John on December 7th, 2009

I was stunned as I came across this open letter from George Barna to the aging pastors among us – which now is quite a majority.  The median age of mainline pastors in America is 55!
George Barna is the guru of church research.  He’s spent more time conducting surveys of American religious beliefs, attitudes, and [...]

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John on September 28th, 2009

The question seemed innocent: “John, do you have a favorite hymn you’d like me to play at your installation?”  My answer to Matt, the worship director at Prince of Peace, was immediately condemning, though:  ”You know, Matt, I can’t tell you a song title.  I really don’t know the hymnbook very well.  In fact, I [...]

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John on December 16th, 2008

Leonard Sweet’s Post-Modern Pilgrims is a book I read & reread every couple of years just to refresh my knowledge of his EPIC paradigm, and to evaluate how I’ve been implementing this in my life & my ministry.
E-P(articipatory)-I-C
Participation
Keyboards are sooooo 1980s.  My son expects that he can touch the icons on my computer desktop and [...]

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John on August 29th, 2008

I really felt educated by my rss wanderings this week.  Enjoy!
I don’t feel old yet, but I’ll bet in another 5 years, reading this list will make me want to go out & buy a cool sportscar (BMW convertible, probably): What kids entering college think – Beloit College Mindset List. via Jesus Creed
Good food for [...]

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Dan on August 28th, 2008

This is a chapter that communicates a lot in a very true way about grief.  You can feel the emotion on the pages as Mack experiences the fear and loss associated with the abduction and murder of his daughter.  And as he’s walking through it, part of the reason I think it feels so real [...]

Continue reading about Exploring, “The Shack”-4- The Great Sadness

Dan on August 23rd, 2008

So today I’m heading with my wife to Fort Worth to bring them a mural that they commissioned from my wife.  It’s a great image of Jesus in this dance with little children and is based on a drawing the former pastor there had seen.
Right now it’s in four canvasses that overlap which should bring [...]

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John on July 8th, 2008

For the next few weeks we’ll be using Mark Batterson’s “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” to help us stimulate a conversation about God-given opportunities in our lives.  He blogs at: evotional.com
Remember the story of Benaiah?  2 Samuel 23:20-21.
When he was a boy, did Benaiah’s mom tell him not to play [...]

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Do you like magic?  Even if you don’t, I think you’ll find this video interesting.  And if you can’t quite figure out how it works and you want to know, check this one out too.
 
Now I’ve loved magic since I was a kid and even dabbled in it for a little while, but it’s not [...]

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John on June 13th, 2008

Have you heard about netvibes yet? It has literally saved me hundreds of hours of web surfing time by simply allowing me to have everything I want in one place instantly. I totally love it. Check out our Faith Emergence Universe where you can access some of the sites that we frequent.
Tyranny. [...]

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John on June 9th, 2008

To continue our discussion from last week and to finish our look at Pop Goes the Church by Tim Stevens, let’s consider the last things he discusses: stories of churches who are engaging & redeeming pop culture for the sake of the gospel.
Each church story is unique, but there seem to be some common threads [...]

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