ToddHDow Studios

Tag: evangelism

  • CBC’s “Seven” on evangelical Christianity

    The National has a series called “Seven”, which documents Mark Kelley’s experiences in a “week in the life of” sort of format. Yesterday’s Seven broadcast highlighted Mark’s time spent with evangelical Christians. You can view yesterday’s broadcast at CBC.ca:
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/media/seven.html

    I wasn’t pleased with the way the show portrayed evangelical Christianity. So… I wrote to the editor. Below is a copy of my comments. I wonder if I’ll hear back from them. Time will tell…

    BEGIN LETTER
    Folks,

    I was disappointed by last night’s “Seven” report on evangelical Christianity. I don’t feel that it offered fair treatment towards evangelical Christianity. Specifically:
    1. As a Canadian show, I was surprised that the visits were mainly based in the US. There are plenty of relevant, articulate and meaningful Christian examples in Canada;
    2. The portions of the interviews that were aired were disappointing as they portrayed the interviewees as inarticulate or unable to explain their position in a positive manner. Fairness would suggest that you provide room for articulate and secular-friendly speakers, which last night’s episode seemed to lack; and
    3. Mark appeared to be condescending and mocking at times, which is disrespectful, especially considering the fact that his interview subjects didn’t necessarily offer the most positive impressions towards an unchurched audience;

    Three possibilities that I have considered are:
    1. Maybe this is the way that most of secular society views Christians. If this is the case, then I think that this episode played to those stereotypes and didn’t adequately represent positive role models within the evangelical community;
    2. Perhaps the interviews were edited in such a way that it left the impression that the interviewees were unable to articulate their positions adequately; or
    3. Maybe the CBC team wasn’t able to secure sufficient positive Christian role models and was left with these examples;

    Whatever the case, I don’t think that this episode was indicative of the Christian community as a whole, nor was it tasteful in the way that Mark appeared to condescendingly dismiss the evangelical Christian community as a group of “scared” social outcasts.

    I would like to think that I provide a positive evangelical Christian role model to other Christians. And, I also feel that I have been able to portray my lifestyle to people of other faiths without leaving them thinking that I am afraid or isolated from the rest of society.

    Feel free to contact me should you wish to do further reporting on the Christian community, especially within the GTA. I am a current Master of Divinity student at McMaster University, I am currently working as a student pastor at my local church in the Niagara region and I work full time in a secular career as an IT project manager. As well, I am a graduate of a philosophy and religious studies undergrad program at U of T. I think I am well positioned to speak on this subject matter.

    Thank you for your time,

    Todd Dow

    END LETTER

  • Who are we?

    I’ve been thinking about how to begin this dialogue with you for a few days now… How to organize the topics, how to know when I”m done with one topic and when to move on to the next. Instead of worrying and planning, I think I’d be better off just diving in and seeing where things end up. After all, that’s the nature of a good conversation, isn’t it?

    So where do we start? I think it’s important to understand who we are and what we want before we can plan where we’re going. Otherwise, we are more likely to end up running around in circles, constantly changing direction based on our changing priorities.

    So, the question for today becomes, who are we?

    For me, it’s quite clear that I’m a Christian. But what does that mean? The word Christian means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some, it means that annoying neighbour Ned Flanders from The Simpsons. To others, Christians are the ones responsible for all of the terrible things that happened in The Crusades. To others, the U.S. government and George Bush’s famous Crusades remark are associated with Christianity. Unfortunately, none of these associations (well, maybe my friends would say that I’m a little bit annoyingly Flander-esque) sit well with me. In fact, I have serious misgivings about the violence of the Crusades and I am definitely opposed to George W and his Crusader mentality to world politics.

    Then the question becomes: As a Christian, what do I stand for? I stand for peace. I stand for respect. I stand for forgiveness. I stand for reconciliation and healing. I stand for improving our lot in life.

    We have a choice in life. We can be optimists or we can be pessimists. To borrow from William James, we can be “sick souls” or we can be “healthy-minded”. To the sick soul, there’s no point getting excited about things because the negative far outweighs the good. In fact, the sick soul will argue that pessimism is good in that it sets our expectations low enough that we will never be disappointed. Healthy-minded souls, on the other hand, feel that there is good in the world. They feel that the bad is absorbed by the good. To some, evil is simply an absence of good. To others, evil is necessary to remind us of what good is. Without the two, we would have no way to identify good and evil actions.

    We can choose to be negative or we can choose to be positive. Ever heard the statement, “be careful what you wish for”? Well… this is one of those times where you need to be careful what you wish for. If you set your expectations low, you’ll probably meet your goals. But, will your goals be worth striving for at that point? If you set your expectations high, you might get some disappointments. But, you’ll probably make a bigger difference than you would have with a pessimistic attitude.

    I recently came across an interesting article that outlines what it means to be an Evangelical Christian. Many in the media have portrayed Evangelicals in a negative light. Fortunately, Evangelical is not a bad word. In fact, I’m happy to be an Evangelical. As Michael Davenport, the author of the article in question, points out, Evangelicals approach their faith in a manner that allows them to “participate creatively in modern society”. To Davenport, Evangelicals are reaching out to their peers, trying to share the good news of Jesus. In addition to the good news of Jesus’ death, which offers us salvation for our sins, this good news also outlines a way of life that benefits all of mankind. Just think of how much better the world would be if we all adopted the advice that Jesus gives us concerning how to live our lives. The world would be a much better place indeed if we followed his greatest commandment:

    “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” – Matthew 22:37-39

    Evangelical is a word to describe an approach to faith, as opposed to describing a specific denomination. Davenport identifies four key features to the Evangelical approach. They are:

    • acceptance of the authority of Scripture over all other documents and traditions;
    • affirmation that, suddenly or gradually, individuals are transformed (“reborn”) into believers;
    • belief that Jesus’ death and resurrection were historical facts, necessary for our new life; and
    • commitment to prayer, discipleship, and faithful service to wider humanity.

    Over the next few posts, I’m going to work through these four features. What do these features really mean to me? How do they influence my behaviour? What do they tell me about how I should be living? Most importantly, will embracing these four features bring me closer to God? I’m going to hazard a guess and say you betcha!

    Until next time, my prayer is that God will continue to show you the greatness that he has created in you.

    In Him,

    Todd Dow

  • Welcome!

    Welcome to my blog.

    As a Christian, I am aware of the time that God has given me to do his bidding. I can spend that time doing many different things. I’d like to say that I’m perfect and that I live my life according to what God expects of me, but I’d be lying if I said that. But, I do try to think fairly often about what God expects of me and I try to apply those thoughts to my everyday life. While I’m far from perfect, I do try to get better each day, living life the way that God would want it.

    This blog will attempt to summarize how one should attempt to use that “Lent Time”. While I’m not the most authoritative source, I do try to base my writings on a protestant Christian worldview. As a Mennonite, I am very supportive of several key virtues including humility, peace, forgiveness, faith and love. These virtues, and many others, will be evident in my postings to come.

    I hope you will join me in my journey of faith. For me, this is an exercise in organization. I hope to solidify my ministry using this blog. If all goes well, I hope to use this as a springboard to further spread the good news of the Christian faith. All in good time…

    Matthew 24:36-46:
    “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone… Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.”

    May God bless you and keep you safe,

    Todd Dow