Faith.Tech.Culture
No Church Left BehindMy friend Rob Rynders (clergyperson in Phoenix, AZ) pointed me towards the following short essay by author and blogger Seth Godin (author of Tribes which is popular in some church circles). I’m going to post the biggest part of it to spark discussion. Godin writes: Sometimes, we can’t measure what we need, so we invent [...]
Why We need Tradition in the Wesleyan ChurchI realize that people become more conservative and institutional as they get older and more part of an institution. So it is hopefully not out of that place that this blogger, who led the conversation about the Call To Action and continuing critiques of church metrics, says the [...]
This old one is making the rounds again. And as my friend Chett said on Facebook “In every joke, there’s a little reality.” “Biblical Instructions Not Necessary To Build” hahahaha (h/t Sacred Sandwich)
From Saddleback Sam to Target StatisticiansThere was a fascinating article a few weeks back about the statistical research methods of Target. Essentially they analyze consumer buying habits to the minute detail so that they can almost predict when a person is going through a life transition (the article talks about the retailer making educated guesses at [...]
#racialjustice and MLK Jr.I’m trying out a new year’s resolution: listen to a recorded sermon on Sundays so I get the same attempt at spiritual inspiration that my congregation gets with me in the pulpit. My pick this week was MLK Jr.’s sermon “A Knock At Midnight” (mp3link) given in 1957. While listening and puttering around, [...]
Generational Clash in the ChurchFrom my day with Leonard Sweet that I blogged about last week, one of his base concepts is that the language of the church is changing. He calls the shift the most important since Gutenberg created the printing press and that indeed the times we are in require a shift in [...]
Manifesto on Measuring the Profligate ChurchConsider this post a call for rebellion against the church metrics movement. First, you should know the worst part about being a preacher is that we tend to be critical of other preacher’s sermons. When I was in seminary, I heard a sermon on Mark 14 (CEB) where a woman breaks [...]
Church of the Resurrection and Mark DriscollRecently, Hacking Christianity’s favorite Mark Driscoll instructed the media to no longer refer to his church’s multiple campuses as…oops…campuses. Instead, they are to be called churches. Here’s one of their pastors Jamie Munson explaining: During our June meeting, the Mars Hill Board of Directors agreed to replace “Mars Hill [...]
Sermon by Robert HuntAt a clergy meeting a few months back (before the 2010 release of the Call to Action report), a very senior pastor of a large congregation talked to a few of us young clergy. He told us to beware of “church growth bubbles,” as he called them. He said that every few [...]
Pastors take a long view of young adult outreachFull disclosure: I am uncomfortable with targeted church growth conversations. So any impersonal language or poor word choices in this article probably reflect my discomfort. Feel free to point them out, but please don’t dwell on them. I’ve had three exchanges with large-church pastors in the past [...]
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