The UmBlog

This book is so much better than I expected! It's not that I had very low expectations for this work by Dave Schmelzer, but I already listen to his weekly  podcast  of the same name, I already get his newsletter, I have read many of the articles on the Blue Ocean Faith website, and I did not know if there was anything new for him to say. I'm not sure if he has said anything new, but he presents it very well with great anecdotes and illustrations from his life and those of his fellow BOF co-laborers. Yes, I was a fan before the book and I'm a bigger fan since reading it. He is not ashamed of his theological roots but triesnot elevate his preferences over the bigger picture. What does he see as the bigger picture ? The important "sola" is solus Jesus which is over and above sola scriptura. Not that scripture is important but scripture is read through the lens of Jesus. The focus is on Jesus not ring fencing, defining who is in or out, he calls this ...

I've been greatly encouraged by this complementary Kindle review copy from Booksneeze of Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims are Falling in Love with Jesus by Jerry Trousdale. It was even more profound for me as I read it over this past Easter weekend. This book is a report on the success of a church planting movement (CPM) among African Muslims as simply strategized by Cityteam , originally an outreach to the down and out in San Jose, California. Their methods are simple , and familiar to anyone, like myself who has studied the simple/house/organic church movement. Here's the process. Love your neighbors. Find the "son of peace," (Luke 10:6) by depending desperately on prayer. Read the Bible together with those who are interested and let the Bible change them. As they read it, ask them what they learn about God, about humanity and what God wants them to do with what they've read. Next time you get together, ask how it went. Read some m...

from Penn of Penn and Teller, the magic duo

An article at the Ooze about a grandma from Virginia who For the past eleven years Sherrie had been riding her bikes (she’s been through quite a few) across the country, from Florida to California and up into Canada, preaching God’s word. Raised a Methodist, she was now Pentecostal by choice and a speaker of tongues by election. Standing on street corners in small towns and big cities she preached a sermon of salvation from damnation through the acceptance of Christ’s love. She rarely slept indoors and tried to coordinate her travels with the seasons, going south in wintertime. Perhaps there is a future ministry for me...

i've been a believer in Jesus since i was 5 years old. some things i thought were scripture quotes aren't. the principle is there, but not the proof text. i thought the Bible had a verse telling us in 7 words to be "in the world but not of it." but the reality is the principle is explained in a chapter, John 17 and a couple other places. Here's a link to see all those passages that bear this concept . here's a nugget from John 17 6 I have revealed Your name to the men You gave Me from the world . They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You, 8 because the words that You gave to Me, I have given to them. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from You. They have believed that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those You have given Me, because they are Yours. 10 All My things are Yours, and Yours are ...

i read Bob Robert's Glocal blog and link to it sometimes. This post is a link to an interview that is extremely stimulating. i don't agree with everything he thinks, but he doesn't make me feel stupid for not thinking that way. he is a mega church pastor who really likes micro churches. here are the quotes that got me cogitating... Societies are built on several domains: • The family, from which we get our values. • The tribe, from which we get our culture. • The city, from which we get our livelihood. • The nation, from which we get our security and our trade. Finally, the world. And all of that is within the realm of the kingdom of God. We use the word glocal , meaning the kingdom encompasses all of this, local and global. The number one result of God's kingdom is transformation of all the sectors.... So what's your church's role in this transformation? We're a connection center between believers and all of society's domains. Jesus told his disciples t...

just learned about this from a guy at work who is cooking one for Thanksgiving. its a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless turkey. it can feed 30 people. it takes at least 14 hours to make! as you can imagine, this example of conspicuous consumption is all-american. i cooked my 20 lb turkey last night, 3.5 hrs in a bag, and will strip it down today for the community meal tomorrow. our church serves 400-500 hot Turkey dinners every Thanksgiving, so my turkey is only 1 of 50 or so. God is really good in that every year, there is enough for all who come to bring some more home, and there are always leftovers to share with the community soup kitchen on Friday.

interesting article at the Ooze, an emerging church type site...this author does outreach to gangs and ex-cons... I’m excited about this Emerging church discussion because I’ve been waiting for the church to be missional enough to reap the harvest on my own mission field. Based on my experience, I can say without a doubt that the Emerging church’s focus on being more missional, more hospitable and more focused on “the least of these” will open up a world of ministry possibilities that the Emerging church has not yet dared to dream of. While it’s great to hear those in church-based ministries say they want to get more missional, it may be worth noting that some of us para-church types have been doing the missional part without the church for some time. Missionaries will prove to be your biggest potential source of wisdom for the emerging church. No missionary would have, for example, come up with the idea to use a worship service as a primary means of evangelism (as opposed to actual ou...

House2House - PROPHETIC WORSHIP AND PREACHING @ UCLA : "...My voice was almost gone, but as I preached you could sense the unction and anointing of the Holy Spirit and His power. Students walking by began to stop dead in their tracks! Five here, 12 there, two tour groups stopped at the top of the college above us. An Asian fraternity sitting on the steps stopped talking and began to listen. An entire group of African Americans who just moments before had their boom boxes blasting, stopped and began to listen. Those tabling turned around. Within moments, there was a crowd of students standing in wonder and looking, gripped by the Spirit. All over Bruin Walk, students were listening to me preach the Gospel of repentance and love towards God! There had to be at least 120-150 students standing still listening for almost a half hour as I shared my testimony and proclaimed the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Moments before, Bruin Walk was full of noise, conversation...

read the comments yourself and tell me if i should pursue it any further. i've linked favorably to this blog before and now disagree and i'm not sure i'm being treated the way he wants us to treat others, specifically mormons.

in their own words

unless you have a thick skin. i thought it was funny. "We’ve had some good input lately on why we’re not seeing church planting movement in the developing world to the same degree we’re seeing in the global south. If that’s the case we need to find something to do while nothing’s happening. Here’s 20 suggestions of what to do while we’re not multiplying churches. 1. Call yourself an apostle. Have some business cards printed. Hand them around. 2. Throw lots of money at subsidizing unhealthy, declining churches. 3. Throw money at “experimental missional initiatives” and never evaluate their effectiveness. 4. Set goals for multiplying new churches but don’t make it clear who is responsible. 5. Make someone responsible but don’t give them any real authority, discretionary time or sufficient funding. Change the appointment every two years. After ten years, save money by retiring the position and making everyone responsible. 6. Appoint a committee to undertake a study and write a report...