Congregation
"It will be worth what we're spending if only one person gets saved." That comment came from a deacon when I was serving a previous church. He was referring to an expensive project we were undertaking. I nodded in agreement because his sentiment seemed so right.
Community
(A couple of days ago I wrote about several converging crises -- energy, economy, and environment. Since then the price of gas has gone down! Proof that I was wrong. Not! As a nation we are so shell-shocked by the energy crisis that we think a 10-cent reduction in the
Culture
Title sound familiar? Well, apparently Buddhists in Japan are facing the same challenges as small churches in the US. Listen to this from the New York Times article, "In Japan, Buddhism May Be Dying Out:" The lack of successors to chief priests is jeopardizing family-run temples nationwide. While
Community
In the recent news coverage of gay couples marrying in California, you might have overlooked an event that began in May called "American Family Outing." MySanAntonio.com reports that gay couples supported by Soulforce, an Austin, Texas civil rights organization, contacted six mega churches requesting that a church
bless the world
In her book, Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland , Dr. Lisa M. Bitel states "The archaelogical evidence of [Celtic monastic] enclosures...suggests that living within the sight of the monastic enclosure was useful to farmers and herders, doubtless economically as well as spiritually.
bless the world
One of the things Baptists do when we take our own pulse is to count. We count attendance, giving, groups, and most of all, we count baptisms. Lately, like the last 7 or 8 years, baptisms in Southern Baptist life have been down. So, there's a lot of
bless the world
I don't mean to harp on this, but the current rise in oil prices impacts more than just where we take our next vacations. As James Howard Kunstler states in his article, Wake Up America, We're Driving Toward Disaster: As the world passes the all-time oil
Congregation
Last November I posted about rising gas prices and the possible effect on churches. Now $4-a-gallon gas seems like a bargain as rumors fly that gas will hit $5 to $7 per gallon by year end. Apparently Americans didn't stop driving when gas hit $3 per gallon, but
Congregation
An interesting article by Kevin Kelly got me thinking about church. Church, I believe, wants to be free. Not free, like "Free Willy." I'm not talking about an imprisoned behemoth that wants to leap the channel net into freedom, although that might be another post in
bless the world
Last year, several of us in the Fuller DMin Missional Leadership program had dinner with Alan Roxburgh one evening. Alan is one of the DMin adjunct professors, and author of The Sky Is Falling, co-author of The Missional Leader, and contributor to Missional Church, edited by Darrell Guder, the book
Congregation
On November 21, I posted If gas hits $4/gal, what will your church do? Comments indicated some thought it was not going to be a problem, others were keeping a close eye on economic developments. This week 5 economic items of interest all converged: 1. Low consumer confidence. According
lifestyle
I just finished reading Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics. The authors, Morley Winograd and Michael Hais, contend that Millennials will reshape American politics, possibly as early as this election in 2008. Millenials are the newest generation, born 1982-2003, and were given their generational name by