I finally managed to find a copy of Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren at my local Barnes and Noble hang out. I’ll have much more to say once I’m finished with the whole thing. So far, so good. Well, that didn’t last long. It seems that chapters 1-5 are hung around a pretty serious looking strawman. I was honestly hoping for the best with this offering. More to come …
Posts Tagged ‘Emerging Church’
Everything Must Change by McLaren
What is Incarnational Ecclesiology?
I’ve been collecting definitions for “Incarnational Ecclesiology,” mostly from Emerging and/or Emergent Church writers and bloggers. Why? Well, because I believe in it. I think we should live it. I believe that the Good News of Jesus Christ and the supernatural movement proceeding should organically bloom in a given context. In other words, it should grow from the inside. So, individuals called to missional activity should plant where they live and interact everyday with authentic friends and neighbors. Moving into a differentiated cultural context for the singular purpose of making converts or church-goers is not incarnational ministry, at least according to the following definitions: Read More
Mature Christian Evangelism is about Friendships
There is a healthy way to introduce friends and neighbors to the faith. For far too long, Christians would happen upon a person who really needs to hear our Good News, and instead of hearing the Good News, they felt attacked and threatened. Attacked because they were presented not with the Good News, but with some sort of presentation of what a “good” Christian is or believes; threatened because they were made to feel … inferior. This is not a healthy presentation of the faith. It’s a fine approach, if you want to be interpreted as an antagonistic, or worse yet, a slick marketer or salesperson. Start with authentic friendship first; talk faith as it comes up naturally in the course of the friendship. Read More
Turning Off the Spiritual Infomercial
Jesus and his simple way are anything but ordinary. Jesus’ way is simple, but it is anything but ordinary. Jesus’ way is extraordinary, in its simplest form!
So, I guess I’m asking if you see simplicity itself as extraordinary; or beyond extraordinary. Complications, shallowness, and distractions are rooted in the world’s ordinary or everyday way of being and doing. These are the sorts of things upon which all of those things we are so tired of are built. Popular Christian words and spiritual sounding catch-phrases flow from these sorts of things; simplicity is the foundation of the extraordinary way of Jesus of Nazareth. Read More
Our Emerging IMG Leadership Team
I am so thrilled and so thankful for the people God is bringing together to lead our church plant in the city. God is faithful. Read More
How Do You Do Well - Doing Good?
How to decide where to focus concentration: If your church were full of professional people, why would you have them go build houses? Building houses is a good thing, but if you have people with MBA’s and PhD’s is the greatest contribution they can make swinging a hammer? You must think through these issues. Porter says he never volunteers in a soup kitchen. “Why would I?” he asks. “I can do more good working with city leaders than giving someone green beans. But it’s good that someone is serving green beans.” Read More
Joining the Holy Spirit in an Apostolic Journey
I’ve taken a few days to pray, pursue, and ponder. Especially on my mind was/is Inner Metro Green, our church plant in Lancaster City. I have been interacting with many, many un-churched people in the city for nearly 3.5 months now. My conclusion? Revival. Read More
The Jesus of Suburbia
I am reading through Mike Erre’s The Jesus of Suburbia. Wow! What a great and timely read this book is! It is a fairly light and easily understandable read, but it is not meant for the faint of heart. It is a piercing indictment of most of American Evangelical Christianity. So, if you are quite comfortable there, then you may want to take a pass on this one. It wastes zero time getting to the point too. The following excerpt is lifted directly from the third and fourth pages of the introduction: Read More
What is an Emergent Unitarian Universalist Church!?!
This is the sort of thing that makes it very hard for me not to be very particular about the friends I keep: An Emergent Liberal Church. I deeply appreciate the open conversation to which the Emergent wing of the Emerging Church is dedicated, but seriously … a Unitarian Universalist Emergent Church?!? I journeyed pretty far behind that particular curtain, and what I discovered was and still is not pretty. Honestly, it is not. The flirtation between Unitarian Universalism and the Emergent wing of the Emerging Conversation is nearly enough for me to join the growing multitude and discount Emergent validity completely. Emergent isn’t Emerging, after all; said differently, the Emergent Village is only one expression of the larger Emerging Conversation. Read More
Circumvent Relational Morph into Cheap Syncretism
When do honest attempts at incarnational relationships morph into cheap religious pluralism and/or spiritual syncretism (both are very different from deep inter-faith conversation, which is something I support with all of my being)? Read More