Church

I've just started reading The Passionate Church by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad.  Kallestad is the pastor of Community Church of Joy, a 12,000+ church in Arizona.  I first heard of Kallestad by reading some of (and I feel the need to apologize ahead of time) Robert Schuller's church growth stuff back in the early 1990's.  His church was held up as a model for those looking for church growth methods and practices. That's why I found his author blurb on the dust cover to be interesting: "Walt is passionate about helping today's churches transition from program-driven to relationship-drive mission-minded communities." This transformation began when Kallestad suffered a major heart attack in 2002 and had to have six-way bypass surgery.  During the ensuing sabbatical, he began to reexamine his church and the direction it was moving.  Here's what he writes: "After my heart attack and six-way bypass in January 2002,…

FYI: Donald Miller ("Blue Like Jazz") will be in Denver at Pathways Highlands on October 2 at 7 PM.  I read Blue Like Jazz several years ago and really enjoyed it. It's appropriately subtitled, "Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality."  I found it to be a good book to give to people who are spiritually searching.  It's a bit irreverent, a bit deep.  A good mix.  So ... I might scrape up a few books and go hear him in person.  Maybe ... Click here to buy tickets.

We had a good First Impressions Fall Kick-Off at Mountainview Church on Saturday.  Those who serve on one of our First Impressions teams are great people who create a welcoming environment for guests and regular attenders alike.  The bulk of the meeting was spent sharing why it's important to create a welcoming presence for people who are new to church.  I shared a few practical thoughts and ideas: Welcoming people to church is modeling the behavior of God, who welcomes us each back home. Viewing newcomers as guests and yourself as a host changes the way you look at Sunday mornings. By being hospitable you have the opportunity of being "the first person I met when I started attending this church" for someone new to church. People who come uninvited are coming because something is happening in their life that has spurred them to attending church.  These people deserve our…

It's been a while since I've visited the Ship of Fools website -- but I saw it as a link on The Ooze and I was off and running.  Ship of Fools is a church parody site that is hilarious.  Case in point: their "Gadgets for God" section.  Where they find this stuff, I don't know.  But they have the "Jesus Shaves" mug and the "John Calvin Chocolates."  And I'm not making this up: Holy Toast (a toaster that stamps your bread with the image of Christ). Of course, no collection would be complete without the Jesus on a Motorcycle figurine:

Here's a blog post from David Foster, a church planter in Nashville, about the importance of words:' ********** Words are important.  Choosing them and using them in the right context protect their meaning.  That’s why I’m committed to stop using three words that are over used and misused in our culture by almost everyone.  You’ve heard them.  You’ve used them.  I read them every day:  awesome, amazing, and incredible. I read pastors’ descriptions of their past weekend services.  And almost without exception, they are awesome, amazing, and incredible.  Really? Every weekend, every message, every experience, every day is awesome, amazing, and incredible? No, it’s not.  Some are, maybe a few.  But when we use these words to describe a good service, an inspiring service, one that moved us, one that was average, or even one that was bad and we’re trying to cover up, we lose the meaning and the…