I am talking about church planting movements that go viral and out of control, producing hundreds and thousands of lean startup churches and communities in a very short amount of time. Does that get your blood pumping? Last year was my first time in China, as well as my first time in Indonesia and a…
Read MoreMission of God Study Bible and Itinerant Ministry
The Mission of God Study Bible has just been released. It carries the missional theme and . . what I really love about it . . it honors the memory of the Baptist missiologist Dr Francis DuBose who brought the word “missional” back into play with his 1983 book God Who Sends. [see the video I recorded…
Read MoreMuslim sanctuaries: For Your Eyes Only
“Cinderazahd: For Your Eyes Only” has its world premiere at the Dowse Art Museum next week but men will not be allowed in. The Qatari writer and film-maker Sophia Al-Maria has expressed her wishes that men should not see the unveiled women in her video, a wish that corresponds with her Muslim faith. Fair enough. I…
Read MoreMission among subcultures and the emerging church
Tomorrow I am teaching two sessions on missions at Praxis. The first will be a more practical and interactive look at Luke 10, some church planting movements overseas that are doing well, a few controversial issues related to that. For those that cannot be there, I recommend reading 11 Practices of a new Jesus movement (Lausanne)…
Read MoreChallies and Perriman on the existence of hell
Sunday theological conversation that requires a cup of tea and an armchair: Tim Challies kicks off a series on hell. Andrew Perriman responds. Tim Challies concludes with his final post and Andrew Perriman gives a summary response. There might be some more posts in the middle but the book-ends are worth a read. Last year, when the talk revolved around…
Read MoreWilliam Cavanaugh on Religious Violence
“The myth of religious violence promotes a dichotomy between us in the secular West who are rational and peacemaking, and them, the hordes of violent religious fanatics in the Muslim world. Their violence is religious, and therefore irrational and divisive. Our violence, on the other hand, is rational, peacemaking, and necessary. Regrettably, we find ourselves…
Read MoreThe Folly of Picking Emerging Young Leaders
They all happened at the same time. Charisma Mag announced their latest lineup of emerging leaders for tomorrow’s church, Lausanne reported on their Young Leaders gathering in USA, and the reading in our chapel service was about the folly of selecting young leaders – it was Samuel sorting through the big manly sons of Jesse…
Read MoreMission: Where? What? How?
This morning I am teaching a module on mission for Praxis training. Part of the session will include looking at 3 missionaries that kicked butt but for some reason never made it into the popular evangelical mission history books. Although some of them are making a comeback. I’m talking about Charles de Foucauld, Toyohiko Kagawa…
Read MoreOn Muslims Destroying Religious Shrines and Pagan Artifacts
Are the Muslims REALLY planning to destroy the pyramids? I think NOT. The story this week from Egypt appears to be a hoax. Which is good news. Last year we had a fantastic tour of both the pyramids and the Cairo museum by Ibrahmim Morgan, an egyptologist and historian. We even took a camel tour of…
Read MoreInsider movements, Wycliffe’s translation and missiological controversies
There is a kerfuffle on the internet that might be worthy of some exploration. The controversy around Wycliffe’s Bible translation, currently on the back burner and under the WEA spotlight, has created a lot of talk about insider movements, contextualization, dynamic equivalence, postmodernism, and the connection between the emergent church and insider movements among Muslims. …
Read MoreLiverpool: Fresh Expressions Over One Third
New emerging church research on the Diocese of Liverpool just released by Church Army: “The proportion of fresh expressions of Church compared to parishes is 38.6%. If compared to the number of churches, which might be a closer comparison, that proportion is 30.4%. Either way, about a third of the ecclesial bodies in the diocesan…
Read MoreNomads, Itinerants, and Diaspora Missiology
Some conversation and action today regarding “people on the move”, global nomads [see my post], and “diaspora missiology”. Firstly, I am happy to announce my e-book is nearly finished, based on my travel adventures and extraordinary moments through 30+ countries in the past 3 years in our 4×4 truck named Maggie. The name of the…
Read MoreVideo: Bishop Justin Duckworth starts wearing purple
Here is my short video of Justin Duckworth getting installed as Bishop of Wellington last weekend. There’s some footage of the breakfast we all had with him in the morning, the ceremony at the Cathedral, some thoughts from Jenny Duckworth on the symbols, and some fun stuff. All in 5 minutes!! For the video of…
Read MoreBaptists in the house
It’s been an interesting weekend with a Baptist theme . We enjoyed having Rodney MaCann here a few times. Rodney has been National Leader of the Baptists for most the past decade, and has recently handed over the reigns to Craig Vernall. Rodney’s son, The Venerable Stu, is on the Ngatiawa team, where he functions, among…
Read MoreAs much as you need: An invitation to Kirchentag
I am about to accept an invitation to speak at Kirchentag which will happen in Hamburg next year. Every two years, 100,000 Protestants gather in a German city for this festival. In 2011 Kirchentag happened in Dresden and I had the privilege of being on a panel to talk about building and keeping relationships in…
Read MoreBlog banter on church leadership and fresh expressions
Up at 4am this morning. Interesting blog banter going on from 3 Brits: 1. Richard Passmore on Fresh Expressions “I think FE may actually hinder change in the longer term because of the gravitational pull of the institution and accompanying orthodoxy. I think we are already seeing dissenting voices being marginalised as FE spreads and…
Read MoreGlobal emerging church gathering in Brazil
Update: I am reposting this because Encontro Global Tribal Generation 2012 happens next month. They had over 4000 in attendance when they did this event 2 years ago. A teaser for this year: Olgalvaro Bastos Jr who is hosting the gathering is the guy who kicked off our “new wineskins for new wine” discussion on the…
Read MoreVideos from Underground Ministries Roundtable
I just uploaded some videos I took at the Global Roundtable of Underground Ministries which we held at Cornerstone Festival in Illinois last year. Sorry it took so long to get the videos up. Hope you enjoy them. Attendance was a little spotty in places because most of us were also involved in Cornerstone Festival…
Read MoreNO we are NOT living in a secluded commune!
How embarrassing! After all the news coverage we got last week, my friends and family now think I live in a COMMUNE! Yes, a flipping’ “commune”! When I was a kid in school at Orewa, one of our teachers was a bushy-bearded hippie who lived in a Puhoi commune. We thought that was weird. It…
Read MoreThe Dreadlocked Barefooted Bishop of Wellington
Update: Watch the news on TV and read May 5 NZ Herald interview. Original: Some very exciting news. The papers are ablaze this weekend with the announcement that Justin Duckworth has been elected Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. “The Anglican Church needs to be ”dusted off” and it believes a dreadlocked, barefooted priest is the man to do…
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