My friend Tim likes to says that “words make worlds,” and they do, words are powerful. I just heard my friend Sparrow say, “all transformation is linguistic.” The way we – and those around us – use language makes some
Matthew Santucci of the Catholic New Agency reported yesterday that Pope Francis addressed members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to discuss the importance of liturgical reform as a core feature of the board
My colleague Joshua Montoya sent me a link to the above video. It feels so alive inside me. Please watch it and wonder about it. What is the invitation coming to you, and yours. “The metacrisis is your daily experience of
Systems thinkers, organizational innovators, and localists Deborah Frieze and Margaret Wheatley, with the Berkana Institute, have developed a very helpful model for better understanding the complex process of systems change. Their model – among other things – thoughtfully attends to
Well, Sunday was my final Sunday serving at St Luke’s. And today was my final staff meeting. As challenging as transitions can be in the life of any community, this one was so beautiful and warm. It was filled with
If you’re a regular to my site you might recall that I have had the privilege of serving as the “substitute pastor” for an ELCA (Lutheran) community here in Bellevue since January 2022. Even though I am not ordained Lutheran
I’m roughly nine months into my 20 month commitment at St Luke’s Lutheran Church in Bellevue. The church has commissioned its pastor to go on pilgrimage to Holden Village for about a year and an half, and I get to
My colleague and friend, Dr. Roy Barsness will be presenting his “Last Lecture” @ The Seattle School, this evening. Roy is retiring from his core faculty role at the school where he has led, created, taught, researched, and offered himself
Standing at the gateway to a new year – I went back to go forward – I went back to revisit my post at the end of 2020. Here’s the post. Last year my phrase was “Next Year in Jerusalem.”
Is it just me, or does the Jenga-like quality of life feel especially close to the surface these days. Precarious. Teetering. Unstable. Somehow just looking all that is changing can fill, even the heartiest of us with fear. “It could
Earlier this week The Seattle School held its 2021 Instructional Team Orientation retreat, during which Dr. President Derek McNeil delivered an address. He organized his talk around “Sankofa.” Which as you may know, is a word from the Akan Twi
Breath is life. Inhaling… Exhaling… Things come together and things fall a part. Into every life comes pain & suffering, and joy & pleasure. Suffering is not Divine judgement any more than pleasure is God’s reward. Both are part of
Flipping the Script on Stewardship: COVID-19 & the Shift from Church Property to Kingdom Building For more than a year, your church’s building has been unused. Yet, not having access to it didn’t stop your faith community from being a
Last trimester a student posted a link to this video in our course’s chat. I have gone back and watched it number of times since then, so I thought I’d post it here so I can have a record of
Here is a rather famous and Worthy leadership article by Dee Hock; the founder and CEO emeritus of Visa (the credit card company). Hock, Dee “The Art of Chaordic Leadership” Leader to Leader. 15 (Winter 2000): 20-26. Peace, dwight
I you have visited my site before you will know that I am in the process of constructing a more relational theology. Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) has helped us to see that anytime the is a paradigm
Toward the Heart of the Matter by Eberhard Jungel Eberhard Jungel is professor of systematic theology and philosophy at the University of Tubingen. Toward the Heart of the Matter was translated by Paul E. Capetz, July 15, 1990. This article
Following up to my “U-Theory and the Cross” post. One aspect of the U-Theory that Senge and the rest did not seem to speak to was the process of ongoing transformation. In my personal life – especially my spirituality –
Paragraph The reflective and discursive book, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future by Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers invites readers into the exploration and development of the “U-theory” of learning and change.
Many avant-church leaders/hosts/facilitators/curates/etc. are serving in bi-vocational ways; meaning they earn their living working a “regular” job in order to support their community habit. Some have made this a conscious decision, others have been forced into this bi-vo-role by slower
Though I’m by no means a Korn groupie, I found it interesting when Mtv reported that one of the founding members of the band has left to start his own thing. According to Korn’s website, guitarist, Brian Welch, “has chosen Jesus Christ
The other day I was watching a rerun of “The Simpsons” – such a great show. It was an episode from the first season. What stood out to me was that in the first season the writers didn’t know the
I am finding myself with a growing distaste for everything I have written to date. I want to deconstruct all of it in my good moments and burn all of it and take up furniture making in my bad moments.
A friend emailed a couple of questions yesterday: “What are the drawbacks to Post-Modernism? What are weaknesses within the ‘post-modern’ church?” Here are my efforts at a response… There are likely as many drawbacks to the pomo as there are
I’ve been doing a bit of reading on globalism, one of my friends asked a group of us; “Will the new world order be one in which religion will play a leading role?” Our conversation morphed to exploring whether there
Talking with a “solid” evangelical” leader the other day I heard him say something to the effect of, “our message never changes, our methods may but not our message.” I would suggest that our message does in fact need to
In the pomo world boundaries and such definitions are shot to heck;-). Nothing is seen as static, instead all is understood holistically and dynamically. When we start talking about a relational way of being and doing church or organic this,
Ok, so I’m a church planter who is in danger of giving up on the idea of church planting. I’m not even sure I see much Biblical support for church planting. I see Christ sending people as bearers of the
Van Gogh lifted the veil of our vision. He helped us to see dignity in the common person from coal miners to potato pickers. He lifted the veil of creation, and the common person from coal miners to potato pickers. He
From the birth of the church to today, the continuity and spread of the gospel has been dependant on the church passing leadership to the emerging generation. A cosmic relay race with eternal consequences and life altering ramifications. We can
