This afternoon, I was again asked to attend an Advanced workshop. Montgomery noted "We want to have theologically driven churches." Our theology must be connected to our methodology and our methodology should be informed by our theology. Biblical theology is concerned with the big picture. Given that God created something good, what is the hope for renewal? We have a God who is personally involved. Dualism (false dichotomies between sacred and secular, or material and immaterial) is thereby excluded. God created culture, so culture matters. Creation: Describes how life was meant to be … [Read more...] about Daniel Montgomerty – Emerging – GCA Conf
Tom Nebel – Resisting Evangelism Entropy – GCA
Mr. Nebel began by coining the phrase "evangelism entropy." The laws of science teach us that entropy (disorder) tends to increase. While a church planter might start out with an organized approach to outreach/evangelism, entropy can quickly take over if he is not vigilant. Individually: The Church Planter as Evangelist Nebel noted that a church planter is a joiner. Whereas a pastor who accepts a call at an established church enters into a pre-established relational network (e.g., lay elders, perhaps other staff pastors, perhaps a diaconate, etc.), a church planter is (first of all) a … [Read more...] about Tom Nebel – Resisting Evangelism Entropy – GCA
Martin Ban – Gospel & Cultural Engagement – GCA
Ban ministers in Santa Fe, NM, a beautiful and difficult place to live. The city is 40% Caucasian. There is a large lower (working poor) and upper class (movie stars) presence, but not much of a middle class. Ban began by noting that as we try to do neighborhood evangelism and church planting, wanting to feed the nations with the pure milk of the Word, we are rejected by the community who thinks we're trying to push "pig's milk." Ban showed a picture here of a pink bus with pig's ears, the "mama pig" pushing her milk! So we either burn out from talking with too many people who don't want … [Read more...] about Martin Ban – Gospel & Cultural Engagement – GCA
Global Church Advancement (GCA) Conference – Day 2
This morning I've been assigned to live-blog two Advanced-Track workshops. I should explain that there are three tracks of sessions represented here at the Global Church Advancement Church Planting Workshop. Foundations Track - Establishing & strengthening vision, calling, mission, philosophy, values, styles, models, strategies and plans. This 15-session, 4.5 day training is "required" for those who have not yet gone to the field, and is highly recommended for anyone in need of revitalizing their church by revisiting all the "Foundations." Essentials Track - Developing & growing ministries … [Read more...] about Global Church Advancement (GCA) Conference – Day 2
Young White Evangelicals Are Now Less Republican
I found this study from the Pew Forum interesting: The drop in Bush's popularity among younger evangelicals is more precipitous than among older evangelicals. Similarly, younger evangelicals are less likely to describe themselves as Republican than they were just a couple years ago. I wonder if this helps explain, to some degree, the Huckabee effect among young voters in evangelical-dominated Iowa and South Carolina. In Iowa, Huckabee outperformed Romney, Thompson, McCain, Giuliani and Hunter combined among voters under 30. In South Carolina, Huckabee was the top vote-getter among voters … [Read more...] about Young White Evangelicals Are Now Less Republican
Drew Goodmanson – Workshop – GCA Conference
I was asked to live-blog a seminar called The Internet & The Sovereignty of God by Drew Goodmanson. I found the seminar fascinating. Goodmanson is a pastor of Kaleo Church but he is also very involved in the Internet industry. He opened by noting that this is an issue of contextualization. An increasing percentage of our culture is going on-line. Today's teenager has never known a world without ready Internet access. Most teenagers have iPODs. About 2/3 of them have cell phones. Social networking occurs not on e-mail but on tools like Myspace. Avatar-based persistent social worlds. … [Read more...] about Drew Goodmanson – Workshop – GCA Conference