What Really Matters (July - August, 2010)
Why Community Matters (to Me)
Rachel Cox Henderson
07/25/2010 - One of our class readings outlined what the author called, “The Three Worst Types of Christians.” The first two were pretty obvious: The Christian who separates too much from the world, and the Christian who is too much like it. However, the third one really stumped me: The Christian who befriends non-believers just to convert them. I remember reading that and thinking… “Wait a minute…why else WOULD you befriend someone who doesn’t believe?” I had never thought of friendships with nonbelievers as anything other than a missionary method. The author more fully elaborated by asking this question: “Think of an unbelieving friend. If you knew that person would never come to know Jesus, would you keep investing in a friendship with them anyway?” The indictment I felt after reading that question sent me on exciting journey that’s still leading to new discoveries every day. . . .



Why Reading Scripture Matters
Amy McLaughlin
07/21/2010 - This past school year I was required to read Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book for one of my classes at Lipscomb University. I found in its pages a convicting challenge, and the challenge was this: lectio divina. Lectio Divina, commonly translated as “spiritual reading,” is a reading of scripture in which living and reading are reciprocal, interwoven with one another; it is a formative life-changing reading of scripture. I tend to agree with Peterson that this kind of reading should indeed be our goal. However, this task has proven to be more daunting than I imagined. . . .



Why Theology Matters
Brad East
07/18/2010 - Theology is notoriously difficult to define. Many have claimed that theology, taken literally, is simply any and all talk about God. And to some extent we ought to allow this straightforward understanding: certainly to be a Christian, and in a sense to be human at all, is to engage in theological practice. All of life, it may be said, is a kind of grappling with how to speak—not to mention what that speech entails in day-to-day living — about, and to, God. . . .



Why Justice Matters
Jordan Wesley
07/14/2010 - “That there is something unfolding in the universe whether one speaks of it as an unconscious process, or whether one speaks of it as some unmoved mover, or whether someone speaks of it as a personal God. There is something in the universe that unfolds for justice and so in Montgomery we felt somehow that as we struggled we had a cosmic companionship. And this was one of the things that kept the people together, the belief that the universe is on the side of justice.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, June 4th, 1957, at the University of California at Berkley ... Extraordinary persons such as Mother Teresa press us to stare into the eyes of grotesque inequities, and in the humanity of this abstract pursuit of justice, we find a cosmic companion, the one behind and before the struggle for justice. . . .



Why Mission Matters
Ryan Woods
07/11/2010 - I tried to be a missionary once. I failed. For two years I spent time in a ghetto suburb of Lisbon, Portugal trying to save the world. The world did not get saved. As a matter of fact, I did not technically save anybody. I learned to love soccer, I spent time with teenagers and homeless men, and I grew my hair out. But missionaries are supposed to grow churches, see hordes of people come to Jesus, and perfect their altar calls. I did none of those. I helped my Angolan musician friend Rey Kuango write lyrics in English. I fed homeless folk and saw a community of emerge at our church from their ranks. I provided a place to stay for my friend Nikko away from his cockroach-infested home where his light fixture consisted of a light bulb and two wires that he shoved into the outlet. But I never performed an altar call. Being a missionary is nearly one of the hardest things I have ever done. But it was nothing compared to what it prepared me for later in my life of ministry. . . .



What Really Matters
Sara Barton
07/07/2010 - When I was asked to edit an issue of New Wineskins, therefore, I knew that I wanted to invite young thinkers to contribute to the theme, What Really Matters? Every writer who contributed to this issue (besides myself) is younger than thirty. Our conversations over email, through Facebook messages, and in text messages, have been what I hoped they would be. They have been centered on what matters in the lives of those who profess Jesus as Lord in our postmodern world. They have been about loving God and loving others. . . .