By: Phil Smart on December 10, 2013
Looking Forward and Past in London Visual Ethnography Project – Looking Forward and Past in London – Phil Smart There is tension in corporate religious life. Although some would like to live their Christianity in solitude or apart from a traditional community of believers, the reality is that most will, and need, to be associated…
By: Sandy Bils on December 10, 2013
1. No pictures, please! “Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted.” Susan Sontag We live in a very visual world. There is almost no mystery left; everything is made visible. By bringing it to light (developing the negatives), the positives reveal, what…
By: Mark Steele on December 7, 2013
I vividly remember preparing for my very first sermon after I had graduated from Seminary. I parsed the Greek verbs from the passage; I applied all the hermeneutic principles learned from the Bible classes I had taken. I listed all the interpretations of words on one side of a sheet of paper and listed all…
By: Sam Stephens on December 6, 2013
I have just returned from a ten day visit to mission field in eastern India. The purpose was ministry as well as field research to study and understand the socio cultural practices of a particular tribe in the region and the reason for their growing interest in Christianity. have been very receptive to evangelism efforts…
By: Fred Fay on December 5, 2013
When I was young, Sunday school teachers described the Bible in many ways to make it practical for us. It was like a map for life. When a person applied its principles it would lead to a good life. I was like a toolbox, ready to be used for whatever was needed in life. It…
By: Sandy Bils on December 5, 2013
Respectful conversations In may 2013 Harold Heie, Senior Fellow of the Colossian Forum (TCF) and Rob Barrett, TCF Director of Fellows and Forums launched an online project called “respectful conversations.” They felt the urge to initiate conversations. It was their goal to take immediate steps to encourage and help facilitate forums for respectful conversation regarding important…
By: Chris Ellis on December 5, 2013
What it means to be an Evangelical is under debate. Some want to draw narrow boundaries, others want to draw broader boundaries. Consensus is a pipe dream. Unfortunately, when conversations do occur many speak past each other, as opposed to each other. When folks with differing views do engage each other, it can seem more…
By: Richard Rhoads on December 5, 2013
When I was a young boy, my dad loved taking me fishing. In fact, I loved the time with him as well. Often we would travel approximately 20 miles and launch our boat on the Susquehanna River. One of our favorite fishing holes was located about two miles from the launch, it was known as…
By: Garrick Roegner on December 3, 2013
I will be honest with you. I often get frustrated with exercises such as “Respectful Conversations.” That is not to say that the ideas and conversations aren’t valuable or worthy, it is just that attempting to cobble together an evangelical consensus is pretty impossible. Evangelicalism really is a movement, wild and uncontrollable. It consists of…
By: Sharenda Roam on December 2, 2013
As I read the variety of articles in Robert Heie’s blog project “Respectful Conversation” a theme threaded its way throughout the writings. The theme was “How?” How do we approach these topics from an Evangelical Christian perspective? It seems there is the knowledge within Evangelicalism that topics such as science, politics, education, and morality need…
By: David Toth on December 2, 2013
I absolutely love to drive and especially when I can drive a sports car down windy hilly roads in the country! There is something about shifting down into a curve and throwing the balance of the car at just the right time and powering up and through the curve and finding the next gear even…
By: Phil Smart on December 1, 2013
I found these short readings to be very insightful and relevant. I was drawn to sections in which worldview and contextualization – in which part of my semester’s thesis is based upon – were highlighted. Worldview should play such a strong part in our decisions, beliefs and actions, but yet doesn’t. Richardson assumes that believers…
By: Mark Steele on November 23, 2013
Charlene Li in her book Open Leadership: how social technology can transform the way you lead explains how social media has changed the way organizations must lead in the future. With Facebook, twitter and blogs, the customer is king and can reward or punish a company by pushing a button. I know my wife will…
By: Sandy Bils on November 22, 2013
Barcamps are highly participatory user-generated formats, where people meet to network, share and learn. Attendants of barcamps provide the content themselves. This participant-driven concept seeks to enable exchange on an eye-level. My organization Kirche2 planned two barcamps for November. We thought of it as a further step for our project. After a big conference, we…
By: Sam Stephens on November 22, 2013
Over the last twelve months, I have read several books on leadership as part of the requirement for my D.Min program and outside of it. Each one has made some unique contribution to the understanding of my personal leadership traits and aided me significantly in my present leadership responsibilities. Open Leadership: How Social Technology can…
By: Garrick Roegner on November 21, 2013
A word on openness and social media from Ron Swanson: Perhaps you feel a bit like Ron Swanson when it comes to social media and organizational openness. Either you are overwhelmed and a bit frightened by the brave new world we live in, or maybe you work with someone who has a more closed view…
By: Chris Ellis on November 21, 2013
Open Leadership by Charlene Li is about how organizations can harness the power of ‘Giving up Control’ and using social networks to further their mission. Her book is chalked full of stories about how organizations have successfully moved forward with social media. While she does occasionally reference churches, she doesn’t center on them. About 5…
By: Fred Fay on November 21, 2013
When I was young my Dad always won chess with me. Why? Well, my neophyte experience limited my imagination about what could happen on the board. I knew how to make a move, one at time, but that was it. I moved and reacted to my Dad’s moves with no strategy in mind. It was…
By: David Toth on November 20, 2013
I really liked the author’s opening statement about the purpose of her book, “Open Leadership is about how leaders must let go to succeed.” (Kindle Loc 179). I particularly liked her stress on being strategic about how a leader, in conjunction with others, will put together a plan that identifies the objectives and boundaries of…
By: Phil Smart on November 20, 2013
I was feeling pretty good about myself. There were 16 of us on our way to Los Angeles for a conference on diversity. 16 pastors and leaders from our church traveling to learn more about how to minister in changing social environments – and I was the only one flying first-class! The leg of the…
