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Archive for January, 2012

The New Evangelism

Posted on January 30th, 2012

Last night I found a pretty cool docu as I was cruising Vimeo. It’s called Influencers: How Trends and Creativity Become Contagious. Here it is: As I watched, my mind naturally went to the idea of “pastors as influencers,” mostly because, well, I self-identify as a pastor. But the more and more I thought of it, the more I realized that I had an opportunity here to explore an area I feel compelled to gain a depth of knowledge and wisdom in: EVANGELISM. Confession: I have a visceral reaction to the word and idea of “evangelism.” I am not joking. It makes my skin crawl, and I start to feel a little sick. I am not joking. In the Fundegelical culture I grew up…

Categories: Evangelism, Leadership

Tagged: church, church leaders, church planting, discernment, influencers, mainline church, networked culture, open source, plant a church

8 Comments

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A Progressive Call to Conscience

Posted on January 28th, 2012

One of my spiritual heroes, Fr. Richard Rohr, posted this quote on his blog yesterday: “Despite a certain trend towards conservatism in parts of the church and society, I am convinced that we have moved into a new era that will be determined by people who live by their own conscience and are particularly qualified to act as discerning members of community and society…the era in which almost everyone was content to be born and to live as a member of a certain church or ‘organized religion’ is over. The people who will shape the future of believers of all religions are those who have the courage to make their own choice, whatever pain may be involved, and to do so with personal responsibility.”…

Categories: Church, Spirituality, Theology

Tagged: adjacent possible, Bernard Haring, Call to Conscience, conservative, cosmology, epistemology, progressive, Richard Rohr, theology

7 Comments

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10 Indicators of an Authoritarian Church Leader

Posted on January 27th, 2012

Scot McKinght at Jesus Creed offers ten indicators to look for to determine if your community of faith is suffering from authoritarian leadership: (1). There is never any freedom to question the leader. (2). The leader often makes claims of having special insights from God, insights that the laity are unable to possess. (3). Disagreement with the leader is deemed a sign of the devil’s influence in one’s life. (4). Events are designed to bring attention and praise to the leader rather than equipping others to do the work of the ministry. (5). Any concept of equality is immediately labeled rebellion or the end result of a “liberal” denial of the Bible. (6) Authoritarian leaders are only comfortable around like-minded leaders; thus, there is an unoffical ‘speaking tour’…

Categories: Church, Leadership, Theology

Tagged: authoritarian leaders, authoritarian leadership, christian leadership, servant leadership

3 Comments

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Radical vs. Possible

Posted on January 25th, 2012

I like to change things. It is in my personality to not take what is handed to me as a given. This is not to say that I am a contrarian, but, rather, that I like the potential of something far more than I like its present reality. What I always get stuck on, however, is how to get to that change I see. On the one hand is what could be called radical change. This is the kind of change where what you do tomorrow looks nothing like it did today. The processes are different. The expectations are different. The rewards are different. This is the kind of change I experienced each and every time my wife gave birth to another of our four boys.…

Categories: Church, Spirituality

Tagged: incremental change, radical change

9 Comments

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My hopes for the Mid-Council Commission Report (Presbypost)

Posted on January 24th, 2012

What follows is a family conversation with other Presbyterians. Stay tuned – this blog will soon return to its regularly scheduled programming. I have thought a great deal about the coming report of the Mid-Council Commission (MCC). I have put a great deal of thought into what the report might be because I love the Presbyterian Church (USA) and want to see it thrive. My personality naturally lends itself to trying to see how something can be improved, and given my relationships in and responsibilities to the different levels of our church, I have endeavored to see if there was a perspective I could offer that would be helpful. To borrow from Heifetz, the PC(USA) is not broken. It works quite well for those…

Categories: Church

Tagged: presbyterian church usa

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