Great teaser on the missional church by Christine Sine,
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From the monthly archives:
September 2007
No, I’m not quite a vegetarian yet, but my wife and I have definitely been trying to consume in a more sustainable way.
We went to a farmer’s market that turned out to not be too far from our home and bought a whole bunch of local grown food, and we’ve had four vegetarian dinners in a row. Not as tough as I thought it’d be. I’d still be salivating for a steak if I saw one though.
Here’s a vegetarian / zucchini lasagna that I had made.
I also recently bought my first coffee maker through a friend who works at starbucks. I bought it so that I could offer free coffee from time to time for those who share our floor at our apartment. We handed out little promos with our daughter to every door.
Only a few people made it out, but got to talk to some people that I had no idea lived in such proximity to me. I even handed out coffee to our custodian and entrance guard. They were quite surprised. Next time around I think we’ll host an evening mixer floor party.
With the coffee maker I’ve also started making Frappuccino’s when we’ve had guests. Check it out.
Overall the last while has been a beautiful time just living simpler, better, and sharing the beauty of it all with others.
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If you haven’t read the book by Henri Nouwen that was inspired by this Rembrandt painting, you should.
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I’m in a preaching seminar right now by Kent Anderson (of preaching.org and wrote choosing to preach). He just shared this lovely quote from godisamyth.com
Please do not pity me. I enjoy my life very much, even though you may think it is empty and worthless. I do not hate life as you might. You do not know me, you do not know how I live my life. You do not know how I feel, you do not know how I think. You just do not know, and I’m sorry if it bothers you so very much that I can have a full and enjoyable life without your god.
Please do not preach at me. I have read your bible and I have gone to your churches and I DO NOT BELIEVE IN YOUR GOD. To me, your entire belief system is just another myth. I don’t care if you think I’m going to burn in your hell. If you absolutely must think that – so be it, but please do not bring it up with me. You may or may not know where you will go when you die, I know where I will go when I die, I will not change my mind about this.
If you do preach at me – please do not think that you are any different from the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of other christians who have preached at me. Do you think YOU would change your mind and worship a different god just because a hundred of its followers all preached the same thing at you? Or would you just find each and everyone of those people rude, and then continue to believe as you do?
Everybody has the right to believe what they believe. NOBODY has the right to push their beliefs on their fellow beings. To preach at someone who does not wish to be preached at is RAPE. Not rape of the body, but rape of the mind and of the soul. There is no excuse for it.
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The blogosphere’s been abuzz the last few days with Mark Driscoll’s most recent comments at the Convergence conference at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He talked about different streams of the emerging church today:
The Relevants – Evangelical folks that are being innovative in their methods… he names guys like Donald Miller, Erwin McManus, and Dan Kimball. He’s okay with this crowd.
Reformed Relevants—the theologically conservative and reformed crowd that are still missional – citing himself, those in the Acts 29 network like Matt Chandler, and C.J. Mahaney
Revisionists—those associated with the emergent village who are reinventing church and theologically liberal – naming Brian McLaren, Doug Paggit, and Rob Bell.
I’ve seen this breakdown before by Driscoll in the past, but the new name added this time around was Rob Bell’s. He jokingly said that he was still in therapy due to their churches sharing the same name, Mars Hill. I predicted a year ago that Driscoll’s Mars Hill Seattle would pick a fight with Bell’s Mars Hill in Michigan. I guess it was long overdue.
What’s interesting is that Rob Bell couldn’t preach this week, and had Doug Paggit cover for him, further fueling his association with the emergent dudes, even though he’s never used the label himself.
I’ve learned tremendously from all of these guys, from Mclaren to Driscoll. Only problem is the reformed crowd almost makes me feel embarrassed when I say that.
Here’s the audio
Great conversation at Bob Hyatt’s blog on Mark’s comments
Thoughts on a tale of two movements
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going to wordpress 2.3 was not a problem, but that in combination with an incompatible theme just made my blog explode. I’m glad I backed up, but restoring that was a nightmare as well.
Some days technology really isn’t my friend, I don’t know why I keep going back to it.
Anyhow, I might be testing out some different themes over the next while, thanks for bearing with me.
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It’s been a draining couple days.
I just upgraded to wordpress v2.3 that was released today. The site seems a bit snappier.
I might start hunting for a new 3-column theme soon.
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I’ve written several times on preaching before, but here’s a few of my latest reflections as I’m preparing for tomorrow morning.
- The challenge of preaching is you’re always calling people to a place you’re struggling to go yourself.
- Preaching in different places four of the last five weekends, I can see how this can get a bit tiring if you’re going 52 weeks of the year.
- I’m no where near as short on ‘material’ as I had been warned before, the Word of God is so densely rich!
- I find I learn so much when I’m just handed a passage to preach on rather than picking and choosing stuff myself
- Although I enjoy speaking and I do find it an art-form, I still have questions on it’s place in effectively transforming lives
- Cutting down content in a sermon for good reasons like clarity and time can be like killing your babies. Holding back fresh gems that God has revealed to me is easier said than done.
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