Category Archives: culture

Relational Proclamation of the Word, Personally and in Church: Practical “Distractions” for Sharing Christ in the 3rd World

Posted on April 17, 2013 by rynoyak

Following a blog post from ThomRanier.com—http://ow.ly/k8vh1–I was reminded of a very real issue for expectations and reality of being a faithful Christ follower in the non-West cultures. Talk about “First World Problems,” Ranier’s list and the subsequent comments show the contextual … Continue reading →

Posted in Church Planting, Church [Local], culture, Gospel - Salvation | Tagged Acts, Asian context, Bible, body of Christ, Christ-Follower, Christian, Christianity, church, church body, contextualization, culture, early church, evangelism, goats cows, God, good news, Gospel, Holy Spirit, house church, Jesus, local church, Paul, preaching, reality, relational church, relationship, Religion, salvation, theology, urban contexts, Western context | Leave a comment

Why does International and North American Church Planting look so different?

Posted on September 28, 2010 by rynoyak

What is it about International church planting (CP) that it gets so much assistance and teaching from looking at the “apostolic” role in Acts, like Barnabas, Paul, etc.? Why do the works written about Int’l CP teach so much from … Continue reading →

Posted in apostle, Bible Study, Church Planting, Church [Local], culture | Tagged Acts, apostle, Barnabas, Bible, biblical, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, church planting, cp, cpm, culture, deacon, disciple-maker, ecclesiology, God, international, Jesus, missiology, missions, North American, pastor, Paul, Religion, Scripture, Timothy | Leave a comment

Contextualization’s 2 Ditches: Legalism & License

Posted on May 20, 2010 by rynoyak

contextualization is a hot-word for all persons dealing with cross-cultural issues/ministry/work: how far can i go along with the locals’ culture and practice without being unbiblical? this ends up voiced in questions like: is this local practice “just for fun” … Continue reading →

Posted in apostle, Bible Study, Church Planting, culture, Disciple - Discipleship, Worldview(s) | Tagged alcohol, apostle, archaic, belief, believer, beneficial, Bible, biblical, black & white, brother, casual, children, Christ, Christian, Christianity, compromise, compromising in good conscience, context, contextualization, corinth, corinthians, cross-cultural, cross-culture, culturally appropriate, culture, disciple, disciple-maker, drinking, drunk, drunkenness, durham, eating, engaging, entry strategy, example, faith, fear, folk, follow, forgiveness, freedom, God, Gospel, grace, greear, grey area, hindi, hindu, holiness, holy, idol, idolatry, idols, ignorance, interpretation, J. D. Greear, Jesus, judgmental, kids, legalism, legalist, license, life, local, locals, lost, love, meaning, minister, missiology, mission, missions, namaste, natives, occassion, party, partying, pastor, Paul, permissible, practice, purpose, re-interpret, reinterpret, Religion, religious, respect, righteous, righteousness, sacrifice, saved, Scripture, seminarian, seminary, sin, sins, social, strong, stronger, study, stumble, stumbling block, the summit, tradition, truth, unbiblical, weak, weaker, world, worldview, youth | Leave a comment

A Call to Simple Worship: Why is coffee so good?

Posted on May 6, 2010 by rynoyak

Coffee, that sweet swirly muddy water of goodness, is the hot liquid of brew that steeped to a desired strength, lifts the very lids off your eyes if not also one’s own sleepy morning, like sunshine on the dew. Yes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible Study, culture, God & His Glory, Worldview(s) | Tagged 10:31, 3:17, agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, attitude, coffee, colossians, compartmentalize, corinthians, culture, deism, deist, formalize, glory, God, good, grace, gracious, gratitude, java, Jesus, life, lifestyle, lord, morning, personal, relationship, Religion, thankfulness, theism, theist, thessalonians, worship | Leave a comment

Immediate Immersion: the Acts, the New Testament & the Early Church On How to be Saved: A Practical Guide (Acts 2:38-41)

Posted on September 18, 2009 by rynoyak

The practical guidance Peter gives is simple. Repent. Accept the message, the good news of Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

