Practice, not Programs

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:29:53 -0500

Regarding the Willow Creek revelation that participation in church programs doesn’t make disciples, Ed Dodds sent me this related article: Intentionally, Practice, and Vitality by Diana Butler Bass Since Alban's publication of The Practicing Congregation in 2004, when I first wrote about my resea

Lessons Learned?

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:43:58 -0500

Willow Creek Community Church, a mega-church of tens of thousands with a multi-million dollar budget and one of the first churches to promote being seeker-sensitive and to offer a program-driven, full-service approach to meeting the spiritual needs of people, has started rethinking what they've been

God’s Sovereignty is like . . .

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:27:08 -0500

We were talking about what it means for God to be in control. We cannot look at scripture without seeing the assertions of God’s sovereignty- the fact that he reigns and rules. The question we all struggle with is what does it mean for God to be sovereign? Trying to answer this question too definiti

Are Americans Too Happy to be Contented?

Wed, 3 Oct 2007 12:11:56 -0500

Our meditation on Sunday involved, among other things, the subject of contentment. There is an interesting article here that suggests that Americans tend to be some of the “happiest” people in the world, at least based on how they rate themselves. Paradoxically, Americans also seem to be some of the

Abilene Trip

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:56:11 -0500

Last week I was at my alma mater, Abilene Christian University, for their yearly conference. I went for the relationships more than the information. In fact, I only attended a couple sessions besides the one I participated in. My “sessions” were of the informal type rather than those listed in the p

Oh, for More Dead Churches

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:41:47 -0500

We need more dead churches. We actually have many dead churches in our world, and they are the ones who are striving to keep themselves alive. They may actually have all the external appearance of being very alive. But we know from Jesus that whoever tries to save his life will lose it, and whoever

The Game of Life

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:46:21 -0500

The typical life-story, the way it is “supposed” to go, involves childhood, teenage years, college, starting a career, getting married, having children, mid-life, and retirement. More or less that is the accepted sequence, at least in the middle-class world in which I grew up. The Game of Life certa

Update

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:55:15 -0500

Enjoyed a weekend getting to be chaplain for a company’s weekend retreat. The integration of discussing how to improve their business within a context of being intentionally God-focused, ending with a time of worship together, was really good. One might say that there was a real missional feel about

Jobs and Omissions

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:59:39 -0500

Michelle got a job, Damien looks to be getting one, and Bill was approached today about two! DF Employment Inc. seems to be doing well. Actually, we just pray. Though I’m part of a presentation next month at the ACU Lectureship in Abilene, Texas, I was omitted from the program. Ironically, I thi

Return to Blogging

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:58:31 -0500

I’ve not been blogging - and not exactly sure why. I’ve set here in front of computer several times ready to create a new post, but each time I don’t know what to write about. It is not lack of material, but just too much to know where to start. Maybe I ought to just summarize some of the high point