Interview with Doug Pagitt on Preaching Reimagined
Looking forward to get the book! Interesting new phrases – “speaching” & “progressional dialogue”.
The Professor as Scholar (pdf) (via Bob Robinson)
What it’s not and what it is …
A Bridge Far Enough? How would Jesus address the issues of our day?
I like the “bridge” metaphor … and was intrigued by one yesterday morning.
The Bridges of God by Donald A. McGavran (pdf)
Someone asked me lately…is what people perceive as “church growth” how McGraven really meant? (still on the “bridge” metaphor)
Marketing the Church (via Generoous Orthodoxy Think Tank)
At the latest church family camp I spoke in, I was sharing how through the past 5 years I’m increasingly (if not coming to a place definately) uncomfortable with using business & marketing lingo and mindsets in reference to church, life and ministry.
no, i am not comfortable with marketing lingo either and i can tell you its harder for me coming from a personwho works in the media-marketing-ad industry. david wells’ “wasteland” comes to mind, and i do think we need to resist consumerist tendencies (“Consumer is king”)that are usurping the Spirit’s role. EM Bounds: “men look for methods, but God looks for men – men of prayer.” sure we need to be relevant, meet felt needs, etc, but somewhere along the line we have to be careful that the final word about felt needs and relevance comes the Word that undergirds ‘the old-time religion.’ i know, i know – makes everything sounds positively jurassic.
dbctan ~ I suppose especially when this kind of “marketing” lingo is overused and becoming a little to “messianic” for my taste is where I get worried. I use it in humor but not without suspicion. Because I believe our reigning mental models need to be anchored more Biblically and theologically expecially in times where languuage has become manipulative often for personal gain or fame.
I agree with the accent on persons and personal language (keeping the communal dimension close by) because at the end it’s abut people isn’t it?. I applaud the recovery of the ancient without being nostalgic.