9: Resources

   

"Moving from sinful chaos to godly shalom through Christ"

 

 
 

Introduction

RESOURCES: LINKS & REFERENCES

Physicist Tim Berners-Lee's motive for inventing the web was to facilitate the exchange of information through creating a web of hypertext links. Accordingly, a section for such links and references is an important part of any website that functions to inform and educate.

Thus, it is vital for this site to develop and host a rich collection of fullness/kairos vision links that target the blessing and transformation of the Caribbean through the power of Christ.

Accordingly, we invite surfers to submit additional links that they may know of, relating to the key themes below or any other topics that will help to promote the godly development of the Caribbean:

    1. Discipleship & Training for Reformation

    2. The Theology of Fullness, Kairos, Discipleship and Reformation
      -->Islam
      --> Slavery, Christianity & Islam, the Scriptures  & the roots of Abolition
      -->       HIV/AIDS

    3. Reformation and Development-related issues, papers and commentary

    4. Globalisation, Worldviews, Spiritual Geopolitics and the Mission of the Church
      --> Scientism

    --> design
    --> Sternberg
    --> Selective Hyperskepticism
    --> The GLI Cybercollege proposal

    1. Caribbean & World News Links
      --> Blogs (a key trend)
    2. Links of general interest

Caribbean Kairos Links:

(1) Discipleship & Training for Reformation:

If the Caribbean church is to foster the reformation, sound development and blessing of the Caribbean, it must first attend to the development of its capacity to facilitate the required change. The following resources have been developed to that end.

(2) Theological/Technical:

In the Bible, the fullness and kairos themes are especially highlighted in Ephesians and Acts 17, but thread through a great many other passages and books. The links listed below are intended to stimulate further thinking on these topics, and on the road to reformation and godly development of the church and community, as well as ability to resist the rising tide of media-based "spin" that now threatens to overwhelm our ability to think straight:

2.1) The Christocentric Fullness Vision and the Church's "Discipling the Nations" Mission/Mandate: Fulness and our Mandate . [PDF version.] (See Section 4 below on action steps under our Missions mandate. Cf. notes engaging the related issue of Government under God, in light of Daniel's teachings and prophecies.)

2.2) Ethics, the Church, Discipleship and Sustainable Development in the Caribbean: Ethics, Reformation and Development [2nd Annual JTS/CGST Public Ethics Lecture, 2002] [PDF version. PowerPoint slide show.] Caribbean core cultural concerns series of articles, 2003. These letters to the editor on sexual issues, and these on the question of community values, are also helpful.

2.3) Godly values, reformation, liberty, government, development & prosperity in the community:

2.4) The Four R's of Revival: The draft book, "Why Not Now?"discusses Repentance, Renewal, Revival, and Reformation in the Caribbean, towards transformational change and godly development as a David Generation emerges into leadership. (It is based on a series of articles published in the Caribbean Challenge magazine, in 1999 - 2000.) [PDF version.] Chapters:

2.5) Campus & Young Adult Evangelisation Strategy: On the Evangelisation of College and University Students [CONECAR 1984 Workshop paper]. Also, cf. The GLI Cybercollege proposal.

2.6) Reasons for Faith: An Apologetics Primer (in some parts a bit introductory, as it is a basic leadership training module, but helpful as a survey paper). For a bit deeper treatment, cf. course on philosophy. The basic level material includes sections on:

2.7) The Problem of Evil: this is a wide issue, and is best approached from several directions, depending on your needs. In the philosophy course, one module addresses evil based on Plantinga's free will defense, in the context of arguments to and against God. The following external links will be helpful for: (1) thinking it through personally; (2) handling debater's talking points; (3) taking it as a serious intellectual issue. Here is an article by Alvin Plantinga, who has arguably decisively dealt with the logical form of the problem of evil; it addresses the broader issue: is belief in God intellectually credible? (Also, read his Advice to Christian Philosophers.)

2.8) Philosophy: In Michaelmas Term 2003, a course was presented at JTS, with main discussion foci as follows. (The Dictionary of the History of Ideas is a useful reference, as is the Stanford online Enc of Phil.) The motivating context for the course was an exploration of Plato's Allegory of the Cave:

2.8) The ICOC-Campbellite Baptismal Regeneration Controversy: In the mid 1980's on the Mona Campus of the UWI, Christian students were challenged by the aggressive recruitment efforts of leaders and members of a newly founded local congregation affiliated with what would in the 1990's become the International Churches of Christ. Very little was known, and after initial attempts at dialogue failed and it became evident that the group employed questionable teachings and discipling strategies, a response was made:

(1) Notes on ICOC-Campbellite sectarian teachings and questionable/controversial recruitment and discipling strategies.
(2) Cf. Yeakley's analysis of discipling strategy and Reveal.org's critique of the First Principles Studies, both from a largely Church of Christ perspective. Also, here is an exemplar of similar baptismal regenerationism from the wider Campbellite movement.
(3) The Reveal.org website, has far more information on the concerns over reported abusive discipling strategies, as well as comprehensive and accurate background information.
(4) A Forum in which ICOC related issues are discussed, e.g. Baptism and Salvation.

2.9) Coherence of the four Gospel Resurrection narratives: So-called "Anti-fundamentalism" activists in Jamaica have targetted these accounts as a test case to discredit the evangelical view of Scripture. The notes on "The first Easter Timeline" were prepared in response, in light of Paul's observation on the accountability of nations before God in Acts 17:30 - 31: "God . . . commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." [Emphasis added.] Simon Greenleaf's classic essay on the Testimony of the Evangelists has the reflections of the father of the modern jurisprudential theory of evidence on the quality of these NT documents as forensic evidence. In that light, skeptics need to face the Morison and Craig challenges to their selective hyperskepticism. Cf. also the discussion of the "paulianity" thesis here.

