Advertising Versus Evangelism

We are specialists on making advertisings emphasizing exactly what we are not. This is almost always a rule. In the desperation to reach a big group of people, trampling ethics becomes something common. It’s needed to perceive that ethics for the elaboration of product’s media cannot be used for the spread of gospel.

This happens because the gospel cannot be associated to a product. The publicity of a product almost always looks for an emotional appeal so that people can buy it. But emotionalism is not the right feeling for those that truly know the gospel; for is is something voluble that won’t last long. Whoever surrender to the emotional appeal and buy something, almost always will change their acquisition for a “better one”, in a near future.

Another big problem we face when we talk about evangelism is to try to explain marketing concepts in the churches. Conceptually, churches use to be exactly the opposite of what their divulgation affirms. This duality between reality and media provokes tremendous deceptions. Also it is a lie. I have seen many people that got impressed by street practices or even by events called “evangelistic”, that abused the artistic expressions. But coming to the Sunday night service, such people felt deceived. It seemed like all that cool environment was just a bait to present more of the “same as always”.

And perhaps the most common type of deception caused by advertising is when a person joins a church on the prospect of living with people better than themselves. This is something that almost always ends up badly. After all, the church is the community of the repenting; of those who are looking for a life of holiness, but… how much better are we than those outside? In the anxiety to be walking with people “with no problem”, many end up forming groups organized by the worse way of affinity: their difficulties. And those have all the necessary to promote big tragedies. But if our marketing approached truth, people would know that in our midst, we work as in a hospital: many sick, looking for constant recovery.

I know a church that has a banner with pictures of some hand-picked people in their facade. But, as time passed by, some abandoned faith. Including, two guys revealed themselves as homosexuals and withdrew completely from the community. That banner is considered by many as an advertising that went wrong, and, with some urgency, needs to be replaced. Including, some argue the use of image banks (with pictures of not known people) in making a new façade. But… is there anything more authentic than the old banner? The old one represents truth. It says there are people with problems among us. That some maybe won’t reach the end though they swear they love Christ. And it also reveals that we do have problems just as any other people.

This is the publicity of the truth; that doesn’t lie to achieve results. And for sure and evangelism based on lies can’t be used to represent the one who is the way, the TRUTH and the life.

Ariovaldo Ramos

Source: Ariovaldo.com.br

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If God is guilty the fault is ours!

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. […] “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”(John 16: 21, 22, 33).

We all have the incredible tendency to look for those to blame about the great fatalities in life. The innocent child victim of sexual abuse, the tragic accident that stole the life of a son, the airplane that felt with newlyweds going to the honeymoon, the devastator power of a cancer that makes a heart once full of dreams to stop beating, the torrential rain that left two thousand tourists stranded, without water and food in Machu Picchu, the terrible earthquake that killed more than two hundred thousand people in Haiti.

Before such tragedies, there is not much left to be done. On these times, when we don’t find rational arguments and acceptable explanations for the tragedy that plagues us, bigger and more inconsolable is the pain that our hearts are forced to bear… and bigger and most ardent is our inclination to blame God.

In the moments of desperation, atheists like to remember God just to blame him. Most of the people that were sympathetic about the existence of a loving God give up on the idea. And many of those who always believed faithfully in a protective and careful God disappoint voraciously. All those people, in a way or another, end up incriminating God in their hearts, ranting bitterly: why did God allow my littler daughter to be sexually abused? Why didn’t God do anything to prevent the airplane to fall? Why did God allow a so young person to be consumed by a cancer? Why does God omit himself when he sees the nature he created rebelling against humanity?

There is nothing more natural than this feeling. When a tragedy happens among us, in our limitation, we don’t understand or cannot comprehend why and that is normal that we blame something or somebody that we don’t understand or comprehend fully. When the unknowable makes us suffer, to blame the unknown seems to have the inexplicable power to comfort us.

But actually, it doesn’t comfort. On the contrary, it imprisons us to a pain that will never heal totally; makes us slaves of a question that will never have an answer. Beside accusation, there are we, the human beings. And God, on the doc, ends up being more and more the great culprit, for the very reason he´s not known by his accusers.

