Month: August 2005

I’m off, tomorrow, for the House Church conference in Denver.  Hope to see many of you there… will miss those of you who can’t be present. I’m looking forward to both Rolland Baker and Wolfgang Simson.  Will try to keep you posted here a bit as to how the week goes. Appreciate the prayers.  My…

Newsweek has quite an article on the current upurge in spirituality in America: A major poll, commissioned jointly with Beliefnet.com, reveals a breadth of tolerance and curiosity virtually across the religious spectrum.  And everywhere we looked, a flowering of spirituality: in the hollering, swooning, foot-stomping services of the new wave of Pentecostals; in Catholic churches…

Dan Kimball offers an interesting "Reality Check" on his blog, Vintage Faith, that describes 10 stages from traditional church to house church back to traditional church.  It’s a bit of a downer (perhaps that’s what a reality check is about) but it provides some useful insight and markers.  For example, he describes this "house church…

There is nothing like hanging out with brand new life in the Vine.  This past couple of weeks, I have found it to be invigorating… but also very, very challenging to my own spiritual journey. Three weeks ago new life was birthed in Rick–age 40-something–married, successful in the world, two kids, lots of toys… but…

Van S and other blogging friends pointed out this post by Hamo on Incarnational vs Attractional Mission.  It goes to the heart of the paradigm shift that simple/house churches are about.  Here is some of what Hamo wrote: If Jesus were alive today and his mission was still to ‘seek out and save the lost’…

Some excellent quotes on leadership and their primary work… from Leadership Journal via Dying Church: Pastors need to redefine success. The popular model of success involves the ABCs – attendance, buildings, and cash. Instead of counting Christians, we need to weigh them. We weigh them by focusing on the most important kind of growth –…