Last week, I asked for some insight into the name for a new gospel-centered, theologically-driven, mission-shaped curriculum I am helping develop here at LifeWay. (I will be General Editor and Trevin Wax is the Content Editor.)

The working title was originally Telios and we've recently been calling it GospelEPIC. Most of you didn't care for GospelEPIC, and you made a number of suggestions.

CJ Godfrey shared what the title "GospelEPIC" brought to his mind. See my words about "hating him" in the comments of this thread. ;-) But, based on the negative response, we immediately decided that this was a terrible mistake and went back to the drawing board.

We've narrowed the list down to four titles we think are strong possibilities. Keeping in mind the description of the curriculum , tell us which you prefer of these four:

1. TGM: Theology. Gospel. Mission. Just a simple acronym that points to the subtitle.

2. Immerse: Theology+Gospel+Mission. (We could use the word in a number of ways: "immersed in the gospel," "immersed in the grand narrative of Scripture," etc.)

3. Engage: Theology+Gospel+Mission. (We like the outward flow of "engage"-- primarily because our goal is that people will engage the truth of Scripture in a way that leads to engaging in God's mission.

4. Pursuit: Theology+Gospel+Mission. (We like the double meaning of pursuit, first that God has pursued us. Then, once we have been pursued, we pursue greater knowledge of Him, pursue gospel transformation, pursue others with the gospel, etc.)

What do you think? Which of these titles seems strongest to you? Do you have other suggestions?

Today, I preach at Jubilee Church in London and then head home to the United States where I plan to order a 64-oz. Diet Coke.

My next several road trips:

May 31, 2010
Foursquare Connection
Atlanta, GA

June 13, 2010
National Director of Missions Annual Meeting
Orlando, FL

June 14, 2010
SBC Pastors' Conference
"Greater Things"
Orlando, FL

June 15-16, 2010
Southern Baptist Convention 2010 Annual Meeting
Orlando, FL

Jun 17, 2010
Ligonier Ministries National Conference 2010
Orlando, FL

June 23-24, 2010
Churches of God "A New Tomorrow" General Conference
Decatur, IL

June 26, 2010
General Association of General Baptists Mission & Ministry Summit
Franklin, TN

See you soon on the road this summer...

Today is the National Day of Prayer--established by the United States Congress (becoming law in 1952). It is a day "on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals."

There has been no shortage of controversy this year about the day: a recent ruling by a U.S. District Judge declared the day to be unconstitutional, and the Pentagon garnered media attention when they rescinded their invitation to Franklin Graham, who was scheduled to preside over their service.

I thought it would be a good idea to look at what Americans really think about prayer. Several studies give some insight:

Today, The Resurgence blog provides a clear path to legalism:

On Thursday, we do another session of "The Exchange."

Here is how I explained the whole idea:

I'll be hosting a regular web show starting today. You can find it here.

Here is what I wrote last week:

My main agenda is simple: to help pastors and church leaders in a setting that includes questions and dialogue. If I had my way, I would personally coach and encourage every pastor or leader. But, since they actaully want me to lead a research team here at LifeWay, I am somewhat limited in my capacity. With this new show, I can talk through some common themes and interact with Christian leaders as we "provoke one another to love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24).

The episodes will be archived and cataloged by themes and topics. Today I will focus on three things:
1. my article on research in Christianity Today
2. thoughts on the clergification and its dangers
3. my blog post from yesterday

Here is the news release with more information (and the link at the bottom).

Here is my travel for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for praying for me and I hope to see you on the road.

The National Outreach Convention is this Wednesday - Friday in San Diego, CA. This isn't just a big conference (but it is crazy big), it also features a very diverse line up with some very solid guys. I know I'll see a number of you there.

On the 8th I'm preaching at Harpeth Community Church in Franklin.

On the 9th I'm joining some brothers at the TN Baptist Pastors Conference where we'll focus on the Kingdom of God.

On the 10th I'm with friends at the Acts 29 Bootcamp/Conference "Ambition" at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY.

On the 11th I'm speaking at the Great Commission Research Network Conference

On the 12th, I will also be preaching at the NOBTS Chapel and doing a dialogue after with the students.

...and then I'm off to Seattle (See part 1)

Yesterday, I posted the video from my training in Oklahoma. I neglected to add the outline and notes, so I am posting them here. You can see the video here and the notes are below.

At the One Day web page, you can find those outlines, with "blanks" if you want to use them as training notes. Bob Mayfield tells me that 16 of the 273 churches have done their "One Day," but they have already trained over 2000 leaders. I am encouraged!

Missional Leadership

1) Reconsideration of Leadership

a) From superman to everyone
b) From church to kingdom
c) From me to we
d) From personal power to people empowerment

2) Rejection of Clergification

a) From three tiers to one mission
b) From "called to the ministry" to "called to ministry"
c) From "called to missions" to "sent on mission"
d) From exceptional to ordinary
e) From "priests" to a "priesthood of believers" codependence

3) Renewed focus on mission

a) From "full service" to "simple mission"
b) From "pay, pray, and get out of the way" to "join God on His mission"
c) From decisionism to disciple making
d) From "mission statement" to "Jesus mission"
Luke 4
Luke 19:10

4) Realignment of priorities

a) God is a missionary god
b) I personally join Him on mission - modeling
c) I lead others to join Him on mission - leadership
d) I equip others - multiplication

I hope that is helpful. Be sure to watch the video to get the context.