If humanity knew more about the God that created them, certainly they would think about it: and what if God simply isn’t the responsible for all this? And what if that’s man’s fault, the machine’s, the weather’s fault? And what if there is not necessarily a guilty one?

If we knew more God inevitably we would understand that he loves us even though circumstances accuse him saying he doesn’t love us. We would comprehend that God1s love is made perfect, many times, through abandonment. We would perceive that God is sovereign but man is responsible. At long last, we would know that he continues taking care of us with his eyes open wide even though our eyes accuse him of the most terrible omission.

The great mistake of humanity is to think that if there is a God, no evil is supposed to happen. Yet, God doesn’t depend on extraordinary doings or miracles to prove his existence and demonstrate his love. God is in the biggest of the healings as well as in the biggest of all loss. God doesn’t need favourable circumstances to show that he is on our side, watching over us. To demonstrate his love for us God does not need anything else further than what he already did: gave the life of his only son to die on the cross.

The truth is that all those disasters point to a single answer: the human being’s fragility. Yes, we are vulnerable, weak and too little. Today we might be full of vigor, bursting with health and tomorrow wake up in a hospital with respiratory failure, dying. God didn’t create us to feel pain but we do. God didn’t create us to die but we do. What happened? What’s wrong?

C.S. Lewis (theologian) said that “every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt.” Therefore the pain we feel doesn’t show us that God doesn’t exist or doesn’t love the human being. But shows us that something is wrong; shows us that the life we live today is not the life that God created us to live. Shows us that the world as we know today is not the world God conceived. In fact, all pains, all deaths and all sufferings that plague us were not according to God’s initial plan, but are all fruits of our withdrawal from God since the beginning of creation.

So, to rescue man to his initial plan, God preferred to condemn an innocent to save the real guilty ones. An innocent’s death brought live to all wrongdoers. Jesus came to the world to give eternal life to whoever believes in his name and live as he did. This is God’s promise: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25), “and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

If we keep on looking to all these tragedies through a strictly human vision and without knowing the real character of God, we will end up pushing our souls from up high a cliff down to the abyss, more and more far from him. And so, each day we will become more and more fragile, vulnerable lost and hopeless. It’s time to before accuse God, look to the mote that’s on our own eye. It’s time to know God as he really is. For, if God is guilty, the fault is ours.

By Fernando Khoury

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Turbocharged Generation

We live the era of specializations. The post modern legacy brings us as a gift in all its content the personalization, or, better yet, the specialization. It’s not enough to be simple, it must have specialty. Time signs, some say. Modernity, others say. Whatever it is, one thing is right: that’s reality!

Nobody anymore looks for, for example, a general practitioner. The right thing to do is to look for the “pinkie finger” specialist for the left foot, for if you are not careful you may end up going to the “big finger” specialist for the right foot. If we go deeper, this specialization will inexorably lead to individualization. And the individualization leads to arrogance and isolation. Thus, we enter the postmodern whirl. Everyone does what they want… buy what they want… and there are goods for every taste. If today someone thinks of buying a green anise-flavored in a yellow packing, if they look for it, they will find. If they don’t, just contact the Customer Service Department of the company, if you are in the mood. The company will make your custom chocolate just to win over a customer. Is that good? Yes, it is! When it comes to business, yes! But when it comes to church…

We are living the accessories era, which is a reflection of individuality. Do you want to have a basic car (from the masses) or do you want accessories (from the individual)? Do you want a factory model, those that anybody can have, or you pay more to have a car with windshield wiper, double rubber and integrated perception rainfall system?

As a friend of mine who also is a journalist, Fábio Nazareth would say (to whom I owe the idea of this text), it’s like buying hot-dog at anybody’s hot-dog’s cart: “do you want just ‘bread and sausage’? (basic model)”, “or the madam wants it ‘complete’ (with the accessories)?”. For the accessories you understand corn, peas, mayonnaise and many other things that can “enrich” the sandwich.

