Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.

Kind of like Jesus.

Bartchy, currently the Director of the Center for the Study of Religions at UCLA, notes a great gap between the original, early form of church in the first three hundred years of Christianity, and the modern concept of doing church today.

This is the first post in a series called Following Jesus.

There is a 500-pound gorilla in the room. Can you feel him? He lurks in the shadows of our churches. When we look in our rear view mirrors on the way to work, he stares back. We can hear him give the occasional bored grunt from the next cubicle over at work. From sidewalks and grocery lines he glares accusingly, menacingly. He stubbornly takes up half the couch at home. You can almost feel his hot breath on your shoulder as you re...
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There is this guy where I work. He is African-American, in his twenties and an "inactive" member of the Crips. Jim (not his real name) is also a DJ, He keeps asking me to come to the club where he spins.

Did I mention that I work as a Security Guard at a weapons factory? Jim comes and talks to me during break times. Doesn't that seem odd? I am a 57 year old Security guard and he is a twenty something gang member. Is God opening a door or something?

I have to say that I don't dr...
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the man stood in his chambers at helm’s deep. battle was coming

he asks his armor bearer “who am i Gamli?”

“you are Theodin, King”

“and do you trust your King”

“sire, your men will follow you to whatever end”

Why do humans work? What constitutes “work,” from God’s perspective? Are Christians required to work? Why do so many people “endure” (or worse — hate) their jobs, not least Christians? How “Christian” is the American norm for work? Is there life beyond a job we hate? Where does a biblical instruction like the one in Hebrews 12 - “endure hardship as discipline” - come into play in jobs we dislike? Why am I — and numerous oth...
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The ‘grassroots’ house church movement in Bangladesh is beating its ten thousands, reports German missions...
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I’ve blogged about “missional” before (here, here, and here, for instance) on this blog, and in the last few years or so the word “missional” is everywhere in church conversations. Frankly, I’m a tad sick of it, to be honest. What church would ever admit “not being missional” anyway?

Well, I like lists, and blogger Adam has given us a list of some possible characteristics of “missional.” I like lists because you can easily add and su...
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Pryomaniacs Frank and Dan are halfway towards a 1000 comment quest with a provocative blog post against emerging church and other movements that threaten the Fundamentalist claim to supreme power and a uniquely correct view of Scripture.

Its called . . Emerging Church: bad as Gutless Grace Girliemen? Worse than Wrongheaded Wrightophiles? Sillier than Leaky Canoneers? and it will probably break the record of 1000 posts, although the only people who will have the time to plummet its depths will...
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