“This is the story and song our ancestors bequeathed to us, and it comes at a time in our country when the very things they struggled and died for — faith and freedom, justice and equality, democracy and grace —
Every summer trimester at MHGS I get to guide a group of emerging leaders through a selected readings course . . . for us “selected readings” means that faculty members are given some space to develop a course around an
This book was born in the context of an eleven-year life altering experiment in ecclesial life, fleshed out in learning communities with thoughtful women and men who never ceased to ask insightful and revealing questions, and now it is being
A couple of weeks ago I was able to spend a few hours with Christian Churches Together, which is a relatively new ecumenical network in the USA. I have to say that I find these ecumenical gatherings quite encouraging. For
This week is the fourth annual gathering of the fairly new ecumenical group, Christian Churches Together (CCT), and this year’s meeting brings them to Seattle, and are being hosted by World Vision. CCT has invited me to facilitate a couple
Samir Selmanovic, Andrew Seely (See Andrew’s blog post about the experience) and I participated in the National Council of churches Faith & Order Commission a couple of weeks ago. The three of us participated in the dialogues as representatives of
Here is an interesting link to a transcript of last spring’s forum sponsored by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The title is “Myths of the Modern Mega-Church” featuring Rick Warren and others. Peace, dwight
For a few days I’ve been sitting the question: “how can I better understand and enter into the narrative of church?” This question took me back to Greek theater, represented by the masks. I find myself wondering whether the narrative of
When I first encountered Miroslav Volf and his theological work I was elated. I found myself sharing his books with anyone around who would lend me their ear even if just for a moment. Needless to say I don’t agree with
Cellular Mitosis is cell division in which one somatic cell divides to produce two cells each of which has the identical genetic content (same number of chromosomes) as the original somatic cell. An interesting question to reflect on is when
I’ve been giving some more thought to the connections of Cellular Mitosis with church growth and church planting. The body of Christ appears to be a not unlike a multi-cellular living organism. Multi-cellular living organisms contain more than one cell
The conversation that has been taking place over the last couple of days on this journal regarding the Orthodox, Roman, Protestant (and emergent) churches has me thinking about conversion. Each tradition has its rite(s) of initiation. What North American Evangelicals
Sitting with the wise replies to the Emerging Orthodox post I am impressed again with the great wisdom which comes from engaging the Holy Tradition. The wisdom of “us” (which always includes the presence of God by the Holy Spirit)
Sky posted a few questions and challenges in response to my March 24th entry. Sky asked: “Can you explain how the statement that the Protestant Reformation gave the bible ‘back to the people’ applies to the vast communities in the
Like most people 😉 my mind occasionally drifts to happy thoughts of Heidegger’s notion of Dasein as being-unto-death. Marty (can I call him Marty?) reminds us that when people becomes aware of their inevitable death; really aware, like after a
The return of the parish appears to be an ecclesial movement sweeping Western Christ-communities. I’ve been thinking of it as the parish corrective. I would characterize this corrective as a local church move to embody “full life” or embody the
I enjoy making soup. I literally have a pot of soup on right now. So see a few months back Lynette and I made a ham. And in my mind, any ham meal has a soup chaser. I put the
Bill Wallenbeck of Jacob’s Well just preached a sermon called Scale-Free Networks and the Kingdom using some concepts of Scale-free networks, he even drew on some of my research. Check it out. Tim Samoff posted some photos of a community-mapping
“Depend upon it, Sir,when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight,it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Samuel Johnson, Sept 19, 1777 Michael Jinkins begins his book, “The Church faces Death” with this quote from Samuel Johnson. If
Thoughts regarding ordination: I understand ordination to be a human recognition of God’s calling on a person’s life. Yet in practice it is a gatekeeping practice to ensure that those in power have a means of controlling who is let
Thinking about worship… What is it that the church can do in worship corporately that the church can’t do individually? How did worship devolve from a wholistic way of life to a gathering on a Sunday morning? What if how
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
