Archive for October, 2010
A Ticklish Convergence: Part One
Posted on 28. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Phyllis Tickle is a formidable woman. She is leading the charge for the next great revolution in Christianity called the Great Emergence. She is an expert on religion who is to be taken seriously. She spoke at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids on “The Feminine Atributes of the Holy Spirit.” In it she makes a case for the Feminine Divine and in it we see where Emergent/Emerging Christianity may be heading. To hear her talk, what is on the horizon might better be called the “Great Convergence”–where Christianity and Paganism meld into one.
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My Business: My Mission
Posted on 28. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
In 2008, I was asked to write this biography of an amazing ministry that has had a hand in creating tens of thousands of jobs in desperately poor countries in the developing world. My Business, My Mission tells the story of a movement that is changing the lives of businesspeople in the northern and southern hemispheres by exposing them to a revolutionary paradigm: the idea that God has called them into mission through business. Interviewing Christ-centered business owners and entrepreneurs in Africa, Central America, Haiti, and the Philippines transformed me. In this book you get to meet these inspiring people
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Last Day of Nonviolence Tour: UC Berkeley
Posted on 19. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Last Day: It is the end of the tour and there is one interchange of the hundreds that sticks with me. It occurred in Detroit when a Conservative Jewish Rabbi turned to Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian, and said: “I respect everything you say. I look at you and I know that with you I have a partner.” A Jewish Rabbi declaring his unqualified support for what an evangelical Christian is saying. Is Sami showing us a new apologetic? Demonstrate the Gospel before you proclaim it. Seems like that is what Jesus did–heal, deliver and then speak. Maybe what we need to pray for courage to love, and power to heal, and then the words to speak.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: USC School of Cinematic Arts
Posted on 19. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Ten: Dr. Ralph Fertig, who marched during the civil rights days and is President of the Humanitarian Law Project tells us, “What Martin Luther King taught was the need to love the enemy. The flipside of fear is not fearlessness, it is the capacity to see the enemy as a person and appeal to him as such. Violence only begets more violence, whereas nonviolence enables the capacity to love.” This is only the second time during this cross-country tour that nonviolence has been linked to love rather than to pragmatism and politics. Both comments were from non-Christians. I find that intriguing.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Oklahoma Christian University
Posted on 15. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Nine: There is more news about the boarding of Yonatan’s boat en route to Gaza. An official is quoted as claiming that Yonatan, “has joined the ranks of Hamas.” The source also states that Reuven Moskovitz, the 82-year old Holocaust survivor on board “has probably not learned anything from the terrible past.”
Clearly, the response to that harsh accusation, I should think, is that Mr. Mokovitz apparently learned the most important lesson of all from his suffering–how to forgive. And therein lies the only hope for a lasting and a just peace in the Middle East.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Wayne State University
Posted on 11. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Eight: “[It is] a sight which will remain with me for the rest of my life – with the frigate in the background, two gunboats, two landing craft and four high powered ribs spread out in a semi-circle speeding towards us. . . . ” With these words we find out what has become of Yonatan Shapira (a subject of the doumentary) on the catamaran trying to bring humanitarian aid past the Gaza blockade. After boarding the Irene, “The senior officer . . . placed a Tazer gun in contact with his clothing and fired it directly into his heart. Yonatan let out a dreadful scream and the force of the Tazer caused him to lose control of his muscles.” Thus begins the second week of our nonviolence tour.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: De Paul University, Chicago
Posted on 10. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Seven: Yesterday, Elik Elhanan, whose sister was killed by a suicide bomber, informs me that the commandment most frequently repeated in the Old Testament is to provide hospitality to the stranger. Interestingly, it is a divine command that compels Elik the atheist to resist the inhospitality exhibited by the Israelis to thousands of Palestinian “strangers.” Yet, millions of theists turn a blind eye to this injustice against those whom the biblical commands us to love. It is the atheist who is getting it right and we purported Christians who blithely keep getting it wrong. The irony is almost too heavy to bear.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Host Lynne Hybels
Posted on 09. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Six: Lynne Hybels, wife of Willow Creek pastor, Bill Hybels, invited us to join about 30 close friends and church leaders in her home. Looking at Sami Awad, to her right, she tells the group in her living room, “I want to introduce you to my hero.” This is real. You can feel it in her tone and see it in her eyes. After spending a week with him, I understand what she is saying. It’s not every day you hang out with a man who stands in front of tanks and bulldozers with nothing in his hands but faith, hope and love.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: The National Cathedral, Washington D.C.
Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Five: The National Cathedral is as large as it is impressive. I try to get a picture with my I-phone and I find it is impossible to get the entire building in the frame. It is the sixth biggest cathedral in the world after all. At 6:00pm Perry Auditorium, the dark, thick-beamed room fills up quickly. It becomes evident that extra seats will be required. Soon there are at least 200 and the room has reached its maximum occupancy.There is a buzzing of expectant voices. Lots of very influential Israeli/Palestinian activists. This is one of the most interested audiences to date, it is certainly the largest.
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Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: National Press Club and Georgetown U.
Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Tim Stoner.
Day Four: We have driven through the night from New York City and arrive at our hotel in Arlington, Virginia at around 3:00am. Not the most pleasant hour to arrive in a new town. The air conditioning on the bus was set on maximum overdrive and I had nothing with which to ward off the persistent gales of hyper-cooled air. Not a whole lot of rest this trip. What is worse, we have all of 3 hours before we need to rouse ourselves and put on our “game gear” to travel across town to the National Press Club in Washington, D. C. so Sami Awad can be interviewed by the Middle East Broadcasting Corp.
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Morning star: You could definitely see your expertise within the...
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Tim Stoner: send me your address you get a book...
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Emory Hermie: So little done, a lot to accomplish. One's mind h...
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Bob Schuman: Mmmmm...........
