Archive for November 2006
Saved, lost or what? Part 1
I remember as a young boy hearing the jargon we Southern Baptists used to describe the spiritual condition of others. "He’s lost," someone said of a man who did not go to church and lived like he didn’t. "I’m saved," was the testimony of a faithful church member. So we categorized folks as either lost or saved. In or out. Member or non-member. Then we softened up in the 80s and began referring to folks as churched or unchurched.
My other new blog
Last month I entered Outreach magazine’s small-church blog contest…and I won! I’ll be writing a weekly blog (I feel deadline pressure already) for Outreach mag from January through December, 2007. Here’s the email I got today:
What do you read?
I wrote a review for Amazon today about Terry Whalin’s new Amazon Short, Straight Talk from the Editor, 18 Keys to a Rejection-Proof Submission. I learned two things in the process. First, I learned about Amazon Shorts. Okay, I hear the jokes flying out there. No, these are not shorts you wear, but shorts you read. Amazon describes them as 2,000-10,000 word "stories" (fiction and non-fiction) from authors who have at least one book for sale on Amazon. The price is right at $0.49 each. Plus, you download the file in a variety of formats, and it stays in your Amazon media account forever. At least forever by Amazon standards, not forever as in eternity.
Great Mennonite missional resource
Yesterday’s post had a link to the Mennonite Church of Canada’s website. On that site Robert J. Suderman, Executive Secretary, Christian Witness Council of the MCC has written one of the most concise and clear explanations of the missional church, titled Navigating the Missional Church: Understanding the Journey…
Missional maps
I am playing around with the idea of missional maps* — visual images of the connections individuals and churches make with others in missional living. The father of the church growth movement, Dr. Donald A. McGavran, in his seminal work, Understanding Church Growth, speaks of the "fog" that keeps us from really seeing if the church is growing or not. I believe the single most important contribution that the church growth movement made to the missional conversation is this issue. "Fog" was a very nice way for Dr. McGavran to say, "We are kidding ourselves about church growth." McGavran pulled back the curtain on the church’s Wizard of Oz, revealing a lot of self-deception in evaluating our effectiveness.
Happy Birthday, Debbie
This has nothing to do with missional anything, but today is my wife’s birthday. Since this is my blog, I am taking a personal moment to say, Happy birthday, Debbie….I love you!
Debbie is closer to God than I could ever hope to be and has a spiritual sensitivity that I (after all these years) have learned to pay attention to. She is the reason I am in ministry, and is the love of my life. Okay, so this is like watching a bride and groom kiss at the wedding — sweet, but if it goes on too long it becomes awkward, so I’ll wrap it up. Happy birthday….and I really do have a card for you, too! — Chuck
Mission begins with God
I agree with Alan Roxburgh that the conversation about Christian mission does not start with the church. The conversation about mission starts with God.
A new book on moral purpose…from the business world
Following up my recent post "A lesson in moral purpose from a new source," I received an email from Sam Gilpin, an associate of Nikos Mourkogiannis, as follows:
A lesson in moral purpose from a new source
I like to read business magazines for the latest thinking about organizations, marketing, culture, and strategy. While at Fuller several months ago, I picked up a copy of strategy+business, a Booz-Allen-Hamilton publication (consultants, plus they sponsor a golf tourney). Excellent and pricey at $12.95 per issue. But, you can get email updates and access to the mag online — for free!
Here’s an article I found useful in the Winter 2005 issue —
The Monastery….on TV!
If you think nobody is interested in religion, monks, or spirituality, think again. Just to show you how commercial the whole idea is, TLC airs a series titled, The Monastery. It’s kind of Survivor Meets Saint Benedict — five guys ranging from a convicted drug dealer to a former-Wiccan-turned-Episcopalian, spend 40-days in a Benedictine monastery, Christ in the Desert, in New Mexico. But this is not your Purpose-driven Life in robes. Lots of breaking the rule of St. Benedict along with lots of drama, angst, and other conflictual stuff. But what an interesting premise, and it’s part of our pop culture. It’s actually the ultimate pop culture religious experience — "Let’s cram a lifetime of monastic asceticism into 40-days and see if it’s cool or what!" But it’s on TV. So somebody’s watching. — Amicus Dei.
