A few weeks ago I got connected with the leadership team of the Luasanne Movement. The group dates back to 1974 when Billy Graham and John Stott brought church leaders from around the world to Luasanne, Switzerland, for a “congress” on world missions. Another Luasanne Congress occured in 1989 in Manila. A thrid gathering is now set for Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2010. It will include over 4000 leaders from over 200 countrie–the largest, most diverse gathering of Christian leaders in history. And for the first time more than half of the delagates will be from the Majority World.

As I move toward greater involvement with the efforts to organize Cape Town 2010, I’ve finally picked up a book that’s been on my desk for some…

Earlier this year, we published an issue of Leadership on the theme of “Rediscovered Roots: Timeless practices that keep us grounded and bring new life.” Jonny Baker, a leader of Grace, an alternative worship community in London, wrote a fantastic article for us called “Something Old, Something New.” In the piece he discusses the transformation of worship among the young away from a purely contemporary style toward an appreciation of history, liturgy, symbol, and even tradition.

I recently came across this cartoon called “The Evolution of a Worshiper” which reminded me of Baker’s article. The ‘toon progresses from an outwardly enthusiastic (can we call it Charismatic?) style, through the reserved form of popular evangelicalism, to the cynical postmodern with iPod and goatee, to the fully liturgical high-church Anglican.…

 I didn’t attend Wheaton College, but I do live in the town and grew up right next door in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I have a lot of connections to the college–friends who are both staff and students. So it was fascinating to read that the school has recently confirmed that it was part of the Underground Railroad. Dr. David Maas–who I attended church with as a kid–uncovered the evidence while doing research for a book.

Apparently Blanchard Hall, the historic stone building in the center of campus, was used to hide runaway slaves on their journey. Below is part of the article from The Daily Herald.

An entry buried in a 120-year-old manuscript has confirmed what local historians long have believed: Wheaton College was a stop on

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The Olympics are about athletics, competition, and the power of sport to draw the nations of the world together. It’s also about politics. Would Los Angeles have gotten the Summer Games in 1984 if Moscow hadn’t hosted them in 1980? Would Beijing have hosted the games in 2008 if China wasn’t the fastest growing economy on the planet? Do you think Atlanta’s bid in 1996 was helped at all by the fact that it’s Coca-Cola’s world headquarters-one of the Olympics largest corporate sponsors?In its less celebrated moments, the International Olympic Committee has been accused of allowing political and economic influence determine its choice of host cities. Although it has sought to clean up its act, if you think the IOC is now completely incorruptible I’ve…

Believe it or not, in the UK “Jedi” is a religious option listed on census documents. Believe it or not, there are over 500,000 Jedi adherents around the world. Believe it or not, a Jedi in Wales is accusing a supermarket of religious discrimination. Are we flying upside down, folks? Here’s the story from Gardian.co.uk:

Daniel Jones, founder of the religion inspired by the Star Wars films, says he was humiliated and victimised for his beliefs following the incident at a Tesco store in Bangor. The 23-year-old was told the hood flouted store rules.

But the grocery empire struck back, claiming that the three best known Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies – Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker – all appeared in public without their

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 Earlier this year I wrote a few posts about how the economic crisis/recession might impact our understanding of the church and mission. In those posts I differentiate peoples’ “core time” from their “leisure time.” Most churches target a person’s leisure time when seeking to advance God’s mission. In other words, churches desire to see more people sacrifice more of their flexible time to participate in groups, activities, ministries, and programs that they believe align with what God wants done in the world.

There are multiple problems with this model, but chief among them is that it leaves a person’s “core time” (often 80% or more of their week) untouched. In other words, people come to believe that most of their life and time simply does not matter…

Earlier this year, we interviewed Keith and Kristyn Getty for an article about worship in Leadership Journal. The Getty’s are Irish songwriters that seek to write modern day hymns. Some of their more popular songs are “In Christ Alone” and Keith wrote “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” with Stuart Townend.

As outsiders, Kristyn and Keith had some interesting comments about their perception of worship in contemporary American churches and the value of remaining connected to the past. Here’s an excerpt from the conversation. You can read the whole article here.

Kristyn: In America, “new” is a positive word. The positive energy and desire to do new things in America is certainly wonderful. But the truth is life isn’t always just a blank page. The Christian…

I shared my affection for Honda’s on this blog in the past. The automaker’s “man-max, machine-min” engineering philosophy helped me rethink my own understanding of church programming. How many car companies have inspired your ecclesiology?

In high school I worked at a Honda dealer as a porter. My first car was a Honda Prelude. And in the years since I’ve owned six different Hondas-from a sports car to a minivan; an SUV and a scooter. So, yes, I’m a fan of the fuel-efficient, ergonomic, and very reliable vehicles.

But lately I’m beginning to wonder what they’re smoking over at Honda’s design studios. Honda has never been known as a cutting edge design company. They’re notoriously conservative. That means they’ve never produced anything as…

Ross Douthat has an insightful op-ed in The New York Times comparing Ted Kennedy with his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. The two died just 13 days apart, and they shared many other traits. Both were devout Roman Catholics and political liberals. But they differed on one significant point-abortion.

The op-ed shows how Eunice’s faith led her to value all human life. This fueled her care for the mentally retarded and the founding of the Special Olympics. It also led her to fight with the Democratic Party as it moved full-speed toward abortion rights.

In contrast, Douthat traces Ted Kennedy’s movement away from a pro-life position toward the staunch defender of choice he became:

In 1971, in a letter to a voter that abortion opponents

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Read more about ministry legitimacy and “The Daisy Cutter Doctrine” here.