Some company managers believe that employees who are more religious or spiritual than others also tend to be harder-working, more reliable and ethical than their non-religious peers. But a recent study suggests the opposite may be true. Daniel Martin, a professor at California State University — East Bay, “recen

A missional church must be an innovative organization that looks at itself and its community in brand new ways, see things it has never noticed before and pays attention to how others do things differently. Alas, most of our faith communities are not innovative organizations. Jim Carroll is a nationally recognized futurists

There has been a noticeable downward trend in the number of posts in the blogosphere related to the missional paradigm. Used to be that I’d have a dozen posts daily in my RSS feeds, but for the last few months it’s been just a couple a day. I’m a contributor to this trend since I’ve not [...]

“Strolling through a pine forest, viewing rock formations, and cascading waterfalls, pausing to ponder the quiet surface of the lake and shoreline—little by little we are encouraged to lay aside the chaos of a troubled world and gently nurture the capacity within to hear a more harmonious, universal rhythm. We exchange

This is a great parody on an all to familiar Sunday morning at so many of our church gatherings. HT: Dan Kimball

Ed Stetzer on how you and your church can help with disaster relief efforts in Nashville, TN, USA.

Was invited to participate in a panel last night at a local good size suburban “bible” church that is exploring the missional concept. It was a very enjoyable time and I was excited to see the leadership of a church (and this influential church in particular) on the path of discovery and discernment. The task [

As a result of the U.S. healthcare debate and vote, there has been a lot of Jesus follower jumping in on one side or the other of the issue. Although I disagree with Greg Boyd on a number of topics, I believe he captures the heart of what our view towards politics and political positions [...]

Stephen Colbert does a great satirical piece on Glenn Beck’s attack on social justice and helping the poor. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

And there are no strings attached. According to our local community weekly newspaper, last year after the area’s economy was hit hard, the people of Riversgate Church gathered and discussed ways they could help. “Their solution was to offer a free, homecooked, buffet-style dinner once a week and to invite anyone

This is an 11 minute news report from Nashville on the state of the church in America. Contextualized for their area, but still interesting. HT: EdStetzer.com

One of the classic, if not the classic, peace movement song was written in 1950 by American-born Canadian folksinger Ed McCurdy. The song was popularized by many folk singers and became the anthem of the 60’s and 70’s. Johnny Cash does a haunting rendition on his American VI album, which was posthumous released

I started making micro loans through Kiva in the fall of 2006. To date, 91 loans have been made of which 58 have been repaid, 27 are being paid back and 6 ended in with a small loss. It is interesting that those which ended in a loss were not due to the borrower failing [...]

Alan Hirsch spoke at the 2010 Velocity Conference on February 22, 2010 at Mountain Lake Church in Cumming, Georgia. In this 47 minute talk, Alan deals in detail with the concepts of cultural distance, more of the same, and innovation and new forms of church. If you can get past the first 1.5 minutes, it [...]

Back in June 2008, we had over 50 people participate in a synchroblog around the question, what is missional? There were any number of ways one could blog on this topic including, illustrate what the term means, describe what it is not and how it is wrongly used, define the term, explore its misuses, explore [...]

Interesting post at Out of Ur today on the Five Myths about Emerging Adult Religion. Myth #1: Emerging adults serve out of concern for the common good. Myth #2: Emerging adults reject their parents’ religious influence. Myth #3: Emerging adults behave similarly, whether seriously committed to religion or not. Myth #4: Eme

“Others” By Charles D. Meigs (written sometime between 1890 and 1902) Lord help me live from day to day In such a self-forgetful way That even when I kneel to pray My prayer shall be for – Others. Help me in all the work I do To ever be sincere and true And know that all I do for you Must needs be done [...]

I’ve been blogging on things missional for almost five years. Yet it’s often hard to get a firm grip on the paradigm and many questions still surround it. Questions like: What does a missional church look like? What exactly is the missional church model? How does it function? Can our old existing church become o

Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of The Voice of Psalms for the specific purpose of reviewing it here. The Voice of Psalms is the translation of the Psalms produced by “The Voice Project.” They have completed the New Testament and are now venturing into the Old Testament. The Project’s

110 spam comments yesterday and 79 so far today. Thank God for Akismet. Nothing gets pass this WordPress comment tool.

We have friends who worked for many years among the Uighur of Northwest China, before being expelled by the Chinese government. The Uighur are a Muslim ethnic minority in China, but a small Christian community has blossomed in their midst. Besides expelling our friends, the government has been making arrests of some believe

I have a deep concern about this movement called missional. It appears that we are moving towards being not much more than books, conferences and conversation. Lots of talk, talk, talk. Now I suspect I’m wrong on this point, at least I hope so. But if missional is more than just talk, where are the [...]

Christopher Hitchens was in Portland recently for a speaking engagement. Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell interviewed him for a local publication, Portland Monthly. The interview was pretty much what one would expect, but I did find the following a fascinating observation from Hitchens: Sewell: The religion you cite in you

This is a 2-minute video that attempts to provide a sense the change in perspective between our traditional view of church and missional church. HT: Alan Hirsch

Back on January 17th in 9Marks on Missional, I took Jonathan Leeman, Director of Communications for 9Marks, to task on his post, “Is the God of the Missional Gospel Too Small?” Since then there has been a number of others who have entered the fray including those listed below. Together they form a pretty good cr

Good read at Neil Cole’s blog today on the sin of self-preservation. Here is a noteworthy observation: We often approach church and ministry with a theology of SAFE. Safe is… Self-preservation = our mission Avoidance of the world and risk = wisdom Financial security = responsible faith Education = maturity Does that

Bill Kinnon tweeted a Rich Mullins song this morning that reminded me of the lyrics to a choice Mullins composition, Screen Door. Here they are: It’s about as useless as A screen door on a submarine Faith without works baby It just ain’t happenin’ One is your left hand One is your right It’ll take t

Many are quick to point out the issues they have with the emerging church conversation. So it is refreshing when we get to read a post that doesn’t address the negative aspects of this movement. Singing to the Deaf is one such post. In it Michael Newnham gives us a list of things we need [...]

Have you notice the number of blog posts lately talking about the positive good the emerging church movement has had? The posts usually (but not always) reminisce about how the movement has been an important part of the authors journey. They are a good reminder of the significance this movement has been in breathing new [..