Category: Missional Church

Love on Japan

Posted on March 18, 2011

We have all seen the tragedy in Japan unfolding on our television sets and computer screens. The suffering resulting from the Japan Tsunami is terrifying—earthquake, tsunami, radiation. Bodies are still being found. The true extent of the damage to Japan is far from estimable.

As Christians, we bear an obligation to care for our fellow citizens in the global village, to love our neighbor as ourselves. This calamity raises compassion for some and questions for others. Austin City Life wants to join others in responding both practically and spiritually to these needs. Click the image for more details.

Tsunami Response

Posted on March 14, 2011

The suffering resulting from the Japan Tsunami is incomprehensible and terrible all at once. For some, it brings to mind many questions. Those who claim Christian faith are often the first to question or be questioned in times like these. In a stimulating BBC Magazine article entitled, “Why Does God Allow Natural Disasters,” philosopher David Bain recently raised this question: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”

Read the Rest…

 

Institutional Church Can’t Renew the City

Posted on March 7, 2011

Today over half the world’s population lives in cities and half of those cities are Asian. There are over 400 cities with a population of over a million. The future of our world is profoundly urban shaped. As cities have emerged, morphed, and multiplied over the centuries, they have created the contours of civilization. Cities are man-made infrastructures that facilitate the flow of goods and services, exercise government, provide education, produce, and contribute to human flourishing in general.

Urban planners and theologians alike have come to view cities as spaces comprised of various domains. A domain is distinct sphere of city life. Experts identify between five and ten domains—Family, Education, Media, Arts, Business, Government, Social Services and so on. These domains work together to create holistic urban life, to foster human flourishing.

How does the Christian church fit into the city? Where does the Church fit into urban domains? What is our responsibility with regard to human flourishing? Consider a few of ways to view the church’s relationship to the city. Read the rest.

This article was originally published by Boundless as “How to Renew a City”

Video on “Failure of the Missional Church”

Posted on March 1, 2011

Acts 29 Quarterly – Omaha, NE from Core Community on Vimeo.

This video is from the Acts 29 Quarterly event in Omaha, NE where I spoke on “The Failure of the Missional Church.” I explain Syncretistic Missional Ecclesiology (SME), the fusion of missional church values with institutional church structures, and how to move out of SME. We examine three things:

1) OUR PAST: How our inherited form of institutional church affects us.
2) OUR PRESENT: How we can transition away from its shortcomings.
3) OUR FUTURE: How to cultivate an intuitively missional church.