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Archive of "The Church" Category
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It’s Official: I’m Going Back to Starbucks
It’s hard to believe but I have been a pastor at The Well for about nine years now. In those years, I’ve served at The Well on a part-time-paid basis. This has been an intentional model for us as …
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Mental Illness & The Church
For the last five years I have had a friend named Michael who has been part of my life. We’ve lost touch recently touch due to some circumstances but his friendship has been one of the more challenging experiences of …
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The Church: Shaped by Prayer?
This month (Nov. 16th) we are meeting as a community at The Well for our quarterly discussion on issues that are important to our mission together. We call these meetings Midrash meetings. This month we’ll be addressing the issue …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 … -
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 …
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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 … -
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 … -
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 …
