lifeasmission

exploring the mystery of life and mission as one and the same

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    The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight

    October 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments

    I had the good fortune of receiving an advance copy of Scot McKnight’s newest book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible from Zondervan who asked me to post a review, which I am happy to do.
    Scot begins with the following assumption:
    Everyone of us adopts the Bible and (at the same time) [...]

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    Tags: bible · books · church · community · missional · review

    A Church-based Bailout Heartcheck

    October 1st, 2008 · 6 Comments

    I had a pretty elaborate post prepared on the whole economic crisis/bailout proposal that I was ready to publish, (instead, I will just point you to this great segment from This American Life, “The Giant Pool of Money,” which clearly and insightfully spells out just how we got in this mess) when another thought struck [...]

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    Tags: Jesus · bible · capitalism · church · money · western culture

    Lots of People in Hell Have Perfect Doctrine

    September 26th, 2008 · 2 Comments

    I was listening the other day to a message given by a teaching pastor that I respect.  He was teaching on baptism, specifically whether or not aspiring members needed to share the official doctrinal stance of the church before being accepted as members.  Rather than addressing that question directly, he decided to take a round-about [...]

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    Tags: God · church · culture · doctrine · hell · love · marriage · preaching/teaching · relationships

    What To Do With Evil

    August 17th, 2008 · 16 Comments

    Rick Warren and Saddleback Church hosted a forum where John McCain and Barack Obama answered a series of questions posed by Rick. One of the questions was,
    “Does evil exist, and if so, should it be ignored, negotiated with, contained, or defeated?”
    The clip is below, but in short Barack’s response was,
    “Evil does exist, and [...]

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    Tags: church · politics · video

    Um, Jesus, No Touching

    August 13th, 2008 · 5 Comments

    From the Associated Press:
    Ohio church: No kissing, tickling allowed
    CINCINNATI (AP) — The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has issued a detailed list of inappropriate behaviors for priests, saying they should not kiss, tickle or wrestle children.
    The newest version of the archdiocese’s Decree on Child Protection also prohibits bear hugs, lap-sitting and piggyback rides.
    But it says priests may [...]

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    Tags: bible · church · love

    A (Wo?)Man After My Own Heart

    July 26th, 2008 · No Comments

    Ok, I don’t know exactly who this author is, but they are my new best friend!
    I came across this excellent post a while back, and now this one from which I offer just a few poignant lines.
    The reason the church must be sectarian is not because the world is too big, too dirty, or too [...]

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    Tags: blogging · church · quotes

    Childcare or Kingdom Community?

    July 23rd, 2008 · 3 Comments

    This is a brief piece I wrote for the Living Hope community as we continue to explore what it means to embrace a missional identity as a church community - specifically with regard to how we understand the place of children.
    The first church I served at as a pastor was very large.  We had all [...]

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    Tags: church · community · individualism · living hope · missional

    Christian Escapism

    July 19th, 2008 · 3 Comments

    Disclaimer:  This post is not (really) about cars.
    On the heels of that last post, I thought I would throw this out there and say how glad I am that most of the folks in my life seem to be those who are really trying to press into the full implications of what following Jesus means [...]

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    Tags: church · consumerism · discipleship · money · pictures · suburban

    I Love Listening

    July 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments

    God has done some kind of number on me.  In days gone by I would have described me (and I am pretty sure others would have as well) as a guy who primarily loves to talk.  While that may still be true, I am way more interested in listening these days.  Wednesday night, therefore, was [...]

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    Tags: church · community · living hope · missional

    What is Missional?

    June 23rd, 2008 · 10 Comments

    This blog post is part of a SynchroBlog - below you will see the names of about 50 folks who are all posting today on the question, “What is Missional?” This is an effort launched by Rick Meigs to try and help people get a handle on where others are coming from when they [...]

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    Tags: christendom · church · community · culture · gospel · missional · spiritual formation · theology