RONALDO LIDÓRIO: Konkombas

Konkombas é um maravilhoso relato onde podemos ver Deus intervindo na vida de um povo africano ainda sem o Evangelho.
Este livro conta uma história não centrada em missionários com relatos puramente pessoais, mas sim em Deus levando o Seu evangelho a romper barreiras e enfrentar perseguições.
Konkombas prova como é possível ocorrer conversões, transformação de vidas e mentes, livramentos e milagres no nascer da Igreja. como resultado do conhecimento do sacrifício de Cristo.
No nordeste da Gana, África, um povo vivendo em meio à escuridão espiritual e sem o conhecimento do evangelho. Em nosso continente, a igreja brasileira envia um casal missionário com a proposta de comunicar a Palavra de Deus àquele povo. Assim, Ronaldo e Rossana Lidório chegam até uma região que pela primeira vez ouve a Palavra do Senhor.
O evangelho rmpeu barreiras, e a igreja nasceu em uma tribo africana. Essa é a história da ação de Deus entre os Konkombabimonkpeln.
Ao longo do relato do pastor Ronaldo Lidório em Konkombas, maravilhe-se com a graça de Deus, veja como o Senhor está construindo a sua igreja em nossos dias, observe o Senhor fazendo o impossível acontecer. E aproveite para refletir sobre quem é você nas mãos de Deus e sobre como o Senhor deseja usá-lo, seja perto seja longe.

Pr. Ronaldo Lidório é bacharel em Teologia e doutor em Antropologia Cultural pela Universidade de Londres. É missionário da Missão AMEM (A Missão de Evangelização Mundial) e da Agência Presbiteriana de Missões Transculturais (APMT), e antropólogo envolvido com o desenvolvimento sustentável em projetos sociais. Também é autor de Testuarando o Ardor Missionário, publicado pela CPAD.

Trecho:

"A igreja não isola ou aliena o convertido, mas sim o leva a ser mais sensível com as lidas diárias da sociedade. Ela é uma comunidade sem fronteiras e, portanto, missionária. Sua missão principal é glorificar a Deus, e ela a cumpre não apenas por meio da invocação, Palavra e louvor, mas também mantendo os olhos abertos e chorando com os que choram. Sua missão não é fazer, mas ser. Ser sal da terra e luz do mundo" p.60

Why Would Lebanon's Christians Side With Iran?

Because they're afraid of Saudi Arabia.

By Brian Palmer
http://www.slate.com/
Posted Monday, June 8, 2009, at 6:15 PM ET

In Sunday's elections in Lebanon, the local Christian population split its vote between the pro-Western government and an opposition party backed by Syria and Iran. Why would so many Lebanese Christians reject the U.S.-backed politicians?
They're more afraid of Saudi Arabia than they are of Iran. The influence of foreign governments is unusually strong in Lebanese politics, and the governing and opposition coalitions each have their own network of backers. Although those in power today are often identified as "pro-Western," Saudi Arabia wields just as much influence within the governing March 14 coalition, as do the United States and France. Many Christians prefer these benefactors to Syria, Iran, and Qatar—the major supporters of the opposition. But others fear the potential Islamization of Lebanon by the Saudis.
Sectarianism has been enshrined in the Lebanese political system since its independence. In 1932, the French colonial government conducted a census, determining that Maronite Christians represented a slight majority in Lebanon. When the country won its independence in 1943, parliamentary seats were allocated based on the 1932 census figures: six Christian representatives for every five Muslim representatives. The 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended the Lebanese Civil War, adjusted the balance to 50-50. The highest offices are also distributed among Christians, Sunnis, and Shiites. (This confessional system makes it virtually impossible for any nonsectarian political movement, such as the Lebanese Communist Party, to gain significant power.)
No one really knows how many Christians are living in Lebanon today. The government has refused to conduct a census, because the results might upset the fragile Taif Agreement and plunge the country back into civil war. However, it is a virtual certainty that Christians are overrepresented in the current government. The CIA guesses they make up 39 percent of the population, but they have been leaving in large numbers over the past few years.
The shrinking number of Lebanese Christians animates their political behavior. Some argue that a strong Western presence in Lebanon, along with a sound renunciation of Khomeneist Iran, will reassure potential Christian émigrés and prevent further bleeding. Others contend that the Wahhabist regime in Saudi Arabia, which has substantial ties to the powerful Hariri family that leads the governing coalition, will seek to push more traditional Islam on cosmopolitan Lebanon and drive Christians away.
The wild card among Lebanese Christians is mercurial Gen. Michel Aoun. Aoun rose to power in 1988 and fashioned himself a liberator, rejecting the Taif Agreement and fighting the Syrian army, which then dominated the country. After a series of political and military defeats, Aoun was exiled to France. He returned in 2005 and surprised the country by aligning himself with the Syrian-backed political parties. Aoun argued that Syria was no longer the enemy after withdrawing its troops from Lebanon in 2005. He implied that Christians should join political forces with Hezbollah, by far the most organized political force in Lebanon, to ensure their long-term security. While Hezbollah and its allies hoped that the personal appeal of Aoun would sway large numbers of Christians, it appears his influence has become limited to a core of older Christians who remember him as a hero.
Got a question about today's news?
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Explainer thanks As'ad AbuKhalil of California State University Stanislaus.