Posted in Bible Study, Church Planting, Church [Local], culture, Disciple - Discipleship, God & His Glory | Tagged accept, act, Acts, atonement, balance, baptism, believe, believer, Bible, biblical, Calivinistic, call, calling, Calvin, Calvinism, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, command, culture, death, disciple, discipleship, Ephesians, faith, gift, glory, God, God-determined, good, Gospel, grace, guide, heart, holiness, holy, Holy Spirit, hope, how-to, human, hyper, immediate, imperfect, involvement, Jesus, life, love, man, mercy, message, method, model, news, Pentecost, perfect, Peter, practical, prayer, predestination, presentation, proclamation, relationship, Religion, religious, repent, repentance, repentant, responsibility, resurrection, revelation, sacrifice, sacrificial, salvation, savior, Scripture, sin, sinner's prayer, sins, sovereignty, study, Timothy, tradition, traditional, way, works | 1 Comment

Immediate Immersion: the Acts, the New Testament & the Early Church On When to Baptize (Acts 2)

Posted on September 18, 2009 by rynoyak

The issue for the church in discipling new believers is following the principle of baptism: a test of true faith as the new believer’s first step of obedient love for Christ. Discipleship is the fruit of salvation, and the way of those that are saved. Baptism is the first step of discipleship, according to the practice/method of the early church throughout Acts. Continue reading →

Posted in Bible Study, Church Planting, Church [Local], culture, Disciple - Discipleship, God & His Glory | Tagged accept, Acts, adult, apostle, apostles, baptism, baptist, baptize, baptized, belief, believe, believer, Bible, biblical, building, calling, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, command, conscious, context, counselor, culture, deacon, disciple, disciple-maker, discipleship, dynamice, ecclesiology, ekklesia, elder, Ephesians, extra-biblical, faith, Father, foundation, glory, God, good, Gospel, grace, greek, heart, Hebrews, holy, Holy Spirit, hope, immediate-after-repentance-baptism, immersion, individual, infant, James, Jesus, John, laymen, layperson, love, Luke, masterpiece, method, model, narrative, nature, new testament, news, non-believer, non-biblical, obedient, Paul, pentacost, Peter, Philippians, plant, planting, principle, receive, relationship, Religion, religious, repent, repentance, repentence, righteous, righteousness, Romans, salvation, saved, Scripture, sin, sins, son, sprinkling, study, truth, water, work, workmanship, works | 2 Comments

Old Abandoned Buildings & Man’s Mortality

Posted on September 11, 2009 by rynoyak

Old abandoned buildings are nothing in and of themseles, but they are significant signs of the passing of time, the change of people and places, the lives and deaths of people, the arising of ideas and needs and wants of people that built the building for a purpose that time has proved to be obsolete and faded into the unknown inconsequential past that no one really remembers ith any regard or importance. Continue reading →

Posted in culture, God & His Glory, Worldview(s) | Tagged abandoned, abandonment, age, apparitions, Archibald Rutledge, architecture, author, boats, book, Bridgeport, buildings, Carolina, change, Charleston, community, Connecticut, cross, CT, death, delta, Ecclesiastes, emotions, evil, factories, factory, fear, feelings, Francis Marion, ghosts, God, Hampton, haunted, Hebrews, historical, history, holiness, holy, home, Home by the River, house, housing, human, hunting, ideas, immortal, inconsequence, Indian, life, man, mortal, mortality, Mount Pleasant, old, past, perfect, perfector, plantation, prohibition, Psalm, resurrection, revolution, rice, righteousness, Romans, sacrifice, sandlapper, Santee, SC, Shelton, significance, society, South, structure, swamp, Swamp Fox, time, ugly, value, wisdom, zoning | 1 Comment

Your Real Age

Posted on August 4, 2009 by rynoyak

Why don’t we as Christians consider the age of someone to actually be older than their Birthday?
God created a life, and human life uniquely created in the image of God means it is most significant and worthy of our care and concern. Continue reading →

Posted in culture, God & His Glory, Worldview(s) | 1 Comment

Self-Worship Vs. “Creator-Fingerprinted” Creation

Posted on November 8, 2008 by rynoyak

I believe the universal liking of nice things is a reflection of a deep, inherrent knowledge of a “good” and a “bad” existing in the world.

So, although people may have a motivation to have good things/nice things as defined by their peers/culture/society/family, the heart of the universal liking of niceness is a matter of the eternal God having made all men to know him, his truth, his reality, and to have a right relationship with him. Continue reading →