If you're in Calgary or area you MUST MUST MUST come to the free Dave Fitch lectures that are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday (Feb 16&17). Dave will be discussing the topics from his forthcoming book "The End of Evangelicalsm".
If you're church is feigning interest in anything missional then you need to come and start, engage, or complete your dialogue.
HEre is a link to the Facebook event. Continue reading
Here are part two and three of an interview with Meera, a nurse who worked for Insite, North America's first safe injection site. Harm reduction is a public health policy that differs from popular conservative paradigms. Opponents view harm reduction as enabling, whereas proponents look at it as a legitimate method of offering healthcare to the least among us. Here are Meera's perspectives:
Woke up today and checked the news reader and came across what I initially thought was an assessment of me.
Jason Coker is dissecting a failed missional church plant--his own. I was glued at his assessment in the aptly named: "Missional Postmortem: Intentionally unorthodox decisions that may have contributed to morbidity.
This got me thinking, the response at Pastoralia has been tremendous, but I wonder if I can capture some of the online wisdom to fuel an existing church plant--my own.
So piggybacking off of Jason's honestly (I hope he doesn't mind the hijack) here is my appraisal of Calgary Church one, maybe 2, (or is it 3?) years after 'launch'. Continue reading
Part 2 of a 3 part series on Xmas and our faith.
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
A 3 part podcast series on Christmas and how we can redeem the lost 'season'.
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
This should disturb you.
It's not cute.
This is what worship has become, a feel good emotional roller coaster through key changes and crescendos to elicit a sensory response. Even this baby understands the actions. Continue reading
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101205/CGY_st_john_church/20101205?hub=Calgary
Did you hear? A parish of 70 people in Calgary decided to buck their liberal Anglican roots and opt for the Pope's invite, made to pad dwindling Catholic numbers, and join the Roman Catholic church.
Guess what? NOBODY cares.
Maybe in the 50's, perhaps the 60's, and dare I say the 70's, when people were mostly a part of Christian culture in North America, it mattered what 'kind of Christian' you were.
Not so today. Continue reading
Straight up, can't believe this only arrived to me a year later......
If junky made for radio worship songs sung in evangelical churches today had half the theology as this we'd be OK.
I sometimes wonder if mitigating risk is a form of failure. Trying to make sure you have an error free model BEFORE actually trying a new idea out is a sure fire way to never succeed.
This is the wrong way to go about church planting because no church plant would ever succeed without a form of innovation. You can't take (despite what many book crazed pastors think) an idea from a study guide and use it as your own. You have to contextualize.
But you can't innovate or contextualize if you don't actually PLANT A CHURCH.
No amount of books, conferences, study guides, guest speakers, models, or observations will prepare you for something new unless you actually try it out for yourself. Continue reading
Keep em coming! Dave Fitch and Gary Nelson filmed by the Kinnon's.
Nelson/Fitch - Theological Education in the 21st Century from Bill Kinnon.