Reality

I hate the saying, “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.”
I hate it because it’s not an either/or; the two are not mutually exclusive.
Fifteen seconds ago I created my new saying:
It’s not about religion or relationship. It’s about reality.

Mission Shaped Church

Mad Props to TSK for the link to a free download of the book, Mission Shaped Church. You can click on the title and go get the download for yourself. It’s from the Church of England, so it’s in a decidedly U.K. context, but it has some very important principles and helps for futuring here [...]

Church Sluts

We’re rolling in the Caddy south on I-5 and Scott talks about a question he asked about whether people are married or just dating the church. It’s a common metaphor about how people don’t commit to a body. People, generally, commit to a style or a preacher or to convience. Rare are the people who commit to [...]

Learning Party Review

On Saturday John, Scott and I participated in a learning party up in Seattle, hosted by the Church of the Apostles. It was a lot of theory and hard to get into the practical aspect.
The overall feature was how mainline denominations are emerging. That was interesting because there were several of us who are of [...]

Learning Party

People laugh when I tell them I am going to an emerging learning party this weekend. I think it might sound too much like Tupperware or Avon. But that is what is happening on Saturday.
John, Scott and I are going to the Emerging Learning Party hosted by Church of the Apostles up in Seattle. Karen [...]

Constantine

Watched Constantine super late las night – sweet movie – it was spiritual and dealt with a couple cool issues – like is suicide the unforgivable sin?
The effects and stuff are supposed to be scary, I guess. And it would be…if I wasn’t so obsessed with a fascination that our culture has with spirituality.

The Core

Tommorrow,
I’m taking my two brand new and improved interns (called Driven Ministry Associates) to their first youth ministry training seminar up in Portland.
The two are called Lacy and Aaron, but neither actively blog. It’s sad, really.
We’ll be attending YS’s THE CORE seminar, which I have never attended. Interesting.
OK – Later-
James <><

What a great Question

I really think questions are way better than answers. Questions show hearts. Questions reveal vulnerability.
Here’s a question I got in an email from someone today:
It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or [...]