Abductive Columns

This Blog Is Aged

2007-01-04T05:33:00.000-05:00

There will be no further post to this blog....

My new blog is here [The New Abductive Columns)

Faith Based Messages Embedded in the Arts

2007-01-02T16:24:00.000-05:00

The 20th century was a unique period in human history. It was the only century in which the arts and faith were separated and antagonistic. Before the 20th century, the arts were an important part of the spiritual. It wasn't the exception but the rule. Christ's people drove the culture instead of looking for ways to be culturally relevant. Michelangelo’s David, da Vinci's Last Supper, Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, and Raphael's Epiphany, all cultural icons with deep ecclesiastical roots.

Cultural dialogue is something Christians should have been doing all along in society, but were prohibited in the last century because of a flawed worldview that segregated Christian inspiration from the mainstream. Captivating culture again and giving it meaning through the eyes of faith rest solely on the shoulders of the Christ-follower. But a flawed doctrine called dualism left ‘cultural dialogue’ an unexplored arena for over two generations.

The sacred/secular schism, called dualism, theologically elevated the sacred at the expense of the secular. But to consider the secular a threat to faith is to give enormous ground to the enemy before a battle has even begun. We have claimed so little in this world. We've been like children playing in a wooden sandbox on the edge of a beautiful white sandy beach that stretches as far as the eye can see (and we brought our own sand).

New Publication : Shine Like Stars by Fred Peatross

2006-12-31T09:47:00.000-05:00

For readable text please click on each section:

To Make a Purchase [...link]

The Consequences of Political Correctness

2006-12-21T21:22:00.000-05:00

I fear political correctness is the apathy that will destroy western culture. Preying on this weakness fanatic Muslims are insipidly making inroads into American infrastructure. The primary purveyors of this doctrine are media and Hollywood and its tentacles have spread far and wide.

Extremist Muslim theology preaches that until Muslims battle with Jews and Christians there can be no coming of the Shiite Islamic messiah figure – the Mahdiend time (end-time).

Documented Facts
• This past summer extremist fanatical Muslims were encouraged to kill at least one American in the next 15 days. (Abu Hamza al-Muhajer)
• Currently over 4000 forums on the web are moderated by extremist Muslims who spew their hate against America and Israel.
• Extremist Muslims continue to teach their children that Jews are pigs and apes.
• Muslim propaganda leap-frogs western culture's military superiority as the primary tool of Jihad.

Unless something dramatically changes and forces us to rethink our penchant for political correctness our children are going to face the stark reality of what it means to “suffering for Christ sake.”

(Imagine the feelings that would quickly run from head to toe if masked Muslim terrorist armed with AEK assault rifles entered your Christian assembly this Sunday and forced everyone to leave their pew and face the wall in front of them with their arms extended and both hands on the wall—and then one by one they asked each person, “Do you believe in Jesus or Mohammad.”)

In a society that has, for the last half-century, grown very fat and comfortable (what J.I. Packer called Hot Tub Religion)—choosing Christ in a praise assembly with hands raised is one thing but choosing Him in a hostile environment would be a very, very different thing.

I pray I’m wrong but it appears America is nearing the end of one era for the commencing of a prolonged and dangerous period. May God help us!

Kingdom vs. Civil Religion

2006-12-12T15:54:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting chart via Larry Chouinard
Thanks Larry

Reimagine Small Groups

2006-12-10T12:09:00.000-05:00

Just as we need to reimagine worship styles (is missional the new worship? read Wade Hodges excellent post for a thorough statement on this) we need to reimagine small groups. At one time small groups were herald as the answer to both intimacy and growth in churches but, early on, church leaders resisted the concept. Only the larger, more progressive churches began/established a small group ministry (I can remember my tribe feared another Crossroads/Boston movement/today known as the International Churches of Christ [ICC]). During this period organizations and many of the larger churches conducted small group workshops. During these sessions the idea of the empty chair and inviting those in their neighborhood came alive with: “they might not come to a church building but they’ll come to your home.”

This may have been as close as we came to spiritual cartography/goals for small group ministries. If so, at some point in time we lost our way. Most small groups I’ve been involved with have become another bible class with little to no hope of building intimacy.

What about the idea of small group evangelism? I’m not sure we ever got off the ground with that one, most likely because of the natural tension that exist between nurture and evangelism. Nurture comes natural, evangelism does not. I can remember the dialogue—should we incorporate nurture groups and evangelistic groups as one or should we form two separate groups? There was never clear direction on this so we went with what came natural--hoping we could be evangelistic without being intentional.

Is it time to reimagine small groups?

Second Incarnation

2006-12-10T11:05:00.000-05:00

What if one day the entire body of Christ was struck dumb? Couldn’t write a word. Couldn’t speak a word. Couldn’t even move our lips to mouth one. What then? What would be left?

Our lives.

And what would our lives say? What would they say about who we are and who our God is? What would they say about what we believe? If we were to take away the words, how much of the gospel would the world understand?

Would we discover the world is illiterate? Or that our lives are illegible?

Would the writings on the pages of our lives, which we always took to be literature, turn out to be the scribblings of a preschooler? Or would the pages simply be blank?

“Preach the gospel,” Saint Francis said, “and when necessary, use words.” And he said that, I think, because he realized that the most impactful words are those incarnate in our lives. Words that are made flesh and dwell among the world.

Crossing Borders

2006-12-05T11:06:00.000-05:00

Harvard professor Diane Eck states that, “Before 1965, we could conceive of ourselves as mainly a Christian nation but the influx of people of radically different religions and conversion of others to those religions -- Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism -- has resulted in two kinds of change: first, that these religions are changing American, and second, that America is changing the religions, evolving in a climate of diversity and freedom.”

Newsweek Magazine recently pointed out “…young people are openly passionate about religion—but insist on defining it in their own ways.”

In the transition from modernism to postmodernism we have a mix of people with copious worldviews. But in the very near future we will watch a generation be born in an exclusively postmodern environment. The United Kingdom, Western Europe, Australia, and Canada have been post-Christian for a decade or more. America is just now postmodern and Latin America is a decade behind us in this transition. This being so, we need to see ourselves as missionaries and missionaries cross borders.

Crossing borders familiar to God’s people is nothing new. Joshua sent out a couple of secret agents to spy out the land of Jericho. If we really desire to reach out to this diversely religious culture that is emerging we’re going to have to become like the spies Joshua sent to look over the land across the Jordan.

My Story

2006-12-02T06:18:00.000-05:00

I didn’t have the privilege of being raised in a Christian home. For twenty-seven years I didn’t know who Jesus was. O, I knew He was someone the world talked about once a year. But I didn’t understand His saving grace or why He died.

My childhood was lost in the pain and dysfunction of a broken home. My brother went to jail before he graduated from High School. Throughout my college years I immersed myself in drugs and alcohol. During those years I met my future wife. I didn’t realize, at the time, that she came from a Christian home. I have to admit that I saw Bibles laying around when I visited her family, but there was never any indication that she took her faith serious. After marriage and our first child, she began attending church. I felt this would pass. I kept waiting for her to quit. But she faithfully loaded the car every Sunday with the baby and all the diapers and baby bottles.

Over time I began feeling guilty as I watched her carry my daughter in one arm and the baby paraphernalia in the other. I began attending with her. Over time I came to a crossroad. I had to run from it all or submit my life. Needless to say I gave my mess to Jesus.

Thirty years of living without Jesus left me with a “bunch” of bad habits and dysfunction…and habits don’t die easily. Today, they continue to hound me.

To be frank with you, I am going to be a bit apprehensive as I stand before God on Judgement Day. Because there’s so much in my life that I am not proud of. On that Day I will probably stammer and stutter and clear my throat as I try to cover all my bases. I’ll say, “God, I’m sorry about all the evil, would you forgive me for what I did and what I didn’t do? Forgive me for the grarbage in my life.”

God will pull out His record book and say, “Fred, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Look! There’s blood all over the pages of your life¹. I can’t read a thing.” Then Jesus will lean over His Father’s shoulder and say, “Father, that’s because Fred belongs to me. The blood proves He’s mine.”

¹ I used this story at a table talk before the faith community I was assembled with ate and drank the Lord's Supper. When I mentioned the record book and the pages of life with blood on them, I opened a journal I had brought wth me covered with ketchup as an illustration.

Metaphor for Leaders

2006-11-25T19:52:00.000-05:00

Buffalo and cattle handle storms in a revealing fashion. Cattle turn their back on a storm and try to outrun it. Buffalo turn their heads into the oncoming storm and race toward it. They engage it and get through it while the cattle run and hide in fear.

Setting our faces, not our backs, to the future and prophesizing (not planning) the way forward will God-enable us to move mountains (bring about desired futures by creating those futures).

My Chat with Sally Morgentaler

2006-11-22T12:40:00.000-05:00

You can sit in on my chat with Sally Morgenthaler by going [...here]

Why NO Dynamic Church Planting Movements in the West?

2006-11-20T20:55:00.000-05:00

My, my, Alan Hirsch nailed this one!

Why don’t we see dynamic church planting movements in the West of the same magnitude that we are seeing in many parts of the developing world?

 Consumerism is a major problem—largely for discipleship, but discipleship is needed before any movement can take place.

 Hyper-reality: people live in a consumerist paradise. Or what at least appears to be a paradise. The market economy, effectively a religious alternative to Christianity, has delivered us a lifestyle that replaces what heaven has always stood for in the Judeo-Christian tradition. All is available now we don’t have to put our longings off and connect them with hope in God. The market creates a false immediacy. Life is like a Sunday afternoon, people can’t feel the need for the gospel.

 There are few (if any) places in western, market dominated, democracies that mass people movements ala China have been able to activate and maintain themselves. The environment is inimical to the kind of energies that are required for networked exponential movements.

 A pervasive existential crisis of belief and meaning in the West. And this relates to worldview. The genre of belief in non-Western contexts is different to both the modern or post-modern cultural environments that we live in. Indian, Chinese, or African movements can be written off as fundamentalist by westerners. I don’t think they are in the way that we mean it (hard-line pharisaism) but they certainly look like it in our eyes. Transformative movements are filled with people who really believe that their message is the answer to the world’s problems…..they believe and they act out of their belief. Westerners struggle to really believe.

Makes everything very hard doesn’t it. That’s why my heart burns for the West. Alan Hirsch co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come

I picked this post off Steve Addison’s World Changers

From My View

2006-11-17T11:08:00.000-05:00

Unity in Christ integrates the dimension of ecology, giving it a deeper and fuller meaning.

Think with me.

Ecology teaches that the meaning of the part is in the whole and the meaning of the whole is in the parts.

From my view, God’s economy is inherently ecological. It sees all things as coming from the same source, interrelated, sharing a common story and goal.

New Wineskins Magazine

2006-11-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

I’m one of the new Editors at New Wineskins.org. In the near future they’ll be a number of my conversations published with noted leaders who lead from the cusp; Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, Ron Martoia, Sally Morgenthaler, Leonard Sweet and a host of others. These will be New Wineskins exclusives.

I would encourage you to add New Wineskins.org to your favorites and visit often. At one time NW was a print magazine (now only two a year roll off the press) but it’s a quality ezine.

NW readings are grace oriented and Christ-centered and more and more is becoming a leading edge in the emergent conversation. Let it be known: we don’t walk the party line. NW comes out of the restoration heritage (my tribe) but without the legalistic trappings and attitudes that has polarized our movement over the past fifty years. It saddens me when I hear friends; acquaintances, family and others tell church of Christ horror stories that color and shade their views of who we are. Check out New Wineskins.org

Content In Prayer Life

2006-11-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

Iraq. Israel and the Palestinians. Iran and western culture; clashes in perspectives and worldviews…clashes in religions, nations, and cultures.

At one time Israel and Egypt were near war. Civil war looked inevitable in South Africa and the Soviet Union loomed as a major threat. Because of the complexity of the body of Christ and the broader culture, we can never trace an exact cause-and-effect influence of prayer. But there were peaceful outcomes to the above crises.

Most of our prayers focus on the needs of our families (spiritual but mostly physical). Maybe this is to be expected but it should not be the extent of our prayers. God tells us to pray for all those in authority. Individually and collectively we should be praying for the leaders of our cities, the leaders of our states, for presidents and foreign leaders, for parliaments and courts.

