Thursday, March 30, 2017

REGISTRATION IS OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR WEIRD CHURCH CAMP 2017




14 months ago, when The Pilgrim Press released the book Weird Church: Welcome to the 21st Century, Beth Estock and I began to dream about convening a major gathering of spiritual innovators, 21st century evangelists, and out-of-the-box characters! Now, in 2017, we are making that dream a reality!

Friday, March 17, 2017

BEWARE OF THE HAIL MARY CHURCH PLANTING APPOINTMENT!




Plenty of teams around the country are selecting planting-leaders for judicatory-funded new church projects right now. It is easy, when we get close to deadlines for personnel selection, to loosen our standards or candidate criteria. All ministry-related jobs should require extensive vetting, and multiple interviews prior to hire. However, few hires come with greater risks than a church planter. Most clergy lack the skills and/or life experiences that bode well for their attempting to plant a new church.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

INTRODUCING WEIRD CHURCH CAMP




The book Weird Church: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century came out one year ago this month.  Beth Estock and I (co-authors) have traveled across many time zones from Germany to Hawaii, talking about the promise of rising forms of church that will bless millions of people in this new century. Some of them, such as the Cathedral and the Tabernacle have been around throughout American history.  Others, such as Dinner Church, go all the way back to the first century.  Weird does not mean uniquely modern - it just means different than the franchise-institutional model of denominational Christianity that most of us grew up in.