I’ve got a bit too many notes from the conference, but here’s a few random thoughts.
- Kudos to the Willow Creek Association for risking and attempting a new type of conference.  I’ve been avoiding conferences for quite a while, but I still do see an incredible need for leaders being continually equipped and inspired.
- It [...]

Posted in Church planting, Leadership No Comments »

I’f you’ve been living solitude the last day, check out Barack Obama’s major speech on race recently delivered (2 million views on youtube in less than 2 days!). Much of it is in response to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright’s outright racist comments, but it’s so much more. I suspect it’s stuff Obama’s [...]

Posted in Church planting, Culture, Leadership No Comments »

Recently I finished a relatively old urban ministry book - Ray Bakke’s “a theology as big as the city“. This book rocks, and is filled with insights on God’s love for the city and our roles in it.One practical and disputable insight I’ve been mulling over comes from this quote of his “The local [...]

Posted in Cause, Church planting, Leadership, Toronto, mission 4 Comments »

This past weekend I was in Iowa connecting with a new church plant in Ottumwa called, The Bridge.
Yes, Iowa. When I was going through security at the airport the officer looked at my boarding pass and said “Iowa?” rolled his eyes and sarcastically muttered “you’ll be having a really good time there”.
He couldn’t have [...]

Posted in Church planting, travel 1 Comment »

Some excellent resources I just stumbled across specifically for spouses of church planters…
Free downloadable book, “My husband wants to be a church planter“, discussion guide as well here.
(The book includes chapters by wife of Bob Roberts of Glocalnet, Niki, and wife of Erwin McManus of Mosaic LA, Kim.  HT: Truly Captivating.
Planterwives.com for current or future [...]

Posted in Church planting, resources 2 Comments »

Do you believe in Beincarnation?
I heard this creative term a number of years ago and it’s never left me.
Similar to my post on tantric preaching, beincarnation co-opts another traditionally ‘Eastern’ term - Reincarnation. I’ll assume that’s okay since Jesus was an eastern teacher…
Reincarnation is driven by the cosmic judgment of your deeds in [...]

Posted in Character, Christ, Church planting, Culture 3 Comments »

I just received an advanced copy of “The Tangible Kingdom - Creating incarnational community” from Leadership Network by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. I have so many other things to read, but I haven’t been able to put this one down.
Without giving away too much of the content, let me just say it’s refreshing [...]

Posted in Books, Church planting, Community 5 Comments »

Nothing to say today.
Just some random links I’ve come across the last while
The Toronto Star - a secular newspaper surprisingly did a segment on church planting movements
The lifecyle of a blog post
How Erwin McManus got his last name
Barack Obama - Article by Caroline Kennedy, and interview with Christianity Today
Young preacher and [...]

Posted in Church planting, Links, resources 2 Comments »

Recently I was working on a research project interviewing a wide spectrum of people at a church. Questions were along the lines of where they were at spiritually with the church, what could use improvement, what they would do to change things and so on.
One interesting insight that came out of it was when [...]

Posted in Christ, Church planting 2 Comments »

To illustrate my last post.
Eight years ago, I spent a summer living in a house (supposedly an old brothel that had been renovated, but that’s another story) with five other guys. It got so dirty with our lack of cleaning, by the end of that summer, there were foot-high mushrooms growing out of the [...]

Posted in Church planting, mission, stories 5 Comments »