Following is an excellent excerpt from Renovation of the Church on the stranglehold consumerism has on the church in the United States: I don’t know how to say this in a gentle way, but we should not assume that those people who are attracted to our church have been captivated by the message of Christ [...]
Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Consumerism & the American Church
Posted: 29th August 2011 by Brad Brisco in Books, Church, Culture, Missional1
Church in a Broken World
Posted: 13th April 2011 by Brad Brisco in Church, Community Transformation, Culture, Michael Frost, Missiology, MissionalYou don’t have to leave your office or home to participate in Michael Frost’s One Day events April 13 and 18 in Prague and Budapest during the upcoming JetSet tour. View videos posted soon after each discussion led by Frost about “Church in a Broken World.” Then share you input and ask questions by commenting [...]
The Marginalization of the Church
Posted: 25th March 2011 by Brad Brisco in Books, Church, Culture, Ecclesiology, Forge, MissionalComments Off
This past weekend I conducted a workshop on transitioning existing churches in a missional direction. We began our time together making sure the group was on the “same page” in regards to the state of the church in America. For a portion of that discussion I shared the following article on the marginalization of the [...]
Attractional (or Extractional) Church & Cultural Distance
Posted: 21st February 2011 by Brad Brisco in Alan Hirsch, Books, Church, Culture, Gospel, Incarnational, Missional, TrainingWhen I posted the two videos last week from the AND conference I wanted to include a shorter, more concise, Q conference presentation that Alan Hirsch did on the same topic of cultural distance. However, the link to the Q presentation had been eliminated. After contacting the Q site they have reposted the video, titled [...]
Alan Hirsch on Cultural Distance & the American Missionary Problem
Posted: 14th February 2011 by Brad Brisco in Alan Hirsch, Church, Church Planting, Culture, Ecclesiology, Forge, Gospel, Missiology, Missional, Theology, Training, Video, Way of JesusBelow are two very helpful videos presentations by Alan Hirsch from last year’s AND conference at Granger Community Church. The bulk of the first video is spent on the very important topic of cultural distance and the problem it creates for meaningful communication of the gospel. Building upon the cultural distance discussion, he then proceeds [...]
Missional: Does the Word Still Have Value?
Posted: 13th October 2010 by Brad Brisco in Books, Church, Culture, Ecclesiology, Gospel, Incarnational, Missiology, Missional, VideoComments Off
Below is another helpful video produced by Bill Kinnon that captures a discussion between David Fitch and Gary Nelson on the value of the word “missional.” I particularly like how Fitch highlights four themes that need to be maintained for the word to continue to be valuable. Those themes include: 1) Post Christendom as the [...]
Simon Carey Holt & God Next Door
Posted: 12th July 2010 by Brad Brisco in Books, Culture, Hospitality, Missiology, Missional, Spiritual Formation, Video, Way of JesusComments Off
The videos below include two segments of a conversation between Alan Roxburgh and Simon Carey Holt. The videos are a companion resource to an excellent workbook written by Roxburgh titled “Moving Back into the Neighborhood.” The MBiN workbook can be downloaded here. As mentioned before, I initially thought the $30 price tag for a 77 [...]
The Importance of Understanding the Post-Christendom Shift
Posted: 7th April 2010 by Brad Brisco in Books, Culture, Forge, Michael Frost, Missional, Training, VideoI attended a half day conference yesterday that dealt with trends that were impacting the American church. It didn’t take long for me to become frustrated with the “list” of trends seeing that it did not include what I believe to be the most crucial “trend” to understand – that being the shift towards a [...]
Darrell Guder: Image of Temple vs Tabernacle
Posted: 27th March 2010 by Brad Brisco in Books, Church, Culture, Ecclesiology, Missional, TheologyComments Off
Over the past couple of years I have been attempting to read through every book from the Gospel and Our Culture Series written or edited by such authors as Darrell Guder, Craig Van Gelder, George Hunsberger, Lois Barrett and others. My two favorites have been the ever popular “Missional Church” and the lesser known “Confident Witness [...]
From Christendom to Post-Christendom
Posted: 20th March 2010 by Brad Brisco in Church, Culture, MissionalComments Off
One of the key elements of moving an existing congregation in a missional direction involves assisting the church in understanding cultural shifts. The most significant shift for the church to consider is the one from Christendom to Post-Christendom. Without a clear grasp of the significant missiological and ecclesiological changes that are necessary in a Post-Christendom context, [...]
Alan Hirsch & Cultural Distance
Posted: 13th March 2010 by Brad Brisco in Alan Hirsch, Culture, Ecclesiology, Gospel, Incarnational, Missiology, Missional, VideoComments Off
Here are the links to two very good presentations from Alan Hirsch on the topic of cultural distance in a post-Christendom context. The first video is a 19 minute talk given at the Q conference. The second clip is an expansion on the same topic in a 47 minute session at Velocity.
Preaching in the Missional Church
Posted: 22nd December 2009 by Brad Brisco in Church, Culture, Gospel, Leadership, MissionalErvin R. Stutzman has written an excellent paper titled “Preaching in the Missional Church” which can be downloaded here. Stutzman provides a brief analysis of the effects of secularization on the Christian church in the West. He then moves to discuss the response of the missional church to the secularization process. However, the majority of [...]
Community Transformation Audios
Posted: 4th December 2009 by Brad Brisco in Church, Community Transformation, Culture, Gospel, Incarnational, Justice, Kingdom of God, LeadershipComments Off
Here are two additional sessions from last month’s missional church conference. In these two sessions Eric Swanson speaks to the topic of community transformation. The final 30 minutes of session one includes the audio of an animated short film titled The Man Who Planted Trees. The film is the story of a solitary sheperd who [...]
Why Focus on the City?
Posted: 28th November 2009 by Brad Brisco in Books, Community Transformation, Culture, Incarnational, Missional, Spiritual FormationWhy focus on the city? In the United States, more than half of the population now lives in just forty cities of a million or more people. In the past twenty-five years Las Vegas exploded with 250-percent population growth, while Houston grew by 140 percent. Cities are magnets pulling the hopeful across any barrier, and [...]
History of Missional Church – Part IV
Posted: 16th November 2009 by Brad Brisco in Books, Church, Culture, Dmin Project, Ecclesiology, Incarnational, Missiology, MissionalHistory of Missional Church – Part I History of Missional Church – Part II History of Missional Church – Part III Other Notable Authors and Contributors There are a number of other authors who have contributed significantly to the missional church conversation in the past decade. Two of the more notable voices have been that [...]