Prayer Cards for UPGs

Free downloads in various sets to remind us to pray for unreached people around the world.

http://www.joshuaproject.net/prayer-cards.php

"five to seven times easier to plant a new church"

“It’s probably five to seven times easier to plant a new church than to help an established church that’s in deep difficulty to restore its vitality. I wouldn’t discourage established churches from doing that, but it’s much more fruitful and efficient to plant new churches.”

David T. Olson
Director of the American Church Research Project (RNS)

as quoted in the April 6, 2009 Baptist Standard (http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9383&Itemid=9)

Brian McClaren (sp?) Podcast

Just listened to Off the Map Production’s podcast “A Generous Heart Toward The Powerless With Brian McLaren.” McClaren’s speaking bout violence and power, is pretty heady but gave me some new thoughts to chew on regarding the Sermon on the Mount and even the atonement. His take on the Sermon on the Mount havig much to do with power and how to confront it was interesting. At the end he asks if he can “get political” and makes some interesting connections between this new take on atonement and what it might mean for a better way to confront violence and specifically terrorism. “Just War” theory is discussed some too. I’m not enough of a theologian to know if I should fully endorse what all McClaren says here, but I can say it is interesting and seems to be offered in a Christ-like spirit. If you listen to it, comment below and let everyone know what you go tout of it.

Podcast for Urban Christians

I just listed to a Fermi Project (with which George Barna has some connection) Podcast. #29 Jon Tyson. Had some solid words about the church in an urban environment. I especially resonated with this...

"I don't think Paul had that clear of a strategic an idea of what he was doing. ... He knew he was going to have some level of influence [but] I don't think he had a grand idea of how to do it. I don't think he sat down and said, 'Let's map out all the larger cities in the world and move to them becasue this is where culture is formed.'

"It seems like the Spirit led him. He's wandering around listening. 'Where's God moving? What's God doing next?' The Spirit leads him, he goes to a place. And I think it developed over time like that.

"I get a little cautious when people are only purely strategic... We are famous in the chuch for building skeletons and trying to bring them to life. And I'd rather find out where God is moving, where the Spirit is leading."

Get it on iTunes. Here's the iTunes description of the podcast.

This episode features Jon Tyson, a church planter in the heart of Manhattan and a part of the Origins Movement - a church planting movement committed to multiplying missional communities in the major urban influential centers of the world.

Buechner on Advent

The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the
extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.

Frederick Buechner,Whistling in the Dark

Bonhoeffer on Advent

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes ... and is completely dependent on the
fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad
picture of Advent.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,German pastor and philosopher (1906-1945) imprisoned and executed for his attempt to overthrow Adolf Hitler.

Giving My Full Attention

I believe in person to person; every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment. - Mother Teresa