Faith, hope and love. These are gifts that emerge out of the biblical story. These are the gifts which sustain community. Words, stories, community. God’s story, composting in the soil under our bare feet, cultivating our journey into the beloved community.
In the biblical creation story, God speaks and moves. Without a prototype or patent–light, darkness, water, earth, plants, [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘emerging church’
September 15, 2009
Cultivating Communities of Faith, Hope and Love…
April 28, 2009
Notes from Donald Miller…
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 [...]
March 16, 2009
The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture…
In The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, Shane Hipps advances a thesis first put forth by Marshall McLuhan–media is the message. Hipps builds a convincing case for the way media functions as a cultural architect conditioning both the way we perceive reality/faith and the way we practice. The book offers a convincing proof of this [...]
March 10, 2009
The Great Emergence…
This post on Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Great Emergence, is an assignment for my Eastern Mennonite Seminary course–The Good News, Culture and Anabaptism. For Steve and those in the class, the first section is a survey of the book. My own critical engagement comes in the second half. You can skip to that by going [...]
January 27, 2009
The Good News, Culture and Anabaptism…
Third Eye Blind – Non Dairy Creamer (new studio version!)
Steve opened our class last evening with this video. Here are some of the questions we considered as we reflected on the song, the lyrics–our culture and how the Good News (of Jesus Christ) intersects:
Who is the person singing this song? Is [...]
April 8, 2008
Sustainable Christian community…
If Christianity is to become aware of what it is, we must abandon the pastoral church which takes care of people, which is the usual form of the Western church. Instead, we have to call to life a Christian community church. Either we set about this church reform by ourselves, or it will be forced [...]
April 2, 2008
Dwelling in the Word: Luke 24
I will be preaching from Luke 24 on Sunday–the Walk to Emmaus. This passage took on new meaning for me about a year and a half ago when I was reading Exiles: Living Missionally in Post-Christian Culture. Michael Frost writes a comparative analysis of the 1601 and the 1606 versions of Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio. [...]
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 [...]
March 25, 2008
Discussion between Tall Skinny Kiwi and McLaren…
I found this short exchange between Andrew Jones and Brian McLaren to be quite helpful. If there is one weakness I see in the Emergent movement it is an underdeveloped ecclesiology. I hear TSK pushing Brian out on this point in this brief conversation.
Amidst the disillusionment with the establishment church, in the prophetic challenge to the [...]
