Tag: church

The church is only a church when…

“The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live solely on the free-will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ht theopoetic musings

The Great Disappointment

Nicholas Fiedler (of Nick and Josh Podcast fame) shared an open, honest reflection on his disappointment with Emergent on his blog.

He mentions later in the comments that perhaps after spending 15 months abroad, he’s disappointed to see the conversation hasn’t moved anywhere from when he left. Understood.

Here are my comments:
Continue reading The Great Disappointment

Cymbrogi

cymbrogi

A good friend turned me on to this word yesterday during our short phone call – cymbrogi.

A Celtic term used (pronounced koom-bro-gee) that’s been translated along the lines of “fellow countrymen,” “band of warriors,” and “companions of the heart.”

I love the term and the idea that we as a Church, and smaller communities of faith, should be Cymbrogi.

While searching for more information, I found one group online that uses the term in context of “sword brothers”.
Continue reading Cymbrogi

St. Arbucks kicks off a new add campaign

coffee

St. Arbucks is kicking off a new add campaign with new print ads that really highlight the greatness that is St. Arbucks. They work to break down the myths and stereotypes of the worldwide coffee giant. The ads doen’t knock the competitors as much as really show what St. Arbucks is about and why you should make it your third place.
Continue reading St. Arbucks kicks off a new add campaign

Doing it all wrong

Shaun Groves just returned from a week+ long trip to India with a group of bloggers for Compassion International (read their thoughts here).

As part of their trip, Shaun he met with a couple different pastors who are choosing to do church outside of the norm.

Shaun Groves in India

Shaun writes…

This guy’s doing it all wrong.

He’s the pastor of a church in Kolkata, India that’s partnering with Compassion International – he says to “serve” kids in his community.

Pete and I saw a lot of unchurchy stuff going on at this church….

This is a common mistake for pastors in the developing world. They don’t know any better. They’ve never been to a pastors conference.

I’ve seen this time and again: churches in the third world doing stuff we Christians in America are savvy enough to get politicians and non-profits to do for us.

Check out Shaun’s blog for pictures and more info… and then I encourage you to say a prayer for all the guys doing it all wrong.

Kingdom (social) media done well

Wanted to highlight a few folks/groups that have really impressed me as of late in putting social media to great use for The Kingdom.

The first is Trinity Wall Street.

While their site itself is not full of social media tools – @headphonaught passed along a great way they’re telling the story of Jesus the Messiah today.

From noon to 3 p.m. today they twittered the entire passion story of Jesus’ last hours on the cross via GroupTweet.

friend

via @tc226: This man befriends prostitutes, washes the feet of the poor – surely he is not a King but a blasphemer.

and the part of the story I’ve been meditating on today…

curtain

via @ServingGirl: Darkness and earthquake. I heard the curtain in the temple was torn in two. I wonder…

If you missed the story/play visit their twitter stream and scroll back to follow the story from the beginning.

Next, Church in the Cliff, which is just north of me in Oak Cliff has launched their new site built around lots of great social media tools.

citc

The site itself is limited in wordy information. Other than the blog on the site, there’s only one other page on the site itself, a brief about us page.

The front page highlights their Flickr group, a tab/link to their Facebook group and one to their Twitter feed as well. They’re also using YouTube and a weekly Lifestream.

As a side note, Church in the Cliff has also come up with a great creative, transformative way to share God’s story this Resurrection season as well. They’ve put together an entire Stations of the Cross, using DART rail stations in Dallas. There’s a meditation guide on their site for folks and they’ll have their folks stationed at different areas to help add in the process. (although at the moment I can’t seem to find the PDF for downloading 🙁) .

Finally, I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention Mark Horvath (aka @hardlynormal and @invisiblepeople). We had Mark on our show a few weeks back. He’s putting social media to use in big ways, telling the stories of “invisible people” and the homeless and the media. Just look at his list of accounts:

So there are a few folks who are doing Kingdom (social) media well. Follow them, get inspiration and then find your own unique ways to tell God’s story.

Who else have you seen that’s putting social media to great use?