Peter Rollins

I went to the Mid-Atlantic Emergent Conference with Pete Rollins on Saturday. I have a lot of thoughts, both about the conference in general as well as about his talk in specific, but for now I’m posting this 3 minute video which sums up a lot of Rollins’ style and message, which I love.

Tony Jones Asks Good Questions

I wasn’t sure, originally, if I was interested in Tony Jones’s book The New Christians when I first heard of it coming out. While wasting a few hours feed surfing and clicking through to other sites, I found an unedited video of Jones interviewing a guy who goes by the online name of “Pastorboy” — [...]

New Churches As Social Networks

Minnesota pastor, author, and blogger Doug Pagitt recently said,
I think that Christianity is fundamentally a people movement that we should understand in social networking theory, not a belief system that we distribute through institutional applications and franchising models.
It’s an interesting idea–that Christianity should be understood as connected people, not as distributed beliefs. That who we [...]

Why So Angry?

Russell Moore, while filling in for Albert Mohler on the Albert Mohler radio program several months ago, interviewed Tony Jones of Emergent Village.
Listen to the interview.Read Jones’s (.pdf) paper that Moore focuses on during the interview.
After the interview, Moore had some commentary. The following quote caught my attention.
Russell Moore: I think the reason that the [...]

A Conversation About Inclusivity

Everyone talks about how we should be more inclusive, implying that we should accept everything from everyone, no matter what. What are the consequences of opening that door?
Inclusivity is the new tolerance. Remember when tolerance was the big buzz for churchy arguments? Slippery liberals cried, hugged, sang Kumbayah, and begged us all to be more [...]

What About Seminary?

Here’s me. I grew up in a ‘Northern’ Baptist congregation in Erie, PA. By the time I was in 6th grade I was getting involved in the youth group leadership. By my senior year I led the youth group as student leader (under guided yet trusting supervision from an amazing youth pastor) as well as [...]

A Semi-Millennial Cycle

Approx 1 A.D. – Jesus is born.Approx 500 A.D. – The Fall of the Roman Empire.Approx 1000 A.D. – The Great Schism, separating Eastern Orthodoxy from the Pope and his Roman Catholic Church.Approx 1500 A.D. – The Great Reformation, separating Roman Catholicism from Luther and his Protestant movement.
Approx 2000 A.D. – ?
…
The time is ripe [...]

God Likes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This post got a little out of hand and is now pretty long. So here’s a short summary: Some people in the church disagree with each other. The more defensive you are about it, the more insecure and fearful you usually are about your own positions. God is a mystery, and that’s okay. Can we [...]

So What Is This "Emergent Church"?

I mean, I’m drawn to it. The idea of new, “cutting-edge” church philosophy that incorporates a lot of freedoms that I love is obviously going to make me get a little excited. But the more I read and explore, the more hesitant I become, and I’m trying to understand why.
If you haven’t yet heard of [...]