imagining how the church can reorient around mission

I am speaking this Sunday at a cool church in
the Tri-Cities, Washington.  It is
called the Living Room and is pastored by my son-in-law’s father, Monte
Igersoll. 

You can find their FB page HERE read more

• AND: The Gathered and Scattered
  Church – Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
• Lesslie Newbigin – Missionary Theologian – a
  Reader – Paul Weston
• Missional Church, Eerdmans 1998 – Darrell L. Guder et al.
• Mission Between Times – Rene’ Padilla
• The Forgotten Ways – Alan Hirsch

Here is a list of the recommended readings:

• A Community
  Called Atonement, Scot McKnight
• Light
  to the Nations, A: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story, Michael W.
  Goheen
• Believing in the Future – David Bosch
• Breaking
  the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer
• Celtic Way of Evangelism – George G. Hunter
• Foolishness
  to the Greeks – Lesslie Newbigin
• Generous Justice – Tim Keller
• Introducing the Missional Church – Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren
• Journey to the Common Good – Walter Brueggemann
• Missional Spirituality: Embodying God's Love from the Inside Out – Roger Helland and Leonard Hjalmarson
• Permenant Revolution – Alan Hirsch
• Post-Christendom – Stuart Murray
• Salt, Light, and a City: Introducing Missional Ecclesiology - Graham Hill
• Transformation
  in Mission – David Bosch
• The
  Church Between Gospel and Culture – Ed. Hunsberger and Van Gelder
• The
  King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight
• The Open Secret (Revised Edition) – Lesslie Newbigin
• The
  Mission of God, Christopher J.H. Wright
• The
  Mission of God’s People, Christopher J.H. Wright
• The
  Missional Leader – Alan Roxburgh, Fred Romanuk, and Eddie Gibbs
• The
  Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality – Roxburgh
• The Tangible Kingdom – Hugh Halter and Matt
  Smay

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I have taught a class at Whitworth University every year for
some time now called on the Missional Church. 

First of all, next year I hope to change the course's title to
something like, “A Church for the World.” 
It is book title I am messing around with.  The Missional Church idea is, perhaps, missing the centrality
of what I am teaching and is also a bit dog-eared (can you say overused?). read more

I read this morning…

“Anyone who knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour must desire ardently that others should share that knowledge and must rejoice when the number of those who do is multiplied. Where this desire and rejoicing are absent, we must ask whether something is not wrong at the very center of he church’s life”. read more

I have been in Russia for 7 days now and have found the experience
incredibly enriching.  Starting Friday Robi and I will be leading a
Marriage retreat with Christian Associates Board chair, Rita Warren and her
husband, Michael. 

The link below is to Rita’s blog. 
She describes our endeavor and the hope we have as we embark on the
retreat. read more

A short prayer from my time at St. Gertude's

——————- read more

Another lovely one from Mary Oliver – she is such a wonderful artist.

Logos (a poem of the bread and fish)  read more

Why is it so difficult to admit my brokenness…my neediness? 

I suppose it is because all of who I am is built around competency and sufficiency.  I have been reared to be both of those things, but upon entering the Kingdom I must put each down.  I am beckoned to a distinctively unusual way. I know that, but to say that I have reached the end of my competencies and am not completely sufficient is like getting something stuck in my throat…like communion bread without enough wine.  read more

This morning (my birthday) I was reading some poetry to my wife outside under our lovely birch tree in our front yard.  Sitting under this tree has been the launching pad for some of our most stimulating conversations.  With a cup of coffee or glass of wine, an endless line of wonderful friends have sat with us under this colossal tree over the years.  It reminds me of what Eden must have been like.  

Anyway, I stumbled upon this next passage, which captured my thoughts about aging and stirred in me a bit of an existential moment. read more

This morning (my birthday) I was reading some poetry to my wife today outside under our lovely birch tree in our front yard.  Sitting under this tree have been the launching pad of some of our most stimulating conversations.  With a cup of coffee or glass of wine, an endless line of wonderful friends have sat with us under this colossal tree over the years.  It reminds me of what Eden must have been like.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this next passage, which captured my thoughts about aging and stirred in me a bit of an existential moment. read more