People are always striving to be the best—it's part of being human, and it's how God made us. But is the true meaning of sport just to crush the competition, or is it something more significant?
As the world gathers in Beijing to showcase the spirit of competition and excellence, we're celebrating athletics and sportsmanship here at Gospel.com. Join us as we highlight sports ministries and look for the spiritual significance of sports.
“For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.”
- Psalm 149:4
Today's passage is from the New International Version of the Bible
Powered by BibleGateway.com
One of the more interesting consequences of the Olympic games being held in China has been the Chinese government’s slight loosening of religion restrictions within its borders.
Granted, there’s still much persecution and government intervention when it comes to religion, but something like this would have been unheard of 40 years ago:
China will provide 10,000 free Chinese-English bilingual Bibles to be distributed in the Olympic Village where the Olympic athletes and media are housed, as reported by the China Daily newspaper. The bilingual Bible text will include the CUV (Chinese Union Version) and the ESV (English Standard Version), appearing in two side-by-side columns per page. The CUV Bible is the most widely distributed Chinese Bible in the world, and the ESV Bible has recently become the fastest-growing English language Bible in the world.
In addition to the 10,000 bilingual CUV-ESV Bibles, 30,000 New Testaments and 100,000 bilingual editions of the four Gospels will also be made available at the Olympic Games.
Because cultural and academic leaders in China are seeking to understand the influence of the Bible on the worldview and culture of the West, there is a growing interest in Chinese-English bilingual Bibles in mainland China. “We are especially grateful,” Crossway President Dr. Lane Dennis notes, “that the ESV was selected by Chinese Christian leaders for publication with Chinese CUV Bible, through our partnership with the British and Foreign Bible Society. Since both the CUV and the ESV are ‘essentially literal’ Bible translations, they are ideally suited for a side-by-side comparison of the two languages. What a wonderful thing it would be if thousands of people would learn English—and Chinese!—by reading the Bible in side-by-side bilingual editions.”
This month, one sporting event will demand our attention above all others: the 2008 Olympics. Here at Gospel.com, we’ll be pointing out a few people and organizations in our community that do sports ministry: outreach to sports fans and athletes.
Does it seem strange to imagine a “sports ministry”? It might sound odd at first, but consider that athletics is an activity held in esteem by nearly every culture around the world, today and throughout history. Whether you like your football in the American or European variety; whether you run a marathon or swim the English channel—athletic achievement is recognized all over the world as a way to explore our own humanity.
Which means that it’s a natural and universal way to talk about the human condition… and that’s why evangelists going all the way back to the Apostle Paul have used sports as a metaphor for the spirtual life:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. —Hebrews 12:1
We’ll take note of specific sports outreaches and ministries in the next few weeks, as the Olympics play out. But it seems appropriate to start out with a short reflection on Paul’s use of the language of sports to talk about spiritual truth. Ron Hutchcraft has a devotional message (in text and audio) that examines what Paul means when he talks about running the race and carrying the torch, with an Olympics twist:
Now, Paul must have enjoyed the ancient Olympic Games. He made several references to them. As he writes his letter to his spiritual apprentice, Timothy, you can almost picture Paul as a torch bearer of the message of Jesus Christ. Writing from a prison cell, he’s on his last lap before he is going to collapse into the arms of Jesus. But right now he’s concerned about who will carry the torch from here.
Read the full devotional for more—and check back later this week as we look at sports ministries here in the Gospel.com community!
Mission Network News reports on the AIDS pandemic:
Approximately 2 million people died from AIDS in 2007, down from about 2.2 million deaths in 2005, UNAIDS reported on Tuesday.
However, Gary Schneider, President and CEO of Every Orphan’s Hope, warned that the battle is far from over. The report also showed that some 2.7 million people worldwide were newly infected in 2007, bringing the total number of people infected with AIDS to 33 million.
“We have seen tremendous progress being made on the fight against HIV/AIDS, but I think even to applaud those numbers might be a little bit premature,” Schneider said. “We see that there’s still 2 million people a year who are dying from HIV/AIDS, and the total number of people receiving new infections each year is still continuing to rise.”
Every Orphan’s Hope ministers to orphans impacted by the AIDS crisis in Zambia, the home of about a million orphans. It comes alongside the Zambian church to care for about 400 children on a monthly basis and to reach a total of several thousand children every year through its Camp Hope Bible camps.
Gospel.com is a community of Christian organizations all committed to doing ministry online. You can explore hundreds of different topics or get to know the many ministries that make up our community.
