One out of ten ain't bad for starters...

Totally selfish post: here I am, pastor of a small-ish Covenant Church (65 adults + kids), recognizing my need to lead our folks in a more "outward" direction. Help me develop a Top Ten list of things a guy like me, and a church like ours, might do to get ourselves going and reproducing/making disciples. Let's not have any one of us give all ten, but if everyone could offer one, with some reasons why you think it's important, maybe we could create a practical list that a guy like me could start doing! I realize you can't tell much about us from this brief description, so if you'd like more info, I'm happy to provide it, but feel free to fire away without it.

What's New?

With all the usual caveats about not pursuing the novel for the sake of novelty, or striving to be cutting edge, or falling prey to "new-ism" (the belief that what is new is automatically superior to what is old), please post a thought that is new for you: what's working in you right now that you haven't shared with us previously? These do not need to be fully-formed presentations; instead, I'm asking for a kind of "field report" from where your heart and mind are currently operating.

New Year's Razz-solutions!

Kick off a new year with some razzle-dazzle! What would be the top 2 or 3 resolutions you would like to see any/every "church" (howsoever you wish to 'define' that entity, but keep the focus on a local gathering) make for 2008? You may comment on other's razzle-lutions ONLY after you have proposed 2-3 of your own. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas, Joy to the World!

Here's an opportunity and invitation to "preach" a very brief Christmas sermon to your blogmates. Please select a short portion of the "Christmas story" (as told by the canonical Evangelists or by Paul [test question: Paul tells 'the Christmas story'? Where...?]) that you feel the church in the US particularly needs to attend to in these days. Hey, it's a busy season, so if you go on and on, we'll probably move along to other things... but if you are succinct, insightful, humorous and brilliant, you may hear the angels sing. Otherwise, the sounds you hear will just be us clapping and cheering.

"The Well" and ecclesiology

Let's not neglect the praying-for-one-another thread from the prior post, but this came through from Joseph (I shortened it a bit) and I thought it might be good to ruminate on it together. Please take time to visit the links Joseph provided before commenting:

"The Wall Street Journal had an article in it about the church that Susanna Petrie attends in Brussels. We met the pastor when we were over there a couple of years ago, and Deb and I visited some of their sister churches in London and Dublin.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB119578825507501887-lMyQjAxMDE3OTI1MzcyODM4Wj.html

"The pastor, Carlton Deal, is part of an innovative missional movement dedicated to planting churches in Europe ... http://christianassociates.org/

"I really LOVE what these people are doing ... their approach does lead, however, to some legitimate discussions of what exactly constitutes the "church." I think ecclesiology is going to be the great topic of conversation and debate in our time, as soteriology was for Luther and others in the early sixteenth century.

"...and here is a critical response (in the good sense) from David Neff at Ancient Evangelical Future:
http://ancientevangelicalfuture.blogspot.com/2007/11/church-next-to-godiva-chocolate-shop.html "

Let us pray.

Let's try something less analytical. What are you praying about these days that you might like us to join you in? Anything from the very personal to the extensively global would be fine: how might we be praying with and for you?

Unlimited forgiveness...?

Paraphrasing Bob Mumford from the recent ACM conference: the coming of the kingdom looks like unqualified love and unlimited forgiveness in action. Yale theologian Miroslav Wolf, in his book Exclusion and Embrace, writes of the two "movements" in forgiveness: first is exclusion, where the evil that has been done is named, its effects described, and the perpetrators identified. Once this has been done, embrace (re-welcoming the offenders) becomes possible (though not automatic or instantaneous). What forms might a "ministry of unlimited forgiveness" take? How might the church move from being perceived as the place to receive unlimited judgment and condemnation to a place where the excluded might experience being re-embraced?

To the Jews first, and also to the Greeks

Let's pick up on the conversation that's been going on in our "email dimension." Sean got us started with some helpful comments and insight about some of what it means to be Jewish and a follower of Jesus. We discussed whether Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ" was anti-semitic or not, and why. Are we supercessionists--has Israel been superceded by the church? Is there a continuing role for Israel in the redemptive purposes of God, and if so, what it it and how is it different from the church's role? Is Romans 9-11 a "parenthesis" to Paul's major 'argument' in the letter, or does it represent the culmination of that argument? Does any of this matter, or is it mere abstract theologizing with no real-world purpose or application?

Schedule Change for ACM

Attention all Thinklings--for those attending ACM, we've been requested to move our get-together back to 3 PM on Saturday. Could all who are hoping/planning to be there acknowledge receipt of this info? Thanks!

Offering Hospitality

I want to suggest that the church needs to recover the practice of offering hospitality to the world around us. How might a "hospitality approach" tweak or adjust the ways in which we think about mission? Have you ever experienced something that might be called "the hospitality of heaven"? Any Scriptures light up in a particular way when we frame the question in this way?