In the Coracle

Non-compete agreements for church staff

March 26th, 2009, No Comments

I’ve worked in the software world for most of the past two decades. One of the regular parts of my employment contracts is a section that says that if I leave the current place of employment, I can’t go work for another place which is in the same market, so that I can’t share trade [...]

Reclaiming the Mission » Instilling Missional Habits in a Congregation – As You Walk Among Your Community

March 20th, 2009, No Comments

David Fitch is doing some excellent work on the area of missional church and what church means in our culture.  His book The Great Giveaway is highly recommended, and his blog (linked below) is good too.
The following is the introduction to an entry David wrote about how we can ask congregations to refocus themselves from [...]

Another Thought on Busyness

December 11th, 2008, No Comments

Via Bob at Pastorhacks
“…Pastors and Christian leaders seem to be as caught up in the culture of busyness as anyone else. A full 65 percent of pastors (right up there with lawyers, managers and nurses) are among the most likely to rush from task to task in a way that interferes with their relationship with [...]

Prevenient Grace, and What’s My Job?

September 3rd, 2008, 2 Comments

“Prevenience is the conviction that God has been working diligently, redemptively, and strategically before I appeared on the scene, before I was aware there was something for me to do here… Like one who walks in late to a meeting, I am entering a complex situation in which God has already said decisive words and [...]

Leadership Lessons from Nelson Mandela (Time)

August 8th, 2008, 1 Comment

Time Magazine features an article with Nelson Mandela discussing leadership. I highly recommend it. You can find it here.

I also wanted to talk to him about leadership. Mandela is the closest thing the world has to a secular saint, but he would be the first to admit that he is something far more pedestrian: a [...]

Learning from the role of the Benedictine Abbot

August 6th, 2008, No Comments

This entry is cut n pasted from a section of a paper that I’m writing on spiritual formation for my BGU Overture I class. It’ll probably format like crap on the Wordpress blog, but I thought that the section would make a good entry anyway.

The Benedictine Abbot
An interesting feature of monasteries in contrast to churches [...]

How to Move Past Life-Changing Mistakes

August 5th, 2008, No Comments

Ever failed?  Spectacularly?  Those of you around this blog for a while know that I describe myself as “a failed church planter”, and some of you know that I intentionally choose this term to raise an eyebrow here or there..  My wife hates the term, because she knows the reality that we didn’t fail; that [...]

Tags for Where We’re Going

July 24th, 2008, No Comments

Today I had a really helpful and powerful chat with one of my heroes, and though I want to digest that a bit before talking about it here, it also spurred me to find a page in my journal and open it up.
Here are some tags that I wrote in my moleskine notebook a while [...]

Featured on Next-Wave

June 20th, 2008, No Comments

Very fun news – Bob and Charlie and the crew at Next Wave.magazine picked up the article that I wrote here titled “Things They Tell Church Planters That Are Simply Wrong” and which has been generating a good deal of traffic and comments.
The article is in the current issue (June 2008, #114), and a direct [...]

Overture I – Wednesday 6/4 Journal

June 4th, 2008, 3 Comments

WEDNESDAY 6/4

Worship was led today from the theme of Revelation 7, which depicts the worship of God occurring in every language and across the full spectrum of creatures. We read part of the passage in our own language, and it’s wonderful to hear the variety being spoken.
We debriefed the previous day’s experiences. I [...]