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Believers are called to love their neighbors. Loving others means willing their wellbeing. Willing the wellbeing of others is shalom. Shalom is at the root of our faith. Yet many modern faith communities don’t see the Cultural Mandate, shalom, and central institutions as being at the root of their mission. That’s an incorrect understanding of…
Believers are called to love their neighbors. Loving others means willing their wellbeing. Willing the wellbeing of others is shalom. Shalom is helping others flourish. To a large degree, people flourish inside institutions. Institutions shape culture, and culture shapes habits. Here’s Part Three of The Clapham Institute Manifesto: “Why Institutions Matter.”
Faith communities and believers are called to love their neighbors. Shalom is how they love their neighbors. Shalom means our faith flourishes to the degree that culture-shaping institutions in the wider world flourish. All institutions flourish to the degree that they are informed and formed by a biblical definition of reality. But why would a…
Did you enjoy your morning shower? Down a hot cup of coffee? If you didn’t think twice about your routine, you owe it to institutions. They make rituals routine. Now, if you think every person in the world ought to be able to enjoy a warm shower, you know why institutions matter. They matter so…
Robert Moses built Long Island parks that few African-Americans ever enjoyed. He poured parkways for New Yorkers to get to his parks – but few African-Americans ever drove on them. He carved out new beaches – but few African-Americans ever swam there. Moses accomplished this without passing one law barring them from his parks or…
Draw two circles. Make one very large – covering almost an entire page. Make the second circle very small. Write “reality” in the larger circle. Write “religion” in the smaller circle. Welcome to the 21st century. If you don’t think these circles square with reality, here are a handful of books worth reading this summer.
Four-on-five basketball produces a predictable result. With summer vacation, our weekly neighborhood game rarely fields a full complement of ten players. We could play 4-on-4, but that would require someone sitting out a game and getting stiff (we’re getting older). So we play 4-on-5 with the four-player team rarely winning. In the wider world, this…
by Mike Metzger & John Seel System thinking and its implications… The refusal of American colonials to buy British goods after the passage of the Stamp Act (1765) could be considered the first boycott. The practice didn’t receive its name until 1880, when English Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott’s ruthlessness in evicting Irish tenants, led his…
by Mike Metzger & John Seel System thinking and its implications… The refusal of American colonials to buy British goods after the passage of the Stamp Act (1765) could be considered the first boycott. The practice didn’t receive its name until 1880, when English Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott’s ruthlessness in evicting Irish tenants, led his…
Why Institutions Matter – Pt. 5
Michael Metzger
August 24, 2009
Believers are called to love their neighbors. Shalom is how faith communities love their neighbors. Shalom is the result of culture-shaping institutions taking the Bible’s definition of reality seriously and acting on it. Shalom says our faith flourishes to the degree that the institutions in the wider world flourish. This is radical, which means “from…