In days gone by, missional efforts were focused on presenting and demonstrating the love of Christ to non-Christians. But in the 1980s a new term was coined to describe the growing number of North Americans without any significant church background. They were called the unchurched. Untold numbers of books were written about them. Ministry conferences discussed them. Church leaders orchestrated worship services to attract them.The shift from “evangelizing non-Christians” to “reaching the unchurched” was perceived as benign at the time, but it represented an important shift in our understanding of mission. The church was no longer just a means by which Christ’s mission would advance in the world, it was also the end of that mission. The goal wasn’t simply to introduce the unchurched to Christ, but—as the…

Some time ago, the folks at Zondervan recorded a video of me discussing The Divine Commodity. I had never seen the footage, but recently discovered it on their site. If you’d like to know a little more about the book and why I wrote it, here’s your chance.

In other book news, my friend and colleague from Leadership Journal, Brandon O’Brien is close to releasing his first book The Strategically Small Church. I’ve already read an advanced copy and it’s really fantastic. Brandon does a great job of showing how intentionally small congregation may be the ideal instrument to impact our rapidly shifting culture. But he does this without discrediting the role of larger churches. What I especially love about the book is how much research he put into…

What should worship look like? Hymns or choruses? High liturgy or free-flowing? Electric or acoustic? Contemporary or traditional? Energetic or reflective? These questions have caused the fracture of many churches, and the battles fought have left many wounded and disenchanted with ministry. They are also questions which I do not address in my recent book, The Divine Commodity.

Apparently there is an excerpt from the book floating around the web from which people have wrongly concluding that I favor a particular style of worship over another, or that I am somehow anti-contemporary worship and much prefer sedate forms of ecclesiastical gathering and would even go so far as to judge one style as “wrong.” (The very idea that a style can be wrong is funny to begin with. That’s like saying…

Prepare to be offended. A billboard in New Zealand has just gone up that shows Mary and Joseph in bed together. Joseph looks dejected. The caption says: “Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow.” What exactly are people to conclude from such an ad–call the Holy Spirit for a good time?Here’s the craziest part–the billboard was put up by a church. A church! Who needs Christopher Hitchens with Christians like these around?If you recall, I wrote a few posts earlier this year about an atheist ad campaign that started on buses in the UK. The posters said: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Those ads created a lot of buzz and controversy. They’ve also spread from London to the US, Canada,…

Rick McKinley is pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, Oregon, and the guy behind the Advent Conspiracy movement. I first interviewed Rick for Leadership a few years ago. We also serve together on the Origins Project. A few weeks ago Rick interviewed me about The Divine Commodity for one of the Advent Conspiracy podcasts this month.

I’m pleased to see that even Time Magazine has caught wind of AC. The recent article juxtaposes Advent Conspiracy with the Religious Right’s crusade to keep Christ at the center of the shopping and marketing frenzy of this season. Folks on the Christian and political right are blasting retailers who use “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” in their advertising.

McKinley and Advent Conspiracy seem to have a better grasp not only on the purpose of Advent,…

In October I sat down for a brief interview with Brian Babylon, a host on Chicago Public Radio’s “Vocolo” (95.5 FM), about my participation with the Interfaith Youth Core conference at Northwestern University. We had a great conversation about matters of faith, culture, and the church.

In December, Vocolo is doing a series of broadcasts about faith. Brian invited me to be a guest each Friday this month to discuss familiar, but often misunderstood, stories from the Bible and how they apply to contemporary issues. I’ve had the privilege of doing a number of Christian radio programs before, but this was a first: 30 minutes to talk about the Bible and apply it on public radio.

December 4th was my first segment. I was able to do it in studio…

Promise Keepers new focus on women and messianic Jews:“Promise Keepers is not a men’s ministry. It is a ministry for men.” -Raleigh Washington president of Promise Keepers. Read more.

The Manhattan Declaration’s focus on abortion, gay marriage, and religious liberty:

“We argue that there is a hierarchy of issues. A lot of the younger evangelicals say they’re all alike. We’re hoping to educate them that these are the three most important issues.” -Chuck Colson. Read more.

Pastor on relocating to Chicago to plant a church:

“I just had one of those moments like ‘Holy crap … what are we doing?’” -Mark Bergin. Read more.

Rick Warren on paying $1500 for counseling early in his marriage:

“MasterCard saved my marriage!” -Rick Warren.

Zondervan’s decision to stop publication of a book deemed racist by Asian-Americans:

“The growing churches…

The peaceful, neutrality-loving citizens of Switzerland voted last week to ban the construction of minarets in their country-a decision not welcomed by the country’s 400,000 Muslims. For those unfamiliar with Islamic architecture, minarets are the steeple-like towers attached to mosques from which the call to prayer is broadcast.The referendum was not a matter of preserving the alpine skyline, and some are saying it shouldn’t be interpreted as a restriction upon religious freedom either. Rather it’s the latest battlefront in Western Europe between advocates of traditional European culture and the recent influx of non-European immigrants.

While many leaders in Switzerland’s government and churches opposed the ban, the measure won with a significant 57.5 percent of the vote. This is from The Washington Post:

But backers of the measure said from the…

Can you correctly identify the source of the following quote?

“You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless.”

16% of Americans surveyed believed the statement came from President Obama–the number one response in the study. 9% said the Dalai Lama. Martin Luther King Jr. came in at 8%, and Oprah Winfrey garnered 4%. And 3% said Bono. Taken together, 54% of American misidentified the correct source. Only 13% got it right–the Bible (Proverbs 31:8-9).

“The survey illustrates the reason we created ‘The Poverty and Justice Bible,’” commented R. Lamar Vest, president of American Bible Society, “to highlight God’s concern for the poor, marginalized and oppressed.”

“The Poverty and Justice Bible seeks to challenge the notion that the Bible is outdated…

Last week I came across one of those news articles that makes you wonder if we’re all just flying upside down. This headline comes from the Telegraph in the UK”Council sets up scrutiny panel - to scrutinize its scrutiny panels”

A spokesperson from the Wealden District Council said a working party was established in July to oversee the decisions of its three existing scrutiny panels and to “scrutinize the Council’s scrutiny arrangements.” It sounds to me like the citizens of Wealden District are the ones getting scrutted…but I digress. The article continues:

Mark Wallace, from the Taxpayers Alliance, said: “Whilst it may be well-intentioned the council appear to have wrapped themselves up in knots and ended up in an absurd situation. By all means they should review their procedures but…