This past year I read Philip Jenkins excellent book, “The Lost History of Christianity.” He describes the disappearance of large swaths of Christianity. In particular, the Nestorian and Jacobite churches were all but overrun within a few generations by Islamic conquerers. While Muslims are quick to describe the bloody and abhorrent behavior of the Crusaders, [...]
I am no expert on ministry to Muslims in the USA (a part of the “diaspora ministry movement”). However, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so… I am watching how many US churches are waking up to the opportunity to reach out to the growing Islamic populations in their midst. [...]
A few weeks back I was listening to Kevin, from the New York City International Project, teach about church planting. He said something that really got me thinking. It got somebody else to do more than think! He said, "Anybody can plant a church." Anybody? Did he really mean, anybody? Yes, he really means anybody. [...]
After yesterday's blog post on Missions Conferences, I thought I would put up a little poll. If you go to church, any kind of a church, look to the right and vote! – Ted
I have been reading Wall's "The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History" Walls analyzes Latourette’s definition of "expansion." How do we know if a Christian movement is happening? He provides three different “tests” in looking at it: The Church Test: Is there a spreading of new congregations? The Kingdom Test: What is the strength and depth [...]
Last week I took a small, rhetorical swipe at Mark Driscoll. I came across this clip, and I sure like it. Too bad he didn't take his challenge a bit further and say, "We need people who will start a church in their house." In any case, thanks, Mark!
Where are the men? This past week I have gotten a few emails about Mark Driscoll's article in The Washington Post about boys who essentially never grow up and turn into men. He writes: Rather than moving from boy to man by this succession of sociological transitions, we've created something called adolescence. It's a third [...]
Is your church nurturing or is it a “weapon of mass induction” when it comes to the Kingdom of God? Most of us want to answer “both” but I don’t think this very often true. Churches are, for the most part, great at defense (teaching, pasturing, caring, and nurturing) and terrible at offense (going, evangelizing, [...]
The house church movement in the USA is weak and anemic compared to the same movement in other nations. Barna’s research on the size of the house church movement gives a huge range (anywhere from 4% to 33%) depending on the definition “house church.” I think the lower end numbers are much better guestimates. In [...]
There is a lot of communication happening on the “contextualization” front. For some years, some missionaries have been using ministry forms which are highly indigenous in nature and rely on sources from within other religious traditions to make their case. Others have been highly critical of this approach. This dialogue has a language all its [...]