A great fast-food Brazilian company (though it’s fast-food it’s Brazilian), to try to conquer the market against the main competitor, which is foreign, announces that “here you make the sandwich!” In the end what matters is to offer “something else”, or, in the business language, your Company’s differential. Good for business… bad for churches…

Even the women today don’t complain that much about the “misfortunes” in their bodies. Little breast? Turbine them! Shriveled “bum”? We fix it! Then they are all happy… feeling like they were Danielles Winnittz and Sheilas Mellos, ready to be the object of the most various xebecs that they themselves reject, but enjoy listening to. Nowadays we no longer know who the originals are… I’m not questioning if the woman is or not supposed to put silicone implants, it’s up to them, do not condemn yourself by what you approve. Good for women? Maybe! An example for churches? Not so…

We are living the turbocharged generation! It’s not worth it to be basic. You have to be “fashion” You have to have something more… the differential!

And that’s how it starts (or continues) our NONFEPC (NONsense FEstival Plaguing the Churches), the “gospel” version for  the NONsense FEstival Plaguing the Country, from the time of dictatorship, since everything now (good or bad) has to have a “gospel version”.

We are no longer looking for a simple worship. It has to be a “prophetic” worship. Though the praise is directed to God, and for God we do not prophecy, for all prophecy ends in him, there we go… what matters is to turbine.

I no longer want to be a common worshiper I have to be a Levite worshiper, though this “caste” no longer exists. Even though the Levites cease existing, when the temple stops being just the building to be the body and the priest stops being the leader, we all experience the blessings of being ourselves the real priesthood.  

I don’t look for a simple church anymore, but for a church with “purposes”. Nevertheless, a church with no purpose is not a church! If there are no purposes, what are we doing there? Am I on purpose in a church with no purposes? What’s the purpose on that?

Churches’ war for merchandising is something lurid. Churches sell themselves as beer brands. One “goes down round” the other one is “the one that everyone deserves” there is also another that is “the number one” and so on…

Nowadays churches are coupling titles on their names.

This Church – the one that lives by faith! Of course it does. If not it wouldn’t be a church.

X Church – the communion church! If there is no communion is there church?

Y Church – the church with the Lion’s face… the church is supposed to have the Lamb’s face for we are given to death everyday just as sheep to the slaughter… at least that ‘s what the Bible says…

So and so Church – a word’s church. The church that cherishes for the word doesn’t have to announce it on the label, the people will see it. It will be an honored church will fall in the sympathy of the people or in total persecution because of its faithfulness that bothers. But it’s not needed a neon label but people for they truly live the gospel. This works better than any propaganda.

A Church – the church that has wings like an eagle! The church was not called to have wings like an eagle, but legs like a man. Blessed are the FEET of those who announce peace! The word says that he who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow… not he who goes soaring… the church is called the follower of the Way… and this is the way we have to walk…

Today there is no more simple adoration. We have “war worship”, making us more bellicose than we already are… and fighting for peace.

We no more want the sheep shepherd but the nation’s apostle.

It does not serve to worship in Spirit and in truth but to do the “extravagant worship”, that from extravagant turns to be extra leaking, leaking from all sides the biggest quirks in God’s name, whom we are supposed to worship not with extravagance but with a contrite and sincere heart.

God’s Logos does not make that sense as positive’s confession’s Rhema: that’s the turbocharged word! The word itself is not enough… it must have the “revelation”.

But … I still believe we can go back to pure and simple Christianity… there are more than 7.000 that didn’t bow down to the turbocharged Baal.

I just don’t want to see, in a feel years, an advertising showing a malnourished turtle saying: “I’ve already done many TV commercial… but at that time they just wanted to know about numbers, lions, bears, eagles and some other animals… but it sucks!”

And actually it really does!

A hug,

José Barbosa Júnior – With no adds.

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Jaira Ferreira

Sorry, this entry is only available in Portugues.

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Jeferson Ferreira

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Marlene Rodrigues

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Pr. Iamandro – Descansar em Deus

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Fear of the Lord – Intimacy & Religiosity – Repost

Fear of the Lord – Intimacy & Religiosity

 

“Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart an I may fear your name”. Psalm 86:11.

We learn in our “religious education” that we are supposed to fear God.

The heavenly purpose of us to fear God is not based on the idea that we should respect the Lord for the sake of  our own survival or dismay, but  on the knowledge and relationship.