Each day we highlight the newest and best resources here at the Gospel.com blog, so check back regularly to see what's happening!
A 30-second film shows six people playing basketball, three in white shirts and three
in black. Volunteers are asked to count how many times the white shirt team pass the ball.
At the end of the film, they are asked if they saw anything unusual. Most do not. The
unusual thing is: halfway through the film, a man wearing a gorilla suit walks through the
players, beats his chest to the camera, then walks off.
When shown the film again, people are utterly surprized to see him, to the extent that
they often believe a different film has been substituted for the original one. Their focus
on one task has blinded them to a truth.
This film trick illustrates a simple fact - that if we are only looking for one thing,
we do not usually see anything different. This forms the basis of Professor Richard
Wiseman's new book DID YOU SPOT THE GORILLA? HOW TO RECOGNISE HIDDEN OPPORTUNITIES. The
point at which people finally see the unexpected is what he calls a 'gorilla moment'.
What does this secular book have to teach us about evangelism? We can use it on two
levels:
1. Understanding how non-Christians think
Most non-Christians are not looking for God, and we know from e.g. Isaiah 44:18 that they
have, often willingly, created a blindspot in their lives. In God's grace, we may be able
to bypass their blindspot and smuggle ideas into their hearts, by unusual and creative
presentations of the gospel. They may filter out traditional formulaic presentations, yet
receive something which is unusual and different. We must enable them to have a 'gorilla
moment'.
2. Learning to think creatively
The book subtitle is 'how to recognise hidden opportunities'. It helps us to prepare
ourselves for 'thinking laterally' or 'outside the envelope'. If we are to create 'gorilla
moments' for non-Christians, we need our own 'gorilla moments' where we see creative ways
of presenting the Gospel, online or offline.
Christians are not always good at thinking creatively. Maybe it is because we believe
we have already have all the truth we need. We like to stay with approaches that are
'safe'. Non-Christians often do creativity far better in the area of communication - the
arts, fiction, writing, films, or advertising. For instance, look at the story-lines of
two Speilberg films - ET and Artificial Intelligence. The screen-plays were not written by
a Christian, as far as I know. Speilberg himself does not claim a Christian faith. Yet the
ususual creative and mythic nature of these stories is remarkable, and they actually
contain embedded Christian truth.
It is a sad fact that Christians do not usually create stories like this, instead
sticking to something bland, safe and maybe preachy.
Yet God is a creative and awesome God, just waiting to inspire us with totally new
ideas and strategies for communicating the changeless Gospel. There are, I am sure,
countless creative outreach sites, books, films, just waiting to be written! One person
shared such an idea with me recently, which would have enormous power and potential.
In North America, it is stocked in Canada and is available by mail order, but is not
currently distributed within US: http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/rd?b0804gorillaCAN
First-time Amazon Canada and UK customers get a money-off voucher.
HEALING PIANO
A creative and contextualized approach: piano music. The site offers downloadable piano
music, intended to bring healing and comfort to those suffering pain. As you progress into
the site, there is a link 'True Healing', which introduces people to the real Healer.
There are also online cards to send to others. Chuck Brown writes:
"Instrumental music traverses many, many boundaries (age, gender, nationality, etc).
And a site offering instrumental MP3s seemed a good venue to briefly address the concept
of healing in an eternal sense.
As far as the direct inspiration for the site, I've spent much of the last 3 years in
hospitals, doctors' offices and rehabiliation centers. It can be very lonely and
discouraging: much of the work is not very rewarding, and for those who are not healing,
or who are chronically ill or dying, with complications of dementia and senility, losing
their grasp on reality, it's really tough. I was really struck by how music (in the few
places it can be found) continues to connect with people. I have seen personally people
who barely knew who they were anymore, singing along with music from their youth. So, as a
musician, and specifically a solo pianist, I felt that I had a gift to offer - free music
- with the specific encouragement to try to use it (where possible) for the benefit of
those healing, convalescing or grieving. I really feel like it's been very successful
based on the feedback I've received. http://healingpiano.com/index.html
TIPS
COLOR TOOL: ColorCache is a professional color picker, color scheme generator and
palette management tool, no charge for personal, educational and non-profit use: http://www.tlhouse.co.uk/ColorCache/
ANIMATED AVATARS - some secular websites use an animated avatar - i.e. cartoon-like
speaking character - to guide you though the site. FishTheNet is working on the same thing
for spoken online tracts. Unusual! Different? http://fishthe.net/oemt.htm
EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynne Truss
The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, and then draws a gun and
fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a
badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"PANDA. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and
leaves."
