We live in a Wiki world. A collaborative, evolving, and highly interactive way of creating and recreating reality. Facts and opinions merge to create a new kind of “flexible” truth. Wikipedia has transformed the way we think about information and the authority of the written word. Knowledge is built over […]
I shared some thoughts from an email exchange with a young pastor on the west coast (Open to Interpretation), and he sent me a short response to post. So here it is, Josh’s response: Hey, I’m Josh, I’m single, I’m twenty-eight, I have an M.Div. from Illif, and I now […]
I think I have simply evolved into an old fart. Quite recently and suddenly I find myself at odds with a significant number of leaders in the church. It is like we are speaking a different language. No, not “like” we are speaking a different language — it’s a different […]
bipolar — characterized by opposite extremes, as two conflicting political philosophies When I began doing congregational consulting in the late 1980s, I made a distinction between two core strategies of healthy churches: growth or mission. A growth strategy pursues more — more people, more programs, more money, more building, more […]
I was speaking to a pastor from Chicago who lamented the appearance of street preachers who claimed the corner outside his church to read scripture aloud, preach, and pray with passersby. I asked if the men (they were all male) were disruptive or aggressive? No. I asked if they accosted […]
I read with some amusement the article in USA Today about “de-baptism” yesterday, and it raised for me the same question such stories always do: “What are atheists so afraid of?” In the past year, disgruntled and former believers have gathered in Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Georgia have gathered before […]
The reaction to the death of Michael Jackson has been fascinating to observe. The real flesh-and-blood person who was Michael Jackson is almost irrelevant. The myth, the image, the character (or caricature), and the concept of MICHAEL JACKSON eclipses any kind of appreciation for the man. Listening to all the […]
This is the reprint of an article that appeared in The Wittenberg Door (September/October 2007), Alive Now! and on the General Board of Discipleship website, and a sequel to yesterday’s, The Church in the Plastic Bubble. Since I wrote the original article, I discovered that this is not an aberration, […]
Man, what a can of worms! In two days I have received over 30 emails “helping” me to understand: the emergent movement the emerging church Emergent Village the emergent church The Emerging Church the emerging movement the Emergent Church the emerging and missional church The Missional Church emerging spirituality And […]
“Are you emerging?” the young pastor asked as he shook my hand. He has been reading my blog, and simply had to know. At first I looked down to see if I had come untucked, then I realized what he was asking (a variation on “are you emergent?”). I never […]
United Methodeviations 