I identify my ecclesial context as the Anabaptist stream. However, several conversations have been a significant part of my ongoing theological process and formation. I am an associate pastor at Sunnyside Mennonite Church. Although we are a local expression of the Body of Christ, we are not independent from the Great Christian Tradition. We are [...]
Christians in the Eastern Orthodox tradition remind us of a remarkable truth when they honor Mary with the technical term theotokos or “bearer of God” in their special hymn:
Today is the beginning of our salvation,
The revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together [...]
Michael Frost on Being the Missional Church (PGF 2007)
h/t Joe Troyer
A little over a year ago I read Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, by Michael Frost. He was barking up my tree with that book and this message on You Tube.
I wish every member of Sunnyside Mennonite Church (and every other Christian community) would [...]
I have been caught up by a wave of technologically mediated community. Not community in the 3-dimensional social matrix sense, but community nevertheless. Several weeks ago Shawn Anthony invited me to be a part of an emerging guild of writers whose blog content would be aggregated at The Daily Scribe. I casually said yes, not really thinking about the way I [...]
Okay, I’m trading in my weak kool-aid for the vintage Bordeaux. Walter Brueggamann’s 19 theses say so much better what I have been trying to wrestle with in recent posts (and in my sermon on Sunday)–the tension between the Empire narrative (script is Brueggemann’s word) and the Gospel narrative (the alternative script). Here they are:
1. Everybody [...]
Willow Creek Community Church (Bill Hybels), recently conducted an internal qualitative study to evaluate the effectiveness of their ministry over the years. Check out this link–Willow Creek repents. It seems that after 30 years of working at church from an entrepreneurial paradigm–business model approach that views the parrishoner (seeker) as the customer and the church [...]
Ryan Bolger teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary.
If I am ever somehow seduced by what I will gently call “a thin, plastic, flashy, over-produced, over-marketed, theology lite, sales-pitchy form of Christianity,” someone please hit me straight upside my head with a righteous spade shovel. I’m serious. I thank God for serious Anabaptism and the Emerging/Missional Church. The combination of the two results [...]
Introducing the book (repost)
The Allelon Summer Institute for Missional Church Leadership took place at Fuller Theological Seminary this week. Tim Neufeld provides an overview of what took place at the conference. Alan Roxborough used this video to illustrate the task of the missional leader and the need for a spirit of patience and grace as we [...]
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 | asimplesinner on Sola Scriptura? |
 | dawn on Change… |
 | just an apprentice on Change… |
 | joe on Change… |
| just an apprentice on Change… |