Even when Christians can’t fully agree—politically, they can pray that God’s will be done; that the priorities of God’s kingdom be visibly realized.

How does prayer work? We don’t know. How God responds to our prayers is a mystery.

But I believe Tennyson was correct when he said: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

New Wineskins

2006-11-09T20:15:00.000-05:00

In Jesus day wineskins were made of leather. Fill an old, dried out skin with new wine, and it will burst as the fresh beverage ferments. There is fresh ferment in the 21st century church, causing new wine to spill out as old church structures fail.

What is “church structure?” We think of buildings and denominations, but church structure also means forms and patterns the churches uses to carry out its mission in the world. If these structures are not made of goatskin or bricks or committees or worship teams, then what are they made of? Where do we find the best material for new wineskins?

Prayer for Ted Haggard

2006-11-03T15:50:00.000-05:00

Father, forgive Ted Haggard if, in any way, he has prostituted his life. Forgive him if he has attracted attention to himself and offended you in a perverse way. Forgive him for cheapening his life while, at the same time, hurting the lives of the one’s he loves and the ones that love him.

I pray this prayer not just for Ted Haggard but for all of us whose hearts are prone to wander and quick to forget the vows we have made with you.

Help the community of faith to love Ted Haggard more than he could ever imagine. Now is the time for your people to shine by nurturing one of yours; one who has spent most of his life nurturing others. I pray all those who are brought into his circle of pain will have the same spirit of compassion Jesus showed the woman caught in adultery so many centuries ago.

May our own conscience be pierced by our own sinfulness, our hands the first to drop the stones, our feet the first to leave the circle of self-righteousness.

Thank you for the sweet words of forgiveness: “Neither do I condemn you.” Words that continue today to flow so freely from your lips. Words Ted Haggard needs to hear every day as he struggles with his sinful wandering.

In the strength of those unmerited words I end this prayer. So, today, at this very moment, comfort the Haggard family. And when their terrible nightmare ends, I pray he will freely go on his way and sin no more.

When Criticized Do As Rob Bell Does

2006-11-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

In a Chicago Sun Times article entitled "The Next Billy Graham?" Rob Bell said of his critics:

"When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it's their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that's being threatened. Generally lurking below some of the more venomous, vitriolic criticism is somebody who's created a facade that's not working."

"But I love everybody and you're next!" Rob says, giggling. "That's how I respond to criticism."

The Church; a Complex, Chaotic System

2006-11-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

There’s a relatively new branch of science called complexity theory defined as “the emerging science at the edge of order and chaos.” It’s a look at the way order sometimes arises from seemingly chaotic systems.

If we look at the church as a complex system, perhaps we would lessen, what seems to be a natural tendency to simply see her as a social service agency, a church-growth machine, or a Sunday event with a few main players. By understanding the complexity of the body of Christ we stay closer to the church’s real DNA—which is highly complex.

Church programming assumes that the church is a linear cause-and-effect system. This is why church leaders readily adopt the latest program or craft their all important Sunday event after another faith community’s success. This common practice has bought into the faulty assumption that the church is like a machine and is pretty much the same everywhere, with interchangeable parts. Plug in the right program, sing all the relevant songs and off it goes!

But the truth is there are too many factors to give us any confidence in a method or a program developed in a context unique to another. The church’s DNA is just too complex and inimitable for that to be true.

Like trying to program a teenager, we get into trouble when we try to program a church, or the love between two people, or the life of a family. Human relationships are way too dynamic.

Travel Day

2006-10-29T21:36:00.000-05:00

My wife (Paula) and I drove to Louisville, Kentucky early this morning to spend the day with my daughter. We met her at her home church, Southeast Christian Church, a mega church (17,000) serving the Louisville area. Dave Stone is the senior minister, a descendant of the early Stone family, notable restorationists of the 1800s.

Outreach Magazine recently published their list of the 100 fastest growing churches in America. You can see the full list [...here]

The Young Years

2006-10-28T18:31:00.000-04:00

I don't have a post because I'm consumed with a project. More on that later. But I do have a picture share from 30 years ago.

Out of courtesy I've decided not to place my face right smack dab in the middle of this post and force/subject the unwilling individual or the person who might accidentally navigate this blog to be spooked. But if you’re bold & curious—there's a picture share waiting [...link]

In Conversation

2006-10-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

Sorry there’s not been a post for almost a week. In conversation with Ron Martoia, Jim Henderson, Sally Morgenthaler and Dan Kimball. More later…

What Is Most Important

2006-10-22T07:11:00.000-04:00

Daryl Dash has posted something profound— “What Haddon Robinson Taught One Person at Seminary [...link]

Relevant Church?

2006-10-22T06:54:00.000-04:00

The precipitous decline of the American church is well-documented. Simply stated, (many)church(es) continues to provide something that no one is looking for.

First on the "what-no-one-is-looking-for-menu" is the "you must believe what we believe"; a tribal flavor of distinctive beliefs of which cognitive compliance is expected—from the macro to the miniscule. This complicates matters for the inquirer who, at an early juncture, is only looking for a sense of connection within the community. To expect "believe before belong" is a turn-off and often a turn-away.

No Agendas, Just Real Friendship

2006-10-18T21:38:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't it be great if the overwhelming impression among the people Jesus misses was that Christ's followers were the kindest people on earth? Whether lack of faith or opposed to our faith they would like being with us. Because they know without a doubt that we genuinely like them. No agendas, just real friendship.

So I pledge…

• never again to walk pass or over the people Jesus misses

• I will not wait for them to finish talking just so I can talk

• I will not pass them by when they're not interested in what I might have to offer

• I will not lose patience; age and godly wisdom has taught me that I'm not the last line in possibilities God has for the people he misses

• I will never attempt to correct the things I hear them say that are shortsighted or plain wrong

• I will not attempt to make sure they understand what I'm saying is right

Beware! Apostates on the Loose

2006-10-17T12:14:00.000-04:00

Brian McLaren Interview

2006-10-15T09:44:00.000-04:00

from Precipice Magazine

Precipice Magazine: Some have suggested that if the Church goes smaller (in numbers per grouping) and more organic in structure and expression that this might threaten the existence of the paid pastor in future decades. As a pastor yourself, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this?

Brian McLaren: This is a huge question that I plan to address a bit in the emergent/c piece I mentioned earlier. Let me say that I'm for vibrant faith communities in all forms - from micro churches and house churches and quantum and liquid churches, or whatever you want to call them - to the new monasticism work - to renewal and reinvention in the historic denominations, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and so on. I'm for cafe churches and megachurches and everything in between, including virtual churches. I think the worst thing we can do is get into an either-or argument. We need both-and.

So I think people who are pronouncing the death of the local congregation with a paid staff are overreacting. God knows, being a pastor is hard - it's the hardest job I've ever done by far - and it deserves a person's best effort, and responsible preparation, and it deserves a congregation's faithful financial support. But ... here's where the both/and comes in - I also believe that we need spontaneous neighborhood faith communities that will not be able to afford a paid pastor, nor will they need one. The problem will be to find ways to do this that don't destroy the unpaid pastor or her family. I was a bi-vocational church planter/pastor for many years, and I know that the cost on marriages and family life is often very high.

This is where the both/and comes in. What if well-funded megachurches decided to see some home-based faith communities as partners in ministry, so they could overlap and share resources and not see one another as enemies or even alternatives, but as two expressions of the same thing? That takes us in the direction I think we need to go, and will be good for the whole range of faith communities.

Read the complete interview with Brian […link]

What Are We Creating

2006-10-14T20:05:00.000-04:00

We "teach" (which most would probably call "preach") every week for 30-40 minutes. But I am wondering more about what we produce whether house, small, or large church and how we do things and why we do what we do, when there isn't any biblical basis for most of what we do (in method and style and format). How we define "church" for people by what we do and how it can get in the way of the church being the church. I am very interested in seeing what the "fruit" of our churches is - ingrown and critical, outward and shallow, felt-needs and consumer. Are we creating worshiping, loving, missional Christians who are the church or do we create people who "go to church" and they may not even know any difference.

Read the complete post [...link]

Media, Participation, Connectivity

2006-10-14T19:17:00.000-04:00

Our culture is a culture of participation, which is different from teams, quality circles, and the idea of getting everyone involved in everything. Participation is either the content itself or a catalyst that changes the content. The real content of a cell phone is not the information but the interaction. This is the value of media—its true content is interaction.

Moving in more participatory directions will entail substantial changes and new skills for Christian leaders. Worship planners and leaders must descend (metaphorically, at least) from the high stage of the broadcast-observer mode reinforced by television. Leaders must rediscover ways for the “assembled” to participate in the experience of worship--and not just through singing. Chant, responsive readings, ceremonies, neo-traditions, and connecting the innovative multimedia and visual arts people; all elements that deserve fresh attention in designing participatory communities.

Musings on Pacifism

2006-10-10T02:45:00.000-04:00

Will Sampson has some interesting insights from a lecture by Chuck Gutenson on Pacifism.

1. No matter how much we spend on American national defense, the best we can hope for is “illusion of security.”

2. We cannot kill enough of “them” to ever reasonably defend “us”, and it is antithetical to the gospel to even think in such (i.e. us vs. them) categories.

3. The Iraq War was a bad investment and showed poor stewardship.

4. The Iraq War evidenced a lack of “due diligence in critiquing the case for war.”

5. We are all sinners; therefore, pacifists do not underestimate the enemy, rather, they properly estimate the sinfulness of human actors when suggesting that we are incapable of wielding faithfully the power to take a life.

6. Nationalism is a new form of idolatry and an “alternate soteriology.” (Yoder) We should, therefore, be highly suspicious of nationalist claims that cause us to act in ways not rooted in the model of Christ.

Read the complete post here

Not Learning From History

2006-10-08T21:07:00.000-04:00

George Washington was Commander in Chief of the Colonial Army a ragtag group of poorly trained, barely paid, badly equipped soldiers outnumbered by a far better operational British army.

Yet the Colonists were victorious in the Revolutionary War because the British were categorical imperialists. The British knew the rules of war and refused to compromise those rules even when attacked by soldiers who could not have cared less about their combat categories and canons.

1) It was unethical to attack at night (could this not be compromised?)
2) It was unethical to attack from many fronts at once (could this not be compromised?)
3) It was unethical to hide and fight rather than wear red and stand up like a man (could this not be compromised?)

Ethicality has changed over the past two centuries. But O my—is this not deja Vu in Iraq today.

Limiting the Human Imagination

2006-10-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

From a seemingly unending pool of young people, mostly teenagers, Palestinians recruit their suicide bombers. Unlike the West, which sees the young as their country's future, terrorist consider their youth expendable in pursuit of Jihad and/or the destruction of everything Jewish and Western. Over 50% of their population is under the age of 25 and deprived of education, sex life, smoking; everything is considered harmful. All of them are made to believe that being a martyr is the biggest thing to happen, and they're given fantastic funerals. It is like the ultimate high for a person in that kind of environment."

To die of disease, age, accident or even in combat is a condition of the human destiny. But to choose the moment of your own death and take other lives because you believe an idea is bigger than yourself: What ideology could justify that? At least in battle you hope to survive.

To me, consciousness is the all-encompassing idea; without it, there are no ideas, and to destroy it is to destroy all ideas. A movement that encourages suicide so that it can benefit from the annihilation of a human being is monstrously selfish: Let bin Laden or al-Zawahiri blow them selves up—if they feel someone must.

It strikes me as sad that the human imagination could be so limited that it sees its own extinction as a victory.

Secular Student Alliances

2006-10-05T13:56:00.000-04:00

I subscribe to the Secular Student Alliances Newsletter. Their writings are concise and enlightening; a window into their world. Most important—it forces me out of my Christian backyard.

Secular Student Alliance
Mobilizing Students for a New Enlightenment
…is an educational nonprofit organization whose purpose is to educate high school and college students around the country about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations.

Statement on the Secular Student Alliance’s Evangelism and Discipleship Efforts

To any minimally astute observer of the freethought movement, it is apparent that our lack of numbers inhibits our ability to educate the public about atheism, free inquiry, critical thinking and scientific reasoning. The key to resolving this problem is building a strong youth and student movement. It's not enough though to involve students and then lose track of them when they graduate. The SSA is committed to finding solutions to this problem by developing programs to maintain involvement, communication and community. Pursuant to this effort, we wish to develop tight ties with local and national groups to assist us in this effort.

