CHURCH PLANTING IN THREE FLAVORS
I am sitting on a plane as I type this, on my way back home from Madrid. We have just had our annual Advancement Team retreat. The Advancement Team leads CA’s church planting work in Europe. I lead this team together my friend and colleague Kevin Johnson. The team consists of 6 people: five of us serve as regional ‘facilitators (we prefer the word ‘facilitator’ to ‘director’ as it emphasizes the serving nature of the role more). The sixth person is Al Dyck, our HR liaison.
A Justification Debate Long Overdue – The Gospel Coalition Blog
A record crowd of more than 2,500 turned out in Atlanta this week for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, focused on “Justification By Faith.” The conference’s main event—three papers and debate over justification between New Testament scholars Frank Thielman, Tom Schreiner, and N. T. Wright—might be about three years too late to slow the spread of controversy over justification that has gripped evangelicals. Unfortunately, a planned face-to-face discussion between John Piper and Wright fell through when Piper took an extended sabbatical. But the novelty of pairing Wright on a panel with Schreiner, another key critic, still riveted an audience that enjoyed more than two hours of sustained debate over New Testament texts, Greek terminology, and ancient Near Eastern and Roman society.
Feedback from Eric Blauer about our CA North American Gathering
I’ve had the privilege of attending and speaking at the Christian Associates International Missional Leader gathering here in Portland, OR this week. Great people, involved in good works across the globe. We’ve had way too much fun, feasted on some fantastic food & drink and laughed way more than I have in a long time. It’s been a full schedule and I’m pretty tired but I’m so glad I got to be a part of this endeavor.
via fcb4.tumblr.com
10 Commandments of Scripture Interpretation | Out of Ur
IV. You shall honor the Church as the recipient and the guardian of the Scriptures.
via www.outofur.com
Ted Koppel: Olbermann, O’Reilly and the death of real news
Back then, a policy against political contributions would have aimed to avoid even the appearance of partisanship. But today, when Olbermann draws more than 1 million like-minded viewers to his program every night precisely because he is avowedly, unabashedly and monotonously partisan, it is not clear what misdemeanor his donations constituted. Consistency?
Os Guinness: Civility in the public square
Christianity has lost three important guide wires: integrity, credibility and, most pressingly, civility, said Os Guinness, co-founder of The Trinity Forum. Guinness believes that Christians must abandon political bitterness and fulfill Jesus’ commands to love one another. His approach to the intractable differences among world religions is to create a “political framework of rights, responsibilities and respect to which all agree.”
The CA Video Invite: starring, well, me!
CA Invitation from Christian Associates on Vimeo.
National Budget Sense?
Ok, this guy makes some sense. I don't venture into this topic frequently on this blog, but listening to this interview this morning gave me a glimmer of hope that there are still a small number of sensible people in the world…not many, but a few.
College Sports | Gonzaga basketball becoming a foreign affair | Seattle Times Newspaper
SPOKANE — We take you now to a meeting room at McCarthey Athletic Center, where Gonzaga rules in basketball, and where the culture is increasingly international.
Clergy and Scandals: Why religious leaders are so scandal prone – CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs
Editor's Note: Mark Barger Elliott is Senior Pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan and author of Creative Styles of Preaching. His blog Faith in the World identifies stories of hope from around the world and places where religion intersects everyday life.