Month: June 2005

"Between the traditional and the new, or between order and adventure, there is no real opposition; and what we call tradition today is a knit work of centuries of adventure." – Jorge Luis Borges quoted at ProdigalKiwi. Interesting quote.  It helps put some things into perspective.  If you are reading this blog you are probably…

From time to time I have been known to blurt out this statement: "I don’t like Christians." Don’t get me wrong.  I am one.  There are, truthfully, many, many Christians that I really like.  I am willing to be patient with most.  I recognize that we are all in process, and I am totally excited…

I met Ken Eastburn a few months ago and was excited to hear his story: he was in the process of converting a traditional church into a house church network. This is, in my estimation, braver and more daring than starting from scratch.  He has written his story up here which is worth the read–…

"All the believers met together constantly." We have been "beta-testing" a concept this week that has promise.  We have taken 7 people from our own churches who are "computer active" people.  We suggested that, together, we create our own private blog that would allow us to interact with each other on a daily basis.  Each…

One more excellent article in Next-Wave, by Malcolm Hawker, deals with the topic of structure.  He writes: I was reading this morning where once again someone was crying out NO STRUCTURE! It is as if "structure" in church life is in some way restrictive and bad even to the point of being evil…all possibly true.…

Kevin Rains wrote an article on community that is near and dear to my heart.  At the forefront of our desire for a house church model is to build true community, what Eldredge calls "a band of intimate allies."  I quote his article in its entirety: Community is almost a ruined word. I refuse to…

There are several good articles on the latest Next Wave E-zine.  The lead article digests some of Barna’s latest research.  Here’s a sampling: In 2002 Barna wrote, “It is quite astounding that although Protestant and Catholic churches have raised – and spent – close to one trillion dollars on domestic ministry during the past two…

The last post explored the key Kingdom paradigm: "The kingdom of God and all of its resources are within ME everyday, all day, all the time, in every place." Some more key thoughts about the Kingdom that are foundational: Every spiritual gift can be expressed through me as God wills I have constant access to…

There are several key concepts that underlie what the house church movement is about.  Perhaps one of the most important is that God’s Kingdom is here, now, at work through every believer.  This Kingdom life-force is powerful and dynamic and is not restricted to a place, time, liturgy, or structure.  It is the life of…