Here’s an example of what one of their writers identifies as a Religious Attitude. And you know what? He's right. Shame on us!

Religious Attitude (part 1)
A few days came and went and, seeing as I was still befuddled, I decided I would stop by the Christian group's weekly meeting. Since the food court was right by their meeting place, I decided to stop in after some Blimpie's. Hot pastrami, ham, and mozzarella in hand, I made my way into the meeting a few minutes early to talk to the guy and girl who seemed to be running the group.

I inquired, “Your group told me they were going to send a few representatives to a religion seminar we are holding, but it's come to my attention that you aren't planning on sending any. Is this true?”

“Yes,” they replied. “And it might be best if you just left too, please.”

”But why?” I asked.

Nothing.

“Can I stay for the Bible Study?”

A cold stare emanated from both of their eyes.

I left, bewildered that I was denied access to one of the highest-recruiting religious sects in the world, not to mention the largest one that is said to accept people with open arms. So much for that mantra.

I approached my friend about my rejection into the Bible Study and he said he wasn't aware that it had happened. I assured him that it had. While our conversation ended there, he hinted time and again, although he was perfectly fine with it, that perhaps my atheist status cast our symposium in a mocking light and that the group did not wish to associate with someone who demeaned their religion. I wrote a letter of apology to the group offering my sincerest regrets if I had somehow offended them and their religion by initiating this symposium with my religious status worn so obviously on my sleeve. I never received a response, and to this day I still do not know for sure why this group was so at odds with me.

Perhaps it was the sandwich….
Read the whole article...

Remember? -- WWJD

2006-10-04T16:57:00.000-04:00

Being earthed in today's culture is about being connected and not separated, inclusive and not exclusive, being aware and not ignorant to cultural issues. Forget church programs. Give less time and energy to the Sunday morning bible class and begin leaking the life of Christ, speaking culture's language, and giving more time and energy to the people Jesus treasures. Listen to them. Discover how God is working in their life. Forget loving them, start enjoying them.

If Jesus were with us today he would cross streets we've not be willing to cross. Gay bars and AIDS clinics would be high on his visitation list. Centrifugal ministries move outside the comfort zone of safe church and radically encounter the people Jesus misses the most.

Cultural Dialogue

2006-10-02T21:59:00.000-04:00

We are discovering that faith based messages embedded in the arts, which we thought had no perceivable Christian connection, can become a powerful tool in the hands of artistic believers. It can widen the scope of faith for those who can't see God outside the confines of a subculture, while creating dialogue with those who have no faith at all, or at least who think they don't. God created everything; the spiritual and the sacred, ecology and stewardship, art and creation; everything is interconnected as an expression of him.

The 20th century was a unique period in human history. It was the only century in which the arts and faith were separated and antagonistic. Before the 20th century, the arts were an important part of the spiritual. It wasn't the exception but the rule. Christ's people drove the culture instead of looking for ways to be culturally relevant. Michelangelo’s David, da Vinci's Last Supper, Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, and Raphael's Epiphany, all cultural icons with deep ecclesiastical roots.

Cultural dialogue is something Christians should have been doing all along in society, but were prohibited in the last century because of a flawed worldview that segregated Christian inspiration from the mainstream. Captivating culture again and giving it meaning through the eyes of faith rest solely on the shoulders of the Christ-follower. But a flawed doctrine called dualism left ‘cultural dialogue’ an unexplored arena for over two generations.

The sacred/secular schism, called dualism, theologically elevated the sacred at the expense of the secular. But to consider the secular a threat to faith is to give enormous ground to the enemy before a battle has even begun. We have claimed so little in this world. We've been like children playing in a wooden sandbox on the edge of a beautiful white sandy beach that stretches as far as the eye can see (and we brought our own sand).

When people come to see art, they encounter God. Whether it's watching a dramatic performance, listening to a new rendition of Amazing Grace accompanied by an acoustic guitar, enjoying a solo, or a sculpture or painting, something happens when people's creative juices are primed by the arts—their hearts open to their Creator.

Church Evangelism and Normal Evangelism

2006-10-01T15:11:00.000-04:00

As we grow older we easily become set in our ways. Some of us become complacent (maybe a better word would be ‘comfortable’) with the things we are most familiar with. And why not? We understand. We know what to expect. We know the in(s) and out(s) and the ‘how(s). But this should never be the case when it comes to evangelism (I use the word ‘evangelism’ because Christendom is familiar with it).

I don’t know the percentages but I don’t think it would be unreasonable to believe those over 40, with a long Christian background, still think out of the old containers of ‘church evangelism.’

The difference between church evangelism and normal evangelism is:

• Church evangelism is formalized and structured and has an uncanny addiction to centripetal ministries, which attempts to drag seekers into its gig. Leaders encourage the community to invite their “non-Christian friends” into their environment. They offer baby sitting services or encourage their members to invite their friends to Friend’s Day. Yet when I read the bible I conclude that Jesus was centrifugal, not centripetal. Portable spirituality is the ministry of Jesus.

• The tradition of primarily using church facilities (in Jesus case the synagogue) for activities to bring people closer to the presence of God is not an idea Jesus had or taught. Jesus said, “Go.” The problem with church buildings is that they are owned and managed by the church, sometimes to good effect but always subordinate to some other purpose. God’s people would come closer to fulfilling the missional requirements of “go” if they could define the common ground in such a way that it is not directly under the control of the organized church.

• Our churchy background has muddy our understanding of the “GO” mandate. For the first twenty years of my Christian life “go” meant being a good example to a few acquaintances—I called friends—Monday through Friday and, at best, a few ‘hello(s), how are you’ with an invitation to ‘come’ and visit me in my environment.

• But normal evangelism builds on the middle ground between the church and the world, between being either wholeheartedly Christian or ashamedly secular, between expressing and repressing our faith. This is perhaps the fundamental missional challenge we face, namely, how do we allow this intermediate state of spiritual being to emerge, protected from both the world and the church?

• Church evangelism taught that because the Christian value system is so different from the worlds we should be carefully with whom we ‘hang-out’ with and where we go. A fundamental error—we confused the expression of a life style with its purpose.

Religion

2006-09-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

God is constantly exposed to the danger of being confused with religion; or someone's ego; or someone's politics; even somebody's gender. Religion is mostly our doing, not God's.

The story of Moses and Aaron is religion's story about itself. Religion (structurally speaking) occupied the place of Aaron and the golden calf—man-made idols. And like the day of Moses, idols subtly occupy a place in our culture. Buildings and institutions, theologies and hierarchies are today's stock in the idolatry trade.

We must keep our theological hammer handy for these idols—in the name of God. The idea is not to level these structures to the ground, because we need them, the way we need other structures made with human hands, but to keep them open-ended, revisable, honest, on their toes, always threatened and at risk.

If, as the Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida once said, religion is like a raft sailing on an endless sea, then we must keep watch that we do not allow our preoccupation with the business of the raft to displace God's business.

Meister Eckhart said, "Pray God to rid us of god"; a prayer to the ocean of God, to rid us of the gods of the raft.

Church- Primary and Church-Secondary

2006-09-26T22:31:00.000-04:00

• Church-primary has become ten to twelve Christians sitting around a table at a restaurant every Sunday afternoon and Friday night
• Church-secondary has become, at maximum, gathering with a Christian assembly 1-2 hours a week
• I rarely give to the local church. I now give to emergent missional churches and missional-priority people who indigenously incarnate culture. Most churches overlook or cannot afford to give to missional-priority people because of the financial limitations created by staff salaries and budgetary priorities. But the greatest barrier to a clear Kingdom vision may be a misunderstanding of what a priority- missional community looks like.
• Granted, most Christian churches have a missional aspect. But when one examines a missional-priority church more closely, one discovers a significant difference between a church that does mission and a missional- priority church. That difference begins at the theological foundation and ultimately finds expression in practices inherent to the broader Kingdom vision .
• Missional-priority means more time with the missing than Christian friends
• Missional-priority means stepping across the borders of the church campus to engage the “missing” on their territory.
• Crossing borders to create safe places for the missing stands as a corrective to the prevailing mentality of the church and its uncanny addiction to centripetal ministries, which attempts to drag seekers into its gig.

Strange Enough

2006-09-25T20:47:00.000-04:00

O the changes over the past decade! I’ve lost all my old preacher friends. Not sure that their feelings toward me have changed, it’s just that our journeys have taken us in such different directions.

I think of Jeff Garrett (pulpit minister for the Norway Avenue Church) because I’m around his ministry. I’ve known Jeff for over a decade. The most important thing I can say about our relationship is that even though our paths are taking us in different directions we share one thing that is the bedrock of a spiritual friendship; a core belief in Jesus and common belief that He will keeps us together even in all our diversity.

All my friends from my former church life; I no longer have contact with. They still receive my Abductive Column articles via email but few respond. In the last six months I can think of two. One sent me pictures of his family and a warm note that brought back good memories of the times we spent together in the Ukraine. My other friend took me to task on my comments on truth.

I’ve not heard anything to confirm my feeling but it wouldn’t surprise me if I found out they all felt I’ve gone off the deep end. Does it bother me? Honestly, it does. Like everyone, I want leave a good impression and sweet aroma with the people I’ve known.

Do I miss doing ministry with these godly men? Yes. But I can’t go back to old forms that I find ineffective and secondary to what is most important. Not that I’m right and their wrong or that I have been given wisdom from above and they haven’t—it's just that my journey has taken a path that has left insular programs and church activities in its wake.

These changes have given me some insight into what I should have known all along. The people most interested in me are the ones I spend the most time with. Church or no church, people are people. Church people are no better than the unchurched. We all have the same needs and wants. To be honest, I have found the unchurched to be just as loving, caring, and maybe less judgmental, more tolerate and as capable of expressing grace as the believer.

These are the ones Jesus misses.
These are the ones Jesus spent most of His time with. These are the ones we need to spend time with.

I’ve come to genuinely care about my friends. I have a lot of them. More than I have Christian friends. But I have to admit...

it can get lonely!

Worship is More Than an Event

2006-09-24T17:40:00.000-04:00

I think it’s significant that Sally Morgenthaler, who has a written a number of books on worship (Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church, Worship Evangelism, etc. […link]) has come to the conclusion that worship is not an event that will connect the believer with the missing.

This is what Sally said in her Goodbye (titled an End and a Beginning) on the now defunct Sacramentis website.

We have come to realize that it is time to move on. Sacramentis still believes strongly that corporate worship is central to the life and vitality of the Church. But we have become convinced that the primary meeting place with our unchurched friends is now outside the church building. Worship must finally become, as Paul reminds us, more life than event. Romans 12:1,2)

Sally has a new website under construction called True Conversations.

In her opening paragraph Sally says, "...she will set her sights on leadership." My continual prayer is that leaders will understand the corporate responsibility they have in creating a culture of believers who go to engage and befriend the missing.

The conversation continues to gather.

In 2002 I interviewed Sally. You can read the whole interview here […link]

Perspective: Yesterday and Today

2006-09-24T06:41:00.000-04:00

In my twenty-five years as a Christ-follower I’ve been a shepherd, a deacon and a pulpit minister. The biggest difference I find in church then and now is there doesn’t seem to be a grassroots movement pushing leadership for change. In the 70s (when I was in my late 20s/early 30s) there was a group of us constantly pushing church leadership.

*When the leadership built a stone wall against a hillside on the church parking lot we called it the Wailing Wall.

*We pushed to reallocate monies toward the needy.

*As ridiculous as it may seem today, the only Authorized Version that could be read from the pulpit was the King James Version. Of course, we challenged them and before these men died they gave in to our screams and allowed the NIV to become the 'second' Authorized Version.

*I preached a sermon titled “Pioneers and Settlers,” (imagine that motif). The Monday evening 'after,' the elders all crowded into a car on the church parking lot to get a second hearing. They spent 30 minutes listening to the tape and then asked to speak to me. (imagine what they said)

I preached “Pioneers and Settlers” in 1992 and the sermon was published by Mon Valley Ministries as one of the twenty best sermons of that year. The tape circulated the area and when someone from upper Ohio discovered it I was invited to speak at the Kent State University Lectureships in 1993. Words hated by the leadership at my home congregation but honored by others. What did Jesus say about home town?

