The Burnside project I’m working on got some press in it too:

One of his big plans, in fact, is to make the Rose City the hub of a national network of unconventional Christian writers, which he’s calling the Burnside Writers Collective. There’s Chris Seay, the pastor at ex-witch Kelly Hall’s church in Houston, author of books called The Gospel According to Tony Soprano and The Tao of Enron; McKinley, pastor of Miller’s own congregation, Imago Dei, will publish Jesus in the Margins this fall. Miller is characteristically self-effacing, calling plans to coordinate the promotion of a select bunch of writers through a website “a bait-and-switch operation, a cynical effort to sell more books.”

Miller sent me a bunch of stuff this morning, so we should be wrapping up pretty soon. He also sent me an article from Relevant Magazine, where he mentioned Burnside again:

Miller’s currently planning a creative community called the Burnside Writers Collective, an outlet for a group of writers/thinkers/speakers who are writing similar literature. “I want to create a catch-all for like-minded thinkers,” Miller said. “There are some cool voices out there that I think are entertaining and real and raw and profound, so it will be cool to shine the spotlight on some of these voices.” The initial lineup includes Miller, McKinley, Houston pastor and author Chris Seay and singer/songwriter Derek Webb. “We will make their stuff available online, and then also plan river trips, conferences and this sort of thing people can go to, to spend time with them,” he said.

I’m going to see if I can post the article…it’s for the March/April 2005 issue.

The column for this week is Christ Lutheran Church…

The editor of the San Diego Reader has asked me to find home churches, prayer groups, punk rock ministries– the new and offbeat to review in my Sheep & Goats column. Let me know if you have a suggestion…

My column for Sheep & Goats this week is a Christian Science church. Mary Baker Eddy started this ‘cult’ in 1879, the late 1800’s was a breading ground for cults because of the philosophical mindset of the time. During the 1800’s we also have Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses founded. Read the article, if you are interested post a question/comment and I’ll share more about their beliefs or my experience. Eighth Church of Christ Scientist >

This weeks column in the Reader I visited a Calvary movement offshoot located in Chula Vista called The Way Christian Church >

This weeks column examines how two IRS Agents live out their faith working for the Federal Gov’t. Faith at Work >

We’ve just launched Monk Development. Monk Development’s services include web development, search engine optimization, SEM online marketing. We also built a SEO system called 3Prophet System which we’ll launch a full site for later.

monk n. - a male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work.

Monk only works with a select group of clients that we become religiously passionate about. Upon gathering the clients objectives we ‘cloister ourself’ and ‘devote’ time to ‘contemplation, prayer and work’ on the project. There is no platonic dualism in life. Our work is unto God and is sacred.

I’m beginning a web project with a group called Burnside Writer’s Collective. It will collect a group of authors such as Don Miller (Blue Like Jazz, Searching For God Knows What) and Rick McKinley (Jesus in the Margins : Finding God in the Places We Ignore). It should be a pretty cool group. McKinnely has a three book deal, I believe he’s finishing his second. Miller is finishing another book right now so there is plenty to come. Keep your calendar set for February when it launches.

For this weeks column I visted a PCUSA church near SDSU called Faith Presbyterian Church >

A postmodern (lots of candles, dark lighting the works) church up near UCSD. Read this weeks column, Mission Gathering >

My wife was raised Jewish. She still can speak & write a little Hebrew. This was my first experience attending a Shabbat service. Read this weeks column: Temple Emanu-El >

I attended Catholic school growing up through High School. It was a bit of nostalgia to do this weeks column on Ascension Catholic Church >

The Vertex is a ‘postmodern’ evening worship at First Baptist Coronado. View this week’ column The Vertex >

“Each year 3,500 churches die. Most of these churches are liberal churches or from traditional denominations,” remarked Pastor Mark Driscoll. Mark Driscoll is the Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, where the congregation consists primarily of people in their twenties and thirties. As many churches across the country die, Mars Hill has grown from 12 people to over 3,000 in the last six years in “one of the least churched cities,” comments Pastor Driscoll. “Many of the dying churches don’t know how to reach out to non-Christians in ways that reflect the lives of people today. If changes aren’t made, a church will lose future generations.” Driscoll’s call is for churches to speak to the culture without losing the hard truths of the Bible. Full Article >

(This is an article I wrote published in the San Diego Reader November 18, 2004 Volume 33 / Number 47)

I visted a dying United Methodist church that a new pastor is trying to turn around. This week’s article is La Mesa First United Methodist Church >