This week on The Great Reset our Biasta Janet leads the Biastes through FishBowl Dialogues (FBD), a game for cultivating constructive relational practices.
Question: How can we all get better at loving everyone the way Jesus does?
Perspective: By publicly playing a game where we practice, observe, and learn the relevant skills.
Continue readingThis week on The Great Reset the Biastes* (and Biasta) try the “Critical Community Protocol” to address an urgent local problem, which might also solve an important global problem.
This coming Tuesday, August 18th (1pm PDT), the Biastes (and our new Biasta Janet) reflect on Season 3 as we discuss a concrete proposal for how to practice co-discipleship in Season 4.
Question: What in God’s name are we trying to do here?
We wrap up this Season’s discussion of the Biastes Co-Discipleship Network on the 1pm PST Tuesday, Aug 11, 2020 episode of The Great Reset, by attempting to practice what we have been preaching.
Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.
John 13:34-35 MSG
Question: How can we ensure we are following Jesus, not men?
Perspective: Deliberately practice loving all His followers as Jesus has loved us.
Continue readingBuilding on last week’s pitch for the Biastes Co-Discipleship Network, our 1pm PST Tuesday, July 21, 2020 episode of The Great Reset proposes a new building block for the Body of Christ.
What is the most effective and scalable context for co-constructing disciples of Jesus?
What if we as Christians redefined our current understanding of “holiness” to match what God intended in Genesis, and Christ demonstrated in the gospels?
Continue readingThis Tuesday on July 7th, 2020 we kick off Season 3 of The Great Reset by introducing oikotics, a novel discipline that unifies economics, politics, psychology & religion.
Question: What is the most useful and healthy way to think about money?
Perspective: Money is the most decentralized mechanism yet for a society to distribute Resources, Status and Relationships. As such, it complements — and competes with! — family, religion, and the state.
Continue readingThis Tuesday 6/30 with the Biastes we complete our second Season of The Great Reset, on Education, by attempting to co-construct an answer to the question:
What is the Most Important Thing to collectively keep getting better at doing, in order for us and the world to experience the fullness of God’s Kingdom (Love)?
Join us on Zoom or YouTube/Facebook Live to co-create the video of this episode at 10 AM PST on Friday, May 1st, 2020 AD.
Question: How do we develop unconquerable joy?
Continue readingJoin us on Zoom or Facebook to co-create the video of this episode at 10 AM PST on Friday, April 24th, 2020 AD.
Enjoy, Love & Glorify
God, Ourselves & Others
As Jesus Does
God, Us & Others
Enjoying, Loving, & Glorifying,
God, Ourselves, Others & the World
Anjali’s Catechism: The Book is coming in Summer 2019. Preview now.
Are you ready to:
Worship: He’s Worth It
The whole point of becoming a Christian is to know and love God, ourselves, and others the way Jesus did. But what exactly is love?
We use the word “love” whenever we strongly desire or value something. But there are three very different kinds of love:
Dear God,
Teach us how to leave each other the way you love us.
Make us more like Jesus as we let go of what we want.
Help us hear your voice and obey you
so we can enjoy your abundant life.
We ask this in Jesus name.
Amen.
[Now part 1 of 6 in a series on Childlike Theology]
Since my son’s second set of seasons, I’ve sought a scalable summary of the gospel. Something simple enough to be sung by a six-year-old, yet sufficiently sophisticated to stun seminarians for centuries. Here’s my most successful statement so far:
God Loves Us Like Jesus
Simultaneously saying, in short, that the Father loves in the way:
Submitting to that sort of Savior is a sweet smell to our spirit, but a shocking scare to our sin! Continue reading
The first rule of Knight Club: you must talk about Knight Club.
In the comments on my first Knight Club post, my friend Jor Bratko talks about “raising adults”, and points out that:
the legitimacy of my authority like all legitimate authority comes from love: the care of the other
He is absolutely correct. I actually knew this, but I didn’t understand how it applied to fatherhood. Part of the problem is that the English word “love” refers to (at least) three different phenomena, which in this context I call Baby Love, Bro Love, and Boss Love — loosely inspired by the four loves described by C.S. Lewis.
Part 3 of the Guilt–Grace-Gratitude musical trilogy, from my 1996 meditations on The Grace Cycle.
The following song is a lyrical version of “Graphical Theology: The Grace Cycle“, part of my burst of artistic exploration in 1996. It was the first element of a trilogy on the Reformation themes of Guilt-Grace–Gratitude, but unlike the other two I never was happy enough with it to put it to music.
This is a song I wrote back in 1996 in my post-college, pre-Apple days in Pasadena, California. It was for a girl I knew — heck, it fit pretty much all the girls I hung out with and/or was interested in during that decade.
I also sang it during a “Christian Connection” (online dating site) cruise back in 1999, just before I met Sandhya. By God’s grace I got to perform for the ship talent show. I said I was part of a Christian singles group with 80 women and 15 men — and I was having a *great* time! (as was reported almost daily on the ship’s TV :-).
“But being single wasn’t always fun and games — and that’s why I wrote this song.”
Continue reading
boIn Which Diligently Searching God’s Word Leads Us to Truth
Few disciplines are as essential — or as dangerous! — as studying the words and works of God. Used in the wrong spirit, theology can become a heavy burden or a useless distraction (cf. Matthew 23:4). But when taught by the Holy Spirit, God’s word becomes the very source of life itself (cf. Luke 4:4). The challenge to us, as to Timothy, is whether we will apply God’s word rightly…
Memory Verse: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” — 2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)
