Because of a major glitch involved in the 2.9 WordPress upgrade, the blog has been down for the past couple of weeks. But because of the great help from the guys at iThemes I am finally back up. So to get caught up a bit here are several links I have been hoarding:

Len Hjalmarson adds a bit to an excellent post by David Fitch on Instilling Missional Habits.

Len again with Dallas Willard on Incarnation.

Ortberg shares a great illustration of the incarnation.

How Religious is Your State?

Spiritual Warfare and Gospel Movements.

A good reminder from Dan Kimball to start with prayer in 2010 and to see church buildings as mission outposts.

Churches and Social Media from Drew Goodmanson.

Is There an Organic Church Movement?

Update: Andrew Jones and How to Spot a Church Movement.

Ed Stetzer shares 10 reasons to partner in church planting sooner rather than later.

Some very practical advice from Jonathan Dodson on doing everyday things with Gospel intentionality

Andrew Jones on Wolfgang Simson and the emerging house church movement.

I know a couple of these links have been out there for a while but if you haven’t seen these be sure to check out the following.

Outstanding post from last month by David Fitch on moving from “the bridge” to “the onramp.” Today’s post by Fitch on Missional Discipleship is also well worth reading. Also I am looking forward to Fitch coming to Kansas City next month.

Tony Stiff and Reading the Bible Missionally. You can also follow a conversation about Tony’s thoughts at JR Woodward’s blog here and here.

Another great analysis by Ed Stetzer in Five Reasons Missional Churches Don’t Do Global Missions And How to Fix It.

Neil Cole and Church 3.0

Organized For Mission and Four P’s For Church Planting at Next Reformation.

Jonathan Dodson and Is Your Mission Driven by Prayer?

On Reaching a City.

Missional Small Communities from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

David Dunbar’s latest Missional Journal article – “Everything Changes.” Here David speaks on the importance of having our theology shaped by the missionary nature of God and His church. 

“What is crucial here is that mission is not first and foremost a job description for the church, but a reference to what God is up to in the world–God is on a mission!”

“The Church in a Missional Age” by Brett McCracken is a good basic introduction to the missional conversation.  On the same Biola Magazine website, you can also find a great interview with Ed Stetzer.

Here are “10 Ways Not  to Be Missional“

And finally, “Are You Attractive?”

Here are several very good articles to add to your reading this week.

Drew Goodmanson’s “Shared Values of Missional Church Communities.”

Scot McKnight’s first four installments on the wonderful “Mission of God” by Christopher Wright: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Tom Davis and “Why Christians S**k.” If you are not familiar with Davis check out a couple posts on his book Red Letters. If you are not sure what the Bible says about God’s heart for the poor check out this list of Scripture.

Brian McLaughlin at Triangular Christianity offers a good reveiw of the first five “new realities” from Reggie McNeal’s Present Future.

Consider Len Hjalmarson’s “Feeding the Beast.”

If you are reading this and have some vested interest in a community of faith – whatever your flavor, old-school or new-school, emerging or submerging – do yourself a favor and stop caring about the following things:

1.  The number of people in your church. Really, it doesn’t matter.

2.  The “relevancy” of your common worship.

3.  How often or if ever a new person shows up at one of your common worship times.

4.  The size of your church budget, building, or paid staff.

5.  What any other church in the world is doing – good or bad or otherwise.

And please start caring about the following things:

1.  Actively looking for the evidence of God’s kingdom – where what he wants done is done – at work, at home, at Starbucks (heaven forbid), at the beach, and anywhere else you might find yourself in the course of living your normal life.

2.  Simple, honest worship.

3.  Having friends that don’t give a rip about your church. Maybe you might just rub off on them.

4.  Giving away money to people who need it; using existing, familiar (and free) spaces for common worship such as homes, restaurants, parks, or community centers; flattening the organization’s need for paid leadership and support roles.

5.  Go on a unique, unreproducible journey with a group of people and rejoice with other groups of people who do the same.

David Dunbar has written a great article on biblical hospitality for Allelon. He states: “Christian hospitality is the art of sharing with others the gracious welcome that we ourselves have received from God.” Read the entire article here.

Joe Thorn offers an excellent post on 6 Rules of Cultural Engagement.

I know several of you that read this blog on a regular basis are in education at some level. Here is a good post by Aaron Ghiloni titled 10 Propositions on Education.

Rick Meigs at The Blind Beggar found the words to a poem by Adrian Plass titled “When I Became A Christian.” I have heard Michael Frost read this poem a couple of times on different podcasts. It is good to have a copy of the words.

This past weekend my son, Joshua and I drove to Springfield, IL for a great Relient K and Switchfoot concert. Here is a picture of each band from the concert. Read the rest of this entry

Rick Meigs at Blind Beggar debriefs a bit here from the Allelon Missional Order gathering earlier this month.

Just started reading Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds by Tom Davis which is the foundation for 5 For Fifty.

Billy Calderwood gives a personal reaction to Announcing the Kingdom by Arthur Glasser that made me move the book closer to the top of my reading stack.

Be sure to check out Metamorpha, a very interesting collection of resources and discussion opportunities in the arena of spiritual formation.

Have you outsourced your brain?

Interesting article from The New York Times on The Evangelical Crackup. Much of the article deals with the evangelical life in Wichita, KS. Wichita was my home town up until about two years ago, therefore I know many of those involved in the issues highlighted in the article. There are several great quotes in the article from the likes of Scot McKnight, Jim Wallis, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels and friend Paul Hill.

As our network groups have been reading through Hirsch’s “The Forgotten Ways” we have had several conversations about the pressure to conform to the consumerist model of the American church. Here is a brief discussion with Dan Kimball about the pressures at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. (HT: Rick Meigs)

At the prompting of a friend I have started praying during fixed hours of the day with the help of a free online version of ”The Divine Hours” by Phyllis Tickle. She writes: “Praying the hours enjoins us to stop, let go of all that occupies us, and focus on the sacred at regular intervals throughout the day. Suddenly, every day becomes holy, for every day is laced together by our appointments with God.”

Over at The Freeway there is a brief but helpful piece on Third Places. (HT: Len Hjalmarson)

Here is an excellent resource of podcasts from The Kindlings, including interviews with Stan Grenz, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Dallas Willard, Donald Miller and the like.

Lifeway study concerning the SBC and “private prayer language.”

Here is an excellent article on the importance of teaching theology from a missional perspective by Dr. John Franke, Professor of Theology at Biblical Seminary. The article focuses on the implications of understanding Christian theology as a discipline that should assist the church in it’s missional vocation.

Drew Goodmanson presents a couple of outstanding posts on developing a “triperspectival ecclesiology.” The first post is here. Second post is here. A follow up post on missional leadership is here. Be sure to examine the diagrams with each post. How do you see these diagrams assisting the formation of your community? How do they help you communicate?

I found the possibilities of this event very interesting in light of several conversations we have been having about the need for some sort of missional order.

Does individualism pervert the gospel? Getting the Gospel right by Scot McKnight.

In small group ministry as well as house/organic expressions of church people inevitably ask “what to do with the kids?”

Finally, here is a nice resource of seminary courses from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. There are nearly a thousand free resources available for download in mp3 or pdf files.