Coffee Culture Kingdom

Phil Henry  //  lives in Sewell NJ and is a church planter with the Presbyterian Church in America and with Acts 29. He is married to Polly and has six children.

 
Mar 29 / 8:06am

What Is a Minister, Anyway?

You may not have noticed before, but minister, the English word, contains the word "mini," which of course means "small." This seems appropriate, since that's how many ministers feel: small.

Think about it: ministers don't possess power. They often don't command the respect of people with money or influence, no matter how hard they try. If they manage to acquire such influence, too often it indicates that somewhere along the line they have stopped honoring God and have started honoring men, which usually involves what God calls "dealing falsely"--

For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. (Jeremiah 6:13)

Which reminds me, many skeptics who sneer or scoff at the Christian faith and message do so because of the hypocritical lives of so-called Christian ministers.

I wonder what would happen if we stripped that title from men (or women) who, in fact, deal falsely as Jeremiah describes?

Part of the "dealing falsely," I believe, relates to another meaning of the word "minister"--namely, "servant."

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Filed under  //  Facebook   gospel   pastor   pastoral ministry   prayer   prosperity gospel   serving   steward  
 
Feb 27 / 6:39am

Dangerous Margins

 

A relatively new show on cable called Portlandia is a sketch comedy series on the Independent Film Channel about “life in hipster enclaves and the self-consciousness that make hipsters desperately disavow the label” (Margaret Talbot, “Stumptown Girl,” The New Yorker, 2/2/2012).

 The lead actress/comedienne, Carrie Brownstein, came of age in the alternative music and feminist scene of Olympia Washington in the nineties, but later came to despise “the élitism that passes itself off as inclusiveness.” In such hyper-niched existences, Brownstein explains, “the rules are so esoteric, so hard to follow, that no one else could fit in. And what you’ll never admit to yourself is that you don’t want other people to fit in.”

Such is the target of Portlandia’s satire; it could be called snobby anti-snobbiness.

There are lots of adjectives and appellations for such holier-than-thous today, including “geek” (as in, “I’m a beer geek”), snob (“I’m a coffee snob”) or even “evangelists” (as in a Mac-evangelist”); also, there’s “OCD” (the “D”, in case you forgot, stands for “disorder”), “control freak” (no comment), and even (perhaps most tellingly) “addict.” That such micro perfectionist mindsets are passed over with little more than a half-hearted apology shows how infected our every day lives are with what might well be termed the idolatry of the “particular.” A revealing discovery, to be sure. But not a new one.

(Continue reading the rest of this post here, Ruminate Magazine's editorial blog.)

 

 

Filed under  //  Carrie Brownstein   Independent Film Channel   OCD   Portlandia   Ruminate Magazine   addiction   hipster   perfectionism   satire   snobs  
 
Nov 29 / 5:02am

The Power of the Gospel in the Local Church

I received an invitation to attend a conference in the PCA in January called Embers to a Flame. It is focused on church revitalization. I attended several years ago and, while I can't attend this year, I would encourage others to attend, whether you're involved in a church plant or in helping to lead a long-established church. 

At first glance, church planting and church revitalization seem like entirely different disciplines. But as I've learned, church planting and church revitalization are, in fact, closely related works of the Holy Spirit. They both depend upon the power of the Gospel in the local church.

Let me explain.

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Filed under  //  church planting   church revitalization   embers to a flame   gospel   holy spirit   pastoral ministry  
 
Nov 18 / 3:34pm

Some Sacred Thread

I wrote a post here about the mystery of suffering in a world that is claimed to be made by a good and loving God of order and power and love.

Filed under  //  atheism   mystery   paradox   providence  
 
Sep 28 / 6:26am

Witness Trees

I wrote a short essay about the "witness trees" my family and I saw when visiting Gettysburg National Cemetery over this past Labor Day weekend. Check it out here.

Filed under  //  Gettysburg   remembering   sacrament   witness trees  
 
Aug 27 / 8:13am

Our Precious...

I love the Lord of the Rings slogan, "precious," made famous by Gollum:

We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false! 

He had the ring taken away by Bilbo and when Frodo had it, ever tried to recapture it. But Gollum was the evil alter-ego of Smeagol, the more high minded man whose appetite for the good was slowly swallowed up by the ring.

A more profound and powerful modern example of something taking over a person's heart--and life--would be hard to find.

Few are as ugly or as grotesque about their idolatry as Gollum/Smeagol, but all people struggle and fail in this area of affections gone wild.

Everyone is tempted to call things "precious" that are in fact killing them.

What do you find precious?

Hurricane Irene is on its way up the eastern seaboard and headed toward New Jersey as I write.

I know people tend to exaggerate storm impacts. I know that there are politics involved in declaring states of emergency. I know that poverty is often caused by people's own poor choices. I know these things and many others.

But, when I heard about the more than a thousand people who had been evacuated from Atlantic City and have taken up temporary quarters at Rowan University's Esby Gym I felt I had to respond.

Spending time with these evacuees last night and this morning and seeing how short staffed the Red Cross was when they needed help serving meals, caring for people, getting supplies, I was reminded about what suburban precious often means: time and money. But especially time.

Let me explain.

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Filed under  //  Irene   Rowan University   gollum   hurricane   idolatry   lord of the rings   precious   sovereignty   suburban   suburbs   time