2.10) Conversion, Discipleship, Reformation & Development hopes/betrayal: Some of these same activists blame "fundies" for Jamaica's backwardness, and have even suggested that evangelicals have betrayed Jamaica's hopes for "liberation,"economic growth and truly sustainable development. I responded by writing/submitting: (1) a letter to the editor and (2) a series of short articles. The Vatican's 1984 encyclical on Liberation Theology is also quite instructive -- and refreshingly evangelical in tone. The notes on Government under God will also be of help.

2.11) The gospel and liberation in the Caribbean: a series of articles in light of the development of an Emancipation Park that boasts a heavily sexualised Ancestral Spirits monument, but is empty of the biblically-rooted heritage of liberation in Jamaica and the wider region. This series is an initial response to the call for addressing core cultural concerns in the Caribbean made in the recent (July 2003) Conference on Islam, the Gospel and the Caribbean. A further response is in the notes on Government under God.

2.12) Reformation & Development-related notes, lectures & presentations: Notes on the Mars Hill Strategy [PDF] & the JTS-CGST 2002 Ethics Lecture on Ethics, Reformation and Development. [PPT Slide show.] Also, cf. The GLI Cybercollege proposal. The following PPT slide show presentations are related to specific technical and educational issues:

2.13) Clarifying "Sustainable Development" & putting it to work:

(3) Issues/Commentary:

By definition issues are matters of opinion and debate, rather than settled knowledge. So, inevitably, questions tied to the reformation of the community invariably bristle with issues. Thus, we need to be equipped to discern the sound from the merely persuasive, and will also need, to be familiar with a wide range of views on key issues. The following links will therefore give basic frameworks and a selection of sources I have found helpful:

Straight Thinking 101: A PPT slide show on basics of critical thinking for handling issues.[PDF here.] (Also, look at the page on "spin" in the media.)

Kairosfocus blog and eGroup: associated with this site; these co-sites address the ongoing kairos in the Caribbean, and the opportunity for reformation that it poses.

Apologetics, theology, philosophical & values concerns: this site provides a Primer on apologetics concerns and an introductory Course on Philosophy -- more advanced thinking. For related links:

Public Policy, Development & Economics:

(4) Global challenges and the Mission of the Church

The Caribbean church's enduring mission embraces both: (1) the ongoing saving of souls and transformation of lives and communities in our region, and (2) the full participation of the Caribbean church in the global discipling mandate. In that interest, we provide local resources and several links:

Related trends and challenges are further discussed, under:

(5) Caribbean & World News

The following links are provided to aid in keeping up to date on current events and trends; but it is becoming ever more apparent that the generally available media are increasingly heavily biased, or "spun" to the point where "news" is far too often simply effective propaganda. As a result, an analytical grid is provided, to help us "de-spin," here. (NB: We need to be particularly aware at points where the media are playing to our own inclinations, e.g. on the Middle East situation. For, as the Apostle Paul warned, there would come a day when multitudes would not endure sound instruction but would prefer to listen to those who would tickle their itching ears with what they want to hear. [2 Tim. 4:3.] )

Caribbean News (Anglophone, selective):

World/International News & Commentary:

  • World Net Daily: my favourite online daily "newspaper"; useful for balancing the perspectives usually encountered in the main-stream media available to us in the Caribbean (e.g. through BBC). Tends to be politically and socially Conservative and/or Libertarian.
  • BBC, probably the biggest news-site in the world,one with a liberal/statist, overtly secularist view that is often sympathetic to neo-pagans and Islamists; also, it inclines to support (sometimes uncritically) the Arab/Palestinian positions in the ongoing Middle East crisis
  • Blogs: Now, my second -- sometimes, my first -- read for the morning. Hughhewitt.com is the place to get started in understanding and working with the emerging blogosphere phenomenon. The Powerline Blog (a centre-right group blog by a trio of lawyers) was highlighted as the blog of the year 2004. Instapundit (socially liberal, otherwise mostly conservative) seems to be the current "star" of the blogosphere. Belmont Club is useful for a BBC-balancing analysis of security-related issues.
  • Fox News, a centre-right, mainly secularist news network; now the leading US cable news and views network
  • CNN, the original global cable news network, which tends to lean to the Democratic Party and "progressive" secularist liberalism generally.
  • MSNBC, a smaller cable news site that is a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft
  • C-SPAN, perhaps the most studiously fair and balanced cable network
  • Newsmax.com a centre-right US-based news site that is more specifically Republican than WND.
  • Townhall.com gives conservative US commentary that helps us more deeply understand a George Bush-led US ("when the US sneezes, the Caribbean gets flu") Now a major site for the Centre right in the US.
  • Drudge Report (for links to a great many news sites of all stripes) by the net's #1 gossip columnist
  • MEMRI for hard to find, balanced news/information on the Middle East
  • Worthy News an example of a Christian news site
  • Atlantic Monthly always worth a look
  • Christianity Today a leading Evangelical magazine, has many useful online articles
  • UniSci for science news
  • ArXiv for Physics' latest ideas. . . where the web began!
  • Environmental News Network for an environmentalist perspective
  • Cato Institute, for a libertarian view (especially on typical environmentalist- and statist- oriented policies)

(6) These links relate to broader interests:

/Home

Contact Us:

Going Further:

For more details on the Fullness Vision (PDF):

Discipleship/training resources:

a) Courses:

(b) Documents (PDF):

About Fullness

Discipleship
 
News and Views

Issues

Services

About us

Discussion Forum

Resources

 


This web page was created by Gordon Mullings; all rights reserved