http://www.njdistrict.org/home/ http://www.njdistrict.org/seven-enduring-principles-for-transforming-your-congregation/#PageComment_1715 Clear and concise description. Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:20:27 -0500 Shjirley Carpenter http://www.njdistrict.org/seven-enduring-principles-for-transforming-your-congregation/#PageComment_1715 http://www.njdistrict.org/all-along-the-watchtower/#PageComment_387 All along the watchtower was written by Bob Dylan Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:44:37 -0400 mike dee http://www.njdistrict.org/all-along-the-watchtower/#PageComment_387 http://www.njdistrict.org/house-church-definition/#PageComment_59 Interesting that Luther had dreams of gathering small groups of believers similarly. In his Preface to the German Mass, he proposed a "third sort [of Divine Service], which the true type of Evangelical Order should embrace." It would "not be celebrated so publicly in the square," but would include those "who are desirous of being Christians in earnest..." [seekers?] When they are "ready to profess the Gospel with hand and mouth, [they] should register their names and assemble by themselves in some house to pray, to read, to baptize and to receive the sacrament and practise other Christian works." Like the house church model, this "divine service" included preaching/teaching, accountability to one another, alms-giving, prayer, and both baptism and Holy Communion. Ever the pragmatist, Luther knew that in a small group setting, there would not be need for much "fine singing!" Luther said he didn't have the personnel to begin this work, but hoped it would come to fruition one day. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:14:52 -0400 Claire Partlow http://www.njdistrict.org/house-church-definition/#PageComment_59 http://www.njdistrict.org/modern-theology-as-echo-echo-echo/#PageComment_33 "Modern man knows something is wrong." My bet is that postmodern men and women sense this even more deeply. Observers of culture and the church (Diogenes Allen, Dan Kimball, for instance) know that while "religion" is coldly belittled, "Jesus" is often warmly embraced. Eugene Peterson says--and I can't help but think postmoderns would agree-- “The death of Jesus confirms and validates our experience that there is, in fact, something terribly wrong and that this wrong is not simply a logical working-out of cause-effect, of the way things are.” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Place, 2005, p. 142) Every bit of my life--from birth to old age, from birthing of children to menopause--will only become fully "good" when seen through the lens of the cross; for on Calvary, Christ took what went wrong in Eden [including that nasty part of the curse that brings pain in childbirth!] and transformed each and every part into what will become glorious in the Eschaton and good-and-getting-better even now. We've got to clear away all the echo, echo, echo-ing and get back to introducing people to the Creating, Incarnating, and Restoring God. THAT's what Redeemer/Redemption is all about. Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:03:37 -0400 Claire Partlow http://www.njdistrict.org/modern-theology-as-echo-echo-echo/#PageComment_33 http://www.njdistrict.org/seven-dimensions-of-cross-cultural-communication/#PageComment_15 It strikes me that the seven dimensions are also at work when diverse groups come to one of our churches for worship. Newer worship forms interact more, use language from the current marketplace, are more visual, etc. I've passed your blog entry on to the elders of the church we attend for their discussion on varieties of worship. Thanks for stirring the grey matter! Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:42:05 -0400 Jim Pierce http://www.njdistrict.org/seven-dimensions-of-cross-cultural-communication/#PageComment_15