Tag: community

Leadership in Small Churches

The preacher is the chief storyteller of the congregation’s story and knows the value of telling and retelling it on the occasion when most people are gathered and receptive to the storyteller’s spell, that is, the sermon. This is especially valuable to small membership churches, where neglect of history to the point of institutional amnesia is a telling symptom of a lack of corporate self-esteem. A small membership church that cannot tell its own story is prey to a fabricated story told about it from outside by an unfriendly critic. For the sake of building up the body of Christ, the preacher must become a determined student of congregational history. Then in an act of strategic leadership, the preacher must tell that recovered story from the pulpit.

via Leading Ideas: A Resource for Church Leaders.

Race Relations in America – links to articles

In January 2008 I took a course about Urban Ministry in Detroit, MI. An eye opening class for many unpleasant reasons, and few pleasant too. Here are few articles I read in connection to the class.

The Fire Last Time – washingtonpost.com.

The Religion of Globalization

What’s love got to do?

THEOLOGY AND THE CITY: LEARNING TO CRY, STRUGGLING TO SEE by Jim Perkinson

Religious Cancer of racism by James H. Cone

Voices of Liberation and Struggle: Conversation with Dwight Hopkins

Like a thief in the night: Black Theology and White Church in the Third Millenium by James Perkinson

Martin, Malcolm and Black Theology by James H. Cone

Mission in Ethiopia

When in Systematic Theology I @ TLS, I wrote a comment in my notebook, about looking further at Gudina Tumsa. Part of that would be to see how and whether a tension between NMS and NLM played out in the formation and the first years of the Mekane Yesus Church. 

I don’t remember the reason for this comment but it might be worth examining further.

Gudina Tumsa, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.

Evangelicals in Addis Ababa (1919-1991)

“Who Do You Say that I Am”

“Jesus said unto them—“Who do you say that I am?”

And they replied:– “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of an interpersonal relationship.”

AND JESUS SAID UNTO THEM:     “WHAT?”

via “Who Do You Say that I Am”.

—-

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of an interpersonal relationship.” 

And Jesus answered him, “WHAT???”

Communication Strategies

W. Graig Gilliam talks about need for lessened anxiety and listening skills to create community.

For communication to occur, some level of communion or connection is a must. When those two comm words happen, a thirdcomm word constellates — community. Listening openly and honestly is a powerful way to communion/connection. In the silence of listening, we feel this comm, the silence of oneness. 

Leading Ideas: A Resource for Church Leaders.

Kaffihúsakirkjan (íslenska)

Kaffihúsakirkjan, reglulegar vikulegar samkomur á kaffihúsi þar sem við ræðum um guðfræðileg/samfélagsleg mál, biðjum saman og veltum fyrir okkur spurningunni: Hvað vill GUÐ?

– Biðjum hvort fyrir öðru
– Tjáum okkur um málefni
– Grátum saman
– Hlæjum saman
– Vefsíða sem vettvangur
– …

Spurning um helgihaldsþáttinn. Hugsanlega að fara til kirkju og syngja í lokin – frjálst að koma með.

Framtíðarborgin er íslensk

Nokkur ungmenni úr Bexley Middle School hér í Ohio, tóku einnig þátt í þessari árlegu keppni 8. bekkinga um bestu framtíðarborgina. Bexleybæingar unnu að þessu sinni á fylkisvísu og halda nú um miðjan febrúar til Washington, og keppa á landsvísu. Það vakti athygli mína að borgin sem þau hönnuðu og kölluðu “Novo-Mondum” var einmitt sögð vera á Íslandi í fréttabréfi skólahverfisins.

Vísun í vefsíðu Bexley Middle School.

Ekki beint

Sjálfsagt er talan ekki fjarri lagi að 4 milljarðar manna hafi aðgang að sjónvarpi sem sýnir frá setningu Ólympíuleikanna. Hvort allir þessir setjist niður og horfi er önnur saga. Það vekur samt sem áður athygli mína að það er ekki sýnt beint frá athöfninni hér í BNA. Skv. NBC verður athöfnin ekki fyrr en kl. 18:00 í kvöld eða 22:00 að íslenskum tíma.

Main Street Forum


Síðustu daga hef ég unnið að frágangi á veftímariti fyrir Healthy Congregations, Inc. En tímaritið er einungis aðgengilegt áskrifendum að þjónustu félagsins. Það er áhugavert hversu fjölbreytileg vandamál notenda eru, en mikil áhersla hefur verið lögð á að hægt sé að prenta tímaritið út á snyrtilegan hátt.

Tralfamadore

There were creatures who weren’t anything like machines. They weren’t dependable. They weren’t efficient. They weren’t predictable. They weren’t durable. And these poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others.These creatures spent most of their time trying to find out what their purpose was. And every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame.And, rather than serve such a low purpose, the creatures would make a machine to serve it. This left the creatures free to serve higher purposes. But whenever they found a higher purpose, the purpose still wasn’t high enough.

And the machines did everything to expertly that they were finally given the job of finding out what the higher purpose of the creatures could be.

The machines reported in all honesty that the creatures couldn’t really be said to have any purpose at all.

The creatures thereupon began slaying each other, because they hated purposeless things above all else.

And they discovered that they weren’t even very good at slaying. So they turned that job over to the machines, too. And the machines finished up the job in less time than it takes to say, “Tralfamadore.”

By: Kurt Vonnegut from “The Sirens of Titan”