Generate Magazine

GENERATE MAGAZINE came in the mail yesterday. The print is small.  The vision is huge.

Some thoughts and observations.

Affordable. 4 issues for $20.  You can get a second subscription for $14.  $7 off the shelf. Generate is also made more sustainably than about anything else that will show up in your mailbox.   If you are interested in the post-modern/emergent/missional/ Christian conversation, get yourself a subscription.  And buy one for your friend or church or whoever.

[Hardly] No Advertising. The advertising that is there adds to the magazine and conversation.  Mostly ads for emergent books and artists.   Amazing that such a beautiful, sustainably made magazine is affordable with hardly any advertising.

Food Issues. The cover art is from artist Mark Menjivar.  Its awesome (how is that for an art review) but I am most excited about a byline at the end of the article:

The You are What You Eat exhibit is ready to tragvel ato a ny community or gallery that would like to use it as a centerpiece for dialog about food issues.  The exhitbit has custom crates, made with traveling in mind.  For more infromation, visit markmenjivar.com.

That is one of the most exciting parts of Generate.  The story doesn’t end in the magazine.  There is opportunity and ideas to take the conversation to your local community.

Fighting Words. Sometimes the best fights break out in the book reviews and Generate does a good job of making normally staid book reviews interesting.  The book in review is  The New Evangelism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. I haven’t read it, but the reviews and author response make me want to.

Doing Church Differently. The problem with magazines like Sojourners is that they often don’t highlight  the daily life of faith communities.  How they get started, where they are going, etc.  Generate highlights a few communities whose example could help emergents out as they start and restart their local cohorts, churches, and communities.  Generate profiles Presbyertian church planter and indie rocker Thomas Vito.  I will definitely be checking out Welcome Wagon.  I like what Vito says in the magazine, “An organzization made up of 100 churches of 100 committed people will be  far more effective to transform a community with the gospel than ten churches with 1,0000 people each.”

If you love or want to love the emerging church, then please support Generate.

 

Filed under: Christians, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, bible, church, community, emergent church, evangelism , church, conversation, emergent, emerging church, faith communities, food, food issues, Generate, gospel, local, local community, magazine, mark menjivar, missional, post colonial, post modenr, post modern, Presbyterian, publishing, sojourners, sustainable, The New Evangelism, Thomas Vito, transformation, Welcome Wagon, You Are What You Eat

Should Every Sunday be Laity Sunday?

United Methodists celebrate laity Sunday on the third Sunday of October.  Or as one UMC conference website writes: “Laity Sunday is a day designed for the lay members of local congregations around the World to lead the worship service and to give the clergy a much needed time away from the pulpit.”

This attitude is why I have a problem with things like laity Sunday.  I think that churches–especially in small churches–work best when the roles of laity and clergy are not so well defined.  You know, the pastor preaches from the pulpit and the congregation tries its best to pay attention.

In my experience, that type of relationship doesn’t work for laity or clergy.  The laity gets bored and the clergy get burned out.  Plus, relying on clergy to get things done gets real expensive.  Most smaller churches can’t be effective if most of their resources are being used to pay for the building and to pay salary.

I think clergy are most effective when they use their knowledge, experience, and theological training to teach and train laity to become active leaders in the community and in the church.  I Instead of spending a good chunk of time writing sermons, I have come to believe that clergy–especially in small church settings– are at their best when they  are intentionally teaching laity to think and act theologically.  In this manner, churches could serve as mini-seminaries and instead of one pastor with too much to do, you’d have a congregation full of theologically trained and active laity.  Instead of one pastor, you might get twenty pastors!

Simply put, Laity Sunday should be every Sunday.

Filed under: Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, bible, emergent church, evangelism, united methodist , church, united methodist, laity sunday, third sunday of october, seminaries, mini-seminaries, pulpit, clergy, laity, sermons, sermon, church salries, chruch, salaries

The Gospel of Frank the Tank

We have been going through the Rob Bell book Drops like Stars: A Few thoughts on Creativity and Suffering during worship service.

Rob Bell touches on the above scene from Old School.  Death by wallpaper and flooring he calls it.

The lectionary this past Sunday included Mark 10:17-31. The passages include such things as “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” and ” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

I think Jesus is clear here; Don’t end up like Frank the Tank.  Seek meaning and seek solidarity with others.

Filed under: Christians, Indianapolis, church, emergent church, evangelism, jesus , Will Farrell, Old School, poverty, social justice, jesus, rob bell, lectionary, Mark, creativity, drops like stars, mark 10:17-31, camel, eye of a needle, the poor, wallpaper, flooring, frank the tank