-
Learn from people with different perspectives
Maybe it’s not right to “rate” churches. Maybe it seems consumeristic. Maybe one visit to a service can’t get the feel of a community. But what if a view from the outside, from an atheist, shed some light on a few of your blind spots? What if it caused a little conversation? What if it…
-
Do two things well
In one way of looking at it, church exists for two things: a message – to tell the world of God’s love. To share they have a way, a hope. a movement – to be the incarnation of that love in the world. Here and now. An exciting thing has happened over the past…
-
Be willing to work on things that matter
I’ve heard that Toyota stops their assembly line every time a worker notices an inferior part. Sometimes we see things that need to be fixed in our lives, but we realize how much WORK it’s going to be if we stop and make it right. It’s probably tempting on a bad rushed day for a…
-
Quick Thoughts: boldness and the kingdom
“A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimenting with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.” – J. Oswald Sanders
-
Quick Thoughts: God cares about character
“The major work is that which God is doing to and in the leader, not through him or her. Most emerging leaders don’t recognize this. They evaluate productivity, activities, fruitfulness, etc. But God is quietly, often in unusual ways, trying to get the leader to see that one ministers out of what one is. God…
-
How MySpace keeps going
I’m tired of MySpace and don’t really use it much. Facebook has taken over. It’s cleaner, more well organized, and I don’t feel embarassed when their ads flash across my screen. So I finally decided to cancel my MySpace account. I log in, go to my account, select to cancel the account, and am told…
-
Quick Thoughts: Bonhoeffer says “do something”
“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer A timely reminder after my last post …
-
Don’t Hide – links to the sermon
If you’re interested in hearing the sermon I preached last month, you can hear it here. If you’d prefer, you can also search for “Glenkirk Church” in iTunes and pull it up through their podcast. And here are the visuals if you want to follow along. Enjoy :). I also used a video the folks…
-
My next steps (part four)
Here’s my final “next step” thought from the class I took with Alan. I’ll process more of the ideas from the class later, but these are simply a few of the things I need to apply from the time personally. As with any classroom environment, it’s easy to get stuck in the theory and never…
-
If at first you don’t succeed, switch the number one more time
There’s an article in the most recent Newsweek about how when cell phone companies recycle phone numbers, some people get interesting phone calls. These people have had the old numbers of folks like Paris Hilton, Madonna, and Chris Rock and end up fielding calls from stars like Antonio Banderas and Gabriel Byrne. I don’t know…
-
My next steps (part three)
The third post in my series of next steps I’m taking after a class with Alan Hirsch. Read the first two here and here. Gospels – Most of the communities we talked about centered most of their learning around the Gospels. We get most of what we know about God from Jesus, so we need…
-
My next steps (part two)
Continuing from the last post, here’s another next step I’m taking after finishing up The Forgotten Ways. Practices – The Western church is all about knowledge. If we KNOW enough, we’ll start DOING the right things, right? It hasn’t really worked, has it? I love how some churches we discussed have embraced practices instead of…
-
The end is near!
At least for one fictitious wizard’s story. Grete received her copy of the final installment of Harry Potter today (she’s a purist, ordering each book from England so she can read it in its original language :)), and is eagerly preparing to read it (by reviewing the last book). This is good for the Sampson…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Jon Sampson 