People like to use the metaphor “family” when it come to church. I think this is one legitimate and valuable way of looking at church. When people come to The Well they say they experience family. I believe it’s because there are very few contracts on what it means to belong to our family. They are welcome as they are. This does not mean that they aren’t publicly and personally invited to participate further. This does not mean that they aren’t publicly and personally invited to grow. This does not mean that they aren’t publicly and personally invited to reorganize their lives around the mission of God. But it means that they are welcome and part of the family whether they do those things or...Read More →
Archive for September, 2008
-
September 30, 2008
Church. Family. Grace. Belonging.
-
September 29, 2008
Embrace the Burbs. Or Get Out.
Ed Stetzer, who is a pretty good all around guy and solid thinker about the church and mission recently did an interview for the website called “The Subtext.” I met Ed at an event in Philly and I was quickly impressed with not only his understanding of the gospel, culture and mission but also his need to constantly make jokes. It’s clear that he was the class clown in grade school! Needless to say he’s my kind of guy. Anyways, go ahead and read this interview here. It’s good. Here is an excellent excerpt: “Some pastors hate the suburbs. If you hate the suburbs, stop whining about it and move into the city. I have done both and find them both in deep need of...Read More →
-
September 27, 2008
Lesslie Newbigin on Election
Great stuff from my favorite author… No one can say why it is that one was chosen and another not, why it is that here the word came “not only in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost” (1 Thess. 1:5), while there the same word carried no regenerating power. The answer to that question is known only to God. But if we cannot know for what reason one was chosen, we can most certain know for what purpose he was chosen: he was chosen in order to be a fruit-bearing branch in the one true vine (John 15:16), a witness through whom others might be saved. He is chosen in order that through him God’s saving purpose may reach to...Read More →
-
September 25, 2008
The 700 Billion dollar question.
Okay. So, I’m not so great with numbers. I failed 7th grade math. I can’t even fathom $700,000,000,000. But, from what I hear, that’s like 2,000 apple pies from McDonalds for each American. That’s a lot of apple pies. Now, I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t have the government purchase us all 2,000 apple pies. I mean, I am not an economist. I don’t know what would happen if we didn’t bail these financial institutions out. I’m assuming its not good. But, I also know that $700,000,000,000 could do a heck of a lot for a lot of people. I’ve seen all kinds of ideas these last few days. Sure, we could pay off consumer debt. That would be helpful. But would it be a long-term...Read More →
-
September 22, 2008
Pastors and Devotions.
I am sitting here doing some study / preliminary work on my sermon for this weekend. We’ve starting the book of Ephesians and I’m taking in Ephesians 1:3-10. Its a quite a full passage and I’m looking forward to the challenge of preaching on it. But for some reason, my mind is going to the idea that pastors need to be doing their own personal reading (call it devotions if you want) outside of the text they are preaching for the week. I get the concept behind that. But now I’m wondering, is this because we’re trained to approach the text that we are preaching in a way that doesn’t effect or transform our lives? We encourage those who are part of The Well to...Read More →
-
September 22, 2008
Children, Families and Worship
This week at The Well we had a child / parent dedication. We do dedications in a pretty cool way and I’ll write about that this week, but I wanted to share something I wrote that outlines our overall approach to children, worship and community. Children & Families at The Well There is no question that children are a precious gift from God. Because of this, how they fit into the life of our community is no small matter. At The Well, we believe that the family is the best place for spiritual formation of children. It is the role of the church community to partner with parents in helping children to love God and love others. Therefore, our goal is to work alongside parents...Read More →
-
September 18, 2008
The Challenge of Community in Suburbia
Melanie and I were on a walk last night and we were talking for a bit about the challenge of being in community in our suburban environment. With all of our good intentions, its been hard to find a way gather with those who live around us to read scripture, pray together and just plain old be together. There are a lot of factors that go into this. Children are a big key. We have two young children and we try and have them in bed by 8:00 each night so they don’t kill each other the next day. To do some kind of small group / bible study during the week is tough. Not impossible, but really, really hard to pull off. Another issue...Read More →
-
September 17, 2008
New Front Page Layout
If you visit my site much you’ll notice that I have a new layout here on the front page. I am still getting to the sub-pages but I wanted to see how this worked out in reality before I did much else. And, honestly, I am not sure when I’ll get to the rest of the site since my schedule is getting more and more busy. The reason for the chages come from my frustrations with blogs in general. The biggest frustration is that old posts get lost and information organization is fairly hard to manage. For example, some people come to my blog because they are my friends and they will read anything. But, the fact is, they are mostly looking for information /...Read More →
-
September 16, 2008
The Narrative of the Kingdom and Witness?
This past week we finished up our nine month journey through the book of Acts together at The Well. I had the privileged of preaching and summarizing the whole thing up this weekend. Part of my sermon was on how challenging its been for me to watch the early church and see how everything that the early church did revolved around the task of witness. This is the narrative that defined their entire way of life. The text that really shaped this was in Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Sprit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” I asked these questions: How fair...Read More →
-
September 15, 2008
Speaking about Missional in Suburbia at Biblical Seminary with Some Really Smart People
Biblical Seminary is hosting a pretty great event on Oct 10. They are installing my friend and professor John Franke as the “Lester and Kay Clemens Professor of Missional Theology.” I am not sure what that really even means, but I assume its a big deal. The event has a great speaker line-up and I’ll be speaking at one of the parallel sessions along with Gary (my co-pastor) on the topic of being missional in suburbia. The title for our session is “Missional In Suburbia: Are you Kidding?!” We’ll basically be outlining the challenges and opportunities for being the church and planting churches in a suburban setting. Should be fun. We’ll be working in some stuff from my paper and some of our experiences with...Read More →
-
September 9, 2008
Burn Out? Or Are You Just Tired?
A pastor friend and I were recently talking about burn out. Both of us have been running on fumes lately. Usually that’s when you start wondering if you are burnt out. As we were talking I think I had an ah-ha moment. Here’s my thought: Burn out generally comes when you are not serving, living in the midst of your gifts and strengths. When you are living in your gifts and strengths, and you think you are burning out. Its probably more true that you are tired and you need some sabbath. You need some rest. Out of your gifting = burnout. Living in your gifting = tired. Out of your gifting = make a change. Living in your gifting = make time for sabbath....Read More →
-
September 8, 2008
Politics and Preaching
This post has been republished on Neue Magazine’s website This is really the first election year that I’ve spent a lot of time listening to the speeches and debates from the two main Presidential candidates. Usually, the only campaigning that I let into my system are the television commercials and that’s only because the DVR hadn’t been invented yet. This year, as I have taken in all these speeches and “debates” I’ve realized that there is something to be learned for pastors and people who teach or preach on a regular basis. Watching these two candidates has made me ask this question: As pastors and teachers does our preaching give way for conversion or does our preaching simply make those who disagree with us disagree...Read More →