Grassroots are essential to change and growth. It appears missing in church life today.

No longer do I busy myself with church. I assembly once a week in a church building. My fellowship is two to three meals a week with other Christ-followers. I spend my time exploring the spiritual with those outside traditional faith boundaries. For the first time I have more 'non-Christian' friends than Christian.

My last book, “A Mobile Church for EPIC Times” never sold as well as my first book, “Tradition, Opinion and Truth.” The best explanation I have is the latter sold well because it exposed many of the sacred cows my tribe lived and breathed by in the last century. The former is a better book though. Len Sweet wrote the Foreword and there is a series of interviews with current leaders in the emergent conversation as well as a series of emails between Andrew Perriman and myself in a disscusion on future church.

I found Keith Lancaster’s blog.

Upper Room Futility

2006-09-21T21:08:00.000-04:00

How many faith communities have just enough religion to come together, but not enough passion to go out? If the doors aren’t locked, they might as well be. Upper room futility. A little bit of faith but very little fire.

“Sure, we care. We’re doing our part. We send out 15-25 people once a year to help build homes.” “World hunger? Why, that’s high on our priority list. In fact, we have plans to plan a planning session. Yes, that’s what we are planning to do.”

Good people. Good intentions. Meetings. Words. Promises. But while all this is going on the story stays a secret. We know we should do something, but we’re just not sure what. We know our community exist for something—but we’re not sure why.

Upper room futility. Confused ambassadors willing to invite others into their environment but unwilling to walk out the door with a passionate purpose to enter into theirs. What will it take to unlock them? What will it take to ignite the fire? What will it take to restore the first century passion? What will have to happen before the padlocks of futility tumble from the doors and are trampled under the feet of departing disciples?

Can I make a suggestion? Go into your upper room and wait until he comes. And when he appears, don’t leave. Run your fingers over his feet. Place your hand in his pierced side and look into his eyes; those same eyes that melted the gates of hell and sent the demons scurrying and Satan running. Look at them as they look at you. You’ll never be the same.

A man is never the same after he simultaneously sees his utter despair and Christ’s unbending grace. To see the despair without the grace is suicidal. To see the grace without the despair is upper room futility.

Truth: Neither Relative nor Objective

2006-09-20T19:47:00.000-04:00

Through the centuries God has spoken through people, in a variety of ways, and in many different times, all for the purpose of preparing us today to hear the voice of His Son. This, I believe, is the chief end of all that God speaks—that we would know the One who has spoken.

It isn’t enough for us to know or even believe all that is true. It is essential that we know the One who is true. In this sense the nature of truth is critical.

-Modern philosophy proposes that all truth is subjective. This position embraces relativism and makes the individual the center of reality.
-Modern Christianity would advocate that truth is objective, standing outside the individual and empirically or rationally provable.
-The Scriptures give us a different position. Truth is neither relative nor objective. The biblical view is that truth is personal, relational, and subjective.

The critical difference is that we are not the subject. God is.

Italy

2006-09-17T20:47:00.000-04:00

To view a slide show of all 27 pictures
Click Here

Kiss the Soil

2006-09-16T07:51:00.000-04:00

From Rome to Huntington, West Virginia: destination complete. Now I’m attempting to catch up on my hundreds of emails (Italy is WiFi illiterate, so I resorted to jumping into a Internet Café when I arrived in Rome on the last leg of my journey), on the hundreds of pieces of snail mail, and all the things that didn’t get done while gone for 2 weeks (which my son promised he would do but didn’t find time to do?)

I spent the drive back from Atlanta on XM Radio catching up on the news. I found George Ws’ News Conference to be an interesting expression and contrast between what he knows about this world and what we don’t. I didn’t hear him say that Congress should create an exception for the CIA from the rules of the Geneva Convention. But what I did hear him say was that Congress needs to define specifically what is permissible

Listen, I don’t know what could be called the right direction in the war on terror. I have friends who are self-described pacifist and I’ve listened to them. I know Brian McLaren’s viewpoint and I familiar with the just war theory. I guess you could say I’m totally confused … primarily because I’m not privy to the daily info the President receives in his briefings on the state of the current world. But I do know this. Whoever leads this country must protect it from the evils and danger that lurk within and close to our shores. Otherwise we’re toast.

Italy was great, the history, the art, but especially the food. More later.

Preparing for Italy

2006-08-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

A wedding in Atlanta on September 1, 2006 and then on September 3, 2006, my wife (Paula) and I rendezvous with four other couples to fly to Italy for 12 days. Our home base will be a rented Villa in Tuscany. And then three days before our return home we’ll visit the many sites of Rome.

After we arrive in Rome we’ll rent a car and drive to a villa we've rented in Arezzo, Tuscany (this is where the movie Life is Beautiful was filmed).
Tuscany will be our outpost as we drive to various points throughout the country to see the history of the Byzantine Empire, the Renaissance, and the arts of both periods. At the end of our trip we will drive back to Rome where we will spend three days visiting a number of sites including the Roman Forum and the Coliseum (built shortly after AD70).

Naturally, I’m excited about exploring the biblical history in this part of the world. Among many traditions, one says many churches in Italy have built their edifices above the gravesites of a number of the apostles. I’m very excited about visiting the Mamertine Prison where tradition says both Paul and Peter were in chains. We’ll also visit the Catacombs and walk through the interlocking passageways where thousand of martyrs were buried underground.

If you would like to see our villa you can click [here]

After clicking on the above link look to the right under Property Information. There you can click on a photo gallery to view numerous pictures of the villa and surrounding grounds.

Since Italy is WiFi deprived, both the Abductive Columns blog and the Abductive Columns newsletter via email (there’s a sign-up link on the right side bar) will be silent during this time.

Varying Worldviews

2006-08-30T08:57:00.000-04:00

With Christianity in the midst of its largest migration in a century (out of the church) the question on most radar screens is how does the body of Christ connect with a post-Christian culture?

WARNING! If we live out of old containers we constrain what God might be doing in preparation for the future.

In a recent conversation with a co-worker I explained that sin had separated us from God and Jesus came to bridge the gap. He quickly replied, “Why do I need to believe in Jesus for eternal life? I don’t think there is a gap between me and God.”

His comment was a slap in the face.

Immediately I realized that we were operating out of different assumptions. The Bible was my authority and foundation of truth but his truth came through personal, tribal, and village experiences. A web of interconnections rooted in experience; the more interconnections the more coherent the belief system. It was a two-way dialogue in which experience shaped belief and belief shaped experience.

In one sense I wasn’t trying to convert him to Christ but to my modern worldview. It was at that moment I realized I was bound by an outdated evangelistic model.
So as we grapple with new paradigms in this new era it’s important we:
· be real
· be deep
· be curious about the new thing God might be doing
· listen and ask great questions
· be a life long learner
· don’t get trapped in people pleasing, work for the audience of One
· and last, be aware of the two main events of this decade: spiritual formation and spiritual cartography

Missional Culture Building

2006-08-28T10:56:00.000-04:00

The following question came over a discussions of Peter Walker's Church Survey

What would be your expectations on paying an unbeliever to do a church survey?

To ask what "are the expectations" is the wrong question. Personally, I have no expectations? This is about building a culture of missional believers. It's possible some might consider consistently informing the faith community about these paid visitors and their comments after their “church” experience as an expectation. But this is culture building. If that’s an expectation it would be my only expectation. And I won’t apologize for that because it is an important one.

I have to admit I'm not very excited because most church leadership suffers from a “missional instinct deficit” and that makes culture building very difficult in the traditional church setting. Yet at the same time, if the pulpit man has missional instincts he could make a big, big difference.

Leadership can’t be talked into or coerced to live passionately for a process that, although time intensive, is worthy of their 'intentionally-dedicated-attention.' Creating a missional culture demands a tremendous amount of energy, time, and resources focused in the direction of those outside our campuses (from my perspective churches gives most of their time and resources to crafting the Sunday morning 'worship'). Nothing wrong with that, but for missional culture building to mature the same importance must be given to missional instincts. Otherwise it's impossible to develop. The man who has the pulpit—he's the one who must believe enough to intentionally influence the assembly in order to create culture. It may take 12 months, maybe 24 months to arrive at the place where the congregation begins believing, expressing interest and then finally involvement!

A church survey, like the one Peter Walker and Jim Henderson have on the Off-the-Map web site, plays a very, very small role in the building of culture. But it is part of it. Yet without the commitment on the part of leadership it's impossible for the community to see the importance of becoming missional.

If you don't talk about it…
how can it be important?

If there's no missional fruit…
how will anyone believe leadership thinks it's important.

The last step in building a missional culture is teaching the ordinariness of missional. Jim Henderson does this well with his Ordinary Attempts.

The Modern Day Preacher

2006-08-27T15:27:00.000-04:00

I commiserate with the modern day preacher who straddles the edge of one age and watches the unfolding of another. It’s a time of tremendous cultural shaking.

In many churches this Sunday “preachers” will stand before an assembly and preach on a topic they gave their week, their blood and their sweat for. It’s what they were trained to do and in most cases it’s what they like to do. But sad for them—preaching isn’t what it used to be. All those homiletic techniques they slogged through while in school and practice Sunday after Sunday is slowly losing traction.

In the last five years we’ve seen the demise of the three point lecture. Who would have thought this time-tested gem would go the way of the cute acronym? Then there’s the bulleted list. People just don’t seem to like them anymore. Maybe it’s just other people’s list they object to. Now they want to make their own.

As if paid staffing issues aren’t enough, the “rules of cool” seemed to have morphed overnight. Just when you threw your overhead projector in the trash bin. Just when you shelled out what seemed like an obscene amount of money for that miniscule-lumens LCD projector the savvy pew sitter grew tired of bulleted outlines and PowerPoint notes. It’s not what they want—but they sure seem to like pictures. Just don’t expect to put up a nice blue sky, flowery stuff you can order in packages every six weeks. No, they want pictures of nature at its mysterious best. And anything mundane, missed, forgotten, even ugly. They also want to see all kinds of people. They want to hear stories they can relate to from the people they know and don’t know.

Normal. Messed up.
Extraordinary folks.

So hand over the microphone; the assembly wants a fresh retelling of the Grand Story in the context of real lives.

Yes, I commiserate with the modern day preacher. If it weren’t so downright refreshing, it’d be worth a cry.

There is a Perception

2006-08-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

When Christians protest with their articles and the release of their new book all written to debunk Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code, suspicions begin surfacing among those Jesus misses.

Why are Christians so upset?

The missing look at our fears and it appears, to them, that the very foundations of our faith are being rattled to the core. And all over a book found in the fiction section in bookstore America.

So what many Christians have perceived as attacks on Christianity is really more the nature of an expose on what has passed for Christianity over the last seventeen hundred years.

People the world over admire Jesus and venerate his teachings. The problem is not with Jesus and never has been. It’s what Ghandi stated almost 60 years ago. “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Until we get it, there is going to be a lot more ill will generated than ever could be created by a work of fiction.

The Sermon on the Harley

2006-08-26T05:52:00.000-04:00

My friend Jeff Garrett’s pulpit last Sunday was a Harley-Davidson. Check him out. [...link]

Questions Rarely Asked

2006-08-24T10:38:00.000-04:00

1) Why does the body of Christ follow rather than lead in social reform—and then dishonestly claim leadership in reforms after the fact?

2) I have always wondered why the nature and practice of baptism and the Lord's Supper is left ambiguous in Scripture, yet stubbornly “cacophonous churches” are ever reluctant to practice open fellowship.

3) Why do we continue to ignore, make ineffective, and even usurp, the scriptural teaching of the priesthood of all believers—when we know better?

4) Why do so many Christ-followers pilgrimage through life without ever considering the veracity of unbelief; never giving it a fair hearing or allowing it to challenge their faith?

5) Why does the church speak of absolute values without every pointing to the scriptural examples of situation ethics?

6) Why do some faith communities object to wine drinking in moderation when Scripture indicates that wine is a gift from God (Psalm 104:14-15)? For decades the modern church has objected even with the knowledge and example of Jesus turning water into wine? Is this anything more than a holdover from prohibition?