Can someone, not knowing God, fear him consciously, legitimately and gladly? Of course not.

If we nurture any touchy and paranoid behavior about the fear of the Lord that has as maximum the performance of an imaginary list of “does and don’ts”, we are practicing a religious rite, just as anybody who follows a recipe to bake a cake.

The knowledge of the person of God constrains, attracts and inspires us to reverence Him with passion, devotion and sacrifice. Thus we find a God whose pleasure and joy is revealed when He sees in man, the first fruit of His creation, the true desire to love him and to know not only His power that is a consuming fire, but also his grace that justifies us and makes us decent. The fear for fright, guilt or religion only contributed for the construction of a cold god, inquisitive and inaccessible.

The fear of the Lord is for a purpose in life, of intimacy with God. Then our prayer, so that we are fearful to the Lord, should be grounded in cry, repentance and the knowledge of grace, which converts us and makes our hearts willing to fear the Lord in joy, love and gratitude.

“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death”. Proverbs.14:27.

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Christian Attitude and Post Modernity – Repost

The greatest challenge for the Christian church in each generation is to make itself understood by people from it’s own time. This fact is important, for we will never be able to speak of any subject if we don’t communicate in the cultural language of our society. So, we should take the work, researching and understand what is called the “epoch’s spirit”, or the ways of thinking of the actual man, so that the message comes to the hearts of people.

But what time is this we are living in that we have to discern what we should use to the expansion of God’s Kingdom and also to prevent ourselves? In general, philosophers call it Postmodern Age. This name doesn’t mean much but is exactly this definition that characterizes post modernity. Post modernity is a kind of non planned reaction of modernity or modern age. Modernity is characterized by some specific dreams. Firstly, modernity enthroned reazon as main way to gain knowledge and take decisions. Secondly, it rejected all kinds of religion or doctrine that had contact with any transcendent being that could reveal himself to the human being. Thirdly, it established natural science as a way to make humanity perfect. This means that through the domination of nature by natural laws, the erradication of diseases and therefore the man’s immortalization, by the automation of work which would make man work a lot less and the erradication of evil through a perfect world where nobody would want to steal or kill their equal for everyone would enjoy welfare and eternal happiness, man  would be able to build up his paradise without apealling to the inadequacy of religion.

We can see clearly that these objectives of modernity miserably failed. Nature wasn’t tamed, on the contrary, more and more the Earth groans and rebels against men through major cataclysms because of the environmental impact of human progress. Pests weren’t tamed, on the contrary, there is the appearance of new epidemics in addition to multi-resistant bacteria that are costing dearly to be tamed. In terms of work, man never before did much efford to work primarily in the improvement and study and then in the workload and the stress that comtemporary work brings, filling the hall os psychologists. In terms of poverty, data of many associations shows in the world a bigger concentration of income with rich people while big populations don’t have the minimum to survive. In terms of warfare, two world wars which happened on the twentieth century, when humanity lost its atomic virginity, made entire cities desappear. All these failures of the rationalist enlightenment’s ideals left men perplexed after the second world war. In this point, modern man is left with no way out, as they don’t want to go back to the mythic religion which he had rejected before, neither to continue with the bankrupt project that vanished in the rubble of war. So the reaction was a rejection to the modern, without knowing exactly where they were going. The result of this reflexive unattended reaction is the post modernity, a kind of rejection to the ideals of modernity, though there is no concrete and elaborated proposal.

That’s why it was said that modernity has indefinition as a characteristic, not because it was adopted consciously, but because it lives in this indefinition, due to the rapid collapse of the dominant thought.

In this postmodern reaction we can find some positions that proceed from this kind of profile which is quite typical of those who didn’t find their way after the trauma.

