Every Sunday morning, we’ll be posting articles and links that are saying something important about church, culture, and mission. Here’s what resonated with us this week on the web:+
Church & Theology
Scot McKnight celebrates the 10th anniversary (and special re-release) of his important book, The Jesus Creed:
The major discovery of the Jesus Creed was while teaching college students and I begin to see it far more pervasive in the life, deeds and teachings of Jesus than I expected. From the Sermon on the Mount’s “Golden Rule” to the Parable of the Good Samaritan to those with whom Jesus had table fellowship to the overt teaching of the Jesus Creed in Mark (Matthew and Luke), and not to ignore the presence of it in James, in John’s own version and in Peter. The Jesus Creed formed the core of the earliest Christians’ way of life. In the last first century (or whenever you date it), The Didache makes it up front and central.
Verge Network posts a video of Dave Gibbons speaking on the characteristics of effective missional leaders.
John Chandler writes at V3 Network about being a busy church planter and still finding time to study the Bible:
Of the 30 or so interviews I’ve done on Sermonsmith, there is one consistent theme I’ve seen: those who regularly prepare sermons have settled into some kind of regular rhythm. Few can take a full day to bang out a sermon, but most break up their sermon prep into chunks of time throughout the week.
By creating multiple spaces in our calendar each week, it allows us to focus on the Scripture we are preparing to preach while also stepping away from it to continue to work on us, ruminating with it while in the midst of our daily happenings. I personally find that protecting 1-3 hours spread out over 2-3 mornings early in the week (or even the week prior) gives me the best voyage through the text as I figure out what it has to say to me and then to our congregation.
News & Views
Brian Zahnd releases a video he made in collaboration with The Work of the People about his “war prayer” after 9/11:
On September 11, 2014 The Work of the People asked me about 9/11. This is part of our conversation.
Nate Pyle writes on Rachel Held Evans’s blog about the new documentary “Fight Church”:
Shame born out of an emasculating wound can result in an anxious masculinity where one constantly worries about whether or not people see him as a man. When this happens to you, you work diligently to prove you are a man by engaging in hyper-masculine activity so that no one dares to question your manliness. You never back down from a fight, you don’t let any one disrespect you, and you see a fight where there is none all so you feel secure as a man.
I can’t help but wonder if putting kids into the cage sets them up to forever misunderstand masculinity, to always question if they are enough, and to embrace a definition of manhood that demands they be a shell of the human God is calling them to be.
Rachel Held Evans suggests 6 ways to change the church culture that enabled Mark Driscoll:
To treat this as an isolated incident that no one saw coming and that will never happen again is misguided and dangerous. As Christians, we have to own up to the reality that we helped create a culture that enabled Driscoll’s behavior, (and sometimes rewarded it), and that this culture has to change. I don’t have all the answers on how to make such change happen, but I’ve got a few ideas…
On The Missio Blog
We crossed the finish line on our September conversation on “Restoring Unity to the Church Today”:
Pathetic Worship, by Gregory Crosthwait
Why the Church Needs to Fully Incorporate Children, by Ty Grigg
Firehouse Confessional, by Josh Brock
Missio Alliance Comment Policy
The Missio Alliance Writing Collectives exist as a ministry of writing to resource theological practitioners for mission. From our Leading Voices to our regular Writing Team and those invited to publish with us as Community Voices, we are creating a space for thoughtful engagement of critical issues and questions facing the North American Church in God’s mission. This sort of thoughtful engagement is something that we seek to engender not only in our publishing, but in conversations that unfold as a result in the comment section of our articles.
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