Pedro Astacio...uuuggghhh! If the Rangers cut ties with Ryan Drese, their opening day starter, I've got think the scissors couldn't be far behind for Astacio. Giving up seven runs to that Braves lineup isn't acceptable.
The Dallas Morning News is projecting a matchup of Kenny Rogers against Ryan Drese Friday night when the Nationals come to the Palace.
-----------------
Since this year's Tulsa Workshop, I've immersed myself in reading everything I can get my hands on regarding the Postmodern/Spiritual Formation/Missional/Emerging Movement. It's probably not fair to lump all those angels of discipleship together, but they are all being birthed out of a similar paradigm.
I'm not on board with all the emergent stuff. It seems to me to make too many concessions to culture. The Spiritual Formation/Missional stuff, on the other hand, seems to be a gold mine.
I love the missional approach to contextualization and redefining mission as the prime directive of every Christian. Our language betrays that. We speak of "missionaries, the mission field, mission committees" as aspects of taking the gospel to foreign soil. What the missional church seeks is a recommitment to the reality that every Christian is not just a minister; every Christian is a missionary! That makes the mission field our neighborhoods, schools, and work places. The church collectively is the mission committee, charged with making disciples of all nations...beginning at home where we live!
Spiritual Formation is the recreation of the character and mission of Jesus Christ in the heart of every Christian/missionary. It is, pure and simple, practical discipleship development.
What the missional/spiritual formation effort does is raise a heightened awareness of the need for every follower of Jesus to become like Jesus for the sake of the lost next door. Across the street.
Perhaps the last century, in our quest to define our distinctiveness in relation to the rest of Christendom, failed us in our effort to be Jesus. We learned the proof texts to argue our uniqueness with our Christian friends while forgetting the necessity of being Jesus to the poor, the hungry, the lost.
The heart of the matter is: will we love God above everything else and love our neighbor enough to care about their eternal destiny?
