by Dan on August 16, 2010
“Your religion is nothing more than man’s failed attempt to turn faith into a science.” I actually said these words to a theology professor in 2003 shortly before my complete disillusionment with Christianity. I was tired of being fed dead, theological answers to life’s living, breathing problems and experiences. Don’t get me wrong, theology is [...]
I received two comments in the last few days that have reeked of anti-intellectualism, a dangerous heresy that infiltrated fundamentalist Christianity, Pentecostalism, and now many mainstream evangelical churches. I posted a video recently encouraging Christians to think, and a post about how most Christians cannot explain their faith that precipitated a lot of this. This [...]
This is ingenious. A reminder to those looking for a job: Think outside of the box. What if churches bought up interesting search terms like “Christianity sucks” or “Is God real?” On a more practical level, churches should buy up the search term “church (your city).”
I’ve heard a lot about this lately. A church in St. Louis, MO recently canceled services in order to do community projects. Several people whose opinions I respect have mentioned the prospect of doing this lately, and several others whom I also respect have voiced strong opposition to this. Here’s a short video about this [...]
Social media isn’t just a fad, it’s a shift in how we communicate: H/T: Cyberbrethren
I’ve actually attended a church that does this, very interesting. I think it’s good that these guys tie it in to Christ at the end and share the good news about Christ, despite my theological quibbles with the “altar call” methodology. So long as this is truly being done to the glory of God, I [...]
by Dan on February 19, 2010
I was listening to a podcast on Issues Etc. earlier this week and I was struck by a profound thought. The title of the podcast was “The Vocation of Minister.” I’d normally link directly to it but the site appears to be down as I’m writing this, nothing will load. The guest speaker was talking [...]
by Dan on February 8, 2010
I got a bunch of iTunes gifts cards for Christmas, and I have found a couple albums I am currently enjoying, but for the most part, a lot of Christian music sucks. Almost every worship song is playing the same 1-6-5-4 chord progression in the key of E, and most Christian sub-genres look and sound [...]
by Dan on January 19, 2010
In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” But how often we leave Christ out of the picture. Or we introduce a false Christ who simply wants to better society and love people. We forget that He had to [...]
by Dan on September 18, 2009
Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Recently I wrote about institutional vs. organic church planting and addressed how institutions have failed to create [...]
by Dan on August 11, 2009
I saw this quote at Between Two Worlds, who got it from Tony Payne. It speaks volumes to churches that rely on the same marketing tactics and progress reports that are being utilized by corporate culture, rather than biblical measures as defined in this quote: The measure of how ministry is progressing in your church [...]
I went to an excellent Scott Phillips concert Saturday night at a local church. Scott is traveling throughout the country partnered with WorldVision, reminding the Church that She is an organism – not an organization – and showing the world the hope, freedom and love that can only be found in authentic Christ-centered community. To [...]
My wife, mom, brother, friend, cousins and I went to the Indianapolis 500 this year. We saw a couple groups of people who were “evangelizing” on the streets. The first example we saw was a group of people simply handing out gospel tracts by asking, “Did you get one of these?” Subtle, yet it can [...]
Just when you thought 3,000 people being baptized in one day was crazy (Acts 2:41), along came Web 2.0 (and now 3.0). I saw this video over at Emergent Nazarenes: What does this mean? It certainly makes me consider the impact a single blog post or video could have if it “goes viral” (gains massive [...]
When I went through Basic Training in the Army a few years back, there was a solemn cadence we used to sing on long road marches in solitary places. I think a few drill sergeants actually began to choke up as they sang, “Some say freedom is free, but I tend to disagree.” That cadence [...]
While going through the assigned reading for my missions class, I came across some profound thoughts by one of the authors that I wanted to share. The following is an excerpt from Cities and Salt: Counter-Cultures for the Common Good by Tim Keller, which can be found in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement by [...]
This post is the product of a series of conversations with Mike Baker and a recent post by Daniel and Heather Cosby entitled “Demolition of the Heart…”. In Daniel and Heather’s post, they wrote: “Over the last year or two, we have spent considerable energy trying to expose and dismantle the beliefs surrounding this worldly-derived [...]
That’s the message from Seth Godin in his book Tribes. But not in the sense of choosing to err, but rather the colloquial usage, acting like a leader and ‘standing out’ from the rest. I just read a great blog post over at backyardmissionary.com about this. Some notable quotes from his post (which are from [...]
The word ‘missional’ has been tossed around quite a bit in Christian circles lately, but by the looks of it, few have actually grasped its meaning. The only action I’ve seen taken missiologically is a small sign near the exit of a local church saying, “You are now entering the mission field.” This is actually [...]