http://www.whatischurch.com/blog ...the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed... Sun, 23 May 2010 19:09:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hopefully the title got you here...if so, let me explain what this is all about: Thesis:  The aims of the missional church conversation can be reached more rapidly and models become more effective by unhitching 'missional' from its inevitable ensnarement to a church culture on life support and allow 'church' to ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=79 I recently started reading After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters.  Yeah, I know, another N.T. Wright book.  Big surprise for me, right?  But it's the next one in a series of smaller books oriented for "everyday" Christians and I couldn't resist.  As always, I'm enjoying it immensely. In Chapter 2 he ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=77 In January, I said I'd be back in May...well, it's May. My test is done.  I took the Fundamentals of Engineering exam 14 years after graduation (most engineers take it their last semester of college).  I'm fairly sure I passed - I put about 200 hours of study into it - ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=69 Recently there was an article written in Christianity Today about 'organic' or 'simple' churches.  Frank Viola, Alan Hirsch, and others have written about it already and my point here is not to respond to the article in the same manner.  The author makes some good points about the nature of ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=58 I spent a few minutes this morning reading new posts from my old blog friends.  I miss that connectivity, hearing what is on the minds of people below the mundane surface.  Facebook has pretty much destroyed that interaction for me.  I now know 10 times more useless information about 10 ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=55 I'm home sick today, finally succumbing to whatever virus my kids have been carrying around the last week.  Out my back window, across the canal, there sits a police car.  If you keep up with the news, no doubt you've heard about the 4 people who were killed by a ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=52 Why do we fear starting something new?  Or more specifically, starting something over again?  You would think, particularly as we grow older, that we would realize that our lives start and re-start constantly.  Every day is a possibility to start something new, to change old habits, to re-energize the mind, ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=48 I've been starting to have thoughts about this lately.  I love this summary by David Fitch: "In post Christendom, people generally (even among those raised as Christian) come to God in Christ broken, often from homes of divorce, sexual abuse, places of despair. The gospel cannot be a concept, it must ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=46 I wrote this stream of consciousness blog while I was on the plane out to San Diego last month. There's not really much explanation necessary... The opportunity is here to align ourselves with the kingdom of God and its fullness. Asking the question, "What is church?" is actually giving ourselves permission ... http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=40 "I want to subvert a culture that turns the church into an incredibly expensive and remarkably harmless spectator sport." Brant nails it in this post about the incongruencies at his job as the host of a morning radio show at a Christian station and the plain message of Jesus. http://www.whatischurch.com/blog/?p=38