The Pornographic Bible

For those who are wondering, no, I didn’t use that title to get a million Google hits    It just seemed very apt.
I was minding my own business a few minutes ago, playing a game of BibleApps (that thing is strangley addictive), when up came this verse:
The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no [...]

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A Worldview

I found this on Sarah’s blog.

Is it a fair representation?
Too simplistic?  Missing important stuff?
Anything else you’d add?
Anything you’d take away?

Just wondering what you all think.

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A Manifesto For Church

I’ve been tagged by Barry to write about what a good church should look like.  I had to think about it long and hard.  I’m not much of a visionary.
However, what I came up with was this:
1. Church should be fundamentally and foundationally missional.  We are a sent people, every single one of us.  The entire [...]

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Dear Church

Dear Church – Letters From a Disillousioned Generation
I found this website today (via Honest Faith) and found it very interesting.  Similar to the Dear God website, it allows readers to submit their own letter, this time directed to the church.
Some of the letters there are poignant, some terribly sad, some hopeful.
Here are some excerpts of [...]

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Happiness?

I saw this music video on TV on Saturday morning, and I found it really interesting.  Thought I’d post it here and see what you all think of it.

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Linkses, my precious

There is so much great stuff floating around at the moment I just had to share some of it.
Jeff wrote a fantastic post about religion vs grace.  Please go read that one if you haven’t already.
David (the NakedPastor) brings up the importance of rest.
Sara talks about a glaring inequality in Kampala.
Barb gives us a good list [...]

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Still broken…

I’m a broken person. A collection of smashed pieces. I used to think God fixed the broken and made things perfect and whole. Now I’m not so sure.
I think it’s more like he holds a candle in such a way that it illuminates all those broken pieces, so the light shines through and makes them [...]

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Fear of God?

I had dinner with Lee last night.  It was such a great time of venting, encouraging and discussing.  I love it when we get together and talk about everything under the sun.
One of the things that came up was the fear that I used to feel.  Not fear of God as in the awe-inspiring kind, [...]

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An Unequal Blessing

A couple of people around the place have been commenting on God’s blessing lately – specifically Grace and Cynthia talking about the “Lakeland Revival“.
It got me to thinking, as posts from Grace and Cynthia often do.
How does the blessing of God work?  Why does it fall so unequally on those who need it most and so [...]

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Support holy stuff for I am holy

We had a fantastic discussion in our church gathering yesterday that I’d love to share.
A couple of weeks previous we all watched a documentary about Oasis, a Salvation Army centre for youth homelessness located in Sydney.
Yesterday we discussed the film. We especially focused on our personal responses and our response as a group. We talked [...]

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End Child Slavery

Today is the Oak Tree Foundation’s End Child Slavery day.
Although we won’t be able to attend, my thoughts and prayers are with this little group of young people who are out to change the world.  First it was Melbourne’s Make Poverty History concert, where Bono dropped in.  Now they’re tackling the massive problem of child slavery.
From [...]

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Which church?

I’ve been wondering for a while what kind of churches (institutional or otherwise) people who visit this blog attend.  OK, it’s for no other reason than that I’m an incredibly curious person.  The recent discussions about institutional church are still ringing in my ears and making me think more deeply about this stuff.  So if you feel [...]

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God City

Abmo over at Windblown Hope has obviously been reading my posts rather deeply, because he’s come up with a meme about one! See here for my original post and here for Abmo’s.
He wants us to think about what would actually happen if a city was “taken for Christ” – if everybody in my city were Christians.
I only [...]

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A letter

I’m doing this with a little apprehension, but I know it’s time.  After our discussion in a previous post about institutional church, I believe that sharing this letter now might help others to find a voice within their churches.  Before now, only a few of our closest friends and another few who we felt might [...]

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Six word memoir

Barry has tagged me to participate in the Six Word Memoir meme:
So here is my memoir:  (drum roll please)
Learning life in the junk drawer.
(see this post for explanation)
The fine print:
1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person that tagged you.
4. Tag five more [...]

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Church?

A post over at The Boar’s Head Tavern (found via iMonk) got me thinking yet again about institutional church.  Oh, that and a post by Jeff McQuilkin.
It is all starting to seem a little unnecessary to me, this ‘My Church, Your Church’ denominational stuff, even to the point of questioning the need for the Institutional Church [...]

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Social Justice

I came across this poll on Church Marketing Sucks.  I’m still not really sure what to think of it.
Should I be sad for the 47% who barely even broach the subject?
Thankful for the 23% who make it a priority?
Worried that social justice is such an overlooked part of the Bible, and the gospel?
I really don’t [...]

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Going to the next level

I’ve decided. I’m going to the next level in God. I’m going to be empowered by an incredible, enthusiastic, visionary leader and take this city for Christ. I’m going to be a vibrant, passionate, charismatic believer who takes excellence seriously. I’m joining a vibrant, contemporary, growing church with a powerful message that impacts the world [...]

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