Community Salvation

2006-08-23T16:38:00.000-04:00

When anyone Jesus is seeking becomes involved in a faith community it creates a sense of belonging. Such sociality does not operate in exclusion of personal faith. Rather, personal faith is incomplete without socialization because faith always has an implicit dimension. (Theological distinction has been made between personal faith and implicit faith. Personal faith is the explicit trust that I as an individual agent places in an object, such as God and the promises of his Word. Implicit faith signifies the trust one places in others who have a clearer grasp on the trustworthiness of an object.)

When I think of faith in this way it forces me to revisit the perplexing questions about the salvation of those with developmental disabilities. These questions arise in part because developmentally disabled people lie outside the reach of modern methods of evangelism.

The level of development most often puts them in the awkward boundary where mainstream is hoped for, but always slightly out of reach. I know an autistic young man who has excellent math skills, but his ability to grasp concepts is limited. His capacity to read interpersonal cues that for the rest of us trigger empathy, pity and so on is limited.

If an understanding of the propositions of the gospel is necessary for salvation, on what grounds can the developmentally challenged be saved? The traditional approach is to assert that anyone with autism and other developmental disabilities, as well as those who are stillborn or aborted or die in infancy, are an exception to the general rule that salvation requires individual assent to the propositions to the gospel.

A visitor from Florida chases after me under the mistaken impression that we are crossing a snow-covered field but boldness quickly turns to panic when we pass a fisherman pulling a fish from a hole in the ice. My friend’s understanding of the situation is badly mistaken, but I am a trustworthy guide, and my friend is safe.

If faith is always to some degree implicit, then the majority who take a pew seat on Sunday rely upon those who explicitly exercise faith. On the other hand, those who have a developmental disability have a faith different from ours in degree rather than kind. Salvations power extends from the community that explicitly exercises faith to those who are unable to cognize (as well or at all) but are properly understood as insiders of the faith community.

Do We Need to Retool Our "Salvation" Metaphors

2006-08-22T21:42:00.000-04:00

I am currently thinking through the implications of our usage of metaphors for the ignition point of life with God. So many of our metaphors make it sound as if "salvation" is something we possess. But is it possible that phrases like "asking Jesus into my heart,” or "Jesus lives inside of me," or “being baptized into Jesus” are misleading when it comes to the nature of one’s salvation life?

What if salvation is fundamentally relational—not possessional as so many of our metaphors imply? Think about the implications...

Fem-Phobia

2006-08-21T20:24:00.000-04:00

After 54 years of teaching in the First Baptist Church in Watertown, New York fundie pastor Timothy LaBouf decided it was high-time to change the church's understanding of 1 Timothy 2:8-12 and then dismiss the church's Sunday school patriarch, Mary Lambert. Pastor LaBouf said the church had adopted a position that prohibits women from teaching men.

I find it no less than amazing that this faith community allowed Mary Lambert to teach mixed classes for five decades and now with a new revelation on 1 Timothy 2:12 she is dismissed. Ten to one this new interpretation (at least new to Watertown, New York First Baptist Church) came with the hiring of LaBouf as the new pastor.

I’ve come to a different conclusion than LaBouf and here’s why:

In my humble opinion 1Timothy 2:8-12 does not enjoin a tight-lipped ban against woman speaking in church assemblies. The word translated “quietness” (v.11) or “silent” is from a Greek word referring less to a woman’s speech than her spirit of inner peace and her ability to live in peace and harmony with others. The same Greek word is used in 1Timothy 2:2 of the “peaceful and quiet lives.”

This text is apparently the general rule for male and female relationships in Christ and a broad outline of how the two sexes relate to each other in the ekklesia. There is no contextual indication that it applies only with some degree of qualification or to assemblies of a unique type.

Security or Privacy?

2006-08-21T17:15:00.000-04:00

For the life of me I don’t understand the Priv-o-crats who want their privacy, not realizing the further away we move from 9/11 the more likely there will be another attack on our homeland.

If we’re innocent what would cause one to scream about rights of privacy?

What do these Priv-o-crates have to hide?

Personally, I’ll allow the government to look into any and all my records/communication. Surveillance, wiretapping...whatever is necessary to avert another 9/11.

I have nothing to hide.

I’m not sure what it is but there’s something amiss in a society that doesn’t trust their government. This is the primary difference between the UK and the US. The citizens of the UK are not cozy to Tony Blair but they trust their government.

Musings on Ethics

2006-08-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

Can breaking biblical rules ever be the best course of action?
Is lying always a breach of Christian duty?
What do you do when obedience might lead to undesirable consequences?

At one time I was a proponent of the divine command theory that stated life presents no conditions under which it is permissible to lie, mislead or disregard scriptural injunctions, Yet I can't help but believe that moral and even biblical laws possess an hierarchy that require certain rules be elevated and other subordinated or discarded.

Yes Proverbs 12:22 states that "the Lord detest lying lips," yet God rewards the Hebrew midwives for breaking the law and then lying about it—in order to save the lives of baby boys (Exodus 1:15-20). And then God himself tells Moses to lie to Pharaoh about the Hebrew's purpose for going into the desert (Exodus 3:18). Clearly we need a strategy for understanding the heartbeat behind the rules—a means of discerning the wisest application of Bible rules.

Balanced Emergent? or One of Those Waaaay Over on the Other Side

2006-08-19T17:27:00.000-04:00

Spend ten to fifteen minutes in the blogoshere reading some of the post of those party to the emergents and you'll find numerous reviews of Spencer Burk’s new book “Heretics Guide to Eternity.” They run the total gamut; from a “thought-provoking book” to a book written as a “parable on universalism today."

But Rick Presley's sees this book like no one else; a fulmination. And with that, he exposes what he sees as a subtle shift taking place among the emergents.

I emailed Rick and chucked at his “Abbie Hoffman comment: Burn, Baby Burn” and he wrote the following:

I really wish Spencer Burke had written a more thoughtful book when he penned his Heretic's Guide to Eternity. I think the book had a lot of potential and really wish Spencer had given a little more attention to dialogue instead of diatribe. If his intended audience is the timid Evangelical looking for something better than the rigid legalism or dead orthodoxy of their current congregation, he did little to attract them to the emergent conversation. I can tell you that not many "recovering fundamentalists" will find his approach welcoming or sympathetic. As a former practitioner of the Church of Christ, you probably know many of these people who really don't like where they're "at" but they are scared by the incendiary anarchists who are too far to the other side.

I think there is a broad middle out there of people like Stephen Shields who really like the emerging church/conversation but want to distance themselves from the Emergent ChrisiAnarchists. If you go on lists like PoMoXian and Emerging Theology (what used to be Postmodern Theology, John O'Keefe's group) on Yahoo groups, you find a lot of rancor, disillusionment, bitterness and people who are "cultural Christians" but want nothing to do with evangelicals or evangelicalism. A number of these people even describe themselves as "Christian atheists" without the slightest hint of irony.
Meanwhile, conservative Christians who want to tap into the benefits of contemporary culture like Rob Bell of Mars Hill are being edged out of the conversation by the hardcore Emergents. Sad to see but it looks like the emerging conversation has split into very different streams. Anytime a group of "inclusive" Christians start talking about who is and is not a "real" one of what they claim is not a movement, it's time to say like Elijah, "I am no better than my fathers."

GalliBlog

2006-08-19T16:53:00.000-04:00

...without terrorists, life is a tenuous proposition. I tend to fool myself daily into thinking that my current state of security is, well, secure. It is not. Cancer could be eating away at me as I write. My daughter could get killed in an auto accident today. My wife could eat spoiled food and die of poisoning. And on it goes–I’ll let your grissly imagination ponder the possibilities.

All the terrorists have done is remind me of the fragility of life, that it is indeed a gift, and that it can, in God’s loving providence, be snatched from me in an instant. All they have done is remind me that my real security and citizenship lies elsewhere, and that I must be prepared today, this hour, to meet the just and merciful Lord of that far country.

All they have done is fill me with a healthy fear of the Lord. So, thank you, terrorists.

from Mark Galli — GalliBlog

Dennis Miller on Israel

2006-08-19T09:49:00.000-04:00

For those who don't know, Dennis Miller is a comedian who has a show called Dennis Miller Live on HBO. He is not Jewish. Here are his thoughts on the situation in the Middle East:

A brief overview of the situation is always valuable, so as a service to all Americans who still don't get it, I now offer you the story of the Middle East in just a few paragraphs, which is all you really need. Here we go:

The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years.

Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention Before the Israelis won the land in the 1967 war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians." As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians," weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation." So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian" anymore to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths, until someone points out they're being taped.

Instead, let's call them what they are:

"Other Arabs Who Can't Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death."

I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN. How about this, then:

"Adjacent Jew-Haters."

Okay, so the Adjacent Jew-Haters want their own country. Oops, just one more thing. No, they don't. They could've had their own country any time in the last thirty years, especially two years ago at Camp David but if you have your own country, you have to have traffic lights and garbage trucks and Chambers of Commerce, and, worse, you actually have to figure out some way to make a living. That's no fun. No, they want what all the other Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel.

They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course—that's where the real fun is—but mostly they want Israel. Why? For one thing, trying to destroy Israel—or "The Zionist Entity" as their textbooks call it—for the last fifty years has allowed the rulers of Arab countries to divert the attention of their own people away from the fact that they're the blue-ribbon most illiterate, poorest, and tribally backward on God's Earth, and if you've ever been around God's Earth . . . you know that's really saying something. It makes me roll my eyes every time one of our pundits waxes poetic about the great history and culture of the Muslim Middle East. Unless I'm missing something, the Arabs haven't given anything to the world since Algebra, and, by the way, thanks a hell of a lot for that one.

Chew this around & spit it out: 500 million Arabs; 5 million Jews. Think of all the Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that, if Israel gives them half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals. Really? Wow, what neat news. Hey, but what about the string of wars to obliterate the tiny country and the constant din of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea? Oh, that? We were just kidding.

My friend Kevin Rooney made a gorgeous point the other day: Just reverse the Numbers. Imagine 500 million Jews and 5 million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it. Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite to themselves?

Of course not.

Or marshaling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab State into the sea?

Nonsense.

Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents?

Impossible.

Or spreading and believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their bread with the blood of children?

Disgusting.

No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace, the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death. Mr. Bush, God bless him, is walking a tightrope. I understand that, with vital operations in Iraq and others, it's in our interest, as Americans, to try to stabilize our Arab allies as much as possible, and, after all, that can't be much harder than stabilizing a roomful of super models who've just had their drugs taken away. However, in any big-picture strategy, there's always a danger of losing moral weight. We've already lost some. After September 11th, our president told us and the world he was going to root out all terrorists and the countries that supported them. Beautiful.

Then the Israelis, after months and months of having the equivalent of
an Oklahoma City every week (and then every day), start to do the same
thing we did, and we tell them to show restraint. If America were being attacked with an Oklahoma City every day, we would all very shortly be screaming for the administration to just be done with it and kill everything south of the Mediterranean and east of the Jordan.

Discrimination: How Should We Respond?

2006-08-17T21:47:00.000-04:00

I'm praying that a young man will come to know the love of God, to see his need for Jesus, and begin the process of turning from sin. I don’t believe any of us fully recognize the degree of sin in our lives.

No matter what a person's sin, we don't start by trying to fix the sin. We begin with the gospel. And whether I'm homosexual or heterosexual one thing is for certain. We're all in need of a Savior and Jesus is looking for recognition of that.

Yet there is still antagonism toward ‘churches’ today because they are seen as oppressive, homophobic institutions. I love God's people but I'm also brave enough to stand tall and admit that at times the church has been homophobic, unjust, and downright mean.

Do we extend grace to the people who have tasted the pain of divorce? Do we show grace to people who are divorced and remarried, an area Jesus specifically called sin? If so, then how do we not show grace to people in a sexual relationship that Jesus never mentions?

If we're going to stamp out the lingering antagonism and have any legitimacy to speak out on the issue of marriage, it will have to come out of the reality of our lives, not simply our doctrine.

Is the church brave enough to step out of the box and champion the call for justice on behalf of gay and lesbian people? As long as we stand up and say, "Landlords have the right to discriminate against you with housing," it's difficult to say convincingly, "But we love you in the name of Jesus."

