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More from Eugene…
He is speaking right to me and what my passions and vision is for pastoral ministry….
“I [don't] really want to keep people from dying; I [want] to show them how to live.”
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The American Pastor…
Reading Eugene Peterson’s book: Under the Unpredictable Plant. He takes the story of Jonah and applies it to the pastorate. Great read…here are some thoughts:
North American religion is basically a consumer religion. American?s see God asa product that will help them to live well, or live better. Having seen that, they do what consumers do, shop for the best deal. Pastors, hardly realizing what we are doing, start making deals, packaging the God-product so …
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the amazing american paperwork fiasco
brad and i went up to the county court office today to obtain copies of some documents that we needed for the zoning varience that we are pursing for our church’s new meeting place (we are pursuing an industrial park location that we will have as our meeting place on sundays but it will also have the atmosphere of a coffee house/community center that is open during the week to minster to our community). it is amazing …
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New reading program…
I have this amazingly bad habit of reading about 10-15 different books at at time and never being more than 50 pages into each one. Also, i ususally don’t enough on different subjects. In an effort to actually read WHOLE books and also read across a spectrum of topics, I have adopted for myself a new reading program.
I will now be only reading four books at a time. Here are my four categories and the books i am …
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Pictures from LA
I just published some pictures from my trip to LA. Check them out…
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Cali…
I’ve spent the last week in Los Angeles for a class with Dallas Willard. Got to spend some time out here with my friend Chad. Been a great week, but it will definately be nice to get back home to my wife, son and church family. Even though the beautiful weather out here (70’s and sunny) near the beach sure beats the 90’s and humid of Philly…I’ve got some pictures i will put up when …
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Restoring Community
From Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry
by Gareth IcenogleUnderstanding first of all that sin has dominion within every human group, the small group can them become a place for the healing and restoration of broken individuals, and broken relationships. Every small group is a reenactment of the “hiding behind” garden leaves and trees [here he is referring to the Garden when Adam and Eve sinned and then hid themselves from GOD and from EACH OTHER–two dimensional ‘hiding’ that …
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Check this out…
My new friend Dan posted one of my top ten posts i have ever read. its simple, but something about it struck me as amazingly profound and revolutionary.
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The Lord’s Prayer
I’ve been “rediscovering,” for the very first time, a deeper understanding of the Lord’s Prayer in Mattew 6. On a pastors retreat with Brian McLaren, with about 20 other pastors, we recited this prayer together in a different way. He read one line at a time, had us respond outloud, and then left about 15 or so seconds of silence for us to meditate and think upon the meaning of each line and phrase. It was a really awesome spiritual reflection, one we’ve used a few times at church.
Its a great difference from the mindless reciting of it that usually goes on, in and out of church, where it never reaches your brain, much less your heart. (For me, it was before each basketball game in highschool we would, as a team, recite the prayer and it would just turn in to muttering and mumbling - i played at public school).
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New building…
We took our other leadership through the building we are looking at for church yesterday, i took my handy dandy digital camera and took some shots…
The pictures are on our website at this link
remember, use your imagination!
think: a church open all week, afternoons and evenings, full coffee bar, free wi-fi, comfy sofas and chairs, tables, great place to “hang” or “study”, concerts on the weekends (secular and christian music!), our gathering place on sunday mornings, reading times …