Portland.BloggersPub

Hey all-

I am loving this book. 

Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead. "

Highly recommended

I love this. I can think of about 15 different tension points that regularly converge on this blog (Calvinism vs Arminianism, Crappy Christian Culture vs Quit Making Fun of Christians, Anything Having to DO With KJV ONLY Colleges, etc) that this video hits. Also, it's just really bad. 

In coming back to Portland, I was both coming home and leaving home. 

If you read this blog, AND you homeschool, you should probably also be reading Debra's Emergent Homeschool blog. Really good, helpful stuff... 

Had a great couple hours yesterday talking with one of the pastors of the large church that helped launch Evergreen (by, uh, "releasing" me into ministry!) yesterday. 

Good to talk about what's gone into the making of a community like evergreen and to have validated that yes, on many levels, it really is different. I think we forget that from the inside, or grow so used to it, it just begins to feel normal. But it really isn't- at least not when placed alongside most of American evangelicalism. I don't take pride in that, or consider what we're doing to be higher on the ecclesiological evolutionary chain- but I do take solace in the idea that fixing some of the things that have been bothering us Church often begins simply with starting new things- that blank slate approach without the baggage of denomination or corporate culture can be incredibly freeing. Yes, we'll make our own mistakes that the next generation will need to correct- but... 

I'd swear this was a joke. 

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

I know I'll get flamed for this... but this kind of anticipating meeting violence with violence creates a false sense of security an subtly negates the Gospel by substituting... well, you tell me:

Highview, like a number of other churches nationwide, has a volunteer security force consisting of at least one armed guard during any given worship service.  See where some recent deadly church shootings occurred »

"I'm much more comfortable knowing they're there if needed rather than just hoping for the best," Davis said.

Highview also has a medical team on the grounds during weekend services, when thousands of people pass through its doors.

Every member of the security team, from ushers to medics and armed guards, receives some kind of training related to their post, be it conflict management or anti-terrorism tactics.

"We realized that, as the largest Baptist church in Kentucky, we'd be a little naïve to think something would never happen to us," said Highview Pastor Randy Record, who is also a police officer. "We're catching up in an era of terrorism and a church is no different."

Many Highview worshippers say they are comforted by the fact that there is a focus on security.

"There are no safe places anymore. Something could happen to me in church just as easily as at home or in the grocery store," said Sheri Mock. "But I don't worry, because I feel secure in church with the program they have."

Do you see it?

from here