Author: Jonathan Dodson

Missional Halloween & Austin's Wiccan Preistess

Stacy M. Weidmann, a Wiccan High-Priestess of Phoenix Moon in Austin. In an interview, she commented that Austin has a culture of open-mindedness and this is why the city claims a high number of Pagans and Wiccans, not to mention Satanists live and practice thier religion in Austin.

  • Read the Probe Center’s article on the nature and presence of occult activity in Austin.
  • Pray for the gospel to advance as you trick or treat tonight with neighbors tonight.
  • Take advantage of this opportunity to love and serve and hang with non-Christians, praying for the light of the gospel to invade the darkness of their hearts.

Global Ecclesiology

I read a great global introduction to ecclesiology in seminary by Fuller prof Veli-Matti Karkkainen called An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives. It really opened my eyes to a generous, global ecclesiology, freeing me from narrow Americanized conceptions of church. It’s a great intro in general but the global perspective is hard to beat.

JR Woodward is reviewing this book through a series of posts, so now you can read it through him! I have also picked up a couple other of Karkkainen’s global perspective books on systematic theology, which have been really good, one on Pneumatology and one on Christology. Enjoy!

Busyness and Tim Chester

Josh points us to some incisive comments and questions by Tim Chester on the topic of busyness.

  1. Have you ever been irritated because there was a queue at the supermarket till?
  2. Do you regularly work thirty minutes a day longer than your contracted hours?
  3. Do you check work emails and phone messages at home?
  4. Has anyone ever said to you: ‘I didn’t want to trouble you because I know how busy you are’?
  5. Do your family or friends complain about not getting time with you?
  6. If tomorrow evening was unexpectedly freed up, would you use it to work or do a household chore?
  7. Do you often feel tired during the day or do your find your neck and shoulders aching?
  8. Do you often exceed the speed limit while driving?

Read more here.

Alan Hirsch's New Book: ReJesus

My Review of ReJesus.

The introduction and first chapter of Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch’s new book, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, are now available for download. Some endorsements:

“Frost and Hirsch have done it again. Reading ReJesus provoked, frustrated, and ultimately convicted me of my need to live more deeply in the way of Jesus. If you are looking for another book on simply bolstering church as-we-know-it, this is not for you. If you and your church want to be challenged to walk in the Way of Jesus, this book delivers.” —Ed Stetzer, blogger (www.edstetzer.com), author, Planting Missional Churches

“Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost continue to push the church into the future with their latest project, ReJesus. Herein they focus on what every Christian church must focus on—Jesus Christ—and they develop a Christ-centered strategy for missional ecclesiology. This is a timely and relevant book and deserves a wide readership.”
—Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, author, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

“ReJesus calls to mind Jaroslav Pelikan’s Jesus Through the Centuries and the stubborn fact we can never get outside our own culture(s) to a pure Jesus. That way is not open to those who confess the Incarnate One. In every age Christians are compelled to wrestle with the meaning of Jesus again. Colin Greene’s Christology in Cultural Perspective reminds us of how we must continually wrestle with how to be faithful to Jesus in
our day. Neibuhr’s Christ and Culture shows how we continually shape Jesus out of our cultural imaginations. Yet, in all its eradicable shortcomings, the church is still the location where we’re shaped by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. We always wrestle with how to re-Jesus because we have no choice. May we do it with humility and a deep love for these clay vessels of history we call the church, for there is no other place in which Jesus is made present. This book is a contribution to that wrestling; like all such wrestling it is itself enmeshed in culture. I trust it encourages others to wrestle that we might all be more faithful followers of Jesus.”
—Al Roxburgh, Vice President, Allelon Canada, co-author, The Missional Leader

HT: FE