I was part of an awesome book project called ViralHope: Good News from the Urbs to the Burbs (and Everything in Between). It was edited by my good friend JR Woodward and was published on Ecclesia Press. This book is a collection of a lot (I forget the number!) of short essays on the good news. The great part is that each author wrote their chapter as if it were being submitted to their local paper. I wrote mine to the people in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I focused it on global nature of the gospel because I am convinced that suburban folks tend to get lost in their own world and so dang focused on ourselves. I wanted to show us suburbanites that while...Read More →
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December 7, 2010
Give the Gift of Hope For Christmas
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December 7, 2010
Are People Generally Screw Ups?
As you can tell I’ve been reading the book by Margaret J Wheatley called, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. I can’t say enough good things about this book. That’s probably why I keep on quoting from it. I think she has some important things to say to us, especially those of us who are leading church communities and other non-profits. Read this whole quote, it’s worth it… If you look around at most organizations and communities, people are still being kept in boxes. They are not invited to contribute, to create, or to care about each other. Instead, it’s assumed that people must be policed into good behavior. Endless policies and laws attempt to make us behave properly. Yet very few people tolerate...Read More →
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December 6, 2010
ReWork: Creating Leadership Culture
Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts called “Cultivating a Leadership Culture.” You can read this series in it’s entirety here. That series developed out of the nine years that I have been learning along the way as Pastor at The Well. I love the challenge and opportunity of creating community and culture, especially in the area of leadership. I’ve become somewhat of a leadership junkie and nerd and I have grown to love the sociology of the leadership task. That’s why the book ReWork by Jason Fried and David Heinemier Hansson, founders of 37signals, was such a refreshing book. This book is essentially a series of short reflections and essays on creating a healthy leadership culture. It seems to me that in...Read More →
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December 6, 2010
Are You Stooping to Greatness?
I’ve always loved Pat Lencioni’s writing. I think he just get’s it. This is no exception.
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December 6, 2010
Should Church Bore the Hell Out of You?
David Fitch offers this provacative question with this post… For many, I fear, church has become a Christian necessity we perform on Sunday. Sometimes we pastors try to make it more appealing by selling it as a goods and services of the religious kind that might help each person better sustain what has become the rushed existence of our suburban lives. As a side note, sometimes, even more “stupidly,” we try to make church a place to take care of our kids, attract them to Christianity. We actually choose a church because of its appeal to our kids in the midst of this hectic American life because we do not have the time to patiently connect with and present with our kids. Church becomes an...Read More →
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December 6, 2010
Leadership and Control
Some great quotes from a great book by Margaret J Wheatley called, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. Trying to be an effective leader in this machine story is especially exhausting. He or she is leading a group of lifeless, empty automatons who are just waiting to be filled with vision and direction and intelligence. The leader is responsible for providing everything: the organizational mission and values, the organizational structure, the plans, the supervision. The leader must also figure out, through clever use of incentives or coercives, how to pump energy into this lifeless mass. Once the pump is primed, he must then rush hither and yon to make sure that everyone is clanking along in the same direction, at the established speed, with...Read More →
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December 3, 2010
Outsourcing Parenting?
Doesn’t seem like this is rocket science.. For decades, parents have relied on youth group meetings, mission trips, and other church programming to instill a solid sense of faith in their children… …When researchers consider which factors account for strong faith commitments in teenagers and young adults, one element is consistently more pivotal than all others: parental involvement. Parents who practice faith intentionally at home and guide their children to do likewise are most likely to raise children with clear understandings and robust commitments. but how many of our churches are effectively doing something about this?
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December 3, 2010
Finding Out Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time
I’ve been reading a great book by Margaret J Wheatley called, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. I love learning as much as I can about leadership and healthy organizational development. The best way to describe this book is with the word “rich.” It’s really, really helpful and she’s putting words to some things I’ve been feeling for a long time. Here is one of my favorite quotes so far: “We act as if humans are motivated by selfishness, greed, and fear. That we exist as individuals, free of the obligation of interdependence. That hierarchy and bureaucracy are the best forms of organizing. That efficiency is the premier measure of value. That people work best under controls and regulations. That diversity is a...Read More →
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December 3, 2010
Design Can’t Rise Above Content
This is a great article on how good design, in the long term, can’t make up for bad content. This transfers to many different areas of life and business. For example, a great worship service can’t hide a bad community life. A nice house can’t hide a bad marriage. Good marketing can’t help a screwed up organization.
