Check out the newest feature on Modern Traveler: Ancient Journey: the Church Planting Updates page.
Of course the "ancient journey" on this blog refers to the lifelong process of following Jesus; being transformed into his likeness, participating in and anticipating the full arrival of the Community of God (or Kingdom, reign, etc) and joining with Father Son and Holy Spirit in the recreation and reclaiming of God's good creation.
A large part of that, for me and my family, is the seeding of incarnational communities - planting churches. In addition to Christ Journey we have a growing community of people who partner with us in this endeavor through prayer, friendship and financial support. Each month I try to send out an update on our family and missional experiences. These updates are usually posted to facebook, christjourneylife.com, wellsbrothers.blogspot.com, journeywiththewells.blogspot.com and here on ancient journey as well.
There is now a link on the right hand column of this site that will take you to a page dedicated solely to these updates. I thought it might be helpful to have a place on this blog where all of our updates can be easily accessed at will. So, you'll notice the picture of a hand holding soil with a young plant growing...click that picture to be taken to the update page. You can also access it directly at ancientjourneyupdates.blogspot.com.
Here is a link to a great post by church planter/ author / theologian David Fitch.
Missional Misstep addresses the problem associated with communicating a "big gospel." When salvation is about more than just the individual's heaven/hell destination, it becomes cosmic in scope (which is a good thing).
However, things that are cosmic in scope are, by definition, big. And big things are often hard to describe in a 30 second sound bite, which can lead to this big gospel appearing inaccessible to people caught up in the whirlwind of life. And this should never be the case. So what do we do?
Check out the article and let me know what you think.
I recently read Fitch's book, The Great Giveaway which, overall, is fantastic. I have a very short review of the book on Mission Alive's website. (I'll post it here tomorrow)
To be totally honest this is probably not a book that I would recommend to ALL my friends because it can be a pretty heavy read (though there are sections and chapters that I'll be passing along to some of you).
However, if you are an academic type, a frustrated church leader or if you're planting/thinking of planting a church, then do not miss this book.
Perhaps its greatest value is the way it challenges our connection to Modernity/Enlightenment culture while also calling us to maintain connection to the historic church, Scripture and even liturgy.
Whether or not you are in support of the President's speech to students today (9/8/09 at noon), you should watch it if you're going to have an opinion that you share with others! The White House website has made the code available to post the streaming video on your own site - which I've done here.
Personally, when I first heard of the speech I didn't think much about it. A pep-rally style speech about why kids should take their education seriously? Okay, whatever, there are always little sound bite public service announcements telling kids to stay in school.
But then it seemed like everywhere I turned people were convinced that this was a sign of the apocalypse. So I started looking into the content of the speech, including the supplemental materials provided to teachers. I thought this seemed like a bit much, making more of a distraction than necessary. However, after actually reading through the handouts, I've changed my tune.
The preK-6 one is a little awkward in its phraseology. Questions like, "what does the President want you to do?" invite criticism from those who are already on a Socialist witch hunt. I probably would have worded the questions differently. But the purpose of the question is to test for listening comprehension and basic critical thinking skills. These are skills our children are supposed to be learning.
And to those who say the kids need to learn "reading, writing and arithmetic" - this is true, but not the whole picture. Recently, someone rightly noted that there are plenty of educated people who are not very intelligent. I will say that knowing how to read, write and do math without knowing how to listen critically is one symptom of educated idiocy that we encounter on a regular basis.
Beyond that, the purpose seems to be encouraging students to take responsibility for their education and set goals. I fail to see how we can object to that...it is possible that the actual speech will take that in a propaganda direction, but doing so will diverge from the material provided ahead of time.
So, even though I live in Texas and saying so is enough to get me branded and blacklisted, I think this is a good idea and a useful teaching moment.
As for the speech itself, I am going to wait until I've listened to what the man says before I either praise or crucify him...and you should too.
I wrote this post last week and scheduled it to go up today. In the meantime, The White House released the script to the speech on their blog - which you can read here.
I've never been very much into political discussion, but recently there's just been a bunch of stuff that's driving me crazy...
