A couple of weeks ago I got into a Twitter conversation with my friend Therry de Ballion. He had mentioned branding as becoming so pronounced, so prominent that brands eventually serve as a “catalysts” for both customers and businesses eliminating the need for organizations. The implications didn’t hit me immediately.
I think I replied that [...]
“Joinery” refers both to the craft of a joiner, someone who makes things by joining together pieces of wood, and to the premises from which the craft is practiced.
Christianity
An organization-less church? Possible?
Uncertainty & complexity, the twin bugaboos of organizations
Uncertainty appears to the chief bugaboo of organizations. Max Miller, the Hamburg sociologist in his 2002 paper, Some theoretical aspects of systemic learning, abstracting organizational theorists (such as Simon and Weick), wrote, “If there is anything that defines the central problem of an organization, it is the inescapable and enduring struggle of coping with uncertainty. [...]
What’s the witness of your “domestic” life?
I’ve been dipping again into the Anabaptist record. A piece by Alan Kreider took me particularly hard. He wrote, “The church has nothing to offer to the world other than what it has learned to live in its own ‘domestic’ life.”
It isn’t information; it isn’t principles; it isn’t laws and regulations that’s going to make [...]
Isn’t there a saying about eyes bigger than your stomach?
That’s what happen to us this afternoon. Went to Cokesbury for a couple more copies of Greg Ogden’s books (Transforming discipleship and Discipleship essentials: A guide to rebuilding your life in Christ) and walked out with an armful of missional church and more disciple-making books, plus two Walter Wangerin books— his latest, Letters [...]
Here’s a prayer attributed to St Patrick
Whether it is an actual rendering of one of his prayers, it captures what I know about him and his story. Also, reading this out loud regularly is a good way to start the day.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through the confession of the oneness
Of [...]
How to worship at a Pentecostal service
Just saw this on tallskinnykiwi blog. He thought it funny and I did too. Keep in mind I are one.
Andrew Jones (the Kiwi) said,
Alan Hirsch just saw this video played at a pentecostal church conference in Canada and I thought it funny enough to post here. And if you like the video, you might appreciate [...]
We need a psychological/sociological equivalent of the Moebus Strip
Yesterday I got thru rereading Raymond Brown’s 1979 study of the gospel and epistles of John, The Community of the Beloved Disciple: The Life, Loves, and Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times (Paulist Press). I found it extremely exciting, stimulating and thought-provoking much more than the first time I went through it. [...]
“The moral core of the health-care debate”-From Jim Wallis’ blog
From his Hearts and Minds blog for today:
With all of the shouting, the fear, and now what often looks like hatred — we are in danger of losing the moral “core” of this health-care debate. That core, quite simply, is that many people are hurting from a broken health-care system. They include the [...]
Lots of words, but what about doing?: Straightening our bookcases
I’ve started picking up the books scattered around and putting them back into shelves— kind of organizing them as I go. I began with our bookshelf where we try to keep our main Christian books.
We’ve got bibles— all kinds of bibles in all kinds of translations and versions: NEB, REB, NASB, NRSV, RSV, NIV, [...]
Jesus returns home, A remembrance of Ray S. Anderson
I recently Googled “Ray S. Anderson.” His name was on a thick paper on the church that was part of a seminar he taught at Fuller. I had found the paper during our massive paper throw-way. We filled completely one of those green recycling contains supplied by the city, by the way.
I found that Anderson [...]