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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 … -
Preaching and Political Convention Speeches
Here’s my main question: does our preaching give way for conversion or does our preaching simply make those who disagree with us disagree more?
After spending the last two weeks listening to the speeches at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions I realized that there was a strong difference between how I used to preach and how I preach now.
I used to preach, and still sometime do, in similar manner as these conventions. After I was done, those …
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What are Some Practical Examples of What it Means to be Missional?
In the comments of the last post, Jim asked this question:
“I’m just beginning to try to help my established congregation turn itself into a missional focus.I really like the notes and presentation, but where I struggle is where your presentation leaves off…what does this look like practically…what are the practices your community is a part of…in what ways is your community different in appearance, look and action than what I see going on in my established non-missional congregation?
just looking …
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Intro to the Missional Church Class Notes
This past weekend I taught a class at The Well called, “An Introduction to the Missional Church.” It as basically a very broad overview of the topic and a crash course in how we structure things here at The Well and why we do the things that we do. I’m more than happy to post my notes here (At hte request of a few friends) because, well, most of this stuff is borrowed from people who are much, …
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How does the gospel judge suburbia?
I’m working on a class at The Well for tomorrow that is basically serving as an introduction / overview to missional theology. It’s been a blast to put it together and I think we’ll spark some great conversation about our specific context and calling here in suburban Philadelphia.
Of course, I’ve been looking back through a few of my Newbigin books and came across this gem in The Open Secret:
“The day-to-day worship and word and witness of the …
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The Great Sin of the Western Church?
Last week I wrote about the way that my Zambia has effected me and one of the things that came from it is that we’re hosting a new small group in our house on Sunday nights. We were talking in this new group about how easy it is to departmentalize our lives and so easily miss how the gospel actually calls us to live differently from how we are. Thoughts went to things such as the crusades, …
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Are You Rioting with the Suburban Mob?
Okay, its been about a half a week since I’ve been back from Zambia. I’ve not done much deep writing around the trip because there is so much in my head that I am just trying to sort it all out. Sunday morning, I preached a mess of a sermon that I am hoping made sense. I really tried to share my heart and what God is doing with Melanie and I since I’ve returned. The sermon …
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Forum on Suburban Poverty
We’re doing our summer missions trip this year a little differently. We’re going to the far away land of Feasterville, PA! Yes, that’s right. Feasterville. The hotbed of today’s youth culture… or something like that.
Two years ago we went to New Orleans. Last year we went to Philadelphia. Next summer looks like another trip to Zambia. But this summer we’re staying local. Gary has lined up a week full of serving …
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Final Zambia Reflections
I am finally back from Zambia after two weeks of spending time with Pastor George Palo of Harvest City Church in Ndola, Zambia. I have a ton in my head and I have to say that these two weeks will likely turnout to be a watershed moment for the lives of the Hiestands.
You’ll have to be in church tomorrow to get my more complete reflections (or listen online when i post it) but here are some major themes/thoughts:
Community
Sunday night was … -
Zambia Update: Saturday, June 21, 2008
I am sitting in nice cosy guest house that we are in and just reflecting a bit on our last two days. Its been an encouraging and challenging two days as we have begun to meet with the Zambian people and specifically some of the church leaders.
Last night Tom and I spoke at the leadership team meeting for George’s church, Harvest City Church. There were about 40 people there. Some were pastors and some were lay leaders. We spoke on …
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Envision 08 Conference Thoughts
I spent the last two and a half days in the sweltering heat at Princeton University / Seminary at the Envision 08 conference. This conference was described on their website as:
“Envision ‘08 is about the power of the gospel to transform the public square. It’s about Jesus and justice, evangelical history and heritage, and practiced theology. It’s about the next one hundred years of the church and its impact on the common good.”
I was pleasantly surprised at the conference. … -
How Does the Church Engage the World? Build an Ark?
I grew up with two kinds of music in my household: 1950’s rock and roll from my dad and the Gaither Vocal Band from my church. I loved the Southern Gospel of the Gaithers as a kid. Honestly, its kinda nostalgic to listen to these days. But, I was reminded recently of this song by the Gaither’s called “Build and Ark.”
I am not sure if you’ve ever heard of this song, but here are the lyrics (video is at the …
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Ordinary People Answer 7 Big Questions
I read recently in Relevant Magazine’s article on 7 Big Questions. In this article they asked 7 questions of Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Lauren Winner, Efrem Smith, Rick Warren. These are some big names in the evangelical world and its no surprise that everyone wants to know what they have to say.But, being a small church pastor myself, I am always interested …
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Top 5 Books for the Back Table?
Steve McCoy asks a great question of his Southern Baptist Friends, “What 5 books would you recommend for a church’s book table?” So, i am stealing the idea for this post from him…
Most of the answers there were in the Reformed circles. Some good titles there. But, I do wonder what top 5 books you would put on the back table of a church.
Here are mine:
A Walk Through the Bible - Lesslie Newbigin (a great, short, non-churchy …
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Growing Generosity vs. Meeting the Budget
A friend and I were talking through some of the characteristics of The Well today and he made an observation that was very, very encouraging. He said to me, “I love The Well because our focus is on generosity vs. meeting the budget.”
I think this is a big difference that is also very subtle. I think this is seen in my previous post on the stimulus checks and the church that asked for them. …
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Give Us Your Economic Stimulus Check?
Genuine question here: Would the following quote I found on a church website inspire you to give? Would you find this helpful? Offensive? Annoying? Just fine?
Here’s an idea! Whether you normally tithe or regularly put a check in the offering plate or just put in whatever cash you can from your wallet when you are at church, why don’t you trying tithing on this unexpected gift from the government? If you give the first 10% …
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A Church of Small Groups? Or Just Community?
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 that small groups are very much needed by those who need small groups. Read that sentence again slowly. The truth is that … -
Developing Missional Values, Programs, Budgets, Goals
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 generalized flow of thought for how we develop programs, ideas and even budgets. In fact, what you will see below came mostly from a conversation …
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Giving is Only as Strong as Your Mission…
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, we’re on track to double last year’s amount, and I’ve never had to beg or plead for our members to dig deep or give … -
Four Missional Movements for the Suburban Church
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 Communal
As individuals we are important, very, very important. But we need to continually celebrate the individual but we must do it within the context of …