Lynne Truss is a UK journalist and writer, well towards national-treasure status. Her
book on punctuation has become a surprising best-seller. Truss's contention is that
punctuation actually matters, and writes in a compelling and amusing style to prove her
point. Did you know that grammar could be this much fun?
Punctuation is highly relevant to the Internet. The print media, by and large, still
realize that good punctuation appears professional, and employ proof-readers and
sub-editors for this purpose. So much on the Internet, however, is added without thought
to proof-reading at all.
B J Fogg, in PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY, USING COMPUTERS TO CHANGE WHAT WE THINK AND DO, points
out that the perceived credibility of a website - a subjective judgement that people make
as they visit - is based on a range of factors including adherence to good spelling and
punctuation.
USABILITY: When search engines become answer machines
"Increasingly, the Internet user experience is becoming one of dipping a toe into websites
rather than truly 'visiting' them. Using search engines as their Web interface, people
simply grab query-related nuggets from sites, but don't engage with the sites themselves,"
says the latest Altertbox: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040816.html
SEARCH ENGINES AND ROLLOVER LINKS: can search engines follow rollerver links? It
depends. Make sure that ther are true html hyperlinks that search engine spiders can
follow: http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/rd?bull0408rollover
The next 12-week distance learning course on web evangelism conducted by Cybermissions
starts in September. You can view the syllabus and sign up already: http://www.cybermissions.org/training
SYNDICATING THE BULLETIN ON YOUR SITE
Thank you to the people who have added the current Bulletin by J.script syndication
code to their sites. Please don't forget that you should include your normal headers,
footers, graphics, and navigation bar on your page. And don't forget to link to it! You
can also link to it using 'blog-style' 60-word introduction on another of your pages,
using a separate script insert code to create this. You can even add another piece of
J.script to your Bulletin page, which causes all the links within the Bulletin content to
open on a new page. Oh, and there's a J.script insert with the words to tell your visitors
that this will happen. First site to use this new blog intro - you get a feature in next
time's Bulletin!
And every other page within the Guide is available to syndicate directly into your site
too. Unlike the Bulletin however, you must add in your own h1 header. Review all the pages
available through the popout menu on any page, or at the sitemap: http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/resources/sitemap.php
ACCC CONFERENCE October 27-28, 2004 offers a range of Technology and Ministry
Conference Tracks
- Community/Church Computer Center Track: share information about providing computer
classes to your community, using technology in after school programs, resources and grants
to start and grow your Computer Centers.
- After School Co-ordinator/Youth Minister Track: learn how others use video, music mixing,
computers and the Internet to enhance their after-school programs and youth
ministries.
- QuickBooks for Church/Ministry Administrators Track: hands-on introductory training on
QuickBooks. http://www.techmission.org/conferences/atlanta04/
It is often hard for churches to see the potential for cybermission, and therefore
workers in this field do not receive the support they need to fulfil their ministries. http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/resources/free.php
By way of example, may I introduce you to a worker who is absolutely vital to online
evangelism, especially in the non-Western world, and yet he receives minimal personal
support. Maybe there's a church somewhere looking to adopt a missionary and ministry like
this? http://aibi.gospelcom.net/aibi/donate.htm
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CB RADIO. Having not seen a CB radio in UK for years, I thought it had faded away. But
no, the wavelengths are still there. And UK churches have recently been permitted to use
CB for easy broadcasting of services to their immediate neighbourhood.
NOW COMES SPIM. Just when you thought you were beating email sp-m, along come unwanted
messages (SPIM) using Inst. Messaging. 5% of all IM messages is now SPIM.
Fans of 60s music, my 14-year-old daughter and her best friend got front-row tickets to
a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert.
When they returned home, she said, "During the show, we looked back and saw hundreds of
little lights swaying to the music. At first we thought people were holding up cigarette
lighters. Then we realized that the lights were the reflections off all the eyeglasses in
the audience."
[source: http://www.cybersalt.org/ ]
Display the latest Bulletin on your site
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then copy/paste (CTRL+C/CTRL+V) this code into your own page:
help
(Please do NOT copy the actual contents of any Bulletin issue onto your own site:
reasons.)
You can also add a blog-style taster to your linking page, using
this code.
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People are always striving to be the best—it's part of being human, and it's how God made us. But is the true meaning of sport just to crush the competition, or is it something more significant?
As the world gathers in Beijing to showcase the spirit of competition and excellence, we're celebrating athletics and sportsmanship here at Gospel.com. Join us as we highlight sports ministries and look for the spiritual significance of sports.
