lately i have been thinking a lot about tension. it seems to me that tension is one of the most prominent characteristics of the Christian life (i.e., in the world, but not of the world) and of our Savior himself (fully God, yet fully man; his uncanny ability to afflict the comfortable, yet comfort the afflicted). anyway, since this tension motif has been on my mind as of late, i found the following passage from a church planting paper written by Timothy Keller of Redeemer Pres in NYC quite interesting:

"...a gospel centered church should have a social justice emphasis and effectiveness that greatly exceeds the liberal church's. Meanwhile, it should have an evangelistic fervor that greatly exceeds the ordinary fundamentalist church's. a gospel-centered church should combine 'zeals' that are ordinarily never seen together in the same church. this is one of the main ways we make people look twice and take our message seriously."

simple yet profound, eh? now, if i could just learn how to lead a community that incarnates both of these zeals, i'd be getting somewhere.

by the way, my wife just told me to remind you, loyal reader, that i am quite married and unavailable. indeed, the 'pimp driven life' is now far behind me.