Church in Mission

A collection of 60 posts

Church in Mission

Seven Readings in Revelation (A Liberation Bible Study)

I have had the opportunity from time to time to write for Barclay Press. They have recently updated their website and created author pages, making some previously unavailable writings available online. Therefore, I wanted to share the link to the .pdf of my upcoming series of reflections on the book

Church in Mission

The Possibilities and Challenges of Building a Participatory Church

I love the word participation. It’s stem means “taking part” or to “partner.” The Quaker meeting of which I am the ‘released minister,’ Camas Friends, strives to be a participatory church. A partnering church. A church that welcomes the contributions, leadership, insights, resources, personalities and concerns of those who

Church in Mission

When The Church Becomes a Department Store

You can drive around most neighborhoods here in the suburbs and find at least some vacant buildings. Some of them are small, and if not historic, they at least have a history.  While others are just enormous squares, nondescript, no personality or history at all. “throwaway” buildings might be a

Church in Mission

Connecting with Poverty in Our Community

A week or so ago the Oregonian published an article about poverty in our neck of the woods. The article profiles the “subtle shifts” of poverty taking place in Clark County, the county of which our meeting is a part. The city of Vancouver has worked to push poverty out

Church in Mission

Creating Communities of “Artists”

This morning I noticed a torn piece of paper with something I’d written on it from awhile back: * How do we form a community that creates artists rather than just critics? * Justice should always come first, justice is innovative. I am not sure what I was reading when I

Church in Mission

Modest Proposal .pdf Version Available

Because I’ve been posting about Brent Bill’s recent series of posts about the revitalization of Friends I wanted to alert all of you to the fact that he’s edited all the blog posts down into a .pdf. I was excited to learn he was going to organize

Church in Mission

To The Church in North America by Kester Brewin

Came across this video today by Kester Brewin. I think it has a lot to say. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqIYgdoUzwc&w=575&h=456] YouTube – To The Church in North America by Kester Brewin.

Church in Mission

Bored at Worship?

I came across this post awhile ago and have been meaning to link to it. In the post Skye discusses bordem in our worship services, not just from the typical congregant but also the pastor. He also comments on that article that’s been pretty popular online about “Hipster Christianity.

Church in Mission

In Search of a New Framework for Evangelism and Mission

One of the things I have become fascinated with over the course of the last decade falls  broadly under the umbrella known as missiology, or the study of Christian missions. I like many of you have a history with big ‘E’ Evangelicalism where mission is generally understood as “winning souls

Church in Mission

Creating Liberated Spaces: Some Thoughts

Back in February, and on the dawn of Transfiguration Sunday, about 30 (?) folks piled into a Southeastern Portland home to share in a conversation being facilitated by two out of towners Eliacin Rosario-Cruz (Seattle) and Mark Van Steenwyk (Minnesota). The crowd was made up of a number of men and

Church in Mission

A Prayer for Those in Need

Here is a prayer we prayed one Sunday morning after reflecting on those who have great needs in our town. God of the broken, God of the wanderer, Christ who is without shelter, Surround those in deep need among us. Surround them and help us hear their cries for help.

Church in Mission

A Thought for Quakers on Change

I am preparing my discussion for our Sunday morning meeting for worship and am thinking a lot about what Kester Brewin calls “wombs of the divine,” and creating the necessary space for something new to be born over time (See his book Signs of Emergence) It’s kind of a

Church in Mission

Cancel Our Debts?

In my reading of the Disciple’s Prayer (the anabaptist/Quaker name for the Lord’s Prayer), we have to make sure that we don’t limit what forgiveness includes ((See part 3, part 2, and part 1)). Our (Western) tendency is to think of forgiveness in terms of personal

Church in Mission

Unexpected Visitors

Things have been going well at my new job as pastor. I’m enjoying the work and I’m enjoying the steep learning curve that comes along with it. Things have been by-and-large steady, no major crises or anything like that which has been a really good way to start

Church in Mission

Interventions: A Short-Circuit in Mission (Luke 4:14-30)

I was unable to post my talk from last Sunday here this week because I’ve been busy at YM but I did post it on the church’s blog and on twitter. If you’ve already seen it, I apologize for the duplication, but I wanted to have it

Church in Mission

Immigration and May Day

The May Marches are just about to take place and I just received an email with an image seeking to raise awareness around the complex social issues and injustices surrounding immigration in this country. There are a number of pictures by Shepard Fairey dealing with this issue of “Immigration Reform

Church in Mission

Denominations and Traditions: Thoughts on Differences

“To stand within a tradition does not limit the freedom of knowledge, but makes it possible.” Hans Georg Gadamer Today I spent a few hours working on my Mid-Program defense for my PhD program, I will be presenting it to my committee on May 14th. This entails laying out the

Church in Mission

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls: The Church in 25 years

Scott McClellan emailed me a couple weeks back and asked me to imagine what The church might be like in 25 years and write it in 150-300 words: It’s for an upcoming article for Collide Magazine (a magazine largely dealing with church and new media, an emphasis you will

Church in Mission

Fan Culture and “Virtual” Communities

I’ve written about Henry Jenkins in the past, he’s Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and writes constantly about fan culture or “fandom,” remix, and other contemporary cultural happenings. I didn’t know much about him until last year when my doctoral advisor recommended I read

Church in Mission

The Ironic Gesture of the Church

Ryan Bell, the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Hollywood, invited philosopher/theologian Peter Rollins to do a two day conference called “Beyond Evandelism” at their church building (You can read Bell’s recent post on Rollins talk last night). In his talk Peter Rollins discussed a number

Church in Mission

Stations of the Lord’s Prayer (A Worship Resource)

This past weekend at our convergent Quaker retreat we had both programmed (planned) and unprogrammed (silent) worship. For the programmed worship on Saturday morning I planned an interactive worship time based around the Lord’s Prayer (a topic I am deeply interested in). In this post I’ve included a

Church in Mission

Three Features of Everett Cattell’s Mission Theology

In preparation for the convergent Friends retreat this weekend I have been putting together some discussion notes on Everett Cattell. I will be presenting him as a “convergent Friend of the past” on Saturday evening. Because of this I was reminded that I wanted to post some summary remarks about

Church in Mission

The Paralytic as Missionary (Mark 2:1-12)

I’m putting together a sermon on Mark 2:1-12 where Jesus meets, and heals, the paralytic. As I was talking this passage over with a friend it dawned on us that the paralytic, after he is healed, is the one sent out like a missionary, while the rest remain

Church in Mission

A 21st Century Good Samaritan: Deidox’s Story of “Robert”

Last week I heard about the new project Brent Gudgel, Dan Portnoy and clan have been working on called “Deidox” from twitter. I’ve posted about some of Brent’s work before: The New Chronicle Project. The Imagination of the Kingdom at Work Think of Deidox, pronouced “day-docs,” as short

Church in Mission

Is It The End Of Our SUV Lifestyle?

I just finished reading Tom Sine’s recent book, “The New Conspirators: Creating The Future One Mustard Seed at a Time,” for a review in a Friends’ periodical. It’s a book I highly recommend for those of you involved in ministry currently, or are interested in getting into ministry