“There’s much about the emerging movement that I applaud.” Charles Colson to Andrew Jones on Tallskinnykiwi. Charles Wendell “Chuck” Colson passed away today. It was good to see so many bloggers and Christian leaders speak well of his life and ministry for a few days before his death. I hope his family shared some of those compliments with…
Read MoreBlue Like Jazz. Now see the movie.
I haven’t read Don Miller’s best-selling book by that name but that’s not because I was waiting for the movie. I just never got around to reading it. But Steve Taylor’s movie Blue Like Jazz is released today and since I will be in San Francisco in a few weeks, so . . . I…
Read MoreCoptic Pope Shenouda III Dies
The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Shenouda III has passed away at the age of 88. He was greatly loved and respected. I saw pictures of him on walls all over Cairo. I have a lot of respect for the Egyptian Orthodox church. It’s one of the oldest churches in the world and…
Read MoreArchbishop Rowan Williams stepping down
Archbishop Rowan WIllams has announced that he will step down from his position by the end of December 2012 and that he has accepted the position of Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge. As I mentioned last September, Rowan Williams has been a huge source of encouragement and balanced wisdom for the fresh expressions movement,…
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Sisters, skin-color, and sustainability in church planting
Church planting is a man’s world, baby! The sisters have moved on to more holistic missional enterprise. Multi-ethnic churches are only part of the solution. Africa must move beyond a handout-mentality and embrace a more sustainable way of doing ministry if it is to be a global player in missions. Efrem Smith’s response to my…
Read MoreMy book – Your help
THANK YOU! Last year was amazing. Your gifts enabled me to spend time in Turkey, China, Indonesia, Egypt, and Eastern Europe to equip missional leaders and their networks in those countries. And because we traveled most of those countries in our 4×4 overlander, the whole family could come along for free. It was a great…
Read More2012 Report: Emerging churches in deprived communities
Somebody say H.O.S.P.I.T.A.L.I.T.Y . . . “There were two messages about how the groups understood mission. First, mission meant an incarnational presence in the everyday life of the community. Second, mission meant engaging with residents to restore their capacity to act, to articulate needs and to seek to have those needs met. Hospitality was the…
Read MoreAmerican church: Not dead yet
“Most of our churches are built around feeding consumers.” Mike Breen My English friend Mike Breen just wrote an article called “An Obituary for the American Church” in which he outlines 3 problems he believes could kill it: a culture of Celebrity, Consumerism and Competition. Well said. I agree with Mike and recommend reading his article. But…
Read MorePioneer Mission Leadership Training
Great news for training for Anglican ministry and ordination, especially young people working in pioneer urban situations. I have blogged about this a few times along the way because we have been supporting this process in a number of ways. Heres the news: CMS has been given the BIG THUMBS UP to train ordinands in…
Read MoreNew Christian websites
2 new Christian websites are launching soon that you should know about: OpenChurch.com from USA (January) courtesy of Kent Shaffer. Christian.co.uk from UK (February). Everyone say hello to Ian Matthews. Both are open for Christian content, articles, blog posts, etc. Go check them out, join them and submit something before the crowds come. What other similar…
Read MoreThe English church that went up a mountain but came down a hill
I have lived in USA for ten years and UK for five. In both countries I worked for the churches. They are different, the churches in USA and UK, something that became more evident this weekend after Mark Driscoll suggested the UK church was the poorer for not having any well-known teachers. Interview is here.…
Read MoreGuys in dresses preaching to grandmas
What does a sex-drenched society need most of all? Another book on sex, perhaps? Some preachers think so. In Texas, Ed and Lisa Young are promoting their new book on sex from the rooftop of their house as part of a Sexperiment. [Sounds like “Buy our book or we will do something you will regret!”] And…
Read MorePractices of a new Jesus movement
I visited a number of Asian countries in 2011 and was amazed at the dynamism and commitment of the young Jesus followers. One network, in a country that I will not mention, stuck out to me as an outstanding example. They have started almost a thousand new communities, many of them multiplying into the…
Read MoreProphets of the New Order
Ngatiawa Community, a contemplative monastery of Urban Vision was featured last month in the Anglican publication Taonga. Justin Duckworth [pictured below] has a Youth For Christ past as well as a Baptist background but felt that the Baptists already had lots of good works going. The Anglicans, however, needed some encouragement. Thus the decision to…
Read MoreWorship in a minor key
It’s been about ten years since AlternativeWorship.org emerged. This is one of the projects we helped to fund and support and its great to see how it has been a resource to the alt. worship movement over the past decade. Although its pretty impossible to keep up with all the churches, or blogs, it’s still…
Read MoreChronically Chronological in 2012
Mike at One Year Bible Blog is offering two Bible reading blog journeys for 2012. Journey 1: One Year Bible Blog. Join 14,000 people in reading a selection of the Bible each day. I have done this before. Its spirit candy for the soul. Highly recommended. Journey 2. Chronological Bible Blog. A new adventure for…
Read MoreNew Years Reflection
2011 was a wild year for me. Driving through Eastern Europe, a train across China, a earthquake in Turkey, a revolution in Egypt, taking my kids to monkey forest in Indonesia. And best of all, landing back in NZ to celebrate Christmas as a family. Tonight I am leading a short reflection time at our…
Read MoreGrowing Cafe Churches Singapore Style
Tim Wong flew home to Singapore yesterday but we are still talking about his cafe-churches or “missional cafe communities” as he calls them. “It costs $20 million to buy land and build a church in Singapore. For that much money, we could buy 100 coffee shops.” Tim Wong What’s interesting to me is that Tim’s…
Read MoreEmerging Philanthropy: NOW Funding, not SOON Funding
Sometimes, you need NOW funding to assist an emergency situation. When an earthquake hits, people need resources immediately. They have no house and only the clothes on their back. If its cold, their families will freeze. Rescue workers need to be fed or they will stop shifting bricks and more people will die. Fundraising takes time…
Read MoreMinistry Real Estate: Buy or rent?
Real estate investment for churches and ministries can be a curse or a blessing. It’s one area you can’t afford to get wrong. Learn from the new church movements around the world that are RENTING URBAN and BUYING RURAL. RENT URBAN: Urban real estate is expensive. And if you buy too early, your ministry gets…
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