Archive of "Faith & Theology" Category
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A Prayer by St. Patrick
As I arise today,
may the strength of God pilot me,
the power of God uphold me,
the wisdom of God guide me.
May the eye of God look before me,
the ear of God hear me,
the word of God speak for me.
May the hand … -
Letters and Papers from Prison – Bonhoeffer
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An Invocation for Our MLK Gathering
Last night I had the honor of participating in our local Martin Luther King, Jr celebration service. This is always a meaningful event because we get to worship God together with a very diverse group of churches. I led the …
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Top 55 Pastor-Bloggers
So, apparently I am one of the top 55 pastor bloggers. Not sure how that list was made. But I guess its cool. And hey, I am #33 right after the one and only Eugene Cho. Maybe that’s …
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Edwin Freidman on Change
Edwin Friedman spoke the following at the Baccalaureate address to Albert Einstein High School in 1964:
“The universal ingredient and force which permeates all of life – namely change – is changing for the faster, and this means that it will … -
Emerging Church Reading Group
One of the more challenging things (Among many others) with being a pastor at The Well is the constant need for us define if we are an “emerging church” or not. I’m not …
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Karl Barth Meets the Emerging Church
Note: Below is my fictional account of a meeting between some emerging church pastors and the late Karl Barth. I am not sure why I had to note that it is fictional…but you can never be too safe. All references …
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Instead of a Show
I’ve been loving Jon Foreman’s seasons albums the past few weeks. If you don’t know Jon Foreman is the lead singer of Switchfoot and these albums are really well done. I love his song “Instead of a Show” that I …
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Three Questions Worth Spending Significant Time Contemplating
In his excellent book The Monkey and the Fish, Dave Gibbons asks three questions as he talks about the massive shift that is going on in our world. How …
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Newbigin on Leadership
I read Lesslie Newbigin’s chapter on Leadership from his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society once every few months. It’s that good. Here is an excellent …
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Supporting One Day’s Wages and HELP
I’m excited about the upcoming Scripture and Culture Seminar with Darrell Guder and Andy Crouch at The Well in Suburban Philadelphia. This event is put on by my church, The Well and …
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What Story Are You Living? Reflections on Don Miller’s Book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”
Like many others, I read Donald Miller’s book, “Blue Like Jazz” in about three sittings. That’s not only cause it’s an easy read, but mostly because he’s a great …
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Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion…
Trying to decide what I think of this interview, some provocative thoughts.
For example,
“The problem is that evangelical/fundamentalist faith revolves around two directives: Be successful and evangelize. That leads to bad choices.”
Probably a lot of good stuff that …
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This is Salvation.
I am just getting into the book Sin and Salvation from Lesslie Newbigin. It’s not one of his more famous books but I recently heard it described as the most … -
I Still Haven’t Found What I am Looking For – Reflections on U2 at Giants Stadium
Thursday morning I received a phone call at 5:10am from my dad. Being that my dad lives in Chicago it meant that he was calling me at 4:10am. That’s never a good phone call. …
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Broken Eikons, Being Made New
We are made in God’s image.
As eikons of God our role in this world is to point others to what God is like.
This is our role in this world individually.
This is our role in this world communally.
“That’s …
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Lemonade International
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Whole Life Generosity
In my sermon this week, on the parable of the Foolish Rich Man, I referenced this quote from Tom Sine’s book, The New Conspirators. I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who is …
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Eugene Peterson’s Advice to Church Planters
JR Briggs, a fellow pastor and one of my best friends in the entire universe, has been corresponding with Eugene Peterson for the last number of years. They write actual letters. You know, when pen and paper and stamps …
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July 2009 Update on The Well
I’ve posted a new update on some of the things we are focusing on at The Well, the church community I am part of. You can read them here.
Enjoy.










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