Category: church
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Book Review | Total Church
The second book I read over my vacation was Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. The overall perspective of the book is applying to the church the two foundational principles of gospel and community. As a short synopsis, it is an excellent basic theology primer coupled…
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Book Review | Vintage Church
Although it wasn’t the first book I read on vacation, I’m going to start with Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. I have grown to thoroughly appreciate the ministry of Mark Driscoll, and am consistently thankful that he preaches the gospel faithfully to his church, as well as…
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Multisite Church
I just finished reading through the new 9 Marks Journal on Multisite church. I thought it was a fantastic and balanced presentation of arguments both for and against the concept. Ed Stetzer dialogued through the basic objection most have to multisite here, and I’m also asking a similar question. The article by Jonathan Leeman titled…
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The Ordinary: The Rabbit and The Elephant.
We have some great students who think deeply about the church universal and the church local, and are living expressions of mission on their campus. Aaron is one of them, and I’ve been blessed to watch him wrestle with the concepts of missional community. He’s writing about it at The Ordinary, and here is an…
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Parachurch and Church | Moore to the Point
This is an interesting insight from Russell Moore about campus ministries and the necessity of connecting with a local church. I would probably take a less hard line approach than he does and value a less “formal” expression of church, as well as argue that a church needs to adapt to its cultural context to…
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When Planning Fails Churches
This quote from an article in Church Solutions Magazine adds some fuel to the fire from our conversations as a staff and implementing our strategy as a church. The statistics tell the unfortunate truth. Eighty-seven percent of American churches have either plauteaued or are declining in attendance. We can and should innovate until we are…
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Attractional and Missional | TheResurgence
Below is quote from a post a The Resurgence on the Attractional vs. Missional “debate”. People often set up attractional church and missional church as polar opposites. Attractional has a come-to-us mentality. It’s about drawing people to the church. Missional is a go-to-them mentality. We take the gospel to people, meeting them on their terms…
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Another Wells Excerpt
Another great selection from Above All Earthly Pow’rs by David Wells here. This is probably the best book I have read in the past two years…
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Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3 | Catalyst
Matt Carter, our Senior Pastor, was named as one of the top 3 innovators at Innovation3 by CatalystSpace. Good stuff! Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3 January 30, 2009 The Innovation3 conference was this week and it was cool. Did you go? There were over 100 speakers, but here are my Top 3 picks for most…
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Consumerism and the Church
A great quote from David Wells: Churches which preserve their cognitive identity and distinction from the culture will flourish: those who lose them in the interests of seeking success will disappear. In our churches we may have made a deal with postmodern consumers but the hard reality is that Christianity cannot be bought. Purchase, in…
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Missional Authors | The Forgotten Ways
This image from The Forgotten Ways has a great breakdown of some authors who have influenced my thinking. From: the missional family tree according to leadership journal : The Forgotten Ways.