Okay... As the marketing campaign for South Africa's rugby team, the Springboks, for the 2007 Rugby World Cup said... The time is now! And yes, they are the world champions now.
How exactly is that important? We'll, being proudly South African, they're my team. And the time is now to start talking about the Rethink speakers. And Charles Colson is lucky number one.
I tried to make thorough notes while listening at the conference, but I do not know shorthand, and I can't write very fast (and I type with 2 fingers) so, I might have missed important things... Sorry. Also, I am using my own words here, and things may come out differently to what the authors actually said. Sorry, again.
And now I am done being apologetic! I am sure the main drift of the message will come across fine (albeit short), and you will be convinced of the value of attending such a nice conference... and I will see you there in 2009!
I am sure Mr. Colson doesn't need much of an introduction. He is the founder of Prison Fellowship, and has a daily radio broadcast airing to more than 5 million people. It's called BreakPoint.
I have never read any of Chuck's books, but his most recent one, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters, promises to be one of the better apologetic works ever written, and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the paperback version in SA. Hurry Zondervan...
In his talk Chuck raised the question: What is Christianity? I think this is what he wants us to rethink. Our job is to advance the kingdom of God in all walks of life. He continued by pointing out that George Barna has developed a biblical world view questionnaire, which tests the beliefs of people out there, and approximately 1% of believes in all the (basic) things which constitutes a biblical world view.
Maybe if we believed what the Bible says the world would be different...
What does it really mean to be saved? Chuck argued that if you are saved, you will begin to change. You will be compelled to do certain things.
He said that the Church in the 3rd world is exploding because they are preaching the Truth. Maybe we should stop trying to be cool and get back to that?
He finished his talk by mentioning the Great Commission and asking if it says to go into all the world and tell people about Jesus, or to go into all the world and make disciples? Maybe rethinking confrontational evangelism strategies that only cares about conversion and nothing else is also not such a bad idea...