Category: Culture

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Multi-Site Church: A Strategy for Church Planting

At Conversatio Morum, we like statistics. Mainly because the numbers from them can help us see, in a general sense, where the culture is at and where it’s going. Knowing this is the case, they are also helpful when starting out as a church planter. The rule at this point is that a new church plant has a 68% success rate. This is actually encouraging, considering the previous trend was a 20% success rate. As a church planter, knowing the challenges and struggles inherent with starting something new, these statistics don’t surprise me. Continue reading “Multi-Site Church: A Strategy for Church Planting”

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Learning to Love God in Everything

Originally Posted: Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Now Playing: silence
Topic: Living in the Epic Story

Currently Reading
Victory over the Darkness
By Neil T. Anderson
see related

So, I’m back. After a long stint away from things. I have finally returned. As I have been refreshed. So, as I finalize my trip to Mexico I have been thinking about the first weekend there. Culture shock will be a major part of what happens when I get there. I arrive at the airport, am picked up by my host family, and don’t see any Americans for the next two days. What an amazing thing it is to go to a place where you are not known. Continue reading “Learning to Love God in Everything”

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On a lighter note

Originally Posted: Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: The End Is Here
(it’s good)
Topic: Rantings of a lunatic
Currently Reading The Baptist Heritage/Four Centuries of Baptist Witness By Leon H. McBeth see related


“They won’t play this song on the radio,
So far, so bad, that’s how it goes.
They’ll pull our records from the shelves,
so far, so bad, that’s how it goes.”

“I thought i’d write an epiphany,
How something good is changing me,
but I guess we dodged some passing fad,
it looks like it’s so far, so bad.
So bad.
This song is rad.
…Uh…You could ask your dad.
…He won’t be mad??!!!
…This song is Stupid!!!”

-Five Iron Frenzy,”So Far So Bad”, The End Is Near

(This is not a mistake, I just couldn’t find Near because it isn’t sold anymore)

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Living by Grace

Originally Posted: Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Mood: spacey
Now Playing: Songs from the Living Room by Mary’s Den
(it’s good)
Topic: the character of God
Currently Reading The Baptist Heritage/Four Centuries of Baptist Witness By Leon H. McBeth see related

I had a weird dream last night. However, that is irrelevant. The question of the day, and it seems of our lives is that of receiving God’s grace. We always tend to lose out in this area. This is the biggest part of my own walk. Continue reading “Living by Grace”

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Star Wars thoughts

Originally Posted: Monday, May 23, 2005
Mood: special
Now Playing: Sunsets & Sushi
Topic: Living in the Epic Story
Currently Reading Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations About God, Community, and Culture By Spencer Burke, Colleen Pepper see related

So as I sit here at my desk, with the tiredness sinking in, implications of Star Wars in my head, and Lord of the Rings music playing on my computer; I can’t help but wonder how we all fit into the picture of things. The last movie is over, now we know how it all fits together and how the events of episodes 4-6 came to be. We all know Anakin’s place in the story, as do we Obi Wan’s, Yoda’s, Qui Gonn’s, and Luke’s of course. In the same way, what will be said of our lives and where we fit into the place of things when the movie is over? What is your story? John Eldredge says that we all have a desire to live out a “romance of epic proportions”. Continue reading “Star Wars thoughts”

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The means of salvation

We were having a discussion in our church’s training school a while back regarding baptism. The question was regarding what to do if a person “accepts” Jesus as saviour, but doesn’t want to follow through with baptism. The issue I raised in my answer was that of the issue of legitimate regenerative experience, to which everyone looked at me in disbelief at the very thought of questioning someone’s salvation. I’d imagine the same look some of you may have at reading this. Now, before you get too offended, let’s be honest real quick. Continue reading “The means of salvation”

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Sleepwalking

Originally Posted: Monday, May 16, 2005
Mood: on fire
Now Playing: The song stuck in my head
Topic: Test Days and Star Wars

 I think I was sleepwalking last night. I believe this because, when I went to bed last night, I had (keyword: had) a shelf thing on my dresser that held different trinkets and random objects. Well, when I woke up this morning it was no longer there. Continue reading “Sleepwalking”

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Facetime Lies – Part 3

I was at Taco Cabana sitting across the table from a friend of mine a while back and during our conversation and meal he posed a question that shocked me a bit. It went like this, “I mean we’re not gonna need our bodies in heaven, right?”  I wouldn’t have been shocked had it been someone who wasn’t raised around the church and had simply caught onto some odd cultural view of heaven, but this was someone who was raised around the church and grew up learning about the bible. OK, so what does this have to do with FaceTime? You ask. Well, I’ll go into that a bit further down, Continue reading “Facetime Lies – Part 3”