To show the love of God we must stand up for the civil rights of those whose orientation is homosexual on the basis of discrimination. When we stand with them they'll see us as their friend. It's not compromise, neither is it a statement that says we have bought into homosexual eroticism. We simply recognize that discrimination is wrong and stand with them on the matter.

When we minister to this growing population of God's creation, in that setting, and on their turf, we're going to be surrounded by people not living the biblical ideal. I don't affirm that, but neither do I condemn them.

The Church's Public Discipleship:Prayer

2006-08-17T11:01:00.000-04:00

When Paul trained his younger helper Timothy he instructed him to wed the public and private spheres via prayer.

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Presumably Paul meant Caesar and all other rulers. Relevancy requires we mention, in our prayers, the leaders of today (those in authority). None excluded; men like President Bush, Putin, bin-Laden, Emile Lahoud, Ehud Olmert, etc. We are to pray for all those in authority, whether they acknowledge that they serve under God’s sovereignty or not.

Does the church obey God’s desire here?

Personally, I believe the body of Christ should see prayer as a crucial way of entering into the work of God’s kingdom and a way of wedding the public and private spheres. When we prayer without basis, to all in positions of authority, we constantly bridge the public-private gap that often undercuts the church’s public discipleship.

Whether the church realizes it or not, it has a rich heritage of concern for the great moral, social, and political issues of the day. Abolition of slavery, widespread availability of health care, child labor laws, and many other reforms were the fruit of Christian public discipleship.

There is plenty to pray about in the public arena. On the world platform there is the ever-growing concern for the increasing anger in the Middle East. I must admit I don’t know the right directional course. But we should all agree that’s it’s our responsibility to pray for God to act in the affairs of nations and people to move in the direction of justice, mercy, and the truth of God’s rein.

August Issue NextWave Magazine

2006-08-15T21:38:00.000-04:00

Charlie Wear has just published the August issue of Next-Wave Church and Culture e-zine. I have a couple of articles in this issue. And there's a review of Spencer Burke's new book "An Heretic's Guide to Eternity."

August 22: the Second Coming of the 12th Imam

2006-08-15T16:49:00.000-04:00

On August 22, Iran will give its response to the UN and the world regarding the proposal for Iran to end its nuclear program. Interestingly, August 22 (Rajab 27, 1427) is the day Muslims celebrate Mohammed’s ascension into Heaven called the Miraj (the second coming of the 12th Imam).

According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was carried on a miraculous horse with a human head, from Mecca to Jerusalem, where he ascended into heaven and met the other prophets.

And now, according to Ghadry, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to illuminate the night sky over Jerusalem to rival the one that greeted the Prophet of Islam on his journey. (A great light shone upon Mohammed’s body in the Aqsa Mosque and a prophet was received while his followers cheered.) Ghadry believes the remaking of that divine light will happen on August 22 and will be Iran's answer to the package of incentives offered by the international community on June 6.

What would light up the sky over Jerusalem with regard to Iranian involvement?

A couple interesting sidelight to this post:

It has been reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in North Korea July 4th when Kim Jong tested seven missiles.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly announced a surprise is on the way for Israel.

Adapted from In the Bullpen. For more indepth analysis visit In the Bullpen

Evidence of My Descent into Relativism: Not So Fast!

2006-08-14T20:31:00.000-04:00

Our subjective experiences color the way we read Scripture—more than we could ever imagine. And unlike us it doesn’t scare or surprise God. This is part of the beauty and mystery of Scripture. The stories of the Bible are remarkably adaptable in speaking to us in divergent contexts. The Bible is not a collection of objective propositions. But largely a story told through hundreds of different perspectives and diverse social settings.

Without a level of subjectivity, Scripture remains a set of abstract and distant propositions. The typographical bias toward objectivity is valuable, but it has a tendency to erode both our humanity and our humility.

The Folly of Fighting Terrorism

2006-08-13T18:36:00.000-04:00

Will Sampson has some intriguing thoughts on The Folly of Fighting Terrorism

The notion that persecution and bad treatment creates stronger adherents is not a new concept. Tertullian is famously quoted as saying that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." So, if torture and martyrdom caused the early Church to phenomenally expand, what do we think it will do to al-Qaeda? Do they believe any less in their vision of the world than those early Christians? Or, to contemporize the example, are terrorist cell members any less dedicated to their worldview than Chinese Christians, a group that seems to grow in direct proportion to its poor treatment? Inflicting terror on those from whom we hope to gather information with which to combat terrorism is a fool's errand and it is helping to shape the next generation of extremists.

journey through willzhead

Official Resurrection

2006-08-13T16:52:00.000-04:00

I'm dissapointed with what appears to be layers of structure and organization being added to Emergent Village.

In the not too distant past Emergent Village gave its time to church plants, writing books, speaking, and hosting conferences. Today they appear to be giving more time to fundraising. I hope I'm wrong when I say Emergent's fundraising may alter its developmental direction.

Negotiating

2006-03-29T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in negotiations for developing a new web site whose domain would be EmergentMaps.org. The sites would be designed with the intent of raising the bar. It's time to move this conversation to the next level.

Stay tuned.

Sabbatical Here

2006-01-26T21:50:00.000-05:00

This blog needs a rest

New Theology and Old School Practicum (3)

2006-01-19T19:28:00.000-05:00

The Evolving Practicum of the Future

A Reconstruct

Connectedness, the first avenue of a practicum upgrade
It's essential that we reinvent the concept of connection and connectedness. God is the ultimate connection, but before culture will ever connect with God we must connect with them.

If our home base is going to remain in a church building let's remodel our sanctuaries and restore our ministries with user friendly meeting places that are digital, inviting and luring.

Reinvent the feeding of the five thousand, the second avenue of a practicum upgrade
Discover the twenty-first century fish and loaves equivalent.
Credit Card Debit Revival: Take the fifth Sunday contribution and give someone $400-$500 toward payment on their credit card. Mind map, brain storm and come up with new and innovative ideas for the broader community. After all they are the ones Jesus misses the most.

Storytelling, the third avenue of a practicum upgradeThe language of Scripture is story. You can tell a story and never use words.

Participatory, the fourth avenue of a practicum upgrade
Every person in the body of Christ is a minister; not a consumer, not a spectator, but a participatory activist. Lots of work to do here, but it can be done.

Think Missional, the fifth avenue of a practicum upgrade
Blow up the traditional mid-week Bible class and create space and time for apprentice training and formation in practicing the way of the Kingdom via creative alternatives. One possibility for meaningful training is to expose the Christian community to other points of view through interviews and discussion. Find a homosexual/lesbian and pay him/her $50 to participate in an interview. A trained facilitator asks questions and the gathering listens for feelings and thoughts on their perspective on the Christian faith. Invite someone with an alternative view every week. Listen to learn. Move the new Wednesday format to a location other than a church building.

If we are going to build bridges across the chasm that separates the Christian community from the broader culture it will require us to blow up most, if not all of our traditions.

New Theology and Old School Practicum (2)

2006-01-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Progressive School Practicum
________________________________________

In these chaotic times it’s not surprising to find countless leaders clinging to what they are most familiar with; a static modernistic (old school) practicum. Curiously I have watched leaders combined their static modernistic practicum with a dynamic progressive theology. Read on...

• The old school practicum built the church around the bible class
Originally the bible class was used to educate the illiterate. Later churches began to use the bible class as an evangelistic tool. The Bible class was responsible for church growth through the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Times have changed.

• The old school practicum believes churches are built around the pulpit
The educated and sophisticated audiences of today are so accustomed to digital information and instant entertainment that the typical modern era three point sermon does little to make a lasting impression.

• The old school practicum believes churches are built around a pastor system
You can read all the church history you want but amazingly you will not find one debate or controversy over the right of this system to exist. Yet, give the churches of Christ credit. The early restorers denied the pastor system from a theological standpoint but fell to its temptations when they adopted it on an emergency basis to prop up the weak churches after the Civil War.

A century later leaders and church staffs continue to live by a system enabled by the demands and expectations of church members.

• The old school practicum is church building-centric
Replacing the catacombs and forest glens with building, pews and pulpits may have been the biggest blunder the Christian church made. In the early church everyone was a minister, no one a spectator. Spirits were lifted, problems were solved, hurts were healed, and hearts were fed.

more to come (time to reconstruct)...

Progressive Theology and Old School Practicum

2006-01-16T16:34:00.000-05:00

As culture transitions from a former era to a new era, remnants of the old era trail alongside as new ministry practices are spawned along the transformational journey.
Unusual? Actually normal fare for cultural transitions.

• In the first century the Jews carried circumcision into a new era.
• In this century snail mail and email co- exist while electronic files and paper files live side by side in the offices of America.

Living in a portal between two epochs is about constant, discontinuous flux and the birth of strange cohabitations; one offspring of this transitional journey is the bedding of progressive theology and old school practicum.

One day, in the not too distant future, we will step out of the portal and into the fullness of time and the two will never again co-exist.

More to come...

Missional Church

2006-01-09T19:25:00.000-05:00

(1) A missional church is externally focused.
(2) A missional church is culturally engaged but not absorbed.
(3) A missional church is incarnationally not institutionally driven.
(4) A missional church is about discipleship not church membership.

Read Larry Chouinard's excellent post on what a Missional Church looks like.[...link]

The Wednesday Night Service

2006-01-08T18:09:00.000-05:00

Is it being overly optimistic to believe leaders of local churches can resurrect a Wednesday night service to the same level of the 70s, 80s, and 90s? Or was the 7 PM Wednesday night service simply something out of another era?

Here are my thoughts on that.

The biggest difference between the 70s, 80s, 90s and today is then we were able to move people (via guilt). Today we have to learn what moves people.

The first example I think of is 9/11. What a moment we missed!

9/11 moved people to return to church. They came looking for something of substance and found ‘church (ritual, tradition, etc.)’

You Might be Emergent if...

2006-01-01T17:37:00.000-05:00

You Might Be Emergent if you score a 7 or higher
If you score somewhere between 4 and 7, at best you’re a pre-emergent
Any score below 4 assures that you drink an anti-emergent herbicide

1)You have tipped hair (+1)
2)You have gray hair (0)
3)You have televangelist hair (-1)

1)Your congregation meets in homes (+1)
2)Your congregation meets in a converted strip mall (0)
3)Your congregation meets in a structure built in the 1960s (-1)

1)You worship with candles and homemade songs (+1)
2)You worship with a projector and worship band (0)
3)You worship with a hymnal and song leader (-1)

1)You’re an image-smith that uses Media Shout (+1)
2)Your sermon is expositor and aided by a PowerPoint Presentation (0)
3)Your lesson is build around three points and a prayer with zilch visual aids (-1)

1)Your hero is Brian McLaren (+1)
2)Your hero is Bill Hybels (0)
3)Your hero is John MacArthur (-1)

1)Your church is missional (+1)
2)Your church is “seeker friendly” (0)
3)Your church is “mainstream” (-1)

1)Your church emphasizes relationships (+1)
2)Your church emphasizes attendance (0)
3)Your church emphasizes precise and exclusive doctrine (-1)

1)You like mystery (+1)
2)You like systematic theology (0)
3)You like black and white categories (-1)

1)You preach wearing sandals (+1)
2)You preach wearing tennis shoes (0)
3)You preach wearing wing-tips (-1)

1)You consider yourself emergent (+1)
2)You’ve heard of emergent (0)
3)What in the hell is emergent (-1)

If you understand what's going on with the photos you might be emergent.

Technorati tag: emergent

Conversations

2006-01-01T09:28:00.000-05:00

Good discussion @ Starbucks yesterday. Questions revolved around how to utilize the digital technology, understanding that it will be a small beginning but prayer is it will be an effective beginning.

Another conversation will revolve around a Wednesday brainstorm—

The print era's traditional bible class and closing prayer has long exceeded its usefulness. —are we being overly optimistic in hoping to revive a Wednesday evening 'church-thing' to the same level it once held for God's people? I wonder if it was simply something out of, and for another era.

The Gift of Giving

2005-12-26T20:41:00.000-05:00

My friend Bob Dozier just fronted my email client enough money for a six month subscription. This allows me to mail out the Abductibve Columns Newsletter.

Are you a subscriber? It's not the same material you read on this blog. Sort of a companion to it.

Scroll down, look in the column on the right. Why not sign up...it's free.

Thanks Bob!

