The Cart and The Horse

What is the relationship of evangelism to church planting?
In a recent post titled, “Dr. Wagner’s Cart Has Been Pulling the Horse for Too Long”, Neil Cole (author, Organic Church) writes about this relationship.

Join us at Kensington Community Church (Troy, Michigan) on October 13-14 for a 2-day conversation on the future of the church in the post-Christian and Trans-human 21st century west.

Neil Cole (Organic Church)
Alex McManus (M Network)

and You.

Who is the Human Event for? Forward thinking, missional activists, thinkers, and leaders. If you think that may be you, [...]

And Man Made Life

The title of today’s post is the same as the title of the latest edition of the magazine, The Economist. Their full title is: And Man Made Life: the first artificial organism and its consequences.

A new world emerged recently and many of us missed it. On Thursday, May 20, 2010 the [...]

Into the “Beautiful Unknown”: thoughts on what it means to be human

Sometimes I’m asked, What does “M” stand for?

Ideas have consequences. TIME Magazine published their list of 10 Ideas that are Changing the World Right Now. Inspired by Time, I’ve created a list of my own. See if you agree.

In my last post (Frameworks for Mission: Direction or Dogma) we looked at the experience of Cornelius as described by Luke in Acts chapter 10. I asked the question, Are we saved by cognitive acceptance of certain doctrines or by the direction of our lives?  

How are women and men “saved”? Are we saved by cognitive acceptance of certain dogmas? Are we saved by the direction of our lives? Or both or neither.

Have you looked at a photo from the 60’s and the 70’s lately? A couple of months ago, I stopped by Starbucks with my wife, Niza. Starbucks had recently begun an emphasis of getting back to their roots. In conjunction with that theme they had a photo from the early 70’s of their original Starbucks [...]

A few years ago I suggested that postmodernism was on it’s last leg and projected that by 2020 it would be “history,” as they say.

The past is closed. It cannot be changed. The future, on the other hand, is open. It hasn’t been settled yet. In fact, there is no such thing as “the future.” There are only the futures (plural).

The 4 Turnings

In 1991 or so, George Hunter mentioned, during a presentation in East Los Angeles, the 4 turnings “repentances” of the human heart that help create the kinds of people the Kingdom needs.

This week:

The Turning to the Scriptures
       

Toni Vernelli works for an environmental charity.
At 25 years of age, Toni became pregnant and aborted the baby
in order to “save the planet.”

Leading Others “Into the Quiet”

Part 2 of How to Think About Discipleship
“Lessons from the Underground” Series

In the last post, Beginning with the M in mind, I contrasted a life formed “in the Loud” and the life formed “in the Quiet”. I used the life of overseas workers living in lands where the [...]

How can we help new (and old) disciples stay motivated, enthused and on mission?

Have you ever mapped out your life? Just recently I was thinking about the Ideas that have stayed with me over the years. Some of these are from books, while others are from conversations. Though some ideas are difficult to separate from the experiences that carry them, these are not primarily experiences that have [...]

The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona made headlines three years ago when it began to “tag” it’s patrons with microchips embedded in the arm. The chip is used to identify people when they enter and pay for drinks.

So, let’s say, you go to the Baja Beach Club. A nurse preps you with a local anesthetic. [...]

Welcome back. You belong here. I’m shooting-from-the-hip but here goes.

Questions I’m asking #1 - 32…

1. We are exiting the postmodern and entering a new world dominated by genetic engineering. What shape will the gospel take when men no longer die?

2. Why do people still [...]

Joyful Easter. Fifty thousand years of accumulated experience by the 70 - 100 billion Humans who have lived on this planet have led us to know at least one thing: the dead don’t return.

welcome back. you belong here.

I was asked this last week about Barna’s new book Revolution. I confess that by-and-large I don’t read Christian books. Barna’s book is no exception. So while I couldn’t comment on the content of the book, I did comment on the title, [...]

American Culture, Shopping, and Christmas

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I hate to shop.
My wife loves to shop.
That’s marriage.

Cultural Anthropologist and Marketing Guru, Clotaire Rapaille, writes (The Culture Code) about why people around the world live and buy as they do. Each culture, he tells us, has a code that if discovered [...]

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The Culture Code - Why we live and buy as we do

As Christ followers in the west, we must take advantage of our priviledge to “exegete” scripture. What are these ancient people trying to say to each other about what is meaningful to them? We must also “exegete” the cultures of [...]

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There is a spectrum of approaches for creating community with and among unreached people. Let’s draw from the world of technology for an anology.

Technologies exist on an opacity/ transparency spectrum. [Hat Tip to polymath and wordmaven Dean Sharp for the find].
An OPAQUE technology is one in which the technology [...]

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In PART ONE of this Two Part post titled, The Mega Church and Home Church Networks: Twin Trajectories and Why We Need Them Both, I wrote the following:

The first [Mega Church] trajectory needs excellence and resources to launch and heart and hospitality to succeed. The second [House Church [...]

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There seem to be two leadership trajectories in the west. The first seems to be characterized by the recent phenomena of mega churches in the world. The majority of church conferences today are focused on this reality. The essence of these conference experiences seems to be a kind of [...]

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Alex,

I need your advice. I have a friend who is going to another extreme.

He feels that all churches teach legalism, all pastors have their own
agenda and churches should not have walls but “engage the darkside”.
For this reason, he has decided to not attend church at all. He has no
plans [...]