Ed Stetzer (part of Acts 29) wrote an article, FIRST-PERSON: Understanding the emerging church that classifies 3 types of people in the Emerging church movement:

Relevants- A group whose focus is to make their worship, music and outreach more contextual to emerging culture.

Reconstructionists- The reconstructionists think that the current form of church is frequently irrelevant and the structure is unhelpful. Yet, they typically hold to a more orthodox view of the Gospel and Scripture. Therefore, we see an increase in models of church that reject certain organizational models, embracing what are often called “incarnational” or “house” models. They are responding to the fact that after decades of trying fresh ideas in innovative churches, North America is less churched, and those that are churched are less committed.

Revisionists- Revisionists are questioning (and in some cases denying) issues like the nature of the substitutionary atonement, the reality of hell, the complementarian nature of gender, and the nature of the Gospel itself.

Related Reading: I wrote an article dealing with some of these things two years ago, Tension in the Emerging Church.

Man, I’ve got to admit San Diego is crazy. Today is supposed to be 83 DEGREES! I’m heading to the beach with my family in a tshirt/shorts/flip-flops to go enjoy the weather for a few hours.

God is good!

A National Magazine seeks to enlist 6-8 non-Christians across the United States to visit a church and respond/comment on a set of questions.

Any non-Christians interested in doing this? Post a comment with email….

Free library of articles and resources on a variety of areas of leadership, management and building organizations. (both non-profit and for-profit articles). Second, here is a link to Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Drucker Foundation) which also has free articles and resources.

A great post over at Ochuk’s blog that he grabbed from Purgatorio.

The a little too Reformed vs. extreme Emergent

You might be Emgerging if…

your worship service looks like:

Prayer Labyrinth

you are listening to:

Emergents Like Bono

You have to look at these pics twice because it might be you:

You might be Getting a little TOO Reformed if…

Someone tells you they go to:

and you think they’re going:

You hear a news story about some criminals being “reformed” and your first thought is to wonder how many criminals are arminians.

On at least 4 different blogs, you end up in extended wars with arminians arguing about God’s Sovereignty. Your final comment always being a variation of:

You’re looking under your big kid’s bed and find:

and you are way more upset then the time you found:

[This is a reflection on my San Diego Reader Column where I visited a different church each week for 2005 and part of 2004.]

One theme that developed as I spoke with different pastors/priests for a variety of denominations and faiths is that each one was convicted that their expression was the true expression of faith. Catholic Priests had a sense of confidence that “theirs was the true church that traced itself back to Peter and Jesus Christ.” The Mass was the place where the Eucharist was served and followers needed to access the grace offered here. Yet, other splinter Catholic groups (Byzantine and Old Catholics) were quick to point out their legitimacy in relation to the “ROMAN Catholic” traditions.

On the other side of the world, Eastern Orthodox congregations (visited two, one Greek and the other Antiochian) were most vocal in their position as ‘truest church’. ["I believe the [Greek Orthodox Church] is the true church, but I’m not going to rub it in anyone’s face,” said Nazo Zakkak, an altar boy at St. Gregory of Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church.]

Both these groups (Catholics & Eastern Orthodox) often citied the amount of denominations in the Protestant movement as an indictment against Evangelicals. “There are 20,000 some-odd denominations, any time an Evangelic has a minor doctrinal disagreement, they just go off and start their own church,” is a common comment about Protestantism.

Where does this leave us? How do we deal with the denominational divides? One comment is often, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty.” Yet an Orthodox Father pointed out that denominations aren’t even in agreement on what is essential or non-essential so how can their be unity. It seems like the church is in a mess but why does God allow such a divergent expression of faith amongst people who call themselves Christians?

Great article in the Economist that speaks about the influence of business thinking merging with how people do church. The subtitle boldly states, “America’s most successful churches are modelling themselves on businesses“. The Economist writer, also coins a new term; the pastorpreneur. Overall the article provides a tone of indictment on the practices and soul-lessness of these churches…

VISIT Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, an upscale exurb of Chicago, and you are confronted with a puzzle. Where in God’s name is the church? Willow Creek has every amenity you can imagine, from food courts to basketball courts, from cafes to video screens, not to mention enough parking spaces for around 4,000 cars. But look for steeples and stained glass, let alone crosses and altars, and you look in vain. Surely this is a slice of corporate America rather than religious America?

The corporate theme is not just a matter of appearances. Willow Creek has a mission statement (“to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ”) and a management team, a seven-step strategy and a set of ten core values. The church employs two MBAs—one from Harvard and one from Stanford—and boasts a consulting arm. It has even been given the ultimate business accolade: it is the subject of a Harvard Business School case-study.

Full article: Churches as businesses - Jesus, CEO

Question: Where is the line, how are churches going too far? Do you think Jesus would turn over the tables on these things?

A great article that lays out a case for proper usage of your website. Here are a few highlights:

1. Your target audience for church growth is Internet-savvy.
Most church growth comes from what we call the 18-to-18 range – people from 18 years old to families with 18-year-old children. This also happens to be the group with the highest Internet usage…..
2. Your Web site will be your “first impression” for many people.
(People) will often make their “first cut” shopping list before they ever come to town.
3. If you’re not on the Web, you don’t exist to many people.
A 20- or 30-something person is much more likely to use the Internet to find church service times than to look in the yellow pages or newspaper. Our informal surveys have shown that many young college graduates don’t even have yellow pages in their homes. My teenage daughter didn’t know theaters listed movie times in the newspaper – she gets them off the Web.
4. Seekers will visit your Web site before attending your services.
Savvy organizations are using the Web to educate visitors and encourage them to take the next step.
5. A whole generation exists that will seek “religion” online.
In his book Boiling Point, George Barna projects that 10 to 20 percent of the population will rely on the Internet for all of their spiritual input and output by 2010.
6. The Web site is too critical to be run by a volunteer.
7. You can’t afford a cheap site.
With a high percentage of your potential visitors viewing your Web site before they visit your congregation, you can’t afford a poor quality site. All the time and money you have spent building your congregation’s resources and reputation are worthless if people won’t visit the first time. Visitors are judging the values and programs of your church from your Web site.
8. People are viewing your current Web site right now.
(Read full article 8 things pastors need to know about e-ministry)

