Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Why YOU Should Plant a Church by Bob Hyatt

Bob Hyatt writes in Next Wave:
Through my experience in church planting I have learned that there’s a hard way to do this and an easy way. The hard way involves plans and proposals, hundreds of thousands in seed money, denominational strings and a host of headaches. “Start with a bang!” they will tell you. “Mailers to every home in three zip codes!” they will advise you. A full band! Complete children’s ministry! Advertising!!!!

Don’t listen.

Start small. Raise some support, trust God for the rest and get a job at Starbucks if need be. Let your community be what it will be. Refuse to do for the people who come the ministry that they should do for themselves. Concentrate on laying a foundation of community and common core values and let your church grow organically without superimposing a grand “vision” on it.

When we were still in the dream phase of this thing people would ask me- “What will it look like?” I grew to love answering “I have no earthly idea.” All I could say was that if a bunch of cloggers and bluegrass musicians showed up, well… we’d be the clogging church. If a bunch of skate punks showed up, we’d be the skate church. I wasn’t out to niche target-market our community, and so felt great freedom to just sit back and watch what happened. I still feel that freedom…

Like I said, it’s not rocket science. You can do this thing. Just look at the guys Jesus started with…
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Who wants to marry Michael Schiavo?

In May 1995, Christopher Reeve was taking part in a cross-country equestrian event when a fall caused his skull to literally become separated from his spinal cord. He was totally paralyzed. Of that moment he later said, "It dawned on me I was going to be a huge burden to everybody, that I had ruined my life and everybody else's. Not fair to anybody. The best thing to do would be to slip away." When his wife, Dana, came into his room he looked at her and mouthed the words, "Maybe we should let me go."

His wife started crying and said, "I will support whatever you want to do, because this is your life and your decision. But I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You are still you. And I love you." Reeve said that Dana's response to him "made living seem possible, because I felt the depth of her love and commitment. ... My job would be to learn how to cope with this and not be a burden. I would have to find new ways to be productive again."

Reeve went on to inspire the world with the depth of his commitment to his own life and that of others. Before his untimely passing in October of last year, he had taught all humanity of the value of life and the indomitable power of the human spirit.

Good thing for all of us that Christopher Reeve was not married to someone like Michael Schiavo.


Read on...

"When piety is not enough"?

In contrast to Brian McLaren's heartfelt and loving eulogy to Stanley Grenz, this guy on SBC Baptist Press News ... well, you'll see.

Liberal/Conservative : 2-D or 3-D?

Steve Harbinger writes "[it] was a pleasure to read this account of emergence by a conservative evangelical who is obviously secure in his own beliefs. His description of emergence is charitable, despite his disagreement. I also found it interesting that he compares the attitude of emerging christianity towards conservative evangelicalism as analogous to evangelicalism's attitude towards fundamentalism, when the evangelicals broke from fundamentalism in the 1940s and 50s."

The post he is referring to:
Lately, I have encountered among many Christians a desire to rename and re-identify themselves. This desire usually manifests itself as attempting to forge a new way between so-called, conservative Evangelicalism and Liberalism. The contexts for these terms is both theological and political. These proposals can be seen in the writings of Jim Wallis in politics or Stan Grenz or Brian McLaren in theology. Indeed, much of the so-called emergent movement can be conceived of in this fashion.

Not only are they critical of specific positions within both Evangelicalism and Liberalism, but also of the entire framework. They see both groups (conservative and liberal) as being stuck in the modern mindset of being able to have a corner on truth and therefore excluding others from that claim. They are quick to point out that modernity is dead and so we need to move beyond the problems which plagued it....
Read the rest here.

Drudge: HBO MOVIE SHOWS RADIO 'AIR AMERICA' CHAOS

**Exclusive**

HBO is set to air a behind the scenes look at the launching of liberal radio network AIR AMERICA.

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a director's cut of LEFT OF THE DIAL, a grossly entertaining docu-drama of life on the other side of the AIR AMERICA microphone.

The doubts. The lies. The bounced checks. The heartbreak.
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The HBO film is set for air March 31.


More from Drudge...

Who do we know that has HBO? ;-)