“Theology for Dummies”

Grace Place goes topical in our grace groups (small group weekly meetings). The topic I’m leading with my group is about “grace”.  The way it was promoted during our Celebration Sunday yesterday was odd –  “Learn ‘theology’ without the confusion“.

After the service, one of my enrollees approached me, and with the short discussion with her, I gathered 2 things that most people think when they hear the word “theology”:

1. It’s boring — “Kuya, sigurado kang exciting to ha. Baka naman magsisi ako?”, and

2. It’s hard to understand – “Isinasama ko nga si ___ (friend’s name) kaso di pa raw sya ready sa hard stuff”.

I can’t blame her for thinking that way. In fact, it’s pretty normal to think that way about theology. Now a days, when people talk about theology, they actually  mean “I want to confuse you”. Seriously, theology has become so confusing that it becomes boring for most people.

Theology simply means a study about God. Anything about God — his character, his love, his holiness. In my case, I want to discuss about His grace. I tried to explain that the reality is, everything that we talk about in church has an underlying theological concept. This Sunday, our lead pastor talked about the importance of having a loving and caring small community. The theological concept behind that is “Fellowship”. He didn’t mention that term, but who cares as long as the concept is presented and understood well! Last year, one of the most interesting and much appreciated message series was “TXT”. It talks about the Bible. The attenders learned and understood it’s concepts — little that they know that Kuya Prudy is talking about the theological concept called “Sola Scriptura”.

So, theology can be understood and can even be fun!

“Ah, parang Theology for Dummies?”, she commented.

Great term! I like that. :D

I was able to read one of those “For Dummies” books and I was really amazed on how the author explained a complex topic in such a way that it become simple and interesting. He uses simple terms, graphics, even comedy in presenting the hard facts. The book didn’t water down the obviously hard-topic-to-explain. It simply explained it in such a way that it could be understood.

Theology needs not be confusing. It can be understood. It can be exciting. I guess it all depends on how it is be presented. And, yes, understanding God’s grace can be  challenging than the usual “inspirational topics”, but sure it can penetrate the heart, it’s life changing. And even Johann, my 4 year old kid, can understand it. It’s just a matter of presenting it in an exciting, non-boring, and understandable way.

So, Tuesdays 7:30 at Kopiroti, The Columns will rock! Believe me. :D

Research: “30 Days to Live”

February of next year, Grace Place in Makati will start a message series entitled “30 Days to Live”. The basic premise of the series: How will you live your life if you know that you have only 30 days to live.

To prepare for this message series, we are researching and looking for possibility of interviewing on camera 2 to 3 followers of Jesus who are terminally ill. Yung parang may taning na.

Here’s where you can help us. If you know of a person who :

* is a believer of Jesus.
* terminally ill, probably s/he has cancer or any other similar disease.
* has a positive perspective on life despite his/her situation
* preferably living within Mega Manila (Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal). We may not be able to travel further than that. But if his/her story is really inspiring, we will try to consider traveling further.
* preferably not older than 49 .
* most especially, willing to share his/her story on how his perspective in life changed because of the life threatening disease.

You don’t have to convince them. Just give us a tip — who this person is, way to contact (ie, cell phone, land line, who to contact initially). We will be the one to talk to them and share with them the vision of the interview. We are hoping that they will agree to be interviewed after we explain the tremendous impact their story can create to the lives of people.

You can email me :

arnold.gamboa [at] graceplace.ph

Your contribution to this project is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance.

Week round-up

* Grace Place starts a new passionate series called “Prayer Can Change Your Life“.

* Steve Murrell shares a great analogy on how understanding your sinfulness affects the way you respond to God’s grace.

* I thought we should put Jesus first in our lives? Steven Furtick says, no. We should put Jesus on the center of our life instead.

* Perry Noble‘s New Spring Church launched a new website called ParentsAreClueless.com to coincide with their new series on parenting. If you are a parent, you’ll agree with me that we are clueless most of the times, don’t we?

* I’ve started a Pinoy Paypal users group. If you are a Paypal user or plan to use it in the future, join us as we try to shoot down possible problems that we can encounter.