“For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.”
- Psalm 149:4
Today's passage is from the New International Version of the Bible
Powered by BibleGateway.com
One of the more interesting consequences of the Olympic games being held in China has been the Chinese government’s slight loosening of religion restrictions within its borders.
Granted, there’s still much persecution and government intervention when it comes to religion, but something like this would have been unheard of 40 years ago:
China will provide 10,000 free Chinese-English bilingual Bibles to be distributed in the Olympic Village where the Olympic athletes and media are housed, as reported by the China Daily newspaper. The bilingual Bible text will include the CUV (Chinese Union Version) and the ESV (English Standard Version), appearing in two side-by-side columns per page. The CUV Bible is the most widely distributed Chinese Bible in the world, and the ESV Bible has recently become the fastest-growing English language Bible in the world.
In addition to the 10,000 bilingual CUV-ESV Bibles, 30,000 New Testaments and 100,000 bilingual editions of the four Gospels will also be made available at the Olympic Games.
Because cultural and academic leaders in China are seeking to understand the influence of the Bible on the worldview and culture of the West, there is a growing interest in Chinese-English bilingual Bibles in mainland China. “We are especially grateful,” Crossway President Dr. Lane Dennis notes, “that the ESV was selected by Chinese Christian leaders for publication with Chinese CUV Bible, through our partnership with the British and Foreign Bible Society. Since both the CUV and the ESV are ‘essentially literal’ Bible translations, they are ideally suited for a side-by-side comparison of the two languages. What a wonderful thing it would be if thousands of people would learn English—and Chinese!—by reading the Bible in side-by-side bilingual editions.”
This month, one sporting event will demand our attention above all others: the 2008 Olympics. Here at Gospel.com, we’ll be pointing out a few people and organizations in our community that do sports ministry: outreach to sports fans and athletes.
Does it seem strange to imagine a “sports ministry”? It might sound odd at first, but consider that athletics is an activity held in esteem by nearly every culture around the world, today and throughout history. Whether you like your football in the American or European variety; whether you run a marathon or swim the English channel—athletic achievement is recognized all over the world as a way to explore our own humanity.
Which means that it’s a natural and universal way to talk about the human condition… and that’s why evangelists going all the way back to the Apostle Paul have used sports as a metaphor for the spirtual life:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. —Hebrews 12:1
We’ll take note of specific sports outreaches and ministries in the next few weeks, as the Olympics play out. But it seems appropriate to start out with a short reflection on Paul’s use of the language of sports to talk about spiritual truth. Ron Hutchcraft has a devotional message (in text and audio) that examines what Paul means when he talks about running the race and carrying the torch, with an Olympics twist:
Now, Paul must have enjoyed the ancient Olympic Games. He made several references to them. As he writes his letter to his spiritual apprentice, Timothy, you can almost picture Paul as a torch bearer of the message of Jesus Christ. Writing from a prison cell, he’s on his last lap before he is going to collapse into the arms of Jesus. But right now he’s concerned about who will carry the torch from here.
Read the full devotional for more—and check back later this week as we look at sports ministries here in the Gospel.com community!
Mission Network News reports on the AIDS pandemic:
Approximately 2 million people died from AIDS in 2007, down from about 2.2 million deaths in 2005, UNAIDS reported on Tuesday.
However, Gary Schneider, President and CEO of Every Orphan’s Hope, warned that the battle is far from over. The report also showed that some 2.7 million people worldwide were newly infected in 2007, bringing the total number of people infected with AIDS to 33 million.
“We have seen tremendous progress being made on the fight against HIV/AIDS, but I think even to applaud those numbers might be a little bit premature,” Schneider said. “We see that there’s still 2 million people a year who are dying from HIV/AIDS, and the total number of people receiving new infections each year is still continuing to rise.”
Every Orphan’s Hope ministers to orphans impacted by the AIDS crisis in Zambia, the home of about a million orphans. It comes alongside the Zambian church to care for about 400 children on a monthly basis and to reach a total of several thousand children every year through its Camp Hope Bible camps.
Gospel.com is a community of Christian organizations all committed to doing ministry online. You can explore hundreds of different topics or get to know the many ministries that make up our community.
Each day we highlight the newest and best resources here at the Gospel.com blog, so check back regularly to see what's happening!
This month, one sporting event will demand our attention above all others: the 2008 Olympics. Here at Gospel.com, we’ll be pointing out a few people and organizations in our community that do sports ministry: outreach to sports fans and athletes.
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