Stephen Hayes's Blog, page 93

Questions that aren't being asked at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization  is being held in Cape Town next month, and among the preparations for it is a web site to stimulate discussions about the concerns of the congress.

One contribution, received via Facebook, was What questions aren't being asked? | The Lausanne Global Conversation.

I can think of two more that weren't mentioned there.

What is the "good news" being proclaimed by Christian evangelists who instigate witch hunts – even against children?What can be...

How much bandwidth is enough?

At the beginning of last month our ISP, Telkom Internet, increased their bandwidth allowance from 5 Gigabytes to 9 Gigabytes a month.

And this month, for the first time since we started using ASDL broadband five years ago, we reached the end of the month without having to buy extra bandwidth, and with some to spare, which I hope carries over to next month.

Internet bandwidth usage, August 2010

That's good news.

But I'm not suddenly going to relax and start watching bandwidth-hogging stuff like...

Angels and demons and egregores (book review)

Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature by Annette Yoshiko Reed

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The First Book of Enoch was fairly well known in the first century, and accepted by both Christians and Jews. It is a composite book, made of several books joined together, but all deal with the visions of Enoch, the great grandfather of Noah.

Book of the Watchers — I Enoch 1-36 (BW)Similitudes of Enoch — I Enoch 37-71 (Sim)Astronomical book — I...

Reclaiming the Abandoned places of Empire

Though full of errors, the following report of the Divine Liturgy (wrongly called "mass" in the article) at the site of a former monastery in Turkey is nevertheless interesting.

Unorthodox wordings, to say the least | GetReligion:

Five hundred Greek orthodox Christians have celebrated mass in the beautiful 1,600-year-old Sumela monastery in north-eastern Turkey, ending an 88-year ban on religious services at the site.

Conducted by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Dimitri Bartholomew I, the mass...

The new face of African Christianity

Did Jesus Wear Designer Robes? | The Lausanne Global Conversation:

The growth of non-Western Christianity across Africa is largely due to the New Pentecostal Churches. Upwardly-mobile youth are drawn to their dynamic worship styles and pursuit of wealth and success. The prosperity gospel has found fertile soil as it resonates with tribal religion. Prosperity promoters raise serious theological concerns. The gospel of Jesus Christ neither glorifies poverty nor prosperity.

For thousands of...

Orthodox mission, diaspora and bizarre Protestant questions

In October the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization is being held in Cape Town, and a web site has been set up to discuss the themes of the Congress beforehand, in preparation. There are some very interesting articles on a variety of topics relating to world mission and evangelization, and one of the topics was "diaspora".

I was recently asked to write a journal article on the Orthodox diaspora in South Africa in relation to mission, and I contributed a more generalised article on...

Mosques, churches and ground zeroes

Over the past week or so I've been seeing an increasing amount of fuss being made on the Internet about a mosque being built at ground zero. I haven't really followed the story, so I didn't know what the fuss was about, but it was getting more and more insistent, so I began reading some of the blog posts about it but most seemed to be written assuming that everyone knew what has happened, or is happening, ir is about to happen. But even that is not clear.

St Nicholas Church, New York

To judge f...

Where we go to church

Yesterday was the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and as we do on alternate Sundays, we went to worship at Zakhele School in Mamelodi East. Mamelodi is in the eastern part of the city of Tshwane, and we travel about 15 kilometres to the east. The school is in one of the older parts of Mamelodi, but the township is expanding and on the eastern edge there are shanty towns where people build houses of whatever materials they can get.

Mamelodi East

There are churches of several...

Word and people

Seventeen years ago I wrote this piece on what would probably now be called missional ecclesiology. It deals with differing Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed attitudes to the Bible, church and mission.

Here's what I originally posted:

Original message:

Area: Philos

Msg#: 6236 Date: 09-22-93 05:48

From: Steve Hayes Read: Yes Replied: No

To: All Mark: Save

Subj: Word and people

Yesterday we h...

Evangelism? Or proselytism?

I've heard of "Christian businessmen", and "Christian witness in the workplace", but this seem to be taking things too far. I think it certainly crosses the line that separates evangelism from proselytism, and goes a long way into proselytism territory.

And I'm pretty sure that in South Africa it would be unconstitutional.

Russian Would Fire Abortion-Compliant Employees, Seeks 'Orthodox Transfiguration of Russia':

MOSCOW, August 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The head of a large dairy company...