I’ve been reading a book by Eugene Peterson called, Living the Resurrection and wanted to share a short section with you. Hopefully it will encourage you in your workday or wherever you are… “The [world] is obviously not a vacation paradise. Its more like a warzone. And that’s where we Christians are stationed, along with the children, to affirm the primacy of life over death, to give a witness to the connectedness and preciousness of all life, to engage in teh practice of resurrection. We do this by gathering in congregations and regular worship before our life-giving God and our death-defeating Christ and our life-abounding Holy Spirit. We do it by reading, pondering, teaching, and preaching the Word of Life as it is revealed in...Read More →
Archive for March, 2007
-
March 29, 2007
An Easter People
-
March 27, 2007
March Madness, Division II Style…
You just don’t get endings like this often…watch this. It’s amazing. HT: Vitamin Z
-
March 23, 2007
The Missional Church in Suburbia
Below is a paper I wrote in an effort to give an introduction to Mission in a Suburban Context. I presented this paper at the Eastern Region Evangelical Theological Society meeting on March 23, 2007. There is much more that needs to be written, but hopefully this serves as a helpful introduction. Feel free to cite this resource, but I do ask that you give credit when/if you do. The illustrations are original with me. You can download the PDF here: Missional In Suburbia (please link to this pdf rather than downloading it and putting it on your own site – thanks, Todd Hiestand) Can you hear me, Morpheus? I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This...Read More →
-
March 16, 2007
I’m Reading a Paper on Missional in Suburbia at ETS
After a kind suggestion from one of my professors at Biblical, I submitted a paper I wrote called, “The Gospel and the God Forsaken: The Challenge of the Missional Church in Suburban America” to the ETS regional student paper contest. My basic premise was that the suburbs are one of the most “god-forsaken” places on the earth (despite its fancy and shiny exterior) and that if we are going to be the Church here, we need to start asking some fresh questions about what it means to be the church here. I tried to start asking some of those questions in my paper. The paper didn’t win the contest, but it was still chosen to be read at the regional Evangelical Theological Society conference at...Read More →
-
March 16, 2007
Thoughts on Authority in Leadership (An encouragement to read Ken Callahan)
I’ve been trying to be continually reading about leadership and have found the book Effective Church Leadership by Kennon Callahan very helpful. Now, truth be told, most of the titles of Ken’s books are fairly uninspiring. They sound like old school books that are outdated and no self-respecting young pastor would be drawn to them by title alone. Well, let me state something here at clearly as possible. Ken’s books are revolutionary to leadership in the church, despite what you think when you look at his book covers. I have been to two one week seminars by Ken now and have left each one with a whole new perspective on leadership and the local church. They have been the most helpful seminars i have attended...Read More →
-
March 12, 2007
Chinese Churches and “Good” Magazine
I headed down to Philadelphia to hang out with my friend LT (who is in my top five favorite people in the world!). LT is a pastor at Chinese Christian Church and it has been really interesting to learn over the years about the culture that the Chinese church in America faces. You think the whole post-modern / modern thing is a big deal, try adding that to three generations where some grew up in China, some who’s parents were immigrants and those like LT who grew up here in the States. Talk about politics and culture and generation wars. Listening to the stories of doing ministry in that context, I have the utmost respect for him and those who are in the same position....Read More →
-
March 11, 2007
Lazy Sunday and a Quick Look at Evangelism.
After a day of church, preaching and a great leadership team meeting, I’m finally taking an afternoon, watching basketball and enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. I took the guilt free free time to tidy up the blog design a little bit. I am not sure if you can notice, but I am finally a little happier with things looking sharper, easier to read and all around tighter code and design. This morning I spoke on evangelism and how the “good news” actually needs to be good news. I tried to focus on how the greatest news is that God is for us and God is redeeming creation and of course that includes us and individuals. Take a look at Romans 8 and Colossians 1 and...Read More →
-
March 7, 2007
A few helpful missional links
Corporate Language in Leadership by Albert Hsu Changing the way we see justice in the local church by David Fitch How organizations transform themselves by Alan Jamieson of Prodigal Kiwi 35 Ways to Help the Homeless from JustGive.org (thanks for the tipoff Purple Pastor) Updated: Some Reasons Why the Lone “Senior Pastor” Might Not Make Sense Anymore by David Fitch – since we are in the midst of hiring another part-time pastor at The Well this was a helpful article for me.
-
March 5, 2007
Two Events Worth Considering…
My newfound blogging friend Tom Ward Jr. (affectionately known in some circles as Mr. Purple) and his church (Eastpoint) is hosting two really helpful looking events in the nexts couple months. I know that I will be making an effort to try and get down to part of the weekend with Scot McKnight as we tried to get him up at The Well but the scheduling just hasn’t worked out yet. Weekend 1: April 21-22, “What Would Happen if ‘Christian America’ Embraced the Gospel?”, Richard T. Hughes Join us on Saturday, April 21, as Richard T. Hughes—distinguished scholar, beloved professor, and ardent follower of Jesus—helps us reconnect with the transformative power of the gospel by exploring the question, “What would happen if ‘Christian America’ embraced...Read More →