New Job Descriptions for the Emerging Church

2005-12-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

This isn’t an easy time to lead a congregation. I have utmost sympathy for those who are having trouble making the transition to ministry in the emerging culture.

Once something sinks into the skull, it’s hard to get it out and embrace a contrary idea. New modes of worship come easier for some then others. This suggested list of “worship positions” in the emerging church is no doubt old hat to those of you who’ve been moving in this direction. But for some, it will be a stretch to transition current ministries and embrace these possibilities:

Ushers—an usher used to escort people to their seats, where they were enjoined to sit down, be still, and keep silent. But a true usher has the sacred role of ushering people into the presence of God. An usher is the name of every member of the worship design team. The “head usher” is who used to be called the worship leader, who’s now less a moderator of order or a human metronome keeping everybody together than a participant artist.
Curators—a new position which is already manifesting itself in what the English call alt.worship (alternate worship) circles. A curator is a servant of people who curates (not leads) worship by functioning as an “installer of art and creator of an environment that is conducive to experiencing God.”
Concierges—experts in the art of hospitality, replacing what use to be called the church host or hostess. George Hunter’s right when he says that the presence of church visitors is the “most misperceived signal in local churches today, and the church’s most neglected opportunity. But concierges need to be employed for members as well, resolving problems, handling complaints, and managing “moments of truth.”
Servers—people who put the service in the “worship service.” Instead of bringing people to the pews, servers bring coffee, artwork, and other instruments to the people seated at tables or other conducive seating arrangements that fit the worship experience. Servers build a service culture at every point of contact, and mentor others in service training.
Sommelier—more than a fancy name for “wine steward,” this is a person whose ministry is to know each member of the community intimately, and find creative and original ways to personalize the community’s ministries.

Forget “ministers,” “unpaid servants” or “volunteers.” Faith communities need a vocabulary of respect and nuance that names people’s ministries. adapted from an article by Leonard Sweet

The Honesty of Lament

2005-12-20T20:17:00.000-05:00

We discussed the book of Joel this past Sunday; particularly suffering and repentance. I like how Eugene Peterson translates Joel 1:13

...you priests,

put on your robes and join the outcry.

You who lead people in worship,

lead them in lament.

I'm not sure we are as familiar with lament as God's people were in the first century.

Are we comfortable with tears (especially men)? If lament and mourning among God's people had been practiced as publicly as it was in Joel's day we would have established a tradition to replace the sackcloth tradition. We may not verbalize it but we see suffering as a blasphemous assault on a precariously maintained American spirituality of the pursuit of happiness. Western spirituality wants to avoid evidence that things are not right with the world as it--without Jesus, without love, without faith, without sacrifice. It is much easier to keep the American faith by not looking into the face of suffering; if we don't have to listen to our laments, if we don't have to deal with our tears.

Consider Jesus.

At every major turning point of his ministry, Jesus pours out his heart in lament--when he enters Jerusalem for the last time, when he experiences his final meal with the disciples, when he struggles with the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, and most importantly when he endures the suffering of the cross.

Jesus understood the honesty represented in the life that knows how to lament.

Good Leadership is Team Building

2005-12-18T14:24:00.000-05:00

I was in a restaurant this past Saturday with a former church member who confided in me about an event and the resulting pain caused in his family by specific leaders (he says he and his wife would like to come back but are afraid their return will cause family problems). It’s unfortunate that the same (leaders ?) names keep coming up.

But we’re sinners and quite frankly good leadership requires time, energy and amazing self-sacrifice for the good of community.

Good leadership demands more than community visibility and hand shaking

Good leadership develops a shared vision and lives with a commitment to community

Good leadership knows how to blend a diverse group into a team that works well together

Good leadership instills a "winning" attitude throughout the body

Good leadership recognizes and quickly reverses team-building problems such as jealousy, cynicism, and defensive behavior

Often leaders know more about alienation than casting a vision and leading a community.

Spiritual Formation

2005-12-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

We live in a fast changing new world in which spiritual disciplines look very different. Harmoniously, human formation is being built around iPODs, streaming MPEG videos and CD-ROMs. With fewer practicing the spiritual disciplines at specific times or in particular settings the boundaries between the sacred and secular have morphed into a single continuum. They have become more holistic; of heart, mind, and body. Though the Bible is still at the center (not necessarily through print media) and the goal remains to bring people in closer relationship with Jesus the options are as varied as the species that inhabit the earth. Here are a few:

Holistic—Spiritual disciplines not only train the mind. They will integrate ones relationship with God, self, and intimate others. Spirituality and healthy living is interrelated. Physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual well-being is the goal of discipline.

Lifestyle Based—Spiritual disciplines are oriented around life experiences as opposed to a curriculum. They not only adjust lifestyle but shape one’s lifestyle. Demographics, race, gender, martial status, age, attitude, and music customize individual disciplines.

Culture Customization—Spiritual disciplines never seek to fortify the will to resist the temptation of culture. Conversely, they shape an intuition that perceives God in, and through, culture. Ethnic orientation and cross-cultural ideas, practices and behavior make spiritual formation contextual and indigenous. Culture has become a vehicle, not a barrier, to the infinite.

Symbol, Metaphor, and Mantra—Spiritual disciplines are not the practice of a principle but seek to live out a metaphor. Spiritual disciplines are not about defending a theological perspective but about elaborating variations on a theme. Spiritual formation resembles jazz improvisation, not a Gregorian chant. Images and objects remove abstractions and dogmatic propositions as the focus of our mediations.

Jesus Was a Troublemaker

2005-12-13T20:40:00.000-05:00

1) Born of a virgin (what a way to start)

2) Ran away at age twelve

3) Turned a illegal market place on its head

4) Subverted religious leadership

5) Last will be first and the first will be last (wonder how that went over?)

6) He told people that he came with a sword not peace

7) He said it was a sin to think and look too deeply on a pretty woman

Identity

2005-12-10T12:12:00.000-05:00

One in five of us has already been hit by “identity theft,” a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of information such as Social Security and driver's license numbers and uses such data for their own personal gain. To 21st century house thieves, the TV and DVD player are less valuable than personal information from bank statements and other documents. Strategies for stealing your identity range from low tech (lost post, shoulder surfing, dumpster diving) to high tech (phishing, pharming, keylogging, social engineering). But no matter what method is employed, “identity theft” is one of the worst nightmares of your life, resulting in financial loss, bad credit rating, and untold hours of phone calls undoing the damage done to your records and reputation.

Our spiritual identity is stolen by the same means. Does scripture not teach that the evil one comes like a thief in the night . . . to steal, pillage and plunder our identity as sons and daughters of God? In fact, a key indicator of identity theft in postmodern culture is the prevalence of the psychiatric diagnosis of “borderline personality,” which covers a multitude of symptoms that have one thing in common: people are in desperate straits trying to compose a coherent and compelling narrative for “who am I?” There are so many choices, so many options, that one’s identity gets scattered and fragmented. The borderline personality, and its surging cousin, multiple personality disorder (MPD), are psychological signposts of postmodern culture. My story isn’t working for me anymore, so let’s try another one. But I don’t want to totally let go of the one that isn’t working, so I’ll simply add on other one.

The whole of “celebrity culture” can be seen as a narrative vehicle for people who are looking for a rewrite, for potted narratives, or a copy editor (internal or external) to give them a bigger and better storyline. From the standpoint of the celebrity, however, it’s a Faustian deal, not with the devil but with vampires. For the price of becoming a “celebrity” is the loss of self. Your very “self” is sucked out of you to become a public possession. The notion of a “self” disappears since everything about you—-your authenticity, your integrity, your selfhood----becomes a transaction with the public.

Jesus in the copy editor of human life.

from the book “The Three Hardest Words in the World to Get Right" by Leonard Sweet; release date: March 2006

Sign of the Times

2005-12-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

It was disappointing to learn that the Center for Christian Education (formerly Preston School of Preaching) closed its doors in July after a long ministry of preacher training going back to the early 1960s. They join another school, Whites Ferry Road School of Preaching which closed a few years ago. from Lifeline a publication of Sunset International Bible Institute

The demise of the preaching school will be painful for many. Deans, teachers, prospective students and supporters will scrape and beg to keep the doors open but in the end the preaching school (as we’ve known it) will give way to a new era. Transitions are always painful. Yet, God’s work will continue via a relevant venue. Most likely what we have called ‘preaching’ will be reinvented. Nevertheless the change will leave many paid preachers treading in the wake of a new era as fewer and fewer churches support those who stand front and center discoursing before a passive audience.

Ron Martoia writes... "We are closing 9,000 churches a year in this country, and only 2 percent of this nation's churches are growing; others are growing only by the migration from the churches that are closing." Martoia is one of many warning about the bleak future of the church unless things change soon.

Ironically, while church attendance continues to drop, there is a rising interest among the U. S. population in matters of spirituality. Martoia continues...

"There is tremendous cultural interest in spirituality, but the church has been unable to tap into it. This is the first time in recorded history this type of growth has been outside the church... We have to learn to do church differently. We're arguing about the color of carpet or if we can have drums or pipe organs (in my tribe instrumental accompainment or not), but people aren't coming anyway. When you get married to the model, that's a problem."

To better be an agent for this change nationally, Martoia recently resigned from his home church (Westwinds Church in Jackson MI). He hopes, among other things to be instrumental in a group that would like to start a new type of seminary.

"We are not out to shut seminaries down, but obviously they aren't working, with 90 percent of our churches having flat or declining attendance... The pipeline (of pastors) needs to be altered, because we are graduating eggheads. I'm a seminary graduate, and I teach at one, so I can say that. We need to create church leaders who are culture savvy" Martoia says.

Order of Worship

2005-12-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

Frederick the Wise is remembered as the man who saved Martin Luther from the fury of the Catholic Church.

Most likely you have never heard the name Frederick the Wise. Yet this man was most responsible for the Reformation movement. Not Luther, not Calvin, not Zwingli but Frederick the Wise.

Frederick the Wise commanded the largest army in Europe and was angry because he had not been made Pope. A dangerous combination. In Saxony (one of sixteen states in Germany) where Frederick ruled, there was a beer drinking Germany monk who taught theology at the University of Wittenberg. While Luther’s writings were reprehensible to the Roman Catholic Church Frederick took a liking to Luther and protected him.

Frederick the Wise said, “Let this man say what he has to say, nobody’s to touch him.” And no one had an army big enough to challenge Frederick the Wise.

The key to the Reformation wasn’t so much a spiritual revival as it was the military might of Frederick the Wise.

The state of Saxony removed Catholicism as the official state religion. To fill this vacuum Luther was given free rein to establish a new state religion.

Luther was left with a nation of empty church buildings. He sent out his followers to take over the buildings and began promulgating his teachings.

Over time Catholic priests began leaving the Catholic Church, they read Luther’s writings, married, and joined the Reformation. Luther produced an ecclesiastical structure, a hymn book, and a Protestant Bible which he translated, published and distributed. These former priests began serving as Protestant ministers to the churches throughout the Saxony region.

Up until this time there was no “pastoral role” known in the Protestant world.

The pastor distinction began in Wittenberg, Germany.

So did the following:

1) High up on one of the pillars of the church was a pulpit which the Catholic priest climbed up to by means of a circular staircase to read the weekly announcements to the assembly. Luther took that idea and ripped out the altar replacing it with a pulpit front and center in its place. The birth of the pulpit.

2) Luther preached every Sunday morning at the same time Catholic mass had been scheduled. Because Luther enjoyed staying up late to go to the tavern, talk and drink beer getting up early on Sunday was difficult. So worship began at the saner hour of 9:00 AM. But the older he got, the longer he talked and the more he drank. This forced him to move the morning gathering to 11:00 AM. The birth of the Sunday morning 11:00 AM worship.

March of the Penguin

2005-12-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

March of the Penguin is a metaphor for life. The penguins display a dogged determination as they waddle seventy miles through some of the harshest difficulties life can present. Their parental dedication rises above the severest of weather and the predators who seek food for their own life.

Rent or buy this move.

To Just Be

2005-12-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

I just returned from a two-week vacation in Florida. It was time I needed away from the office and the daily routine. It was time I needed with my wife and family.

