http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/196398188/

As many of you know, I have a distinct dislike for religiosity and religious people in general. Perhaps it is the rebel (holy or unholy?) in me but there is something in me that wants to offend such folk and challenge their prissy religious sensibilities. I maintain the belief that it is Jesus who not only saves us from religion, but is himself the very undoing of all forms of religion (see my posts on on the subject here and here.) We need Jesus to keep us from becoming oppressive religious people. I believe that Christianity minus Christ equals Religion–and the reality is that we so easily subvert Jesus from the faith. And this to our great demise.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/196990738/

Eric made a comment on the last post. I tracked back to his blog (Just Wondering) and found this fascinating discussion between him and a friend called Brad. It extends the discussion about religion, but looks at religion as ideology. when we get too ideological, then we oppress people. I will post on this soon, but their conversation is as follows… (more…)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/197247405/

This is a feat of human skill. Very creative

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/198173469/

Just a necessary follow up to the previous post on Paul would be Appalled. Before I am heard as writing off the role and teachings of Paul, let it be known that I fully accept the Pauline writings as canonical and authoritative and that Paul is the most important interpreter of Jesus in history. His writings rightly deserve the high status they have in Christian history and we ought to be completely thankful for them. But whatever honorable place we might reserve for Paul we can say with some assurance that he was never meant to be the defining center of our faith. Paul himself is quite clear about who was lord and who he refers to in his writings (1Cor.1:12-13). If Paul became aware of a religion that was based almost exclusively on him and his teachings, it is certain that he would be utterly appalled. And yet this is what has often happened (and still does) and so we need to address it.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/199421267/

“The centrality of the community to the gospel means that the message is never disembodied. The word must always become flesh, embodied in the life of the called community. The gospel cannot be captured adequately in propositions, or creeds, or theological systems, as crucial as all of these exercises are. The gospel dwells in and shapes the people who are called to be its witness. …If there is good news for the world, then it is demonstrably good in the way that it is lived out by the community called into its service… The lived out testimony of the Christian community is to become a witness, visible and audible, given in and to the world, so that the gospel will spread.” — Darrell Guder

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Talking about the general trend towards consumer based religion in Europe, the brilliant British sociologist of religion, Grace Davie notes that it is the experiential or “feel-good” factor that seems to be significant–whether this be expressed in charismatic worship, in the tranquility of cathedral evensong, or in a special cathedral occasion (a candlelit carol service or a major civic event). “The point is that we feel something; we experience the sacred, the set apart. The purely cerebral is less appealing. Durkheim was entirely correct in this respect: it is the taking part that matters for late modern populations and the feelings that are so engendered (The Elementary Forms of Religious Life). If we feel nothing, we are much less likely either to take part in the first place or to continue thereafter.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/200513326/

Debs and I have just joined the leadership team of Christian Associates, a fantastic church planting movement with major focus on Europe. My role will be as missional strategist helping develop the movement ethos of the organization as well as involvement in local plants. Debs will add to the spiritual care of the missionaries as well as helping enhance CA’s mission to the fringes. We are not doing this full-time, and we are staying in the US and doing more of what we have come here to do, but it will mean a much more direct involvement in grassroots mission and church plants throughout Europe as well as the US. The practitioner in me needs to remain directly engaged, and this presents an exciting opportunity for us to help inform and shape active church planting in the strategic (and very complex) mission field that is Europe.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/202299093/

actually I am travelling with family at the moment, and am forced to blog via my phone. Oh the indignity and wonder of it all. Don’t ask why I am still stuck on the relious susceptability of Calvinism, but this thought did cross my mind; how is it that those who claim the broadest understanding if grace have the narrowest application of it? Curious holiday speculation.

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As I indicated in a comment on my last post, Michael Frost sent me an email asking me what I had done to stir up some folk who had accused me of being a “red letterist”. He asked me what that was. I responded that I think it points to those folks (usually theological liberals) who emphasize the teachings of Jesus over the actions of Jesus on our behalf. According to this approach, what matters is that we learn from Jesus the rabbi, follow his teaching and imitate his lifestyle perhaps, but we cannot take the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus as either literal or existentially significant.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/204815152/

Recently I was asked a few questions (via email) by a senior leader in a great church planting movement. I thought that the effort and time to answer them can double up as a post on issues of missional ecclesiology. The apparent abruptness of my answers was simply due to insufficient time to answer comprehensively. The names have been deleted of course….

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Once again, I am presenting David May’s book notes. this time taken from Scott Bessenker’s new book The New Friars I believe that is one of the significant new books articulating the value of vow based communities among the poor. This along with my friend John Haye’s book Submerge, and Shane Claiborne’s Irresistable Revolution, are changing the way we see mission among the poor. But for those who are not called to intentionally serve the poor, my advise is that you do not lightly dismiss this genre, because I believe we can learn a ton about incarnational mission from those who actually do serve among the poor. They demonstrate the real incarnational spirit…

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Folks, The Forgotten Ways was released 1 Jan, 2007. As we are about to hit the one year anniversary, I am rapped to report that it is listed as Brazos‘ top selling book at the moment! All in all, the book has been extremely well received and, according to sales, very widely read. I am genuinely honored. Thanks all who have bought the book and engaged the ideas in it. Brazos (a division of Baker Books) has also agreed to release a workbook to go with it. I am working on that as we speak. Not sure about release date (it will be a while) but it will really make the primary reference book sing in local settings. My great hope is that it will now really begin shape the needed conversation on missional-incarnational movements in the West.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/209176384/

Here is a quote from Philip Yancy’s brilliant The Jesus I Never Knew. It highlights the radical nature of the Incarnation. (HT to Anthony Adams.)

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