You are looking for a church. Here are your choices: (a) A once-Charismatic congregation that’s transitioned away from those roots to a hyper-cautious blend of seeker-Reformed.(b) A church with a bit of an identity crisis that belongs to a fundy-holiness denomination, but has positioned itself in the emerging stream, ancient-future variety.(c) A highly programmed big box where the paid staff are leading the key ministries, a fleet of volunteers reports to the staff, filling slots on an org chart(d) A... Read more

As the news about what was going on inside the heart of VT shooter Cho Seung-Hui broke yesterday, followed with information about how others had perceived him throughout his formative years (to sum up – either invisible or really weird), it struck me that there are a lot of Chos walking around this planet. There are few of us so damaged and demonized that we’ll go out and buy a gun and write a ranting manifesto that channels odd Biblical/literary... Read more

I got a chance to hear Todd Hunter of Alpha USA this morning at the Catalyst quarterly meeting. (Wouldja look at all those hyperlinks in one sentence!) He gave a great quickie primer on thinking missionally in our changing post-modern culture, followed, somewhat ironically, by a very modern-in-orientation saturation ad campaign leading into the push to do lots of Alpha at lots of churches across Lake County next fall. I like the concept of Alpha, especially the focus on community,... Read more