First, is the widespread remorse. Postmodern man suffers of remorse because of various things that previously, he judges, were done mistakenly. An example is the nature, before a barrier to progress, now is almost venerated as a goddess mother of humanity. Technology, another example, has now achieved a greater focus in relieving  the stress of human strains and rewarding the effort done to work, producing social status. Technology, therefore, assumes the more immediatist and rewarder role of all human effort, rather than a mythic door for the humanity’s improvement, as it was before. The meaning also suffered it’s metamorphosis. While in modernity the meaning of a text would be specifically conveyed to the author’s mind who wrote it, in post modernity this signification wouldn’t belong to him anymore in the very moment he puts it to paper, but turns to be free so that the reader can take from the text what more suits him. Thereby, the definition of truth and lie turns to be subjective, what might be true to one may not be true to the other. Consequently,  the absence of a pattern of truth and lie also is reflected in the structure of the human being regarding to his personal identity. The man’s search for his own meaning loses it’s sense for it gets lost in the reference of what it should be. The result is an existencial crisis of almost all pos modern man, because of the emptiness of goal of his trajectory. In other words, the explosive mixture of searchig for a meaning to be coupled with the intensive work for survival, makes man a dart board to existencial anxiety which takes him to deep depression not only personal but social. Summarizing, it is to a growing emptiness of purpose that we are going into.

The position of man in history’s line would be something like this: looking to the past, man would see no purpose for he eliminated  the religion  that would tell him that there was a transcendent God in this world who created man to a specífic plan and set purpose. Looking to the future, man gets disappointed for the science, which was supposed to bring the paradise on earth only produced hell with all those wars and environmental destruction, taking away the expectation of a better world.

So, what is left to man? Answer: present. In other words, man has to take from his today all his expectations of fulfilled desire, significance and achievement of a lifetime. The burden of the present takes man to a great insatisfaction, for there is no immediacy that can account for all human expectation and hope.

Therefore the expectations don’t end here. when he feels the emptiness of purpose inside of him, the post modern human being makes from understanding the key goal of his will. Since the relaxation time with friends at the bar, going through a tourist trip to the radical sports in contact with nature, it’s always sought the pay pleasure for all the undefined context of post modernity. Even religion, formerly accursed by modernity, is back to scene, not as before, but as an instrument of human relief to the inner conflicts of existence. This means that this post modern religion doesn’t need consistency in it’s assumptions but just welcomes man giving him hope and it doesn’t matter on what.  Because it doesn’t require coherence of vision or doctrine, it can abuse for irrational mysticism or economic pragmatism without falling into contradiction and the religions which have these characteristics are the most sought by the population.

Now that the stage for the contemporary tragedy is mounted, what could the Church of Christ do to testify about God in this time of history?

It’s interesting to say that though this time is confusing, we cannot deceive ourselves thinking that a gospel without theological or biblical precision will be totally accepted by people. Also, on the other hand, we are not supposed to reject this post modern time as if it were completely evil. This means the shutdown to the world because of the fear of contamination, shielding the church culturally and making efforts to develop itself with a separated culture. We can see through history that the victorious church is the one that interacts with the world in a wise way, which means without comforming to it, bu not getting out of it. Sometimes this balance isn’t that easy but is necessary for the church’s life. So we have two aspects that the church must identify itself and two that it has to repulse post modernity. The aspects that bring identification will make the church’s testimony easyer and the aspects that bring separation will armor the church from the bad influence of this century. Let’s go to the two characteristics of identification:

1- Emphasis on relationships:

The bankrupt modernity is marked by individualism, which means that modern man thought he didn’t need anybody and through his knowledge he would be perfect. That’s why he would prefer to stay in the presence of capable people just as he, who were not weak or inept. Post modernity has the characteristic of valuing personal connection. Post modern man looks for a community where he can identify himself and be identified. In short this is great for the church to transmit it’s message. If people are looking for their identity in a social group, church could perfectly be this group. For this, however, is necessary to receive people in a personal and not massive way. The post modern human being runs and have being running from the feeling of being just one more in the multitude. He wants to feel important and outstanding where he relates. That’s the reason why the church has to avoid magical formulas to bring people in droves as they have bein doing constantly. These plans of growing have more to do with modernity where the common goal was infinitely more important than the personal value. An example is the millions of anonymous people that died in wars because of their countries and collective targets.

