Categotry Archives: church

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More Stuff We Do That’s Not In the Bible

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Categories: church, fun, What the heck was THAT?

This is a follow-up to my post last week called “Extra-Biblical Christianity (or Stuff We Do That’s Not In the Bible).” Go read it first, if you haven’t already…I’ll wait…

I had some awesome responses from readers, things to add to the list…plus there’s a couple more I can add myself. (Again–these are about things we do as Christians or churches that are extra-Biblical, but not necessarily anti-Biblical; so today we’re not commenting on whether any particular practice is right or wrong. )

FIRST–some of the highlights that readers have added to the list:

  • order of worship/order of service
This is a preview of More Stuff We Do That’s Not In the Bible. Read the full post (411 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

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Defined (Imprisoned?) by the Meetings

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

(If you have come to this blog because you’re still working through yesterday’s massive synchroblog on “What Is Missional?”…you can read my entry here.)

I’m finally making my way to the end of the book Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost. Yesterday I read some things that have already started re-shaping my thinking. Here are a couple of quotes:

“Why can’t we think of churching together as a web of relationships? Why are we obsessed with the singular event rather than seeking the rhythm of a community churching together?”

“The result of nearly two centuries of Christendom is that Christians have become used to the idea that their faith is primarily about attending meetings–worship meetings, weddings, funerals, prayer meetings, and so on.”

This is a preview of Defined (Imprisoned?) by the Meetings. Read the full post (916 words, 2 images, estimated 3:40 mins reading time)

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Missional: What It Means to Me

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, missional

(This is part of Rick’s synchroblog on “What Is Missional?” See the end of this post for the list of participants.)

I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew.

Although I’ve been a Christian most of my life, and involved in some form of church “ministry” function for most of the time I’ve been a Christian…I have only known of terms like “missional” and “emergent” for the past year and a half. And just when I’m getting used to reading, hearing and saying these types of words…apparently there is already some frustration about their usage, about the labels, about what is associated with them–what they mean, or what they should mean. Hence, the reason for the synchroblog.

This is a preview of Missional: What It Means to Me. Read the full post (1036 words, 1 image, estimated 4:09 mins reading time)

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Confusing Method for Principle

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought, religion

I’ve alluded to this topic probably several times, the most recent being in my post “Questions of Heresy?”. It’s probably time to cover this one head on, because in my opinion it is at the root of many of our relgious practices. A lot of the disputes that divide the church, and a lot of the resistance to new things, boil down to a confusion between method and principle.

It is apparent through the Scriptures that God does not change. This makes sense, since Someone who is eternally perfect has no need to evolve. His character, His nature, His love, the things that He likes and dislikes…all of this remains constant, and always has. However, it is also apparent that while God does not change, His methods do. (A key example of this is in Isa. 43:19, when He says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing.”) Because man does change over time, God will alter His methods in His relentless quest to reach man.

This is a preview of Confusing Method for Principle. Read the full post (928 words, 2 images, estimated 3:43 mins reading time)

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Mistaken Identity (part 2)

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Categories: changing mindsets, church

(First read Mistaken Identity part 1…okay, now you’re ready…)

In my last post I described how the church in general suffers from mistaken identity, because it is an organism that thinks and acts like an institution. I concluded by sharing that because there are those who are (in increasing numbers) drifting away from the institutions and acting more like an organism, this mistaken identity is now growing into an identity crisis, especially among institutional church leadership.

This is a preview of Mistaken Identity (part 2). Read the full post (914 words, 1 image, estimated 3:39 mins reading time)

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Be the Change

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Categories: church, Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

So as I was sitting at a dance recital (of all places) last night, mulling things over while watching what was happening on stage…out of the blue this thought came into my head:

“Be the change you want to see.”

It was so profound I wished I had my laptop there so I could blog about it in the dark and irritate lots of people around me. But something told me someone else had come up with this phrase before me, so I Googled it when I got home.

Dang you, Gandhi.

This is a preview of Be the Change. Read the full post (556 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

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A Manifesto for Church

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Categories: church, fun, What the heck was THAT?

Another tag, this time by Heather….at least it solves the problem of what to write about. 🙂

I’ve been tagged to write about what I think a good church should look like. Here are the rules, according to Barry, who started this thing:

Rules:
1. Post to your blog on the subject “A Manifesto for Church”, outlining your thoughts on what an ideal church would/should be like. Posts can be as detailed or as short as you like.
2. Include a copy of these rules.
4. Put a link to your post in the comments to this post.
5. Tag at least 4 other people.
6. What happened to rule 3?
3. Ah, here it is.

This is a preview of A Manifesto for Church. Read the full post (995 words, 1 image, estimated 3:59 mins reading time)

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Some Thoughts on the Need for Community

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Categories: church, community, Meanderings (look it up)

A few days ago Erin wrote an honest post called “A Place For Us“, which touched off a firestorm of comments as people shared their ideas, hopes, fears, dreams, and longings to find authentic Christian community with others without the trappings of organized religion. Just reading the comments can be almost overwhelming (but try it anyway). If nothing else, they point to a deep shared need among the growing number of people who are disenfranchised with religious systems.

We might be disillusioned with institutional church. We might be jaded and wounded by the abuses we’ve suffered. We might be nauseated by the idea of regular structured meetings of any kind–under a steeple, in a home, or in a park. We might be so broken that we just don’t trust anybody outside the virtual world of blogging.

This is a preview of Some Thoughts on the Need for Community. Read the full post (1250 words, 2 images, estimated 5:00 mins reading time)

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City for God

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought

So I’ve been tagged again, this time by Abmo…and this time it’s a bit less frivolous.

Abmo asks, with all the rhetoric that goes on in the church about “taking the city for God”–what would that look like if it really happened? What would a city look like when it’s completely won for Christ? Abmo asks that we write about it and then tag two people.

This is a preview of City for God. Read the full post (889 words, 2 images, estimated 3:33 mins reading time)
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