Mission, Ministry, & Contemporary Culture

NextReformation » how the church turned inward..

how the church turned inward..

Posted in ekklesia, community, mission at 5:30 am by len

Shonnie Scott, one of the board members of Mustard Seed Associates, is writing a dissertation on how the ministry of the church has turned in on itself. Instead of providing for the needs of our neighbors (what she calls Kingdom Work), we have chosen to form structures and ministries that serve only those who come inside the building (Church Work). This article is from the section on the earliest house churches, developed around the time of Acts and common throughout the second and third centuries. It talks primarily about how the early church’s structure supported the Kingdom Work of Jesus.

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » Being temple: church-shaped mission from commodity to community

Being temple: church-shaped mission from commodity to community

Posted in theology, mission at 8:18 am by len

Bruce Hamill writes in Stimulus, “The false separation between worship and mission doesn’t just mean that it’s possible to do both worship and politics, but even more strongly, that it is impossible to do either of these things properly in isolation from the other.”

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » sabbath and essential rhythms..

sabbath and essential rhythms..

Posted in formation, prayer, pilgrimage at 5:30 am by len

“Busyness, of course, is not peculiar to the pastoral life; it is endemic to our culture.. We need a strategy that takes into account [the] two sets of demands that seem to cancel each other out.. The first set of demands is that we respond with compassionate attentiveness to the demands of the people around us.. demands that refuse to stay within the confines of regular hours and always exceed our capacity to meet them..

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » Bibles, Liturgy, Formation..

HOLY BIBLE: MOSAIC is a beautiful newly published Bible, unlike any Bible you’ve ever seen…

“It has gorgeous, inspiring artwork from the 3rd to 21st centuries from every continent across the globe. It contains poignant, and thought-provoking writings from the 1st to 21st centuries from every continent, and branch of the Church around the world.

“Both artwork and writings follow the Church calendar throughout the year starting with Advent (Sunday, November 29, 2009).

via nextreformation.com

NextReformation » emergent and non-emergent structures..

“In human organizations, both [emergent and designed] types of structures are always present. The designed structures are the organization’s formal structures, which are depicted in its official documents and describe the organization’s mission, its formal policies, its strategies, and so on.

via nextreformation.com

BBC NEWS | Africa | UN warns over East Africa hunger

UN warns over East Africa hunger

The WFP wants more food aid for Somalia and other drought-hit countries

More than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa need food aid because of two years of poor rainfall, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says.

The body says cuts in its funding have made it more difficult to feed people across Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

The WFP says an added problem is that congestion in Djibouti's port is holding up the flow of relief supplies.

Some 14 million people in the region were said to need food aid last year.

via news.bbc.co.uk

Click link above to continue reading.

This is a story of profound missional significance and We found it only on the BBC news feed.

The Death of a Celebrity « Mission Issues

The Death of a Celebrity

via missionissues.wordpress.com

Five Reasons Missional Churches Don't Do Global Missions-- and How to Fix It - EdStetzer.com

"Why are so many missional Christians uninvolved in God's global mission?" As the missional conversation continues and deepens, what has occurred that has led to our blindness to the lost world around us?

There are five reasons I think this has happened:

via blogs.lifeway.com

Christianity Today Movies Blog: Creation gets an American distributor after all.

September 24, 2009

Creation gets an American distributor after all.

by Peter T. Chattaway

A few days ago, Brandon mentioned that the producers of Creation -- one of a few movies about Charles Darwin that have been produced this year in honour of Darwin's 200th birthday -- were claiming it had been difficult to find an American distributor for their film because evolutionary theory is "still a really hot potato in America."

Now, the Hollywood Reporter says an American distributor has been found for the film after all -- and it is Newmarket Films, the same distributor that handled Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ nearly six years ago. If anyone in this business would know how to handle a "really hot potato", it would seem to be them.

READ MORE AT

via blog.christianitytoday.com

I really did not think this would be a problem.

Think about it:

"The Last Temptation of Christ"
"Jesus of Montreal"
"Life of Brian"

All of these were released in the U.S. and more.

Why would there be more furor over a biographical movie that is basically accurate?

We may or may not like Brian, but "we" can't make a movie fail.

We do have the capacity to help one succeed.

I think they are just trying to heat up non-existent controversy to sell more tickets.

Faith and Theology: Jesus, all about life

Jesus, all about life

This month, Sydney is being blitzed with Australia's biggest-ever Christian campaign: Jesus. All about life. It's supported by most of Australia's major church groups: Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, Pentecostal, Baptist, etc. The Jesus logo is appearing on billboards and bus shelters around town; there are prime time TV and radio commercials; churches are holding all sorts of special Jesus events; and there's even a Jesus racing car. Apparently the whole campaign is based on market research about what the average Australian wants.

via faith-theology.blogspot.com