How Do We Reshape Discipleship for the Future?

As I have written my article on What Shapes Spirituality for the Future, I have thought a lot about the implications for discipleship.  How do we reshape discipleship and spiritual formation classes in order to really prepare followers of Christ for the world of the future? I love Jason Fowler’s words to us in a [...]

Kseniva Simonova – Amazing Sand Drawing

Andy Raine from the Northumbria Community near Holy Island just sent me a link to this amazing video: It shows Kseniya Simonova a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine [...]

Can Christians Learn from Atheists

I am sure that some of you will think that I am a little behind the times in this post but as I have had several questions about the place of atheism in our understanding of Christianity I thought that I would add these links – even though they were both written in 2006. they [...]

Religious Pluralism – How Will It Shape Christian Faith?

Well I have finally finished my article for the upcoming Seed Sampler on What Will Shape Our Spirituality in the Coming Decade? It has been an interesting and somewhat daunting challenge as I do believe that we are at a major pivotal point in Christian history – what Phyllis Tickle in her important book The Great [...]

What Will Shape Our Spirituality: Future Church #2

Yesterday’s post on What will shape our spirituality in the coming decade has sparked quite a bit of interest and as I have far more to say than can fit into my article for the upcoming MSA Seed Sampler I will share some more of my thoughts here. Yesterday I talked about the impact of [...]

What Shapes our Spirituality?

This week my main task is to complete the lead article for the MSA Seed Sampler on What Will Shape Our Spirituality in the Coming Decade?  It is a rather daunting task to narrow this down to a couple of trends as there are so many things that will shape both our spiritual practices and [...]

What is Prayer? More thoughts on praying for Haiti

This morning I drove Tom to the airport for a trip to Bluffton University.  Even though we are both morning people, a 6 am trip is still a struggle, made more acute by the fact that it disrupted my usual morning prayer time.  As I drove home I started thinking about the article I hope [...]

What If We Were in Charge of Jesus’ Publicity?

This hilarious video gives a wonderful idea of how Jesus parable of walking on the water might be reinterpreted (with commercials of course) by modern day marketers. I felt that underneath the humour there was a sobering and unfortunately probably truthful message about consumerism and the gospel.

A Small Indulgence

One of the joys for me of the last couple of weeks is that I now have an assistant.  Cindy Todd, who last year finished an MBA at Eastern University is now working with me two days a week.  It is a huge relief not just to have someone to help with the daily details [...]

Building A Dream for the Future

Tonight we are hosting a brainstorming session.  We are building a futures’ watch group and dreaming about how we can equip followers of Jesus to imagine new ways to be a difference and make a difference in God’s world.  We don’t just want to help people come up with ideas about how to live into [...]