imagining how the church can reorient around mission

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”  I John 2:6 

Merry Christmas everyone!  This is such a great time of year.  I love the music (judge me if you must), I love the food, and I even love the gift giving and receiving (again, judge me if you want).  Some of my favorite memories in life have occurred during the Christmas season, including my discovery of the real Jesus.  Probably the most important part of this season that has emerged for me however is on how the concept of the incarnation has contoured my idea of how mission works best. read more

I came across this of my daughter on the net and thought I would pass it along.  I know you will probably think this next statement is biased, but she is beautuful in every way!  If you knew her, you would excitedly agree!  I hope you like the clip.

“When Jesus healed people, when he celebrated parties with all and sundry, when he offered forgiveness freely to people as if he were replacing the Temple itself with his own work – in all these way it was clear, and he intended it to be clear, that this wasn’t just a foretaste of a future reality.  This was reality itself.”

– N.T. Wright read more

Do you have to "feel" grateful or is it a gesture of the will?

If it is a “feel” thing, than I may be in trouble this year – this Thanksgiving.  It is not that there are not ample reasons to feel grateful, but for some reason I am quite flat.  It might be the weather!  Everyone knows how much I despise the cold.  That’s right!  I despise it.  It could be the late light in the morning and early dark at night here in the north.  Regardless, I am, as my therapist wife would say, non-affective (as in unemotional…not the disorder). read more

Here is a portion of a moving poem that was sent to me today by one of my best friends, Shann Ferch.  The poem is entitled, The Grandeur of God and was written by Gerard Manly Hopkins:

But in all this, Nature is never spent, read more

Parker Palmer, in his book, Let Your Life Speak, writes of the importance of tending to the inner life,

"Go far enough on the inner journey, they all tell us – go past ego toward true self – and you end up not lost in narcissism but returning to the world, bearing more gracefully the responsibilities that come with being human." read more

I got this from CA's staffer, Rich Sander from Santa Barbara,

A preacher was driving home from a conference when a policeman noticed him swerving all around the road. The cop pulled him over and said "Sir, have you been drinking tonight?" "No officer, only this bottle of water" "Sir, that's clearly a bottle of wine." The preacher looked down and said "Good Lord, He's done it again!" read more

There was a philosophy that I heard stated in different ways when I was in youth ministry and every time I heard it, it always drove me a little crazy. That philosophy was something along the lines of “if you can win the quarterback, you will win the school.” And whether stated or unstated, it was the basis of most of the youth ministries I observed. Tons of energy was poured into reaching the cool kids.

via theycallmepastorbryan.com read more

Jacques Ellul wrote concerning prayer,

"Theology can tell us what prayer is, can enlighten us on the meaning of the revelation concerning prayer and on the place which prayer occupies in the revelation. It can describe for us accurately 'what man does when he prays.' But all this comes to nothing when man does not pray."

Duke University theologian Geoffrey Wainwright said that when the history of the 20th century church is written, Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998) will be among the top 10 or 12 theological thinkers of the century. Newbigin spent forty years in India as a missionary. Upon his return to England in 1974, he published numerous books and began to command an international audience. His missionary eyes brought fresh sight to the Western church as he called for a missionary encounter with Western culture. And it is in that phrase—a ‘missionary encounter with Western culture’—that we find Newbigin’s enduring legacy for the Western church today.

via www.qideas.org read more