In the podcast that debuted in spectacular fashion on Saturday I made the assertion that church marketing is by nature an anti-missional practice. Mission sends people out. Marketing seeks to bring people in. The two are at odds with one another. Makes sense, doesn’t it? So, if you want to be a missional church, cut […]
Why Politics is More Exciting than Christianity
Watching people’s passionate involvement in the intense politics of the past month or so has been an interesting phenomenon. We literally had millions of people working in one way or another to get their candidates elected, and last night we watched as euphoria erupted over an election of historic proportions. It left me wondering: Why […]
A Theology of Geography: Locality and Proximity
I’m up at Luther Seminary this week for an intensive course on Singleness, Marriage, and Family. As tends to happen, I am viewing much of this course content through the lens of ecclesiology and thinking of the implications of our discussions upon the life of the church. On Monday (I think it was Monday–things run […]
Is the Financial Crisis the Church’s Fault?
Tony Jones makes the comment that without a wide swath of our culture subscribing to Calvinism and the “protestant work ethic” free market economies are a thing of the past. Are free markets incompatible with secularism? Is the only hope for the free markets a Third Great Awakening? Or maybe the first Global Great Awakening? […]
Why are Politics and Theology Directly Related?
I find it interesting as I read blogs of people of certain theological persuasions during election season because you tend to learn their political leanings as well. In reading through the various blogs this year I’ve noticed that most people on the more liberal end of the theological spectrum are liberal politically, and conservatives are […]
A Ministry Opportunity
Last night, in Texas at least, was National Night Out. I remember growing up one of the couples on our street would host this event every year and it was always a good time to get together with neighbors. This year I found out about it too late to get involved, and I’m sure the […]
“Old People,” Change, and the New Facebook
As someone in youth ministry, I often battle the generational conflict that occurs between young people and “old people.” You know the comments that teenagers like to say: “How come the old people are so stuck in their ways?” “I wish the old people wouldn’t be so against change.” “Why are they so stuck in […]
Issues in Ecclesiology
I saw someone link to this post and thought it showed so much of what is wrong in the church today. It shows our current ecclesiology in action. The post comes from a guy who apparently is a DJ on a Christian radio station and he thought it was wierd that chruches charge members for […]
A Theology of Graduation
I made the following post on the discussion boards at Youth Ministry Exchange: Is it theologically appropriate to recognize graduates in the way we do? Every year we have a breakfast for our high school seniors and then honor them in the service, have a slide show, and they wear their cap and gowns during […]
Will the Mainline Church Lead the Way in Youth Ministry?
A quick thought that needs to be thought out some more: I have witnessed an interesting trend lately, though only anecdotally, so it might not mean anything: many of my youth ministry friends who grew up in conservative evangelicalism are turning to mainline churches (i.e. big centralized denominations: Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, etc.). In thinking […]