Pastor V’s Shout Outs by Vermon Pierre

Shout outs to:

1. The Focoso Wood Fired Pizza Truck. The RCC staff knows well my love for Food Truck Fridays. There are several trucks I enjoy, but most recently my affection has been strongest for the Focoso Wood Fired Pizza Truck. Listen well, young chefs and food lovers everywhere, fresh ingredients make all the difference!

2. Mark Noll, and his recent book on global Christianity, From Every Tribe and Nation: A Historian’s Discovery of the Global Christian Story. You can read John Piper’s reflections on the book here.

Noll reinforces one of my key convictions as a Christian leader: namely, that we better understand our Christian faith the more we are attentive to how it expresses itself in various cultures. Thus, there is no “pure,” non-culturally based Christianity. There never has been! Instead, there is the one Christian faith whose beauty and power we better experience as we look at it from various perspectives, as if turning a rare diamond over and over in our hand. As Piper puts it, “The very nature of the Christian faith consists in, and is illuminated by, ever-fresh translations from one culture to another.” This reality is why local churches should be active in missions and also why local churches should strive to draw in as many of the different people groups and social classes that exist in their local areas.

3. “This American Life” and their recent podcasts about what policing is really like and the intersection between police offices and race in America. There is a whole lot of smoke and not a lot of helpful heat in some of the dialogue I encounter on these issues. I appreciate work like this that begins to help us see the complex realities behind these issues and, by God’s grace, some beginning steps towards improvement. Well worth your time to listen to these podcasts (and let me know what you think next time you see me).

Cops see it differently, Part One

Cops see it differently, Part Two