Braulia Ribeiro

7 Obstacles to Engaging in Mission, Deb Hirsch

7 Obstacles to Engaging in Mission:

1. Distorted view of Jesus.

I fear that a lot of Christians are not seeing Him clearly. We see Him in our own image. We try to tame Him or domesticate Him. We try to keep Him behind the stain-glass walls. The Jesus of the Gospels was quite unruly. He didn't care much for social graces; often impolite or outright rude. He always seemed to be hanging out with the wrong people at the wrong time in the wrong places. We have made Him meek and mild, polite, never offensive, and always at the right place, in the right time, with the right people.

We have cleaned these images up because they offend us. But when we follow a sanitized, cleaned up Jesus, then we become like that: tame and sanitized.

2. Distorted views of self

The foundational identity that we need to live out is that we are disciples. Churches are full of Christians, but there are not a lot of disciples. Christians believe, but disciples follow. A sacrificial motif. No sacrifice, no disciple. If we see our self with this identity, we will walk out our purpose: "to go out and be missionaries in the world."

3. Distorted views of others

I started in ministry with a "worm" theology. We are all bad people. We end up focusing on people's negative behavior.

We need a paradigm shift. The primary truth is that people are created in the image of God. Look at other people I encounter and recognize that this person, no matter who it is, in some way reflects my God.

4. Distorted views of love

We are totally saturated in romantic notions of love. But Christians are called to a sacrificial love.

C.S. Lewis says that self-giving love is the most fundamental of all loves. "For in self-giving, if anywhere, we touch a rhythm not only of all creation but of all being. For the Eternal Word also gives Himself in sacrifice."

Romantic notions of love do not cut it in the mission field. It's "fun" to get out there and have a romantic notion of the being out there. But real love is what is needed to sustain mission. "To know love one must know pain."

5. Distorted views of the world

Where you stand determines what you see. Too many of us keep ourselves cocooned in our safe lives and houses. How can we respond to the needs of the world if we are not out looking for them. To understand the pain of a city, you have to go to where the pain is. We have to move out beyond where we are to see the pain.

We bought a house with five people in a red-light district. Every time I walked out of my house I could see a prostitute on one corner or another. We have to place our self where we can see the needs and the pain or we become lazy.

6. Distorted views about money, consumption, and status

"No one can serve two masters…"

Martin Luther said three conversions were necessary--heart, mind, and wallet. Money has the capacity to ensnare us like nothing else does. For western Christians money is our greatest blindspot.

We have also been seduced by consumerism-- the alternative religion of our day. Sociologists say consumerism has become the "new religion." This is the greatest competitor to Christianity, yet we don't see it because we live amongst it. We have to repent of the idolatry.

7. Distorted views of the family

We have become captive to the construct of the nuclear family (mom and dad and 2.2 kids) as the ideal family structure. We have set this up as an idol. We have ministries based upon this as the ideal.

This is not a biblical notion of family. In fact, nothing like it. This notion of family has only been known for the last 40-50 years with industrialization. Prior to that, people lived much more in a village-type family structure.

The biblical notion of family is very inclusive-- households-- many, many uncles, brothers, sisters, parents. The kingdom is a big inclusive family.

(Note: These are only my notes and do not convey the impact of her total message. But I thought the bits and pieces of wisdom were powerful enough to pass along.)

"Grande Compromisso ao Grande Mandamento e a Grande Comissão fará crescer um Grande Cristão e uma Grande Igreja"

Rick Warren