When John MacArthur reportedly said a few weeks ago at the Shepherds Conference that “contextualization is a curse” and “the apostles went out with a complete disdain for context” . . . I said nothing. When his sidekick Phil Johnson followed it up with “Regarding contextualization, Paul did not adapt his message to the values…
Read MorePerspective from Steve Hawthorne
I met with Steve Hawthorne to chat about my chapter in the next version of the world famous Perspectives course (if they give it the green light) We talked a lot about Steve’s prayerwalking experiences in the 80’s and his concept of praying on location with information for, as he coined it, “on-site with insight”.…
Read MoreMicro-credit
Good post on AnglicanFuture on micro-credit enterprises overseas. I was recently pointing to Henry Venn’s suggestion of banks for Sierra Leone in the 1850’s as a viable mission strategy for today. Its encouraging to see these projects around the world. Believe it or not, we are thinking through a micro-credit system here in Scotland for…
Read MoreEmergent Church India
Jan 13-18 – “The International Symposium on Dalit Theology in the 21st Century sets out to initiate a collaborative discourse among younger theologians committed to Dalit emancipation in the Indian church and society at large. It provides a platform for emerging voices and a showcase for the resources of Dalit theology as a theology of…
Read MoreIn God’s Name: Economist on Global Religion
Interesting article on Global Religion in the Economist this week by John Micklethwait. Its called In God’s Name and it deals with tension in religion and politics around the world. EXCERPT: “Part of that secular fury, especially in Europe, comes from exasperation. After all, it has been a canon of progressive thought since the Enlightenment…
Read MorePrayer Feeder – New 2.0 App for emerging churches
New application for churches and groups by developer Stephen Dominy who is beta testing it right now. It offers more privacy than a Facebook app. You may have read what Stephen said about it earlier this month on Emergingchurch.info I have started a test group called Missional Communities. If you want to be a part…
Read MoreGetting the Bible Wright
Pryomaniacs Frank and Dan are halfway towards a 1000 comment quest with a provocative blog post against emerging church and other movements that threaten the Fundamentalist claim to supreme power and a uniquely correct view of Scripture. Its called . . Emerging Church: bad as Gutless Grace Girliemen? Worse than Wrongheaded Wrightophiles? Sillier than Leaky…
Read MoreIJFM Missions articles online
HUGE amount of missions reading now available in PDF form. I’m talking about the past issues of International Journal of Frontier Missions. HT: Scott Burness
Read MoreLausanne III, WEA and Geoff Tunnicliffe’s doctorate
“Friends, this is your day and this is your chance. This life is the one life you have. So which it is going to be? Are you going develop the heart for the world? Are you going to make a difference for Jesus Christ? If you are, then you’ve got to come close. You’ve got…
Read MoreIs mission the mother of theology?
Its one of the questions i have been asked to deal with this week at the camp for Baptists. Missiology or Theology? Chicken or the egg? Is missiology a slice of the theolgical cake or a foundational layer? And what about the sequence that goes missiology-christology-ecclesiology? Or as Alan Hirsch has laid it out, Christology-Missiology-Ecclesiology.…
Read MoreGetting Shaped by God at Camp
Off to a camp today at the Frontier conference center near Northampton. People have been asked to read "Shaping of Things to Come" by Hirsch and Frost or listen to a series of talks by Michael Frost. All of this dealing with the kind of churches we are creating. I will be teaching from the…
Read MoreEmerging Church Portugal
The Portuguese crowd had a conference last weekend which went really well. Barbara, who i have mentioned before, is raising money for some land near Lisbon where many of them will live in community and have a base for ministry around Europe and among street kids in the cities. Some of us are putting a…
Read MoreWill the Church that is NOT ‘Missional’ Please Stand Up?
My friend Tim Conder has an article on Leadership blog Out of Ur called Missional Buzz. He says . . “Today, it would be almost impossible for “the real missional church” to stand up. Yes, there are plenty of imposters, but there’s no one true example to play the day’s mystery guest. And any panel…
Read MoreEuroChurch Conference
Details are online here. Switzerland April 17-19, 2007. I will be there and I think they are going to let me speak on the web/cyberspace/blogging and its relation to the new church planting movements. Subject not confirmed yet but the theme for the conference is . . . Technorati Tags: church, dawn, mission
Read MoreLausanne World Pulse: Paulo on Portugal
My buddy and team member Paulo Pascal has an article on Portugal in this months Lausanne World Pulse. Paulo has a lot of cred with the emerging church movement in his country and with the more established denominations and streams. He also keeps the Evangelical Alliance on the straight and narrow missional path. His attempts…
Read MoreCup of Tea with the Grandson of Roland Allen
I had a cup of tea yesterday with Hubert Allen, the grandson of Roland Allen [“the prophet’”]. A very warm and humble man who is delighted that a new generation is reading his Granfer’s book almost a century later. Roland Allen predicted his writings would be ignored for many years and he was right. Hubert…
Read MoreFusion National Weekend Today
Today I am speaking to university students at Fusion National Weekend in Oxford. Look forward to hooking up with some of you there. My seminar is called “The Skinny on Being Missional”. I will be representing Church Mission Society and its 200 year history of figuring out what it means to bring missional concepts to…
Read MoreStrategic Conference at Copenhagen, Denmark
I’ve gone to Copenhagen, land of the Danes who are famous for their humor. Wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen, friendly old girl of a town, as Danny Kaye once put it so . . . HANS-somely . .. thank you very much. I”ll be here ’til Friday . . try the veal! And why not let good…
Read MoreMissio Dei at DTS
Following on from their great series on the emerging church some months ago, Dallas Theological Seminary tackled the idea of “Turning Theology Inside Out: Missio Dei”. [HT: Matt Glock] Dr Mark Young has some blog-worthy thoughts [Podcast 1, 2, 3] that will have Reformation fans tip-toeing through the Tulips. Tell you what’s cool. I hear…
Read MoreHaggard and the Hazzard of Hotels
Since we are all talking about Ted Haggard [without cementing the accusations] and pastors with a little common sense are examining pot-holes and booby-traps in their own lives, I want to throw a little thought out into the blogosphere that might be of some help to traveling preachers, missionaries and executives. Not because i am…
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