Information
- Location:
- Ann Arbor, MI, 48104
- Phone:
- (734) 477-9135
Events
3 past eventsSee All
- Barn Dance
Vineyard Church Ann Arbor
Friday, March 20 at 7:00pm - Cereal Party
Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor - Cafe
Friday, February 20 at 6:30pm - Lauren Winter
Michigan League Ballroom - UM Centr...
Monday, February 4 at 8:00pm
Notes
3 of 134 notesSee All
- advice to young pastors: remember why you’re doing this 6:12am Dec 21
- climate change: a test? 8:14am Dec 15
- Love, the Holy Spirity, and Climate Science 9:17am Dec 8
In case you haven’t noticed, your brain is wired to pay special attention to criticism. ...
Climate change is testing us–the global human family, that is. That’s what I think. Obviously, you don’t have to agree with me. But climate change is also testing the American church, in particular. Tests on a global scale are promised in Scripture. ” I ...
It’s truly amazing how the mere mention of climate change in a blog post stirs up objections from believers. I’m guessing that three-quarters of those who read this blog think climate change is a hoax. I don’t get it. There’s no doubt that carbon dioxide is a heat trapping gas. That’s...
Some in my faith community can get a little testy when Charles Darwin’s name comes up. So when Carl Safina, my friend the atheist and ocean conservationist, told me that Jesus and Darwin were his two heroes, I decided it was time to read Darwin’s Origin of Species for myself. Af...
Maybe you’ve notice that pastoring seems to be a near occaision to mainline anxiety. I’ve been battling anxiety for the past year myself, thank you, but I seem to be on the mend. Thanks in no small part to the best book on leadership I’ve read in years: A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman. Stop...
Why should human beings care about whether the population of blue fin tuna is decimated by overfishing...
It’s no accident that proponents of applying centered set thinking have been missionaries. Missions is about bringing the gospel into new territory. Missionaries are front line people, not rear guard people. They face many challenges that others don’t face. Pa...
What drives a concern for thinking about set theory? This is a sub-text in this ongoing conversation. Maybe set theory is a ruse for being soft on sin. We don’t want to obey the Bible’s teaching on sin, so we are trying to find a way around it, and set theory is a convenient sin dodge. Th...
So this is what it looks like: a centered set way of conceiving of categories–in this case the category “Christian.” Christians are those who are oriented toward the center (Jesus) and are willing to take the next step closer to Him. Christians, in other words, are followers of Jesus. They...
I think we need to introduce another aspect of set theory that missionary Paul Heibert describes in his book, Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues. I know, I know, this is not simple and we all want to cut to the chase and look at centered sets...
My friend Rick pointed out wonderful summary of set theory as applied to the Christian misison in a gem of a footnote tucked away in Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, by Miroslav Wolf...
We’re taking our time plodding through set theory–bounded sets, centered sets, etc. Why? Why bother? What does any of this have to do with faithfulness to Jesus? Thanks for asking. Set theory is a way of understanding underlying cultural assumptions that affect the way we understand categories. St...
I’d like to say more about bounded sets before moving on to other approaches to church. Picture a bounded set approach to church as a circle in the form of a ring. Members of the group fulfill certain criteria and become members of the group thereby. ...
We need some new nets. Something more than contemporary worship music and great programs that meet needs and pastors who wear clothes from Old Navy. It’s time to get missional, which always means controversial. It’s time to examine cultural assumptions that have hindered us from doing our job. Th...
When Jesus appears vividly and visually in your prayers–not like he stood before Saul of Tarsus, perhaps, but like he can surprise us when we slip into a silence that comes alive visually–well, you take notice. I’...
