Scattered Thoughts on Theology and Ministry…
Supposedly Francis of Assisi said those famous words. Likely he didn’t, regardless, those word’s don’t mesh with Scripture’s understanding of BEING witnesses to the gospel. As Michael Gorman says: Witness-bearing calls for interpretation. “Walking little old ladies across the street” may be appropriate Christian behavior, but it does not lead to persecution. It only leadsContinue reading “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words.”
What is the purpose of the church? What is its calling? Why does it exist? These are all questions that the Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram K’eshishea answers when he wrote about the nature of the church as a missional community… The church is a community of faith. Under no circumstances should we lose thisContinue reading “The Church and Its Missionary Calling”
Open up any systematic theology and you will find a chapter on the incarnation. This chapter will usually revolve around metaphysical issues including anthropology, the Trinity, and discussion over the contradiction between categories of humanity and divinity. What you probably won’t find in that chapter is discussion about how incarnation informs our mission. Hugh HalterContinue reading “Book Review – Flesh by Hugh Halter”
“We don’t want to add things to our schedule, but bring intentionality to what we are already doing.” – Caesar Kalinowski (HT: VERGE Network) There is a big difference between living life and tacking on mission as a side thing vs. living life on mission and being intentional about creating missional rhythms in everyday life.Continue reading “Missional Rhythms”
Last time we talked a bit about how the Church can model & display really community within neighborhoods, thus through good deeds showing the reality of God’s Kingdom. When the church does this neighborhoods, campuses, communities begin to see what community is supposed to look like; when they begin to see this the soil becomesContinue reading “Communities on Mission to our Neighborhoods (Pt. 3)”
Last time we talked a bit about the need for community within our neighborhoods, this time around we will take a look at some of the more practical ways we could do this. ____________________________________ Question: How do we go about fostering community in our neighborhoods/college campuses? Answer: Since authentic community is based upon mutual loveContinue reading “Communities on Mission to our Neighborhoods (Pt. 2)”
For Christmas 2010 my girlfriend Amelia gave me a book on small groups called Missional Small Groups. In one of the Chapters the author (Scott Boren) tells the story of four different small groups. Each one of these small groups represents various models that have been created for small groups. I thought it was very interestingContinue reading “Four Types of Small Groups”
Over the next few weeks we are going to be going through Paul’s letter to the Philippians. As you probably know Philippians is a very personal letter, it almost has the tone of an encouraging chat between two friends. Nevertheless this letter does have a point, there are reasons why Paul wrote this letter (itsContinue reading “Themes in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: Koinonia”
So last time I did what any book review is supposed to do, I summarized the contents of the book. This time I want to talk about the book’s strengths and weaknesses. Positives A good understanding of Culture and how culture works. Its evident that he draws quite a bit of his understanding of cultureContinue reading “Missiology Book Review: Creating a Missional Culture (Part 2)”
Today we wrap up our series “The Essence of Coaching” which was based off of Bill Donahue’s and Greg Bowman’s book Coaching Life Changing Small Group Leaders by talking about one of the most important aspect of small group leadership: shepherding. _______________________________ The Essence of Coaching – Cultivating the Heart of A Shepherd Today we areContinue reading “The Essence of Coaching (pt. 4): Cultivating the Heart of a Shepherd”
CWoznicki Think Out Loud 