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Back in August of 2007 I began talking with my wife about starting a small group that would meet at our house. The purpose of the group would be to reconnect with friends, create an atmosphere where people burned by “church” could come into a community, and hopefully spend some good time in study of the scriptures. We have no name for the group or ever intended to try and classify it. Sometimes it acts as a bible study and sometimes it functions like a much deeper community. Thankfully I think more and more the traditional definition of church is being challenged by groups like these. When considering how to structure our time together I’ve found that the most successful groups are ones that remove as many barriers to immediate discord as possible. If I had chosen a book to study or a topic there’s a good chance that scripture would not be the driving force behind our theological shaping but likely our egos. So instead I opted for asking the members of our group to come together to read scripture aloud in the hopes that it would be the catalyst for our discussion. (more…)

I recently came across this video and thought it worth sharing. Generally anything by Dallas Willard says is worth sharing. I like more than anything how he places emphasis on developing the tools to regularly commune with God. He doesn’t jump to programs and he doesn’t say that they should be in this church service or that but more importantly he focuses our attention on cultivating the inner life. His greatest concern is in equipping people to be just like Jesus would be if He were in their shoes, with their opportunities, talents and dispositions. I appreciated his desire for us to really grapple with what Jesus said about how to live this life whether it’s dealing with anger, suffering, persecution, money or anything we interact with.

A couple of weeks ago Amy came to me and asked me what I planned on doing for Lent. Now from time to time she and I will go through the practice of discipline through the time of Lent. But this year she wanted to take it up a notch and experience Ash Wednesday service. I wasn’t too keen on going to a Catholic service, nothing personal just already been there done that, so we decided to go to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. A friend of ours goes there so we decided to give it a go. We began the period of Lent by going to Shrove Tuesday pancake breakfast/dinner at St. Michael’s. Shrove Tuesday, from what I could gather, was their alternative to Fat Tuesday. (more…)

Well we’re back from Gulfcoast Getaway. I’ve been trying to recover from the week. Amy and I both came back under the weather but all in all it’s nothing compared to the wonderful weekend we had. The time of worship was great as was the time spent listening to Randy Harris and Chris Seidman. (more…)

I was reading recently that the word organic is being unbindingly barred from use in some academic/professional circles. Apparently it’s use has becomes so muddied that people are unwilling to accept it as a word that has any implied meaning anymore. Of course there’s always that wonderful semiotics debate that is to be had with words and their meanings but we all know semiotics is pointless anyway. The point is still to be made that once a word becomes popular, like organic so recently has, it always runs the risk of losing any real meaning. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t have some value it’s just that like anything overplayed or used it takes someone who knows it’s proper place to reign it back in and give it life once again. (more…)