2- The emphasis on the variety of forms and tendencies:

The standardization of all things were done was one of the main characteristics of modernity. It’s what was called series production, which means that the imporatant was a basic form that could be reproduced several times with less cost and energy expenditure. This characteristic of modernity took man to the dispair of monotony. Many equal houses in the same neighbourhood, many equal clothes with low price, uniform cars coming out of factories, this is the great achievement and conquer of modernity. Today we know that it’s not like this, people don’t want what is produced for many people to wear anymore but what is handmade. Today they choose homemade food, the manual detail in a cloth, the name embroidered across the badge. This variation of forms and tendencies has aroused post modern man to his singularity, that is when he interacts with what’s different. In the same way, the church, if wants to reach the man from this era, is not supposed to specialize in this or that. It can not look for their own spiritual development or the growing numbers of it’s evangelism, formatting strategies that will formate people that posteriorly will formate other. These strategies based on the modern thought of producing a lot with little effort and similar ways will separate the church from the world (as it has been doing) and from it’s evangelizing work. Which strategies should we use to have converted people to the bunches? Which course will we invent to produce leaders to the tonnes? What kind of cult are we going to do so that all in once have a new experience with God? The answer is none! This is because the church isn’t uniform but multiform with no extreme, but have tendencies, it doesn’t have a gift but a variety of them. And it is in this variety that the church finds natyrally and spontaneously it’s way to be in society.

Now we can mention two characteristics that will armor the church from the evil influences present in this century:

1-  Rejection to the deconstruction of literature

As it was mentioned above, one of the most specific characteeristics of post modernity is to interpret texts not according to what the author wants it to mean but by what the reader wants it to mean for him in that very time. This post modern tendency passed under the doors of the churchs and biblical schools like a fog, reaching the way the bible is supposed to be interpretated. The significance of the scriptures stored in the biblical text, which was inspired by God and given to the authors of the 66 Bible’s books seems not to have this desire of knowing God intimately and know his will. Today, claiming an inspiration from the Holy Spirit, we take Bible verses and paragraphs out of context and give them another meaning that the author of the scripture never meant to give. For many times we call it Bible’s update for the moment today. In fact, what has being done is exactly what post modernity call to deconstruct the text and the most interesting is that this idea appears in church right on the very time that humanity has the idea to handle the text this way. Would it be a coincidence or a contamination and conformation of this century in our Christian minds? We can raise two basic arguments against this new gospel fashion. The first is if the Holy Spirit can speak to us through anything and this is the regular way he uses to build us up and transform our character, what significance would the Bible’s inspiration have? Why did men fight and lost their lives to save the inspired scriptures and differnetiate it from other books? If the major way of God to communicate with us is using any text or phenomenon, there was a big waste in the history of church to protect the bible from those who wanted to burn it, from the heretics who wanted to pervert it and, moreover, it wasn’t worthy the risk to take million of bibles to the coutries in the former iron courtain and into the muslim world. No! There is a difference in what is written in the scriptures and what we can receive as a personal revelation, and the scriptures become a trial basis for anything that claims to be personal revelation today. If it was not, there would be no reason for the inspiring canon to be closed after Revelation. The second argument would be a counter-arguments about what it would be to update the Bible or the message in it. We are supposed to have in mind that the message in Bible through it’s texts was idealized by God who inhabits eternity, which means that He is not a God that is subdued to time. So his message is also a eternal message for man in any time, for eternity is superior to temporality. It’s not difficult to observe, however, that this eternal message was transmited in a specific historical moment, and so that we can come to the pith of the message and enjoy it in all its intensity we should take count the time and space it was written, studying them so that we can better understand the author’s intention. When we understand this message that is given us through Bible, we touch a eternal message that has the authority of Christ himself and has the same power of transformation.