These cover a few of the reasons why a group of churches decided to build Ekklesia Systems. We have found it is far to important to have a well designed internet strategy to enhance the work of furthering the gospel in our cities. January is going to be a huge month for us…come back as we announce Ekklesia launching:

The Acts 29 Network
Imago Dei Community, Portland
Kaleo Church, San Diego
Desert Breeze Church, Los Vegas
New Life Presbyterian Church, La Mesa
Grace Church, San Diego
Eastridge Church, Clackamas
City View Church, Dallas
Bay Area Community Church
Life Song Church
and the list goes on…..

A FREE! pornography accountability program provided by the ministry of XXXchurch.
A Porn Forum to seek help and discuss with others.
Porn Internet & Spam Filter
IS PORN NORM? From the Back Street to the Main Street

Porn Facts:

* 45% increase in child pornography sites between 2/2001-7/2001 (N2H2, 8/01)
* 25 million Americans visit cybersex sites between 1-10 hours per week (MSNBC Survey 2000)
* 9 in 10 kids 8-16 yrs. have viewed porn online, mostly accidentally while doing homework (UK News Telegraph, NOP Research Group, 1/07/02)
* Searching for 26 popular children’s characters, such as Pokemon, My Little Pony and Action Man, revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% were hard-core. (Envisional 2000)
* 89% of sexual solicitations of youth were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages (Pew Study reported in JAMA, 2001)
* 1 in 5 youths received sexual solicitation or approach in last year (NCMEC, 2000)
* 30% of all unsolicited emails contain pornographic information (Choose Your Mail.com study, October, 1999).
* more facts….

And for you pastors…according to Christianity Today the percentage of pastors who visited a porn site. 57% Never, 21% A few times a year, 9% Once in past year, 7% More than a year ago, and 6% Couple times a month or more. 51% of pastors admit that looking at internet pornography is their biggest temptation. (Christianity Today, December 2002)

A great collection of Piper’s stuff, mp3s, article and more for you John Piper fan….

Craig at XXXChurch.com just sent me a copy of Missionary Position a documentary on their journey from the red light district of Amsterdam, to the Porn rehab facilities of Kentucky the porn shows of Las Vegas to the porn sets of Hollywood. About the movie:

Bill Day, an independent film maker and all around great guy, called us back in February of 2002 and asked if he could hang around us for a few days and shoot some video for a project he was working on. He joined us on our trip to Amsterdam, then to Pure Life Ministries in Kentucky, then to Erotica LA and then…a few days and a small video project turned into over 2 years and a full-length documentary on the ministry of XXXchurch. The documentary is currently slated to release in early 2006.

He also enclosed some “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” t-shirts. I have to admit, these guys are doing some pretty crazy things to reach the Porn Industry (see their Wally the Weiner). I’ve got a couple more interviews and the video to watch and I’ll have my article on them coming soon….

Anthony Bradley posts about…we’ll just read the title of the post. I remember when I was at Mars Hill in the early years, there was so much controversy generated from Driscoll. (Biblical Roles, Postmodern Church stuff) I wonder if he would state his opinions the same way today? I do know it created enough controversy to generate a lot of attention to what Mars Hill was doing….anyway, here’s more on Bradley’s post…

Mark Driscoll reminds us, again, of how the feminist movement (beginning in the 1840s) pushed alcohol prohibition to keep men from gathering in pubs to talk about “man stuff”. Where do you guys get away to talk about “guy stuff”–probably somebody’s basement, dorm room, apartment, the camping trip, and so on. Isn’t it pathetic that men have to get in cars and drive way, way in the woods just to get away to get sharpened?

or this quote:

As feminism continued to infect the church, the feminist promotion of alcohol prohibition help to promote some denominations to condemn alcohol consumption as evil. Driscoll rightly notes,

“In 1869, Methodist pastor Dr. Thomas Welch created the very ‘Christian’ grape juice (Welch’s) to replace communion wine, though it is what Jesus had at the Last Supper. The marriage of Christianity and feminism helped to create a dry nation that put out of business all but the largest brewers. . .” (The Radical Reformission, 146)

Full article : …The Feminizing Of America…

I just spoke with Craig, one of the founders of XXXChurch.com. I plan to write an article on what they are doing…

XXXchurch exists to bring awareness, openness, accountability and recovery to the church, society and individuals in the issues of pornography and to begin to provide solutions through non-judgmental and creative means. XXXchurch is here to make you think, react and to decide where you stand on the issues of porn. We’re not here to sling mud, but to shove the envelope and try and do some good.

Have you guys heard about them? What questions (as Christians) would you have for what they are doing? What has been the churches response to pornography? Is it a problem? What effects have you seen porn have on people’s lives? Would your church be willing to have them put on a PornSunday and preach?

A great article from Mark Dever, author of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel and The Compromised Church.

A healthy church - How the congregation becomes – and stays – healthy (pdf)

I hear enough discussion about churches who want to be ‘culturally relevant’. As a church, we want to go past this to being an active participate in the shaping of the culture around us. I just had a great discussion with my friend Eric Brown (Pastor @ Imago Dei in Portland) and I’m going to think about this for a bit.

What are ways churches can shape the culture around them rather than just being culturally relevant?