Tag: community
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Church is not Worship, Community, or Mission. It’s All Three
Rachel Young has a thoughtful article at the The Presbyterian Outlook's Outpost blog titled, Consumers, missionaries, or worshipers? She writes: … We use the language of buying and selling, of efficiency, of getting the best product for the best price, even as we think about our relationships, our work, our leisure, our church. We are…
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Religious leaders, never underestimate your importance
Call and Response Blog: Religious leaders, never underestimate your importance Michael Emerson … A few days ago I led my class of college juniors and seniors through a discussion of secularization theory. I simply asked the students to imagine that we had become a completely secularized world, that John Lennon’s vision of no religion had…
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MEC: Solutions
Chapter 30 in Everything Must Change is titled "Organized Religions or Religion Organizing the Common Good?" He identifies seven categories of development economics. Summarizing: Trade First, we have to live within environmental limits. Second, integrate free trade with fair trade. Third, we need to make it easier for people to grow small businesses. This will…
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Living Simply in Abundance (25)
What can we conclude about living simply in abundance? Here are eight thoughts. First and foremost, living simply is not a matter of material wealth. It is a relational matter with God. Our singular focus on God will orient our relationship to our wealth and every other aspect of our life. Second, God's intention for…
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Theology and Economics: Creation
Any meaningful economics discussion from a Christian perspective must be grounded in the epic narrative that God is unfolding in history. That narrative begins with the first two chapters of Genesis. At least six aspects of the creation stories have great importance as we begin to think about economics. God created all that is, and…
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I Am Because We Are
I Am Because We Are is a post by Liz Mosbo VerHage. She writes some about an African concept called "Unbuntu," a concept I learned about on Neil Craigan's blog. She is writing about the communal nature of our faith that is lost in our highly individualistic Western culture. I especially liked this portion: "Christ…
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Sanctification Through Community (Emergent, Part 6)
Years ago, I heard a speaker tell of an epiphany about her husband. She said one of the things she found attractive about her husband when they were dating was how attentive he was too little details. Not that this should have been surprising. He was a very successful accountant. One night, years after they…