Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz) spoke at a coffee house for emerging leaders after the worship session last evening. His reflections centered around story. Here are some notes.
Elements of a good story:
A character who wants something and is willing to overcome conflict to get it.
My life had become a series of random experiences.
I began to [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘discipleship’
April 28, 2009
Notes from Donald Miller…
April 20, 2009
On market-driven Christianity and biblical tea parties…
The frequent association of the church with status, wealth and force is inappropriate for followers of Jesus and damages our witness. We are committed to exploring ways of being good news to the poor, powerless and persecuted, aware that such discipleship may attract opposition, resulting in suffering and sometimes ultimately martyrdom.
Spirituality and economics are inter-connected. [...]
March 4, 2009
Human nature…
Because of the miraculous signs he did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many people were convinced that he was indeed the Messiah. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew what people were really like. No one needed to tell him about human nature. John 2:23-26 (NLT)
When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover [...]
February 24, 2009
Ash Wednesday…
“The LORD knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14
The Hebrew scriptures provide various examples of “sackcloth and ashes” being a sign of grief and sorrow…repentance and humility. I did not grow up in a tradition that practiced the imposition of ashes (or talked about Lent that much). My experience [...]
January 26, 2009
The Gospel of Escapism…
Channel surfing the other night I happened upon the new Jim Bakker show. I Googled it and found out he is beginning a new show today. (I don’t know how I was able to see it the other day). His guest was Larry Bates and the were talking about biblical prophecy, the end times, economic [...]
June 28, 2008
Missional Cohort (Lancaster)…
The Facebook group Missional Cohort (Lancaster) gathered for the second time last evening. Here is a bit of a summary of our conversation:
1. Read this post by Greg Boyd.
2. We talked about the tension that tends to exist between “institutional/structured” expressions of church and “missional/incarnational” expressions. We explored a number of side trails off this main [...]
April 7, 2008
Beyond a tribal religion…
In the Gospel reading from yesterday (Luke 24) we encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. Dwelling in the passage last week as I prepared to preach, I continually came back to the perspective of the two followers Jesus meets on the road. I was struck by the fact that they had given themselves [...]
March 27, 2008
Mother Teresa…
In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. –Mother Teresa
Each one of them is Jesus in disguise. –Mother Teresa
Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. –Mother Teresa
I do not pray for success, I ask [...]
March 26, 2008
Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth…
The Other: Postmodern shorthand for anyone differing in any way from “us,” born of the reality that in an era of radical pluralism and globalization, we are constantly confronted with people who are indeed different from us.
Tony Jones, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier
Jesus and the Kingdom, Brian McLaren
Can you imagine a community [...]
February 21, 2008
Creating a missional order…
In a number of settings recently at SMC, I have been asked about vision for church as a missional community (I am particularly thinking of Melissa’s questions). I feel like I have not yet done justice to answering these questions. It involves a radical re-imagining of church. It doesn’t mean we change the center from historic [...]
