Month: September 2011
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Authentic Connections are Better Than a Hallelujah
Some of the most difficult people to like are religious people with religious fronts. “Hallelujah, brother. God is good and I am blessed. Are you walking in his blessing today and everyday?” It’s not that I can’t love this guy or even appreciate his sincerity on some level, it’s just that I can’t touch…
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The Church of the Future
It’s important that the church continue to dream and have visions of what we—the Bride—can become. I don’t claim prophetic insight here, just a longing to see the church fulfill her destiny. Note that these thoughts relate mostly to the church in the “West” where it has been long established but vitally in need of…
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Why Evangelicals Should Stop Evangelizing
I wrote this in a recent post: “We don’t need evangelists, just Jesus-people who live and act in a way that brings about change, that lifts the hopeless, that cares for the tired, that releases the oppressed and that simply says—“this is Jesus at work.” “Follow Him!” Someone challenged my statement, rightly so, that we…
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It’s Not Enough to Get the Church Out of Its Walls
We have now said, for years, that the church needs to get out of its walls and into the street. The problem is: this is not enough. We have people leaving churches, changing church expressions, meeting in homes and workplaces, but the life of Jesus is still not seeping into the world, at least not…
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New Monastics: Community + Hope
Another form of “simple” church life is reflected by people who share life in community, within a community, to incarnate Jesus. It was great to see a USA Today article on these “new monastics:” They are new monastics, dedicated to helping the poor, sharing resources and caring for creation. Known as Castanea, meaning chestnut tree…