Tag Archives: church

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Gearing Up for God?

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Categories: changing mindsets, Tags: , ,

I always get just a little bit amused when I check my Facebook on Sunday mornings. So many of my friends who are believers (no offense to them whatsoever–I hold them in the highest respect) put out these little updates about getting ready for church gatherings. They range from the understated (ex., “Getting ready for church”) to the uber-caffeinated (“Hey everyone! Let’s all get ready for CHUURCCHH!”). One common thread goes something like this: “Getting my worship on.” Or “Let’s get our praise on this morning!”

I guess my first impulse (though I never act on it) is to ask: “What was your praise doing ‘off” in the first place?” 🙂

This is a preview of Gearing Up for God?. Read the full post (1159 words, estimated 4:38 mins reading time)

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Repairing the Church’s Reputation-Or Not

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Categories: food for thought, Tags: ,

So I was reading a blog post this morning on a blog I just discovered thanks to a friend. I had some mixed feelings about where the guy was going with his thoughts, but in particular I found his opening remarks very insightful. Here’s a snippet:

“Have you noticed all the Christians apologizing for the church? I have.  It’s kind of the thing to do.  We assume everyone out there has been hurt, wronged, isolated, burned or ostracized by the church.  It’s almost the battle cry of my generation. ‘We’ve been emotionally wounded by the church!’ Ever since Donald Miller made it popular, some Christians just can’t resist telling everyone what jerks we’ve all been.”

This is a preview of Repairing the Church’s Reputation-Or Not. Read the full post (1185 words, estimated 4:44 mins reading time)

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Letting the Expression Fit the Need

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Tags: , , ,

Well, it looks like it’s time to take a step of faith. After spending nearly two years embedding myself in the local music scene, and finding several believers in the midst (and after being deliberately slow to act for awhile), I’m going to try getting a few of these musicians and artists together for a Bible study, to talk about faith, art, and the role of our art in mission.

I have no idea how it’s going to go, or how many people will turn up.  It’s definitely an experiment.  But I won’t know if it’s a good thing to do unless I try it.

This is a preview of Letting the Expression Fit the Need. Read the full post (889 words, estimated 3:33 mins reading time)

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Questions of Authority

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Categories: General, Meanderings (look it up), moments of truth, Tags: , , ,

Sorry for not posting in a little while…I sort of missed my weekly slot last weekend because I filled in as worship leader at the church community where I used to lead, so the current worship leader could go off to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and see Mumford and Sons play while it was snowing in June in the mountains and see the clouds part to reveal the snow-covered mountains just as they finished playing.

Lucky stiff. Anyhow.

This is a preview of Questions of Authority. Read the full post (1106 words, estimated 4:25 mins reading time)

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What Does Mission Really Look Like? (part 3)

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Categories: changing mindsets, love, missional, Tags: , , , , ,

Okay, so here’s the first post….

Aaaand the second one….

I closed out the previous post with a question: How can each of us make the transition into what I call “agenda-free” mission? Once we recognize how much unnecessary (and often damaging) baggage we have attached to mission by our institutional thinking, how do we change our thinking to participate in the mission of Christ in a more organic way, without worrying about what we might have to gain from it?

This is a preview of What Does Mission Really Look Like? (part 3). Read the full post (909 words, estimated 3:38 mins reading time)

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What Does Mission Really Look Like? (part 2)

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Categories: church, missional, Tags: , , ,

First of all…Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers. 🙂

In my previous post, I began rambling about my re-thinking of what mission is, and what it really can look like in the Biblical sense. I talked about how I think we need to get back to the basics with this idea, stripping off the ulterior motives and getting back to something closer to what Jesus modeled for us. (If you need more detail, read the last post to get caught up.)

This is a preview of What Does Mission Really Look Like? (part 2). Read the full post (1110 words, estimated 4:26 mins reading time)

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What Does Mission Really Look Like? (part 1)

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Categories: food for thought, missional, Tags: , , ,

As I continue on this path of deconstruction, along with many others, it can get very easy to get caught up in just pointing out things that are wrong with the institutional form of church. I think that’s an important part of it–we can’t re-think the things we won’t be honest about–but I also think that’s just one part of the healing process. There are a lot of things in the church that began as right things–we’ve just been going about them the wrong way, and muddling them up in the process. Those are elements that should not be thrown out–just stripped back to basics, or reinvented, or at least placed in a context where they work better.

This is a preview of What Does Mission Really Look Like? (part 1). Read the full post (938 words, 1 image, estimated 3:45 mins reading time)