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Community Where We Find It

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Categories: changing mindsets, church

So I’m continuing to ponder–to re-imagine–what church community could look like if the church itself wasn’t defined by its regular meeting. (Read this previous post to get the background.)

My blogger friend Ben left a heartfelt comment on that post about how difficult it is these days to build community. It seems like there is so much in our culture that works against it; not only do we tend to be more private and secluded as individuals, but we also are so busy with things like work, school, soccer practice and so on, that we no longer have time to invest in church community.

This is a preview of Community Where We Find It. Read the full post (693 words, 2 images, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)

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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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I Soooo Wish I Had Come Up With This One

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Categories: Things I Wish I'd Thought Of First, Things that Are Amazingly Awesome, Things that are too good to keep

Hats off to Jonathan of Missio Dei for sharing this awesome story…

Guy walks into a bar and sees three guys engaging a passionate conversation about something. Curious that he is, he walks up to them and asks, “What’s the ruckus?”

“We’re trying to figure out what kind of beer this is,” the first guy says, a little taken aback by the interruption, but immediately turning back to his two friends. “It’s amber color reveals the rich texture of an bass pale ale.”

This is a preview of I Soooo Wish I Had Come Up With This One. Read the full post (263 words, 1 image, estimated 1:03 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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Programming Note–Monday’s Synchroblog

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Categories: General

This Monday, June 23, I’ll be participating in the “What Is Missional?” synchroblog hosted by Rick at A Blind Beggar. There are about 50 participants (!), so it should be an interesting and informative discussion overall. I may post again over the weekend, but I wanted to let everyone know to be sure to check in on Monday. Click here to learn more about the synchroblog itself.

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Permanent link to this post (68 words, 1 image, estimated 16 secs reading time)

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Considering Jumping Ship With This Here Blog

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Categories: tecknical stuff, What the heck was THAT?

So I’ve been blogging on Blogger for about six months now. The only other thing I’ve blogged upon (with?) is MySpace, so I don’t have too much to compare it to.

But I get a bit frustrated with Blogger because it seems clunky, and gets persnickety when you start to add fun stuff like bullet points and/or pictures. Also, it seems to be a bit limited when it comes to layouts and customizing.

This is a preview of Considering Jumping Ship With This Here Blog. Read the full post (144 words, 2 images, estimated 35 secs reading time)

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Extra-Biblical Christianity (or Stuff We Do That’s Not In the Bible)

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Categories: food for thought, fun, What the heck was THAT?

Have you ever stopped to think about how much we say/do in Christianity that is not found anywhere in the Bible?

Not saying all of it is bad–I have mentioned in previous posts that I feel the Bible purposefully gives us a lot of latitude in how to “do church”. So just because something isn’t in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s wrong. But what is kind of interesting–and a bit funny, even–is when we treat our extra-Biblical stuff as sacred, as if it were in the Bible. Things we’re so attached to that we wouldn’t feel like it was “church” or “Christian” if it weren’t there.

This is a preview of Extra-Biblical Christianity (or Stuff We Do That’s Not In the Bible). Read the full post (517 words, 1 image, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

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The Tower and the Ladder

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, religion

At a worship conference I participated in last year in Joplin, Missouri, a friend of mine there named Jim gave a Biblical comparison I’ve been chewing on ever since. And some things in Sarah’s post today indirectly stirred these thoughts again. So I thought I’d share them with you.

In the Book of Genesis, we find two powerful pictures of heaven-earth connections. One of them is the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11; the other is Jacob’s ladder dream found in Genesis 28. One negative, one positive.

This is a preview of The Tower and the Ladder. Read the full post (700 words, 2 images, estimated 2:48 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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