Emerging Church
Ed Stetzer interviews Mark Driscoll for the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference) podcast. Want to know more about "the cussing pastor?" Want to know more about Driscoll's church, prayer life, struggles with sin, history with Emergent guys, or preaching? This is a great way to find out from the horse's mouth instead of the latest blog gossip. Great info. Very encouraging.
Grab it at the Exponential site, or on iTunes. The whole series of podcasts has been helpful.
Rodney Olsen, an Australian radio show host and blogger, let me know of an interview he did with Alan Hirsch on his book The Forgotten Ways. A very worthwhile interview.
I'm currently reading Hirsch's book slowly (I'm not doing enough reading lately) and expect to have a handful of posts up on the book in the weeks ahead.
Scot McKnight is speaking at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary tomorrow. At 8am on the atonement (Student Center), at noon on the emerging church (cafeteria), and at 3pm on the sociology of conversion (in the Leavell Center). If you are in the area you should check this out. Scot is a good guy and an important Christian voice in our culture.
Here are a few links for you...
Tom Ascol (of Founders Ministries) discusses the post-denominational time we live in and some research from SBC's Lifeway. Ascol proves again to be an important voice both in and out of the SBC.
The Internet Monk gives 5 reasons he doesn't use the word "inerrancy." He then spends an entire post using the word "inerrancy!" :)
Kent over at ChurchRelevance.com gives 8 steps to mind mapping. Here's an fun free resource.
The autism rate is now about 1 in 150. Yikes. My 8 year old is autistic, for anyone who didn't know already.
I met Drew Goodmanson last year at the Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle. Really good guy. I've had his blog on my sidebar for a while, but I just wanted to emphasize that Drew is doing some great blogging lately. Make him one of your "must reads."
Al Hsu continues some great posts on ministry in suburbia, including this post on the hiddenness of poverty in suburbia.
Joe has been taking some great photos lately, like this one.
Here's a video sure to spark discussion on emerging church and truth issues, among other things. It's about Solomon's Porch: A Holistic, Missional, Christian Community, where Doug Pagitt (blog) is Pastor.
Do everyone a favor and do more than just react. Please try to be generous in your comments. You will likely disagree with some things.
(HT: Tony Jones)
I'm reading several books right now including The Power of the Hour (Lakhani) and The Forgotten Ways (Hirsch). The Forgotten Ways is a very interesting read so far. My worship team and I are reading Pleasing God in our Worship, a booklet by Robert Godfrey. Basic but good. Bob Roberts' new book is out, Glocalization. I've read his other book, Transformation, and liked it. Looking forward to picking up this new one. You should keep up with Bob's blog as well.
I also wanted to mention that a generous Amazon.com shopper sent me the New and Collected Poems (1931-2001) of Czeslaw Milosz. Awesome!
I just finished preaching a series of sermons on generosity. God's timing was amazing with this series and the events of my life. I then preached Psalm 103 last Sunday, will be preaching on being a church without walls this coming Sunday and on the need for small groups on the 18th. Then I start a series on the book of Daniel that should take us through to warmer weather (it's currently 1 degree with like a -10 wind chill).
In another study I do before worship on Sundays I just finished teaching through The Enemy Within (Lundgaard) and am now doing a straight-up practical series on The Organized Life.
I'll post soon on some really incredible things God has done for our family. Look for it.
Wow. Very interesting article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about The Journey Church in St. Louis and their pastor, Darrin Patrick. It's called, ahem, "Beer and the Bible." Darrin is a friend and someone who I think is doing an unbelievable job pastoring. They are associated with the SBC as well as Acts29 (Picture credits to the StLP-D).
It seems, according to the article, that there are some frustrations in the Missouri Baptist Convention because they loaned The Journey money to buy a building and then found out some at The Journey drink (like Jesus). The Journey has a regular theology event called Theology at the Bottleworks where they discuss all sorts of issues, and yes, some drink a beer there.
Theology at the Bottleworks is run by a wildly successful congregation of young St. Louisans called The Journey. The Schlafly program is part of the church's outreach ministry. And it works.
Every month dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey's ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today.
Read Scot McKnight's "Five Streams of the Emerging Church" article from Christianity Today.
I should have been linking this blog for some time now, but just realized I don't have him on my blog list. Please keep up with Steve Addison's blog, World Changers. It's consistently fantastic.
One of the podcasts I enjoy is Catalyst. Recently they interviewed Rick McKinley and discussed kingdom issues, the gospel, his church (Imago Dei, Portland) and the Church, the emerging church & Emergent, and practical missional stuff. I've listened to it a few times now and it continues to provoke me in the right direction. Check it out.
Scot McKnight put up a picture of himself with hair. I couldn't resist putting a few words over it. I sent it to him and let him post it first, but here it is for you...
Hamo (Andrew Hamilton) over at Backyard Missionary has some good thoughts (not earth shattering, but good) in his three part series, "Some Thoughts on Missionary Work in Suburbia." He discusses six building blocks.
Post 1...
1. Proximity - being near people
2. Regularity - spending significant time together
Post 2...
3. Depth - going beyond the fluff in relationships
4. Conflict - being prepared to disagree and realise that’s ok and necessary
Post 3...
5. The Message - we need to speak about who we are, and why
6. The Supernatural - ultimately it still comes down to a work of God
Post 4...
Going a little deeper with the above six points
Justin Taylor believes he's located some inconsistency in Tony Jones' reaction to Driscoll vs. McLaren. Follow the comments.
UPDATE: JT has added an email exchange with Tony to his post. Good stuff.
Some helpful thoughts on Third Places from Rick at The Blind Beggar.
I finally got around to reading Scot McKnight's 30 page paper on the Emerging Church, "What is the Emerging Church?," that he presented at WTS. It once again proves that McKnight is one of the most important voices speaking about (and within) the Emerging Church. I highly recommend you read it if you any interest in understanding the EC.
Bob Roberts posts on a conversation with Alan Hirsch about the reasons why faith spreads, about movements. It's worth reading and thinking about. You should keep up with Bob Roberts' blog over at Glocalnet.
Mark Driscoll has a nice, long post on what's happening in his life & at Mars Hill. It's an interesting post with a look at a few people who are throwing stones at him, the growth issues they face at Mars Hill as well as the number of people they have in various recovery groups, and stuff he is writing.
Whatever you think of Driscoll, it's good to keep up.
What should church planters read? Here's a list of books for church planters as recommended by Brian McLaren, Alan Creech, Alan Hirsch, Scot McKnight, David Fitch and other emerging church voices. A number of good books on the lists.
Bob Hyatt has pointed to a thoughtful comment from Darrin Patrick (The Journey Church in St. Louis, Acts29) on church planting, church growth, and the use of video venue preaching. It's worth reading.
