to act out in the whole life of the whole world the confession that Jesus is Lord of all.
Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, p. 16–17
Taken from Kingdom Come
 
When the light shines freely one cannot draw a line and say, “Here light stops and darkness begins.” But one can say and must say, “There is where the light shines; go toward it and your path will be clear; turn your back on it and you will go into deeper darkness.”
Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, p. 175
Taken from Kingdom Come

Newbigin on 'Private Truth is No Truth at all'

"A private truth for a limited circle of believers is no truth at all. Even the most devout faith will sooner or later falter and fail unless those who hold it are willing to bring it into public debate and to test it against experience in every area of life. If the Christian faith about the source and goal of human life is to be denied access to the human realm, where decisions are made on the great issues of the common life, then it cannot in the long run survive even as an option for a minority."

'Foolishness to the Greek', 117; cited by Ian Barns, Commentaries: Newbigin's enduring significance, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, http://www.ctbi.org.uk/CGE/422