“Those who love their dream of Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community.” Thus wrote (in paraphrase) Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book “Living Together.” Bonhoeffer understood something which many of us struggle to accept – Christian community isn’t easy. Especially in a modern society so used to material comfort, we don’t like when our Christian communities get uncomfortable. We want things to be easy and without conflict. Nevertheless, real, authentic Christian community is going to be messy and challenging. That is because real, authentic Christian community is like a family. We get angry at family. We disagree with family. We get hurt by…
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Foreign Languages & Foreign Ideas
I have learned two foreign languages in my life. The first was French which I studied all the way through both high school and college. I even spent a semester abroad in Belgium, where I worshiped with a French speaking church. The second I learned as an adult, when my family moved to Japan. Although I learned some Japanese as a child, it only involved simple phrases and counting to ten. As an adult, I went through the arduous process of achieving some degree of fluency, enough to work as a missionary in the country. I could give a lot of advice about learning a foreign language. Of course, you…
