I was reading an article on Christianity Today and came across my exact understanding of small groups laid out in a really simple few paragraphs:
Okay, let’s all say it together: “We don’t want to be a church with small groups, but a church of small groups.” Everybody says it. Well, everybody but Mecklenburg.
We have found [...]
I am continually trying to work out how to better think through and organize our community in a natural and semi-organic way so that we can best live out or mission and our values.
I spend a lot of time thinking about this “organizing for mission” concept and as part of my thinking I brainstormed a [...]
From an article on The Ooze:
Our house church has been thriving now for over 2 years and I can honestly say I’ve not once had to preach a sermon on tithing or giving, and yet our small gathering gave thousands of dollars to the help the poor in our community last year. In fact, [...]
At The Well, we’ve been studying the book of Acts. Its been a very, very formative and challenging book for us to work through. For me, there have been four ways that my life, and I think our life, has been challenged so far.
Here are four movements that I’ve seen:
From Individual to [...]
For the first three years of our marriage my wife and I didn’t have any outstanding credit card debt. Then the crap hit the fan. Between some unnecessary purchases, not making enough money, hospital bills, and a string of car repairs, we amassed ourselves some significant credit card debt.
Over the last two [...]
I was thinking Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church. I do that sometimes… think, that is. Anyways, we’ve had a number of new people visiting our community recently. There is a general theme going on with their story. Many of these folk have come from either not [...]
I was driving my car today through town and saw this sign on a gas station / car wash. This is one of those higher end car washes that does the whole car, inside and out.
The marquee says, “We really know how to clean your car right.”
Now, on some level this [...]
A couple days ago I was writing how being bi-occupational allowed me to naturally pastor in a way that calls the community to live their gifting and calling for the sake for the kingdom…
In case I wasn’t clear, let me quote from one of my heros, Lesslie Newbigin. He’s talking about the role of [...]
I’ve become a big fan of Patrick Lencioni and his leadership books. I think he sees things that most of just don’t see. The things he sees are those “duh” type of things too. I subscribe to his “Point of View” newsletter. (you can do so here).
Today he sent out [...]
Meetings. We typically don’t like them. In fact, most of us hate them. This is true for many reasons. I’ve blogged about this before.
At The Well we’ve been on a journey to figure out how to best form our meet time so that our time is well spent. I’ll be honest, [...]
(I posted this post over at my other blog that I don’t think will actually take off again because I am realizing I can’t put energy into two blogs, so I am reposting it here).
If you are a pastor, here’s a question: How do you refer the people in your church? Most [...]
I’ve got my first post of the new MereMission up. Here’s an excerpt:
One of in things to say in churches that claim to be “missional” is something like this: “we don’t have a missions program, our church is a missions program.” This is a great statement, I’ve said it quite often and I am [...]
I know this is early, but with vacations in the summer, I’m trying to get the word our early.
So here it goes…On August 8-9, 2008, my church The Well, in partnership with the Ecclesia Network and C4ML at Biblical Seminary, will be hosting a one-day conference with Al Hsu, author of The Suburban Christian [...]
I’ve been reading Organic Church by Neil Cole. I’ll admit that when I saw the cover I wasn’t too excited to read the book. The coffee cup just kinda turned me off for some reason. Then, at our Ecclesia Gathering Alan Hirsch kept raving about the book so I figured I would give it [...]
For the last two days I’ve been with out a computer. My MacBook Pro is on a little vacation for some R&R. Okay, it actually had a bunch of problems all at once and I finally broke down and sent it off to get fixed. I should have it back on Thursday. [...]
No, not those kind of environmentalists. Not the ones who talk about caring for the earth. I’m all for that. But, I’m referring to leaders who create environments that give room for people to change as Joe Myers talks about in his book The Search to Belong,
“Environmentalists” practice restraint when it comes [...]
For whatever reason, we have a lot of people who visit our community on Sunday mornings. This is all fine and dandy. But, a thought occurred to me recently. I often want to tell those visitors that you can’t judge draw final conclusions about The Well (or any church for that matter) based on [...]
I’ve always been fascinated by the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I just never imagined I would be able stand behind the pulpit where he began his ministry as a 26 year old young man.
Today my dad, Gary and I took the afternoon off from our conference here [...]
I am in a seminar with Ken Callahan and we’re talking about growing and advancing the strengths of the mission of your church. Here are some notes that I think are helpful:
When we are looking at a church, how do we improve our mission? Do we look for the weaknesses or the [...]
If you are interested, I posted the audio for the Ecclesia National Confernce with Alan Hirsch and David Fitch yesterday on the Ecclesia Website. Check it out here