Rich Stearns’ Speech at Mobilisation to end Poverty in Washington DC

First posted on the old blogsite on 7 June 2009

This is the text of a speech given by Rich Stearns, World Vision President and author of “The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? the Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World” (buy now on Kalahari.net or Amazon.co.uk), at the Mobilisation to End Poverty held in Washington DC in April 2009. Although the speech is addressed at an American audience the principles are true for all of us.

Rich Stearn – World Vision
Mobilization to End Poverty

April 27, 2009

Good morning.

I want to thank Jim Wallis and Sojourners for organizing this historic meeting. I believe that our country and our world may stand at the brink of one of those momentous turning points that we usually see with greater clarity in retrospect than we do in the moment. 1776 was a turning point that changed the world order. 1860 was a turning point election that settled the issue of slavery three years later after the bloodiest war in our history. 1918 and 1945 were turning points that concluded two world wars and restructured international power dynamics while creating the multilateral institutions that would influence the world during the cold war and after. 1989 was a turning point that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the cold war. Why is 2009 a turning point? First, just as we witnessed the bankruptcy and inadequacy of Communism in 1989, we are now witnessing the bankruptcy and inadequacy of unrestrained Capitalism in 2009. This is a tough thing for a former corporate CEO to admit. Second, we are just now beginning to accept and understand the dire consequences of the global carbon economy that was the birth mother of a global economy based on unsustainable consumption. Third, and of considerable significance and perhaps more hopeful than the first two, is that we have just had an historic election that was a radical departure both racially and generationally. It is hopeful because it may be that the ingredients for a radical shift in the direction of global politics are now in place just as they were when Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy were elected.

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Worshiping Personalities

This post was originally uploaded onto the earlier version of this blog on 25 August 2005

Looking at my posts recently, they’ve been a bit “heavy” on the theology side. So, to break that a bit, I decided to write up a thought that has been running around my head for the past few weeks. It has to do with how worship leaders help people to connect with God (I also think it applies equally to preachers/teachers as well).

In analysing how people learn, researchers have come to recognise a shift from intelligence to intelligences. No longer do we have a traditionalist view that recognises only a single ‘intelligence’ (usually related to linguistic or mathematical ability) and which varies in its development from person to person. Rather, we should see people as having multiple ‘intelligences’. Add to that the fact that people have different personalities, cultures, genders, etc, and you create a seriously intense environment for education and connection.

There are many tools that can help us get beyond this complexity – mainly these are frameworks which help us simplify, without becoming simplistic.

In the light of this, my thought is simply this: we should take these differences much more seriously when we plan a time of worship.

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Welcome new readers – a quick intro to the conversation thus far

Every now and again I’ll do a quick overview of my favourite posts – and that can act as a nice introduction for new readers and a navigation tool for those who want to “catch up” with some of the thinking and conversations on this blog.

The purpose of this blog is to help Christians and those seeking faith to find new ways to think about what it means to be a Christ follower. I have been writing and blogging on this topic since 1995, and this blog includes a selection of new and old stuff I have been working on. Some of it I’d die for, but some of it is purely experimental (I try and let you know which is which). The point is not to present a fully worked through systematic theology, but rather to allow you to enter into an ongoing conversation with me. If you like, this is just my journal – and you get to look in…

So, with that said, here is a brief intro to some of the posts on this blog:

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Belief vs Knowledge

This post was first published on my old blog on 26 July 2005

A few years ago, I visited an emerging (more experimental, actually) church for their evening service. One of Christianity’s foremost thinkers and philosophers was there that evening, Dallas Willard. I have been a great fan of his writings, and as a collector of signed books, I took the opportunity to drive across town to get him to sign the books (I don’t often hold out hope that great authors will also be great speakers, so I must be honest that I didn’t expect too much).

Dallas was great. I found some random notes I scribbled down that night, and one of them hit me hard. This is what Dallas had to say:

We spend way too much time sitting in classes (and churches) learning things we don’t need to know. Even worse, we are not required to believe what we learn.

Imagine if our theological colleges had exams which said “write only what you believe”.

So, we learn the right answers to predetermined questions. There is little focus on actual belief. (And therefore there is a definite lack of application and life change). Which is why we forget it all so quickly.

Problem – this is how we approach Christianity. Our focus is not on belief which affects action, rather the focus is on learning the right answers, so that when we meet God we can get the answers right.

A comment was added to the original posting which deserves to be part of this thought:

Marcus Borg explores this idea even further (in his book -The Heart of Christianity-). He suggests that one of the problems of Christianity today is that we worry too much about belief – getting the ideas or -answers- (as you put it) right, and not enough on doing the right things. He compares the idea of believing with the idea of -beloving- -that Christianity is not so much about what you believe (not that you can just believe anything – what we believe is important, but not to -get any answers right-, rather because belief influences character and action), but rather about how we love and continue to grow better at loving Jesus-style, which is a practical, healing and transforming love. I must confess – Borg’s got me buying what he’s selling!

I agree. After all: Education is what remains when what has been taught has been forgotten.

The role of women leaders in the local church

This article was written in April 1996, when I was a theological student. It was a review of the arguments in relation to women leadership in the church. The Baptist Union that I was a part of at that time had a very ambiguous view on the issue, and as a student I was trying to show that an alternative to the traditional “no women leaders” view was possible while still remaining Biblical. Looking at it now, I was obviously constrained by a hefty word count limit, but still think I touched on all the right issues. Maybe one day I’ll get the time to flesh this out…

A theological and Biblical exposition of the role of women and their relationship to men within the church, with special reference to authority and teaching.

1. Introduction
The role of women is an issue of vital importance to us today, not only as this issue is tearing churches apart, but also because of the large number of women actively pursuing ministry opportunities in churches. The doctrine of humanity as espoused in Scripture is the basis of any solution to whether women are allowed to teach and have authority (i.e. lead) in local churches. This issue is intricately bound up with the general issue of women’s submission to men and male authority, especially within marriage.

This assignment will deal only with general human relationships and marriage where it has a direct bearing on the issue of women teaching and leading in the church.

2. Approach of This Assignment
Realising that the traditional conservative position of not allowing women to teach or have authority in the local church has been defended from Scripture for many decades, I will not concentrate on defending this view. Neither will I attempt to totally discredit it. What I wish to do is to show the possibility of alternative interpretations, while remaining true to Scripture, that would allow women to teach and lead in a church. In doing so, I shall highlight arguments on both sides, indicating their strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully in the process, demonstrate the consistent witness of Scripture. This assignment is based loosely on a response to Piper and Grudem’s book (see bibliography below).

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