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ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical Recent Posts

“Church” or Family?

I can see it on their faces when they come in. That look of surprise, bewilderment, and fear. “Oh, no! This isn’t a ‘church’. It’s a family!” People visiting our Sunday morning worship gathering are often looking for and expecting a ‘church’.  You know: some worship music, a place for the kids and/or youth, and […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical missional Recent Posts spiritual disciplines Top Posts Uncategorized

The Death of Leadership: Christ and Co-Leadship

  In these postmodern times we are used to hearing of the death of the author, the death of the text, and even the death of the book (unless you have a Kindle).  Well, today, it is the death of leadership, for Christ our leader is the Crucified One, and what servant is greater that […]

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ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical Liturgical Calendar politics

Pentecost: Babel Overcome ≠ Babel Reversed

I often hear that in Pentecost the curse of Babel is reversed. But this is not true. Babel is overcome, but not reversed. The idea that Babel is reversed goes something like this. Because humanity, in its pride, sought to raise themselves to God’s level, God confused them with multiple languages and they were scattered. […]

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ecclesiology

A Tribe ≠ The Church

The church, however, is not and cannot be “tribal”; rather the church is the community that enables us to recognize that, in fact, it is the world we live in which has a splintered and tribal existence. (Hauerwas, A Community of Character, 92) If only this were true more of the time.  

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ecclesiology politics theology

The Church in its Profoundest Expression…

“The church in its profoundest expression is the gathering of a people who are able to sustain one another through the inevitable tragedies of our lives.  They are able to do so beause they have been formed by a narrative, constantly reenacted through the sharing of a meal, that claims nothing less than that God […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology missional politics Prodigal Christianity theology Uncategorized

Discerning the Gospel: Before Acts 15 & Beyond

It seems there was a bit of confusion and concern about proposing communal discernment.  And that’s OK, it is a difficult thing to understand and from what I can tell it is even less often practiced.  On top of all of this are the countless instances of spiritual abuse, if not outright physical and sexual […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical missional theology Uncategorized

When mission grows up…the church?

Too often the efforts of church planting and evangelism in unreached places, goes by the term ‘missions.’  But when a group of believers is sufficiently gathered, we then say that a ‘church’ has been established.  The linking of terms in a before-after type of relationship has often been propagated by mission agencies themselves. But is […]

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ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical missional

Is the un-conference the next Big Conference?

I think not. But that is the buzz that I’ve been hearing?  And it get’s me all rankled up.  Really?  Are people beginning to think this.  I’m probably hot and bothered because I’m part of a team planning the next Missional Learning Commons here in Chicago in a couple of weeks.  I just don’t get […]

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ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical Top Posts Uncategorized

Bake the bread; give it away.

You need to bake the bread before you give it away.  Likewise, we need to nurture the church to bless the world.  These are the basic movements of the church gathered and scattered. So often we forget one of these steps.  For some, the moment of blessing the world is so emphasized, of going to […]

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ecclecia ecclesiology missional Uncategorized

Missional Church Conflict: Mercy is for Mission

When I say mercy is for mission,  I’m not talking about the mission of mercy and justice in the world as a witness to all of the power of the gospel (at least, not right now).  Rather, I’m talking about the mercy God has poured out on all sinners in the life, death, and resurrection […]