For a few years now I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. Before I left West Virginia for Florida I was drained. I think I’m going to take a break from this blog. Maybe for a few weeks, maybe for a few months, I haven't decided. Part of my plan is to not plan so much, to not worry about the future, to just enjoy the present and experience it. I'm calling it my blog sabbatical. I may post to this site a lot, but I may not post at all. I'm going to read and go running with my dog and take pictures and spend more time with my wife. And sleep. And just be.

Criticism

2005-12-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, I believed the strength and endurance God had blessed me with would overcome, even protect me, from the pain of criticism. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to admit how much this stuff hurts. I wish I could become a “non-anxious presence,” but criticism has been very unsettling for me of late. When criticized, I am subject to a variety of emotions.

I’m a lightning rod for the highly charged readers who find grievance with my post-Christian theology. (I concluded long ago that my style invites confrontation and criticism. It’s the nature of my calling.) Yet the question on my radar screen is, “…how do I protect myself from the gigawatts of negative energy without become a causality of ecclesiastical electrocution?”

Back Home

2005-11-30T06:56:00.000-05:00

I spent lot's of time in conversation with my father, brother and two sisters-in-law all in one local--Daytona Beach, Florida. No, this vacation wasn't heaven but it was close.

I had time to browse a few blogs. Here's rwo or three I feel are worth your inspection.

I read a good piece Andrew Jones (Tall Skinny Kiwi) wrote on Emerging Church 2.0

Emerging Church 2.0 might be those emerging churches that are shaped by new media values rather than old media. They write blog posts rather than articles, PDFs rather than books, start churches without buildings, and lack a vertically hierarchical leadership structure. Hierarchy is modular and dynamic, rather than vertical and static. I am not talking about cyberchurches that migrate to the web. I am talking about alternative faith communities that emerge online and then seek physical meetings, new aggregations of believers that connect with each other and the world through the complex networks that make up their World 2.0
Jesus 2.0? No . . . SILLY . . . He's the same yesterday, today and forever
Gospel 2.0? No . . . same timeless message but the message has always been delivered and distributed in a particular context. And I am talking about . . . . yes . . . Context 2.0
Church 2.0? You bet. [...read more the complete post].

And then two post I felt were above the average fare
------------------
Larry Chouinard posted Seek the Peace of the City

In a recent sociological study printed in the Journal of Religion and Society (www.creighton.edu/jrs), Gregory Paul surveyed 17 of the most developed democracies in the world to determine the role that religion played in the societal health and wellbeing of each nation. He gathered data over the past ten years and interviewed over 23,000, and his conclusions are startling. By far the United States, the most religious country in the developed world as measured by church attendance, prayer, and belief in a Creator, was overwhelmingly the most socially dysfunctional. […read the complete post]

Patrick Mead’s Little Tyrants, Little Kings is ala Patrick, thoughtful insight couched in Mead's unparalleled charm, whit, and humor.

How many kings are involved in your life? Here is what I mean: the bank has a call on my life. It is a king over my life because I cannot just decide not to pay the mortgage. I HAVE to go to work and I HAVE to pay that bill. There are other kings: my wife has some authority over my movements and decisions as do my aged parents and my children. My life is not my own; there are kings involved.
[…read the complete post]

"Take-a-Clue" Mod Church Manifesto: Six More Thoughts

2005-11-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

1) The Internet is facilitating organic conversations along a spiritual scale that was simply not possible in the print/broadcast era.

2) By way of a growing digital network, the gathering conversation allows people to speak openly, honestly and in a powerful new way.

3) As a result, participants are getting smarter, more informed, and more organized. Participation in the network changes people fundamentally.

4) Christ-followers who are networked and communicate daily in the gathering conversation have discovered that they get better and far more relevant information than traditional church leaders know, much less provide.

5) There are no secrets. Networked participants in the gathering conversation know far more about cultural engagement and the future of the conventional church than the conventional church knows of itself. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.

6) What's happening to the people Jesus’ misses the most is also happening to people engaged in the organic church conversation. A metaphysical construct called "The Conventional Church" is the only thing standing between the two.

Vacation--Almost Over

2005-11-28T06:24:00.000-05:00

My wife and I have had a great time with family. Plenty of food and good conversation. Our last two days in Daytona are for us, alone in a hotel. Tomorrow we drive to Orlando and fly back to Columbus, Ohio. We remembered our winter clothes.

Will the Church Claim its Moment in History? (1)

2005-11-25T21:48:00.000-05:00

Churches don't understand the digital era if they think they can throw up a Web site, add a few cheesy congregational pictures and then comfortably sit back thinking they've done their web thing. Actually they've routed around it, wasting time and resources. Paying someone to throw up a web site with a church header and a calendar with a picnic date and a few outdated church functions is little more than advertisement born of the print era. Flying beneath the radar screen of ninety-percent of the churches in America is a gathering digital conversations taking place in news groups, emails, instant messaging, and blogs. While leaders browse church web sites the digital church grows. It's everywhere.

Here's a suggestion. Stop using the web as an information library and begin thinking of it as a community where conversations gather.

Churches that neglect a strategy for the future will not realize the importance of retooling to root itself in the gathering digital conversation. Unfortunately many churches will find themselves standing in the wake of a rapidly emerging church.

"Take-a-Clue" Mod Church Manifesto

2005-11-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

1) Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.

2) Networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

3) Churches do not speak the same language (or with the same voice) as the emerging church. Conventional churches sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.

4) In just a few more years, the conventional-homogenized church "voice" will seem as archaic (even contrived) as old King James' 16th century version of the Bible.

5) When churches share the concerns of their communities they will become part of the community.

6) But first, they must belong to a community.

7) Churches must ask themselves where their culture ends.

8) If their culture ends before the community they're planted in begins, they have neglected Jesus' commission.

9) There are two conversations going on. While one goes on inside the conventional church--the other gathers beyond.

10) The conventional-traditional church and the emergent church would do well to begin talking and listening to each other.

11) Forward thinking (conventional) churches become 20/20 visionaries when they help the inevitable to happen sooner.

12) What’s emerging is relevant and better. In fact, the current conversation is creating it.

13) We'd like it if you got what's going on here. That'd be real nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we're holding our breath.

14) The boundaries that separate our conversations look a little like the Berlin Wall did twenty + years ago, but they're really just an annoyance. We know they're coming down. We're patient and willing to work from both sides to take them down.

15) To the conventional church, our networked conversations may appear disorganized and confused. But the conversation is gathering; movement will soon follow. We have the tools, more ideas, and no rules to slow us down.

adapted from The Cluetrain Manifesto

Jesus the Emergent Pastor

2005-11-21T20:07:00.000-05:00

Let me raise a hypothetical question. Now, this is just imaginary: would God---Father, Son, and Spirit---cease to exist if every Bible and every form of the Bible (tape, CD, chiselled stone, ancient manuscript, etc.) on the earth vanished? Think about it. Your thoughts and feelings will indicate whether or not you have a relationship with a Book or a Person. Could you maintain a vibrant and growing faith without written words?John Frye

Whoa! Good question.

John Frye, of Jesus, the Radical Pastor, has done a six-part series tilted “Jesus the Emergent Pator.”

Good stuff. Check it out […link]

Beach Blogging

2005-11-20T17:21:00.000-05:00

Drive to Columbus, Ohio tomorrow. Spend the night at the Staybridge Suites on Airport Road. Do they have wireless internet? Of course!

Tuesday morning my wife and I fly Southwest Airlines to Orlando, Florida. We'll rent a car at the airport and drive to Daytona where we’ll spend the next nine days with my father and my wife's two sisters. All live in Daytona.

I’ll be blogging from there. Check out the ten forcast...No hurricanes--only nine days of sun and seventy degrees.

God's Concern

2005-11-19T14:36:00.000-05:00

God’s concern has always been for the poor—-poor in spirit, poor in hope, poor in food, poor in connection, and poor in love. God is not only concerned but present with the poor, for blessed are the poor. When we join the activity of God, we join those who go without. Our prayer is not only for the poor, but we pray as the poor—for we are all lacking in what we need. In this recognition we find the life of God.

from the book by Doug Pagitt and Kathryn Prill; Body Prayer: The Posture of Intimacy with God (watch for my review of this book on New Wineskins and Next Wave Magazine)

The House of Representatives narrowly passed a budget proposal (217-215) that, if enacted, would make severe cuts to our nation's most vital anti-poverty programs like food stamps, Medicaid, and child care. “Woe to you legislators of infamous laws.....” Jim Wallis.
from Greg Taylor's blog

Is God speaking to the His bride? Is He telling his people something about opportunity and responsibility?

Only Jesus Could...

2005-11-17T21:40:00.000-05:00

When I was fifteen my mother and father divorced; later, while in college, they remarried. But during my early years my mother, nobly and solitarily, raised three boys on less than $200 a month.

She began dating. During this time she met a man she seemed to like. Every evening he would come and spend time with her at our home. They never married and even though I was angry and confused I grew to like him.

Now three decades later, I gather in a faith community one-hundred miles from my childhood home with the son of the man who dated my mother. Only Jesus could bring us together.

He is the only One capable of bringing people together—people who never talked, people who never ate together, people who never drank together, people who never touched each other—yet scarred by a painful common experience He gathered and rearranged our lives. Only Jesus! Only He could show us both a way of greater sanity, and a way of greater sanctity.

Listening To Our Prayers

2005-11-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

The next time you assemble with the body of Christ pay close attention to our prayers. What I find is that the majority of our prayers revolve around blessing new babies and healing the sick. Seldom, if ever, do I hear us name the names of the those Jesus misses the most asking God to open doors of opportunity. Pay attention this Sunday.

The Three Hardest Words

2005-11-14T17:25:00.000-05:00

Len Sweet just sent me an unedited copy of his book; “The Three Hardest Words” The book is due for release in March 2006.

Be watching for the review.

The P in EPIC

2005-11-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

1950s through 1970s
All looked to the preacher/pastor. He was the final arbiter on all theological questions.

1970s through 1980s
The preacher/pastor was bumped off the authority stool as education spreads through western society. Individualism grows.

1980s through 1990s

With the spread of wealth, entertainment ushers in a consumer society. The spiritual by-product is a presentation/consumer/seeker movement among churches.

1990s—

A cultural tsunami begins to force and spread change through the institutions of western culture; while, at the same time, sifting the weak and the strong.

Churches are forced to retool

There is a Major shift in mission: from crossing foreign boundaries to the mission field at home - a particularly difficult mission field.

There continues to be a shift in the gatherings of faith communities (the rate of understanding and change seems to be geographically dependent). The Major shift will continue to be from a Presentation to Participatory format.

Douglas Rushkoff in his soon to be released book, Get Back in the Box, says:

…businesses are inviting participation - from Adobe inviting users to create plugins via their "Studio Exchange" website, to John Fleuvog soliciting shoe designs from his customers. Those who are confident in their own core competency have nothing to fear from employees or customers with good ideas.

The market for products enabling the do-it-yourselfer is still growing. Home Depot and Lowe's equip the consumer with professional grade tools, while Vitamin Warehouse and herb shops supply the self-healer. Amateurs are now more responsible for formerly expert-only aspects of their own lives, and they're comfortable with it. The "no user serviceable parts" warning on the back of a radio or TV set is now taken as a challenge.

It's pure renaissance. Like gamers learning to play, then use cheat codes, and then finally program for themselves, people feel they can be trusted with the code. And they are willing to go ahead and do the hard work of learning it if they feel they can improve upon what already exists…

This renaissance ethos of authorship isn't limited to some isolated group of “cultural creatives” in New York, San Francisco, and Cambridge. No, it's a mainstream "red state" American trend, as well, emerging as crafts fairs, a NASCAR culture of car modification, gun kits, backyard farming, and even home schooling. For every Northeasterner musing on how he would have drawn up the plans for New York's street grid to include bike lanes (and then working through the city council to create some) there's a Midwesterner challenging the curriculum of the local school system, and rewriting his own version based on the facts and values he thinks are more important to teach a young person.

Churches that do cultural math early begin the process of change by extrapolation. This shortens the time and decreases the pain-intensity that always accompanies change within a community.

The majority of churches will allow the natural transitional path to be the itinerary for change. But reactive churches increase both the intensity and time a church struggles with transitional pain. This type of pain (acute) can lead to chronic and unforgiving hurt among members, which can mean a loss of members.

Think Participatory