Our little church in Rocky River is hoping to do what Fitch is talking about ...

... here.

David Fitch strikes again

... with another post to make you go, hmmmmm.  This one is about not prematurely "launching" a church.

Renew Gathering

A bunch of us in our local community are adding a monthly gathering to our schedule.  Details about the Renew Gathering (HT: J.R. Briggs for the name) can be found here.

Review of Fitch's "The End of Evangelicalism?"

A very good review, in fact.  Why should you read it [the review and then the book]?  Because it proposes a way forward in faithful mission for Christ's church.  A huge emphasis of the book is posture (read: humility), for those who profess to follow Jesus in their approach to the Christian life and toward those who don't believe in the same way.  Our faith community has been discussing this quite a bit from multiple texts - especially in the Gospels (i.e. the woman caught in adultery; wee-little-tax-collector-man Zaccheus; Mary annointing Jesus' feet ...).  Fitch's book isn't about abandoning convictions, but rather embracing convictions with humility in order to be shaped by them [or something like that] ...

A Different Kind of Leadership

David Fitch (who I had the privilege of meeting for breakfast the other day in Chi-town-ish with Dawne Piotrowski) has a proposal for a different kind of leadership than we normally see in local church life.  I like.

Pastors' Wives Problems

This post shows how the wives of pastors often feel and think regarding the way they are treated in churches.

The pastors' wives who have to say all this should often blame their husbands (and the rest of the leadership team at the church) as much as the congregation for creating a top-down, top-dog church culture in which pastors (and by extension their wives) are often placed on a strange pedestals.  That's my opinion.  I'm willing to dialogue about it even though I've just come off as dogmatic.

Why isn't my life being transformed? I study the Bible!

Ever notice how just studying or listening Scripture doesn't always lead to life transformation?
A good friend of mine, Matt Tebbe (okay, so he's a great friend of a friend, but I've met him once) has a great post about this subject on his new blog. It will likely turn into a series. You can see the first post here. Here's a taste of it:
"How we study the Bible significantly impairs our theological and biblical literacy. Thus, getting MORE serious about “Bible study” may not be the solution…and it may be part of the problem."

Church Planting vs. Seeding Missional Communities

At the beginning of last year I read this David Fitch post and thought it was excellente.  He further reflects on it here in light of a recent "failed" church plant he read about.  Great stuff.

Colbert

Wow.  Um ... wow.  I do not endorse all of what Colbert says in this video (hopefully clearly).  But I think it could make for some interesting dialog ...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat
www.colbertnation.com
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Whaddya Think?

"I don't get upset when salesclerks don't say 'Merry Christmas' because I'm a fan of the 3rd commandment." - @jaredcwilson via Twitter.

Here's commandment number three in an old school version (King James): Deuteronomy 5:11 "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold [him] guiltless that taketh his name in vain."