Look, I understand the reason for mixed emotions regarding Obama - I have reservations myself. However, recently I find myself more in support merely because the opposition, which could easily be mounted on substantial content, has chosen instead to focus on hysterics and emotional espionage.
Let me make something clear, because my particular brand of dry sarcasm doesn't always translate well on blogs and facebook. I am not trying to convince people to become Obama supporters. I am not saying that I agree with all of his policies. There are plenty of legitimate complaints and concerns - let's focus on them instead of shouting down Town Hall Meetings, and declaring every word someone says as Socialist. My concern is with the way we handle these important conversations, not that everyone agree with one party or the other. I think healthy skepticism is a good thing. I think that those who blindly love everything Obama does because he is (or was) a bit of rock-star, is dangerous and ill-advised. But blanket fear and rejection of everything he even plans to do is just as foolish.
I've already noted the ridiculous email forwards going around. I've gotten frustrated by the conversation about health care reform: there are nearly 50 million uninsured people in this country, something needs to happen. If we don't like the proposal, okay, let's work to come up with something better. But unfortunately many of us are missing the subtle ploy by insurance and drug companies to make sure we do nothing to change their current gold mine.
I don't really like the idea of government running healthcare...but I think even that would be preferable to large corporations running it as they do now. Government runs the military and school system, and while we all have serious complaints about that, I don't see a lot of protests about how they are socialist. I'm guessing that there are a lot of folks who've called something socialist over the past couple months who don't even know what socialism is.
I even had a guy tell me the other day that Obama's socialist health care reform was responsible for killing a relative of his...
Even if Obama's proposals were socialist they're still floating around DC waiting, not passed and in effect. If you think that the health care system killed your loved one - which it may well have - then that is all the more reason to engage in dialogue about how to reform this incredibly broken system. The current proposals may not be adequate, but we need to do something rather than nothing. So lets actually have the conversation like grown-ups and sort it out. Personally I think a much more important direction to be looking is not private vs government run healthcare, but the whole fee-for-service concept. That aspect of the system is responsible for driving costs up unnecessarily.
And then there's the matter of this silly Presidential address...
I've heard lots of well meaning parents say they're keeping their kids home from school on Tuesday because they don't want them indoctrinated by this socialist propaganda...Come on folks. Calm down.
At noon on Tuesday, September 8th the President will be welcoming America’s students back to school – after all, sometimes they need a little extra motivation after a glorious summer. The President has spoken often about the responsibility parents have for their children and their education, but in this message he’ll urge students to take personal responsibility for their own education, to set goals, and to not only stay in school but make the most of it.
To help make sure as many school districts, classrooms, and students are able to get this message we have launched a resources page where you can find out almost anything you’d want to know. There’s information on how you can watch it on TV or on the internet, classroom activities that teachers can engage their students in around the speech, even the satellite coordinates for school districts that want to access the feed.
We’ve also put together a couple PSAs to help get the word out, one from the President and one for those students who might find NASCAR drivers a little more exciting than the President:
There is nothing inappropriate about this address -whether you voted for Obama or not. I'm not saying that everyone needs to become a Democrat - I'm not, but then again I'm not a Republican either - and I'm not saying we need to agree with the President's policies. But the President addressing students about staying in school and taking their education seriously - and using contemporary technology to do so...that is not a bad thing. Parents, watch the address yourself and then talk to your kids about it. It might even lead to a good opportunity for you to share your convictions with them while they're actually listening! If we keep our children home from school anytime we think that someone might possibly say something we don't like...
Like it or not there are a lot of at risk teens and even younger kids that see the President as a role model. I know, I know, looking to the President as a role model is the very essence of Socialism. I've even heard that the socialist regime has our school children stand together like a mindless mob and placing their hands over their heart, facing a flag which symbolizes the submission of the individual to the community, force them to repeat an indoctrination mantra of loyalty.
[that is a touch of sarcasm meant to highlight the hypocrisy of our neo-McCarthyism]
I'm laughing right now because the following song is playing as I'm typing this post:
"So let's leave it alone 'Cause we can't eye to eye There ain't no good guys There ain't no bad guys There's only you and me and we just disagree."
Check out the newest feature on Modern Traveler: Ancient Journey: the Church Planting Updates page. 
