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Showing posts from September, 2013

Issues Facing Missions Today: 6. Remuneration for Ministry

Issues Facing Missions Today: 6. Remuneration for Ministry We find in Scripture at least six different views on remuneration for ministers.  These involve different models for ministry, each with a different focus, different metaphors for ministry, different things being opposed, and different values.  What we learn from Scripture in examining these models is not the Biblical practice that we ought to follow today but ways in which to discuss these matters as people of the Spirit in our own contexts.  What is required of us is a good performance in our contexts of the various concerns and values that we find in the various Biblical models for ministry. First Model: The Levitical, Institutional Religion Model Texts: The Pentateuch Focus: Centralized Temple Ministry for All the People Metaphor for Ministry: Wave Offering, Gift, Priests Opposition: Freedom of religion Values: Obedience and loyalty (hierarchical roles), diligence (fulfilling duties in established 

Issues Facing Missions Today: 5. Some Reflections on Translation and Theology in the Case of the Phrase, ‘Son of God’

Issues Facing Missions Today: 5. Some Reflections on Translation and Theology in the Case of the Phrase, ‘Son of God’ How shall we translate the phrase ‘Son of God’ when hearers may read this literally, as though one is claiming that God had a literal son, instead of metaphorically?  The debate on this specific point raises not only questions about translation but also about the nature of theology and its translatability into other contexts.  I here argue that the interrelatedness of such issues makes translation difficult, if not impossible at times.  Indeed, readers of Scripture cannot be passive hearers but must become interpreters. Christology: ‘Son of God’ as an Equivalent to ‘Messiah’? The phrase ‘Son of God’ in Ps. 2.7 overlaps with what is meant by the term ‘Messiah’—God’s anointed king.  However, the terms are intentionally distinguished in Jesus’ ministry and should not be equated in Bible translation.  I will argue this point by looking only at Mark’s Gospel. In