Boundless Love – Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
10M ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. I love watching cooking competitions. I started watching them with my grandmother Diana and have continued the tradition with my daughter Diana Grace. One of the genre’s most iconic shows is Hell’s Kitchen. On the show, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey mentors teams of chefs through a series of challenges until there is one winner who then receives a job at one of his restaurants. The show is popular because Gordon Ramsey is a very peculiar person. He is a brilliant chef but watching him yell in his British accent at these contestants full of hope and aspiration is qu ..read more
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Anointing – Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
10M ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. In Acts 2, Peter preaches about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, interpreting the words of Joel and David as prophetic witnesses to what they were experiencing. In his sermon, Peter goes on to explain that repentance – true turning – is at the root of forgiveness in Christ. The passage goes on to tell us that in response to the Spirit’s presence, the church grew numerically as the disciples shared meals together and shared all their resources in common. What an amazing picture of the early Church! Many look to Pentecost as a model for church growth and with good reason ..read more
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Confessions: A Reflections
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
11M ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. For eight months in 2021 and early 2022, I participated in a Be the Bridge (to racial unity) discussion group organized by my congregation’s Peace and Social Justice Commission. Be the Bridge is grounded in the belief that racial reconciliation is a reflection of the Bible’s call to all Christians to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation in Christ. Joining this group seemed like a natural next step in my personal journey toward greater racial awareness and action that likely began when I was a child in colonial Africa. The vision of John in Revelation 7:9 ..read more
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Ontologies of Gracious Abundance and Practices of Sharing in the Gospels of John – Isaac Zika
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
11M ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. The basic view of the world that I was raised with can perhaps be sketched by relating a story. A long-time friend of my parents visited us for a day in order to teach me and my older brother about the art of business. He had been more or less a pastor figure for my family during my early childhood. I had spent a fair amount of time at his rather nice suburban house. I had spent a number of mornings at his kitchen table reading scripture. I particularly remember reading 1 John chapters 3-4 about God’s love for us and the command to participate in that love by lovi ..read more
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Realistic Theological Language Pt. II – Caleb Kragt
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
1y ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. The first portion of this article examined our tendency to “spiritualize” our theological language. This can happen when taking words that were first given dynamic metaphorical use for articulating something of our experience with God, and calcifying their meaning such that the only interpretation considered is one that stays entirely in “the spiritual realm,” without anchor in this material world. Those who find that trend unhelpful might consider this a danger of what I called the spirituality perspective on reality. In contrast, what I will call the realist per ..read more
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Realistic Theological Language Pt. I – Caleb Kragt
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
1y ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. In an introductory theology course at Eastern University, our professor quite deliberately assigned us readings from a wide variety of Christian traditions. Among these, one story makes a text we didn’t read memorable: Professor Boyer read aloud an email exchange wherein he had asked colleagues at Eastern and other friends of his whether any of them had a particular text on the theology of Anabaptism, so that he could scan copies of a chapter rather than asking us all to purchase the whole text for the course. The only reply he received was, “Theology of Anabaptis ..read more
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Radically Reforming Cross-Cultural Ministry – Christy Crouse
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
1y ago
Image Credit: Chibuzo Petty. A Global Church  Church of the Brethren history and tradition are transnational in their essence. Since the Radical Reformation and the formation of the church in Germany, which then expanded to the United States, and later to other countries throughout the world, the Brethren have always had a cross-border and cross-cultural composition. Not only that, but community and communal values—despite differences, cultural or otherwise, between members—have permeated the church since its small beginning. Today, we share our church tradition with members all around t ..read more
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Our Peace Position Doesn’t Go Far Enough – Ryan Braught
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
1y ago
“Peace is at the heart of the gospel. As followers of Jesus in a divided and violent world, we are committed to finding non-violent alternatives and to learning how to make peace between individuals, within and among churches, in society, and between nations.”1 “Belief that the gospel includes a commitment to the way of peace modeled by the Prince of Peace. Here Anabaptists differ from many other Christians. Anabaptists believe that the peace position is not optional, not marginal, and not related mainly to the military. On the basis of Scripture, Anabaptists renounce violence in human ..read more
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Deeply Rooted – A Reflection by Rachel Witkovsky
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
1y ago
A lone tree stands in the middle of a field. Can you picture it? Old, crooked, large branches to offer shade. Green in summer, empty in winter. Its sole purpose is to offer some relief from the sun. Maybe it has seen picnics come and go, lazy cows, or rambunctious colts. But for the most part, it stands alone. Now picture, if you will, a forest of trees. Particularly, Aspen trees. Tall, skinny trees. White bark with darker spotting here and there. Bright yellow leaves. In preparing for National Young Adult Conference, I learned some interesting facts about these trees. Though on the surface t ..read more
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Welcoming Them – A Reflection by M. Gresh
Brethren Life and Thought
by Chibuzo Nimmo Petty
1y ago
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and ..read more
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