Slow Church Planting? [Guest Post by Timothy Colegrove]

October 24, 2013 By 2 Comments
Colegrove

I recently met Tim Colegrove (his wife is an old friend from college), and was intrigued by his story and invited him to share part of it here...  ~Chris Guest Blogger: Timothy Colegrove  Tim and Alice Colegrove live and work in Boston, MA where they serve with the Conservative Mennonite Conference (CMC) as evangelists and prospective church-planters. Their vision is to establish a multi-ethnic evangelical Anabaptist church in the city of Boston committed to discipling new believers, breaking down socio-economic barriers, and gathering an eclectic community around Jesus’ table. Prior to … [Read more...]

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Cultivating Economic Peace in an Age of Instability

October 14, 2013 By 6 Comments
CommonWealth

I turned on the radio this morning, and the airwaves were full of speculation about whether the U.S. economy would default, and if so, when... In sharp contrast, I am pleased to share this stunningly poignant piece that my friend Jim Aldrich recently wrote about how we have tried to cultivate a different sort of economy as a church community at Englewood Christian Church. The convictions that Jim expresses here lie at the heart of what we describe as the Slow Church economy. Twenty or so years ago we (at Englewood Christian Church) began a prolonged conversation; one that continues at … [Read more...]

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Slow Church Book Cover!

September 12, 2013 By 2 Comments
photo 2

This just in! Chris and I were thrilled when our editor sent us the cover design for the forthcoming Slow Church book. The book has a Spring 2014 release date. We think the design team over at IVP/Praxis hit the nail on the head. In short, we couldn't be more pleased. What do you think? … [Read more...]

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Howard Thurman: Slow Church and Social Liberation

August 23, 2013 By 4 Comments
Thurman1

  This comes from an interview with Dr. Walter Fluker, director and editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project at Morehouse College, that ran on the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly website. [ Read the full interview... ] This passage also echoes a point that Andy Crouch made about the Civil Rights movement in my interview with him about his forthcoming book: PLAYING GOD: Redeeming the Gift of Power. (HT: Ric Hudgens for pointing me to this... ) Q: Why do you think [Howard Thurman] has been so overlooked or bypassed by many in our society? WF: Our society is fast-paced. … [Read more...]

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Slow and Local are Where We Must Begin.

August 22, 2013 By 22 Comments
Englewood-Garden

A Response to Jamie Smith...   I have a deep appreciation for Jamie Smith’s work.  His latest book, Imagining The Kingdom, will most likely be one of The Englewood Review of Books’ (of which I am the editor) best books of the year for 2013, and his Desiring the Kingdom was one named one of our best books of 2009.  And yet I can’t help feeling like the brilliant young philosophy professor has created a straw man in his latest blog post for Cardus: Knitting While Detroit Burns.   This post is a response to Brandon Rhodes’s recent profile of Tacoma, WA’s Zoe … [Read more...]

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Pope Francis issues a call for Slow Church!

August 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Pope_Francis_in_March_2013

In a speech last week to the Bishops of Brazil, Pope Francis spoke eloquently about the timely need for Slow Church... Here's a compelling excerpt from the speech: [ HT to Tim Ross for pointing my attention to this speech... ]   "We are impatient, anxious to see the whole picture, but God lets us see things slowly, quietly. Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people’s side, of doing more than simply listening to them; a Church which accompanies them on their journey; a Church able to make sense of the “night” contained in the flight of so many of our … [Read more...]

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A Conversational Way Forward: Responding to the Exodus of Millennials from our Churches

July 28, 2013 By 19 Comments
rachel-held-evans

Rachel Held Evans has written a wonderful piece for the CNN Belief blog on why Millennials are leaving our churches. It has been in heavy rotation on the social media circuits the last couple of days, but in case you haven't seen it yet, do stop and read it now. From my experience talking to millennials in churches and colleges, I think Rachel has hit the nail on the head.  However, I am a few years older than Rachel (squarely in the middle of Generation X), and I remember very similar pieces being written about why Gen-Xers were leaving churches in the early to mid-1990s. So, maybe … [Read more...]

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