links for 2008-12-10

"In most of my writing post-Seabeck I viewed the creation of a missional order through the lens of covenant renewal (see this post as well as others). But there is another lens, equally valid and equally valuable: the lens of culture formation. I understand the church as an alternative (kingdom) culture, and I see one of the central tasks of leadership as cultivating alternative practices. Culture is a cultivating force, and we are formed by the soil we grow in, primarily through what we practice – our habits become “habits of the heart.” "