2- Superficiality’s and artificiality’s rejection in relationships

It was said before that the lack of identity and the willingness to relate is a positive point in post modern age. However, we can see a dark side in this behaviour. The desire to meet to end the lonliness doesn’t mean that the person ceased being selfish. Then community turns to be a place for him to feel accompanied but it doesn’t lose its strong sence of privacy, don’t allowing to be known by other. This stops the church’s true sense to become true. All the social sites have it’s heroes and myths and the church as a social community, for many times idealizes its heroic profiles as a result of its experiences as a community, but it shouldn’t be like this with the church of Christ. It is supposed to welcome people as they are so that they can relate with no masks and be able to produce in their transparence their part in the community, without building up for themselves a behaviour taken as spiritual and superior and avoid the production of idols and services to the personality for those that will aparently reach such pattern. So, in the same way the leadership must assume this level of transparence so that there minght be a reference in the flock as well. And all may contribute for what is the community’s construction. Just those who are free to relate with their gifts and defects can contribute for the construction of the body.

Summarizing, post modernity came to bring both good and bad things for the human thought. We must know how to discern what are our access doors through it for the evangelization and formation of the spiritual character of the christian. Moreover, we must forearm against the spiritual warfare that this century imposes to us so that we might not be conformed and be a prophetic voice in our generation.

Lívio Bruno

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A Missão Urbana da Igreja de Antioquia da Síria (I) – Repost

A partir de Atos 13:1 a 28:31 nós encontramos a última narrativa geográfica de Lucas, em seu esforço por demonstrar que Evangelho deveria ser levado à todas a nações. Para isto, Lucas enfatiza a missão da igreja de Antioquia da Síria, e o ministério do Apóstolo Paulo nos principais centros urbanos de sua época. Este artigo focaliza a primeira parte, a missão da igreja de Antioquia da Síria.

Antioquia foi a cidade onde a fundação para a missão mundial foi estabelecida para alcançar os confins da terra. Ela era uma cidade cosmopolitana, a metrópoles da Síria, e depois tornou-se a capital da província Romana na Ásia.

Essa cidade foi fundada por Seleuco I Nicator em 300 AC, no rio Orontes, aproximadamente 26 km do Mediterrâneo e cerca 480 km (ao norte) de Jerusalém. Antioquia tornou-se a capital da dinastia dos Seleucidas, cujo nome vem de Antioco I, pai de Seleuco, o qual era general de Alexandre o Grande. Em 64 AC, debaixo da liderança de Pompei, os Romanos chegaram a Antioquia, controlando-a como seu centro administrativo e militar. E em 27 AC ela tornou-se a capital da Síria. Sendo um importante centro comercial e ações militares, Antioquia tornou-se um influente centro urbano, uma cidade (polis) Helenística. Também, era a terceira cidade do Império Romano, sendo um mosaico de culturas. Conhecida como a “primeira cidade do Leste”. DeVries entende que “Antioquia era a segunda somente em relação à Jerusalém como um centro do Cristianismo primitivo” (DeVries 1997:345).

Exceto Jerusalém, a cidade de Antioquia da Síria foi a mais importante cidade da história da igreja primitiva. Através desta igreja de Antioquia da Síria a missão mundial foi estabelecida para alcançar os confins da terra. Por isso se faz necessário olhar seu nascimento, testemunho, liderança, e alcance missionário.

O Nascimento da Igreja
A igreja de Antioquia da Síria nasceu como resultado da grande “tribulação que sobreveio a Estevão, se espalharam até Antioquia” (At. 11:19). Esta igreja é uma filha da perseguição e Estevão tem parte em sua história. Depois do discurso de Estevão, e consequentemente sua morte, “levantou-se grande perseguição contra a igreja em Jerusalém; e todos, exceto os apóstolos, foram dispersos pelas regiões da Judéia e Samaria” (At. 8:1). Nada podia parar e impedir o avanço da palavra de Deus, porque os que foram dispersos iam por toda parte pregando a palavra (At. 8:4).

Quem são os “que foram dispersos por causa da tribulação que sobreveio a Estevão?” (At. 11:19). Eles eram Judeus cristãos Helenístas, que falavam o grego. A perseguição afetou quase toda a igreja, “exceto os apóstolos” (At. 8:1). Muito provavelmente a perseguição afetou mais os Helenístas, os quais foram para a Judéia e Samaria, e as cidades de Azoto, todas as cidades, e Cesaréia na costa do Mediterrâneo (At. 8:40). Passando “pelas regiões da Judéia e Samaria” (At. 8:1), eles finalmente chegaram “até a Fenícis, Chipre e Antioquia (At. 11:19).”

