Why Are An Orange?

Because the faster you eat the much.*

To anyone still trying to figure that out, it is not supposed to make sense. The reason for using it as a post title is that is where I am at with the whole church deal. It just doesn’t make sense. I am not too angry, [...]

The Missing APEs

The system of church leadership we inherited from Christendom heavily favors maintenance and pastoral care, thus neglecting the church’s larger mission and ministry. Consequently the A, P, and E leadership functions were marginalized from the church’s leadership structure.
This divorce of APE from ST has been disastrous for the local church and has damaged the [...]

A Quickie Meme

Since Brother Maynard needs to keep his blog traffic up while he’s out galavanting around the US, he started a meme about your favorite book of the Bible. I have a long post scheduled to go up tomorrow that I would like to leave open for several days, so I am going to squeeze [...]

Missional Monday

In the book The Critical Journey, (Sheffield, 2004) Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich propose a stage theory for the Christian journey. It’s a fascinating read and, I believe, is very useful as we think about our Christian life as a journey of faith. Here’s a quick summary of the stages:

Recognition of God: God is big, [...]

Sunday Breakfast

I was having coffee with a couple of friends the other day, one who faithfully attends a church she doesn’t like and the other who, having recently left a church, doesn’t attend anywhere.
The faithful attender asked me whether some mutual friends of ours had found a church yet.
While my mental response was, “hell no, they’re [...]

Sunday Revival

Facade

~
Why don’t I tell you of the tears that stain my pillow?
The hurts and fears that seem too big to share.
I don’t expect your help in carrying my pain.
Why invite you into my ongoing despair?
~
If there were easy answers,
I would tell you of my need.
Then we could rejoice when I am fixed,
And everyone be happily [...]

I Have Become Like Broken Pottery

In a world of mega-church celebrity leaders, where status and strength are esteemed, there runs concurrently a steady stream of people walking away from the popular church culture. Rather than walking into an alternate realm of power and position, they walk into a desolate exile.
Many have found themselves on this journey not knowing if [...]

Prayers for a Friend

Ron at A Hopeful Heretic is going through a difficult time. I know that many of you can relate to the feeling of having the rug pulled out from under you, sometimes one more time than you feel you can bear. Perhaps our community of broken people could extend some love and prayers [...]

Missional Monday

We do not need, however, to live together in residential communities in order to orient our lives around God’s vision and purposes. However to move beyond functional atheism and become the people God intends us to be, we do need to foster a sense of shared spirituality and commitment. It is because of our conviction [...]