Random

~ What is your reaction to this poster? Is this something Jesus would actually do? (via) (Click on the picture for a bigger view.)

















~ Antioch College may not close after all.

~ Why is Bill Hybel's admission of an error in approach to church such a big deal?

Because we all more or less bought into his model -- or developed in reaction to Willow Creek.

"Mr Chairman, members of the committee, I wish to be perfectly clear, I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Willow Creek Association..." :-)

Hey, at least Bill was innovating while a lot of the rest of us were sitting on our numb butts. There are things about the seeker model that made me uncomfortable from the beginning but not everything -- and I've always been comfortable with and had great respect for the Willow Creek leaders and people -- still do.

~ Beth, thou art hereby dubbed with the title "Nominalist Buster." Might thou be as allegiant in this pursuit as thou hast been as the "Gnostic Buster."

Of course, you realize that you are tackling the two major weaknesses of American evangelicalism. May the Force be with you. :-)

~ My brother Gary and wife Joy came over to my parent's place today. Then my uncle Ron and Aunt Nita came be for supper, too. It was a micro family reunion.

~ Dave and I meet up Sunday in Houston. Then we fly on to Atlanta. We drive to Columbia, South Carolina and hang there for a couple of days. I'm hoping to meet up with Sean while there.

~ Don Johnson is asking the right questions -- questions which the Covenant will need to address as we search for a new president. What does it mean to elect a President of a Denomination in a "denominationless culture? What focus should denominational leadership take when their role is not longer assumed to be important by a growing majority of church-goers? What will be the emerging role for denominational presence in the life of a local church?

I'm an optimist. Of any denomination the Covenant is perhaps in the strongest of positions. Many denominations are trying to morph to become more like the post-Swedish-American Covenant has been. Still we're going to have to change even more to deal with the emerging reality.

It's not easy to be a tribal chief -- even of a highly effective tribe -- when people don't have much of their identity invested in the tribe. Whether it should or shouldn't be this way is moot. It is the reality in which we serve.