Não podemos ignorar esse caráter de perseguição e sofrimento como elementos que produziram e influenciaram o nascimento desta igreja. Qualquer estudioso do crescimento da igreja jamais poderia imaginar que esta perseguição espalharia os cristãos da igreja primitiva não somente à Antioquia da Síria, mas aos confins da terra. “Alguns deles, porém, que eram de Chipre e de Cirene, e que foram até Antioquia, falavam também aos gregos, anunciando-lhes o evangelho do Senhor Jesus” (At. 11:20). Em seguida veremos que esta igreja, filha da perseguição possuía líderes cheios de visão missionária. Perseguidos sim, mas não desorganizados!

A Liderança da Igreja

Em sendo uma cidade multiétnica, “dividida em Gregos, Sírios, Judeus, Latinos e Africanos” (Bakke 1997:146), a igreja também reflete este caráter em sua liderança. Uma multicultural, multicor, multiétnica equipe formava a liderança pastoral desta igreja. Isto mostra-nos a heterogeneidade como uma das marcas distintas da comunidade da fé. “Havia na igreja de Antioquia profetas e mestres: Barnabé, Simeão por sobrenome Niger, Lúcio de Cirene, Manaém , colaço de Herodes o tetrarca e Saulo (At. 13:1). Barnabé era um levita, de Chipre (At. 4:36). Simeão, chamado Niger (Negro) muito provavelmente um prosélito judeu. Lucius era de Cirene, uma cidade Africana. Ele era um Gentio ou um Judeu com nome Romano. Manaém (“Confortador”) foi criado com Herodes Antipas, o tetrarca da Galiléia. Saul foi um ex-Fariseu e um cidadão Romano. Foi a partir desta variedade de contextos, culturas e raças que a liderança da igreja de Antioquia foi formada.

Não existe dúvida de que o líder mais proeminente desta igreja foi Barnabé, sendo a “ponte ideal entre dois mundos, uma pessoa confiada tanto pelos moradores que falavam o Aramaico em Jerusalém e as pessoas Helenístas de Chipre e Cirene” (Crowe 1997:92). O trabalho missionário nesta cidade teve tanto sucesso que a “notícia chegou aos ouvidos da igreja em Jerusalém” (At. 11:22). Desejando saber o que estava acontecendo, “eles enviaram Barnabé até Antioquia” (At. 11:22). Existem três hipóteses relacionadas a Barnabé. Primeira, ele era um Helenista moderado, tendo um relacionamento muito próximo aos apóstolos, o qual não precisou escapar da perseguição de Atos 8:1-3. Segunda, ele era um do grupo que fundou esta igreja. Terceiro, ele era um missionário independente que veio à Antioquia. Se existem dúvidas a respeito desta pessoa, por outro lado não existe nenhuma dúvida quanto ao seu caráter, sendo “um homem bom, cheio do Espírito Santo e de fé” (At. 11:24).

Barnabé teve uma importância fundamental na solidificação desta igreja. Sua primeira atitude foi chamar Saulo para juntar-se a equipe, trazendo-o à Antioquia. Sua missão era “reunir a igreja e ensinar numerosa multidão” (At. 11:26). Como resultado desse esforço missionário nesta igreja eles tornaram-se os delegados (representantes) oficiais para viajar para todos os lugares, proclamando as boas novas do Senhor Jesus (At. 13:2-3).

O Testemunho da Igreja
Infelizmente Lucas não dá-nos uma narrativa detalhada sobre o ministério desta igreja. Se esta igreja foi a primeira igreja que proclamou as boas novas do Senhor Jesus além das fronteiras Judaicas, tornando-se a iniciadora do movimento missionário ao mundo Gentílico, não poderíamos esperar mais detalhes desse tremendo esforço desta igreja, especialmente se aceitarmos que Lucas era proveniente de Antioquia da Síria. Contudo, os poucos detalhes que ele nos deu ajudam-nos a ter uma idéia do tipo de igreja que ele estava narrando. O testemunho desta igreja pode ser visto em pelo menos três momentos.

Autor: Jorge Barro
Fonte: MIAF

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