Gathering In Light

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Further Perspectives on Relationships and the Web

Recently I had a good conversation with a friend about relationships and the web, it seems I get into conversations like this rather often, and in this conversation some new ideas were shaped for me.  I thought I’d write some of those ideas out.  There are a variety of

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Accessorizing the Christian Life: What Would [Can] Jesus Sell?

Emily ran across an article in the LA Times about a new ‘Christian’ perfume called ‘Virtuous Woman.’  The article is entitled “What Would Jesus Sell?” The main gist of the  column is about a new perfume that is hopefully “enticing enough to provoke questions: ‘What’s that you’re wearing?

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Cheap Mac Apps for Students and Teachers

I’ve been thinking about compiling one of those “favorite apps” posts that we mac users like to do (too often no doubt).  But in keeping with the tradition of mac-lovers I thought it would be good for someone to have a limited list of apps useful for educational purposes

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Gathering in Light Goes ‘Subversive’

My buddy, Chris, over at Glued Ideas has created a glorious theme called “subtle” free for all wordpress users.  Built into Subtle is an easy way to switch styles, to show the potential of this feature (and because he likes me) he powered out a style all my own called

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The Boundaries of Convergent Friends

Much discussion has arisen due to the interest groups that Robin, Martin, Liz, AJ and others have been a part of.  This along with the “Convergent Friends Gathering” taking place at our house on August 5th has created a lot of excited and an equal amount of criticism. On Behalf

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Religious Blogging Community News: The Daily Scribe Goes Official

It has been a little while since my blog was accepted into the religious blogging community called The Daily Scribe.  There are now over 25 bloggers from various religious backgrounds including, Christianity (including emerging church leaders), Judaism, Unitarianism, Paganism. and religious academics. Well it is finally in official launch mode,

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Advertising on Blogs: And So I Take It Back

I’ve written a fairly recent article on why I decided to turn the ads off on my site.   Well I still agree with what was said there, but I have also  found a way to meet in the middle.  I have signed up for Text Link Ads a company

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A Little Time for Spiritual Inventory With Sequoias

Every so often I realize that I’ve been going full speed ahead for too long and need a break, this past week I had one of those realizations.  I finally got to the point where I felt like I had been running with my eyes closed, not paying attention

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Quaker 2.0 Relaunch and the Convergent Friends Gathering

Chris Frazier from Glued Ideas has been working hard on a relaunch design for Quaker 2.0, a collaborative site I co-author for.  We had been planning a big launch for Monday July 10th, but he graciously decided to relaunch earlier to correspond with my article being published. Along with

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Convergent Friends: Passing on the Faith in the Postmodern World

My first in-print article has hit the shelf this month in the July/August edition of the magazine Quaker Life.   They were also kind enough to offer an online version of it here is  an excerpt: What started causing disquiet in me came after I was assigned to read Walter

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The Cross and a Statue

I wonder sometimes, whether I’ve gone off the deep end; I find myself criticizing stuff like this so often.  There are so many things that get under my skin; I’m a very happy and fairly contented person, really I am.  It’s just when I see things like

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Spending Money as Christians: A Quaker Perspective

Last night Emily and I had the opportunity to hang out with some of our good friends from Ohio and eat some fantastic sushi.  During the course of the evening, we encroached on a sometimes-touchy subject (except for this night): How Christians spend their money. The conversation almost always turns

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Thomas Merton: A Prayer For the Simplicity of Life and Love

This is a prayer from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton that I find to be moving, challenging and intriguing.  Take a moment to be drawn in to the Spirit as you read this prayer. “Justify my soul, O God, but also from Your fountains fill my will with

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Disadvantage of Blogs as Theological Discourse

Because I often write about the benefits of blogging and the great tool I see blogs to be I thought I’d look at it from the other side and investigate some of the disadvantages they come with.  There have a been a number of ongoing comments here and its

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2 Posts From the Basement – June

I’ve decided, since I have upwards of 330 posts, that I would begin to dig through the basement of my blog and see what I’ve got sitting down there getting musty.  It will be interesting to see what I find, among the things you’ll see are my

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Christendom is Not Over Yet

I was chatting with Shawn who just got back from his trip to St. Louis – on his way back he took a picture of an enormous Cross.  The site of it made my stomach turn, domesticating the cross, and then making it the size of a large building strips the

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Queries on The Lord's Prayer

This Sunday I am leading a discussion on the Lord’s Prayer, basically covering what I’ve been writting about here for the past month or so. In preparing I decided to create a few Queries to help begin the discussion on Prayer and mission. Here are those queries: a.

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Theology on Blogs Continued: Constructive Snippets, Cohesive Thoughts

A couple days back I wrote a short entry on the fact that theology is always on the move, and must be adjusted to the times in order that it makes sense of larger more agreed upon truths within our local contexts. Because of this I think it would be

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Why Theology Should Be Written On Blogs and Wikis

I’ve begun reading more about Stanley Hauerwas in my attempts to find theologians who are influential and brilliant, yet challenge the status quo with their own lives and thinking.  One thing I really appreciate about Hauerwas that he focuses on theology that is useful for communities of faith – he

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Liturgical Prayer Based on the Lord’s Prayer

As I near the end of my series on the Lord’s Prayer I want to turn now to a small liturgy I’ve written that is based off the Lord’s Prayer and the conclusions I’ve arrived at through this series.  This liturgy was made to help conceptualize

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The Daily Scribe: New Religion Blog Community and Aggregator

I have received the priviledge to join Shawn Anthony from Lo-Fi Tribe in a new venture called the Daily Scribe.  Shawn, formerly a member of the largely popular 9rules blogging community, has decided to leave his post there as religion community leader to start his own venture at Scribe. Because

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I Think I Did A Mean Thing to Your H2

Okay so there isn’t much of a secret about how I feel about environmental issues, I think especially Christians should be concerned with how we care for creation.  We have a responsibility to take care of what God left in our stewardship, this is why Emily and I do

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Tyrants and Tax Collectors – I Can’t Get Enough of That Blogging Love

So as some of you have noticed over the past 6-8 months I have gradually and purposefully moved away from writing personal stuff and have moved more towards content focused posts here on Gathering in Light.  So like many bloggers I know, who love to write, I’ve decided to

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Matthew 6:10-11 The Kingdom of God and Prayer for Bread

Continuing my series on the Lord’s Prayer and how it functions as both a mission statement and community formating guide for the churchh.  We now direct our attention to further exposition of the prayer itself – this post in particular deals with Matthew 6:10-11. Matthew 6:10 Your Kingdom

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Emerging Church Resources: A Beginners Reference Guide

When people find out that I am one of Ryan Bolger’s understudies I get asked what I think of the emerging church and frequently what resources are good for people interested in finding out more about the Emerging church. In hopes of making a useful guide I’ve created