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December 2, 2010
Diversity, Unity and Submission
I can’t believe it’s been almost nine years since I met Laurence Tom. LT, as we call him, in a Chinese-American pastor in Chinatown Center City. I met him while we were in seminary. I should actually say I met him while he was in seminary as I am still in the process finishing my degree 10 years later. The wonderful thing about our friendship is that while we have very similar beliefs on leadership, mission and theology we come from very different backgrounds and we lead in very different contexts. I come from a semi-fundamentalist upbringing where I am a 5th generation pastor. I grew up in white-suburbia where my pastor was a proud dispensationalist graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary. LT was raised in...Read More →
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October 12, 2010
God Names You: A Benediction
This Sunday, Ariana Newton, a member of our community gave the following benediction in response to Scott & I’s sermon. I loved it so much that I thought I would share: So may we realize that in this huge cosmos, not just around the globe but throughout time, that God names us. May we take our place in the lineage of those that love God, as opposed to being a city that loves ourselves. May that love translate into how we treat those on our right and left, not here at the church, but at our jobs, schools, communities, and those we come across in our daily grind. May we be the kind of people that love, are generous, show grace, and forgive seventy times...Read More →
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September 30, 2010
DMin at Northern Seminary
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… I started my MA at Biblical Theological Seminary. That was nine years, 3.5 kids and four apartments ago. I’m happy to say that I am finally scheduled to graduate with an MA in Missional Theology from Biblical Theological Seminary. It’s been a pleasure studying here (yes, I’m writing this in class… whoops) and I’ve really been blessed by John Franke’s teaching over the years. Now that I am finishing up, I’m thinking about what’s next. I have been looking into the possibilities of pursuing a DMin as I’d like to do some adjunct teaching in the future and, more importantly, I’d love the focused learning that a degree like that brings. That being said I...Read More →
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September 21, 2010
On Running My First half-Marathon
The last time I ran in a timed, race-type event was in high school. It was gym class and one of the kids in my class was on the cross country team. I didn’t like him very much (I don’t now remember why). He was not only on the cross-country team but he was pretty much the best runner in the school. But, because I didn’t like him much I was determined to beat him in this mile long race. I kept up with him for about 3/4 of a mile until he finally kicked it into gear and left me in his dust. He beat be by about 10 seconds or so. I ran that mile in 5:35. He ran it in 5:25. After...Read More →
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September 16, 2010
10 Suggestions/Thoughts on Bi-Vocational Ministry
I’ve been bi-vocational in some way or another for about 9 years. Here is some random advice/thoughts to those who are beginning or in the midst of the bi-vocational approach to ministry: Try and find a second job that feeds your gifting and passions in some way. I actually really enjoy web design. It taps into my creative side and gives me an outlet for that kind of thing. So, while it has its frustrations, I really can enjoy the work. This has been very important as it doesn’t necessarily drain me as I engage the these responsibilities. Try and have your second job be a career type job and not just a part-time placement where the only positive is that you make money. While...Read More →
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September 15, 2010
Bi-Vocational Update
It’s funny, over the past few months people who have not seen me for a while tend to ask me, “hows that bi-vocational thing going for you?” most likely referring to my posts from a few months ago (here and here) on having three jobs and three kids and all that goes with that. Well, over the past few months things have changed a bit. I’m no longer employed by Starbucks (though, I still spend a lot of time there doing work in the cafe!). The Well was gracious and picked up the health insurance for our family again and increased my hours to 3/4 time so I’ve been able to devote more time to leading our community and advancing our mission. I’m still running...Read More →
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August 16, 2010
The Cost of Family Time?
I just wrote a post on our Missional in Suburbia website about how we spend money as family when we are going out in the evenings. Would love to hear your feedback there. Do We Have to Spend Money to Have Fun?
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August 4, 2010
And: The Gathered and Scattered Church
A few weeks ago the book And: The Gathered and Scattered Church showed up on my front step (that’s because I bought it of course). This book was written by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay of Adullam Church in Denver, CO. I was interested in this book for a few reasons. First of all, we use the phrase “shaping and sending” in our congregation as a short description of what we are doing. I respect (from afar) what these guys are doing so I was hoping this book would be a bit of the struggles and successes they’ve had in trying to work this out in the context of their community. I wasn’t disappointed. I really, really appreciated hearing their story. They didn’t approach the...Read More →
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August 4, 2010
Is Evangelism a Dirty Word?
Tonight I hung out with a bunch of people from The Well and we sat around and talked about the scary, evil topic of evangelism. It’s funny, for some Christians “evangelism” is a dirty word and for others its like the greatest thing of all time. If you are a Christian or have ever been friends with one, you probably have some strong opinions about the topic. We started out the discussion by sharing our favorite (or not-so-favorite) evangelism stories. So we didn’t get too cynical, I asked that we tell some bad ones about ourselves too. I figure now is a good time to let my own embarassing personal evangelism story out of the bag. You might know about See You At the Pole....Read More →
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July 31, 2010
La Limonada – Tattooed On Our Hearts
I always love it when you meet someone and from that point on your life takes a difference course than you could have ever expected. About a year ago, at an IdeaCamp conference I was introduced to a young looking, old man named Bill Cummings (I seriously had no clue he was in his 40′s, I thought he was 33 at most!). I had heard that the director of Lemonade International was at the conference and I really was looking forward to meeting him. Lemonade International focuses on educating and empowering people in the largest urban slum in Central America – La Limonada in Guatemala City. Since one of our soon to be four children is adopted from Guatemala, we instantly connected. La Limonada, a...Read More →
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July 31, 2010
Money and Discipleship.
I’ve been reading Alan and Deb Hirsch’s (Twitter | Website) newest book, Untamed and I’ve really been enjoying it. In their chapter called “kultcha-schmultcha” they have a series of things in the culture that need to be addressed when it comes to discipleship. This is a great section because they touch on a bunch of things that are deeply embedded in our culture that are in need of some critical thinking about how they influence and shape our faith, our lives and our discipleship. Their little section on money is spot on. My only complaint is that it isn’t longer, but I know that’s not what they were trying to do – that is, write a long treatise on money. In this section they talk...Read More →
