Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Mentor's Guide, MG16

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D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

encourage forgiveness and reconciliation, and strive for unity and understanding among people in the name of Christ. It is significant for your Christian leadership development to grasp these principles, so carefully review them as you answer the following questions. 1. How is it that believers in Jesus Christ have been given the high privilege and calling to represent the life and ethic of the Kingdom of God? What makes them competent to fulfill such a remarkable and high calling? 2. Define culture. What is the significance of the various elements involved in culture, i.e., the cognitive, affective, and evaluative elements involved in understanding the differences between peoples? 3. List out some of the major implications of difference in doing justice and loving mercy. In your estimation, which are the three key implications of difference, that is, the ones which determine all the others? Explain your answer. 4. What does it mean to say that a culture’s actions or behaviors are either “moral,” “immoral,” or “amoral?” 5. When differences are allowed to divide us, we typically respond to others in three inappropriate ways. What are they, and give an example of each. 6. What are the three historical positions that Christians have held to regarding the issue of mass violence and war? Which of these seem to resonate most with the biblical teaching about war and violence? Which of these historical positions make the most sense to you? 7. In what sense are we as disciples of Jesus called to live as peacemakers in this world? In order to be such, how are we to recognize, affirm, and understand the nature of differences in light of the work of Jesus Christ? 8. What roles do concepts like forgiveness, reconciliation, and restitution play in terms of serving as Christian peacemakers? How are we as Christians to fight the tendency toward pessimism and the inevitability of war, violence, and cruelty among peoples? 9. How is the life of the Church to be a living visual aid and demonstration of the reality of the unity and love of the Kingdom in the midst of the world? How does our ability to demonstrate this love among ourselves condition our ability to share it with others ? Explain with Scripture.

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