One-third of the membership of The United Methodist Church now lives outside the United States. But the denomination’s structure remains decidedly centered both in and on the United States itself. How to respond to the new global reality was the topic of a panel discussion during the Oct. 8-11 annual meeting of the United Methodist […]
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Checkout Google Apps
There are all sorts of ways to handle setting up e-mail for your users in your church using your church’s domain name. Many of them involve a bit of a cost, with either your domain name registrar or your internet service provider charging for each account needed. I suggest checking out Google Apps instead. Now […]
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The Tyranny of the Calendar
Church calendars are the bane of my existence. Okay, that’s not exactly true. Certainly there are worse things in life than trying to keep a coordinated church calendar that is accessible to all, but not too accessible. I suppose liver is worse than dealing with the calendar, but the fact remains for me that trying […]
While proper exegesis is crucial for discerning God’s message from a text for a congregation, I don’t know of a preacher who isn’t always searching for metaphors and illustrations to help bring a sermon alive. Three points and a poem is pretty easy to put together, but the form has become dry enough that it’s […]
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I simply don’t understand…a Britney Rant
We know that Britney is at least: Mentally unbalanced. Most likely continuing to use mind altering substances (based on the decisions of the courts in the child custody case). Deemed by the courts to be unfit to be a custodial parent, due to her lifestyle. It is clear to the most amateur observer that this […]
Back in seminary, I made a pledge to myself. “Self,” I said with great pomposity, “I know that you will never be like one of those preachers who are up late on Saturday nights writing their sermons. You will take time to get the sermon written early in the week, won’t you?” After all, I […]
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Welcome to the TechnoPastor
The last thing I need to do is to start another blog. After all, I have a personal blog that I ignore regularly, and run a site that aggregates others writings. And yet, I’ve realized that I have some things to share that don’t easily fit into those other spaces. You see, I’ve spent the […]
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Thinking about doctrine…
Doctrines are not alien formulations which we must adhere to but the documentation of the most profound human experiences which, transcending time and place, are handed over from generation to generation as a light in our darkness. —From Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen In several previous posts I have offered critique on the […]
The lovely and ever wise Maggi Dawn pointed me to this article. It sums up “The Wisdom of Crowds” well and puts into words some things that I have been thinking about regarding consensus. Creating Passionate Users: One of us is smarter than all of us
I haven’t commented on the Terry Schiavo case of yet for the simple reason that the internet is already full of words on both sides of the issue. However, Christy at Dry Bones Dances offered this post yesterday which says much of what I would like to say with far more elegance than I could […]
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Another 4 a.m. Blog Post
The footsteps ran quickly down the stairs as I came to consciousness from the restless dreams I was having. It was the normal 3:30 wakeup, the standard time when our child gets up in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep. I’ve been so tired the past week or so that […]
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Are You Evil?
There is a new inventory on the web, the Evil Finder. Here is what it says about my apostate friend, Tony Jones: **** THE PROOF THAT Tony Jones IS EVIL **** T O N Y J O N E S 84 79 78 89 74 79 78 69 83 – as ASCII values 3 7 […]
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I Knew Her When….
Jennifer Freeman was (and hopefully still is) one of my most regular and faithful readers. Jennifer was one of the few who actually commented on my sermons (when I was still remembering to post them!). I was excited to see her start blogging, and keep up with her writing on a regular basis. Today, Father […]
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I Knew Her When….
Jennifer Freeman was (and hopefully still is) one of my most regular and faithful readers. Jennifer was one of the few who actually commented on my sermons (when I was still remembering to post them!). I was excited to see her start blogging, and keep up with her writing on a regular basis. Today, Father […]
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Welcome to Britches, the new addition to our family. I think that I’ve discovered that I never really needed anti-depressants, I just need a dog.
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AUMC Potato Drop
We hosted our second ever “Potato Drop” this past Saturday, distributing 54 thousand pounds of potatoes to hunger agencies in Middle Tennessee. The potatoes are donated by processors who are unable to use them due to shape, size, or whatever. The potatoes are perfectly edible, but would have ended up in a landfill if we […]
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Fledgling Emergent Cohort?
A motley crew for the gathering of the Indie Allies group in Nashville, perhaps the start of an Emergent Cohort. We had a good conversation on postmodernism and church, and have agreed to meet monthly or bi-weekly from now on.
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Nashville Emergent Folks
Hi guys. Just a last minute reminder that a bunch of us Emergent types in Nashville are meeting tonight (Monday, March 7) at Bongo Java’s at 6 p.m. to talk about what God is doing with us. Come on over and join us.
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The Radical Nature of the Gospel
This has started to make its way through the blog world, and I want to contribute to the cause. What you you think about this retelling of the lectionary passage from last week. link
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Open Source Church Redux Part 1
I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about the intersection of recent movements in thinking about church and the “open source” movement. Now I’m not the first to do so, in fact folks like Jordon, James, Spencer, and others have written extensively on this with much more eloquence that I will provide here. What has […]
only wonder understands 