7 Global Currents That Are Shaping the Future Church

I am featuring this post today because I am in Richmond, VA, and am about to spend an enjoyable day with Fritz Kling, author of "The Meeting of the Waters" and founder of Kling Philanthropy Group. Original Post: Feb 2010 Fantastic book comes out in a few days called "The Meeting of the Waters: 7…

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Mark Driscoll goes to Haiti

My old friend Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church went to Haiti with James MacDonald. They recorded some footage that I look forward to seeing. Well done Mark! The first video is here on YouTube but I expect much more to come. He also got interviewed by USA Today where he speaks out against the…

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About that pact with the Debil in Haiti: Apparently we were DUPED!

Ahhhhh the internet! We seem to be so better informed than we were 20 years ago. Information is like soooo 5 seconds away. Us old farts who were alive and kicking in the 1980’s feel like a bunch of stupid idiots. I found out recently that many of the stories i have been telling for…

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Help Towards the Haiti Earthquake

Just reading about the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti yesterday. Awful blow to the country and we pray for the families involved. Its the largest earthquake there since 1770. Possibly thousands killed and the presidential palace flattened. I remember that palace from my last visit there. This is how I remember it, before it collapsed yesterday.…

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How To Spot a Church Movement

Good conversation at Neil Cole’s blog on whether the organic church movement is actually a movement or not, and what some of the secrets of igniting a movement might be. Lets be honest – most of us wouldn’t recognize a a spiritual movement if it turned into a giant marshmellow and fell on our head!…

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Thoughts on the “Edinburgh Error”

This morning I have been discussing my response to David Hesselgrave’s excellent paper “Will We Correct the Edinburgh Error” (available here) and reading through it again. I posted my response in 2008 as part of much larger piece on the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, 1910 but it was buried deep down and most of…

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Mission Ship MV Doulos will stop sailing

The famous missionary ship MV Doulos will cease operations at the end of this year. This is a great pity but understandable given the age of the ship – its the world’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship. ““We recognise God’s faithfulness through these 32 years of wonderful service of the ‘servant’—Doulos — as an outstanding OM…

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6 More Types of House Church

The last post on why you can no longer ignore the emerging house church movement generated a few comments regarding the actual size of the movement and how it is estimated. Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I realize the movement is difficult to see, as I have written about before. The article was written by…

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Lausanne Pulse and Emerging Church

I was just reading the June 2006 edition of the Lausanne Pulse, which suddenly appeared without reason on my ’emerging church radar’ and I noticed that the word “emerging” is quite prominent. There are articles on reaching the “emerging generation” and mentoring “emerging leaders” and even an article by Leighton Ford entitled “The Emerging Church…

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Verge: Missional Communities Conference

Verge is a “Missional Community Conference” in Austin, Texas, Feb 4-6, 2010. They have offered to bring me over to blog it and I have tentatively accepted. Hard to resist because church planting guru George Patterson is one of the speakers. And Austin rocks! Related: Small missional communities is a social network that was just…

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Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) and Christian Missions

“I hate traveling and explorers.” Claude Lévi-Strauss in “Tristes Tropiques”, NYTimes French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss passed away on October 30 at the age of 100. He was one of the greatest thinkers of last century in regards to mythology, anthropology and understanding culture. His bias towards structuralism led him towards universal patterns rather than local…

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The Starfish Manifesto Released

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT from Wolfgang Simson in today’s email. We have been waiting a long time for this book. I suggest, despite Wolfgang’s generous offer of posting it everywhere, that we all just point to the PDF at the starfish portal. “Dear friends, after a long time in the making I am happy to finally present…

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Francis DuBose, the Mystic on Main Street

The urban missiologist Francis DuBose passed away on June 20th this year, during my blog fast, so I didn’t mention it. I remember him as a poet, an activist, a lover of the poor, the guy who added his Jesus revolution books from the 1970s to my library, and the teacher that brought the word…

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100 Incredible Philanthropy Blogs

A list of 100 Incredible Philanthropy blogs has just been released. They kindly sent me an email to tell my that my blog was on the list. Thanks!!!! I am listed under the ‘faith based philanthropy’ section along with some other blogs that are worth checking out. A blog that should have been on that…

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Missional and Alan Hirsch

Alan Hirsch clears up the word “missional” for an American audience at Leadership Journal. Good article and I totally back up Alan, not just because he is a good mate, but also because he is right. Although I would argue with Alan, most probably over a beer, that the word “emerging” and “emergent” has been…

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In Yeovil, England

Yeovil, England. Pronounced “Yo – vil”. Sylvester Stallone would feel quite at home here. I was here today for the Tribal Generation meeting. Great to see so many Brazilians who are now bringing the gospel to Europe. There were other nationalities also. JP from France who is now working in Belgium. One Brazilian who started…

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Tribal Generation in England this week

I am heading down to England this week to be part of the Tribal Generation event. Should be great. We will be exploring mission among and out of the emerging generation. The Latinos have a lot of energy and simplicity to their faith. We all need a bit of that sometimes. If you want to…

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