I am excited to see my friends from the BGCO working hard to serve their churches. In a tumultuous time in my denomination, Anthony Jordon has led the BGCO to serve their congregations well. At a time when some are saying we don't need a change, Anthony has been urging his churches to become more missional. I appreciate his friendship over the last several years and, more importantly, his steady leadership.

Well, my friend Bob Mayfield is part of the team there and he asked me to come out and do a training event that will be used for 10,000 leaders this August. Now, this training is not for pastors, but for leaders of small communities-- small group leaders and Sunday School teachers. And, training 10,000 leaders is a pretty great opportunity to encourage some folks, so I was glad to do it... and the videos will be coming out soon.

Let me add that I think this kind of approach will be big part of the future. Last year, I did a similar thing with the Assemblies of God. We shot the video at a television station in Chicago and then then used it in meetings across their region. It takes such training to people and not just to pastors. You can see those videos here.

They have planned a "One Day" training for leaders of small groups and classes to help them live on mission. Below is a preview video and you can find more information about the "One Day" initiative here.

It has been three weeks since I have been in the office. We (parts of my family and I) have been in 6 states and 5 countries since last sitting in my office chair. (My travel details are here). As weird as it sounds, I miss my office chair (and, of course, my co-workers).

Here is a recap of this week:

Southeastern

As I post this, I just got home from a week in Raleigh-Durham. I had a great time teaching at Southeastern Seminary and, if I have not mentioned it, you should be going to school there (and check out the Ph.D. program in missiology with a focus on North America that I have been helping develop). It was a great week and I look forward to much more interaction at SEBTS.

Advance09

At the end of the week, I had the privileged to speak at Advance09. Here is a panel we did including Tyler Jones, Eric Mason, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and J.D. Greear. I preached from Matthew 16 on how the Kingdom births the church in its wake.

The venue was pretty impressive. The attendees were enthusiastic. The music was amazing (good to hear the Sojourn Church band again).

I was blessed to hear preaching from several amazing leaders, most of whom I also know as good friends.

Thanks to the folks at Desiring God, you can find all the audio from the conference here.

Next Up

I am home this week and will be in the office five (count 'em, five) days in a row.

We hit the road just a bit next weekend.

I will be preaching Sunday in San Antonio at Grace Point Church. They have three services (which I did not remember when I agreed to do so about a year ago!). I am taking Jaclyn with me and we are planning to Remember the Alamo.

From San Antonio, I will be flying to Anaheim, CA to speak at the Southwest Baptist Conference, a regional gathering of Converge Worldwide (formerly the Baptist General Conference).

And, then, of course since I am in Anaheim, CA and have Jaclyn with me, we have plans on Tuesday:

I'm out of the country at the moment, but I'll be back soon enough - just in time to travel some more. At least this time it's closer to home and my whole family will be with me.

Here are some events coming up:

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary D. Min. Seminar

In early June (1st - 5th) I'll be a guest professor at SEBTS teaching a doctoral seminar titled, "Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth." I love my time teaching at seminaries and Southeastern is an amazing school.

Advance09

Be sure to not miss Advance09 that same week. Piper, Driscoll, Chandler, Akin, Greear, and many friends... you won't want to miss it.

Here is something for the Fall:

A Note from Bob Whitesel to GCRNet (ASCG) Leaders

My friend Bob Whitesel sent this out about a future conference and I am passing it on to you. Be sure to click on the link to see the program. Some great speakers there.

As you know, we have an exciting Annual Conference for The Great Commission Research Network coming up Nov. 11-12, 2009 in New Orleans, hosted by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Hope to see you in New Orleans this fall.

I really enjoy teaching at seminaries, and value the interaction with students over a longer term.  I consider it a privilege to teach at schools passionate about the gospel.

I get that I am a bit of a motivational speaker (who lives in a van down by the river). Every week, I go somewhere and talk to pastors and church leaders about gospel, church and mission. When I come and speak, people want me to bring a  "dynamic message." Fair enough. But I am skeptical that a 30 minute message with Bible, humor, and illustrations can really produce the change I hope to see. (Even in those settings, I try to direct people to the blog, books, etc.)

Over the course of time these crowds have become larger, and though I know I am supposed to be glad about that, sometimes the "big program" works against the relational connection that I put a lot of value in. By teaching at a seminary, I get to connect with people bit longer and work through some deeper issues that simply require time.

Now, this is not to say that all theological education is well done. I have been in settings where professors and students hold firm positions, debate them aggressively, criticize constantly, and tell other students "how it must be," even though their theoretical ideas won't work outside the hollowed walls of the academy.

On the other hand, I have seen healthy environments. In these environments, students and faculty are on a journey of learning together-- with a common mission and purpose. 

I have thought much about seminaries having taught at more than a dozen different schools. I greatly appreciate those with a strong focus on God's global mission.  As a missiologist, I am particularly interested in and enthused about schools with a passion for mission.

I think of Columbia International University as a great example of a good learning environment driven by God's global mission. I have taught a few classes there and almost joined the faculty at Columbia Biblical Seminary.  (This was before Thom Rainer, Brad Waggoner, and LifeWay called and changed our direction.) Our draw there was because of their mission-shaped curriculum and their high view of scripture.

CIU is  serious about making God's global mission central to their ethos. The schools mission statement says "Equipping Great Commission Christians to minister in multicultural communities." And, it is obvious that mission is their passion and their passion and their ethos.  They require every course to be taught through the lens of mission.

I think such a mission-shaped ethos is both essential and (unfortunately) missing at many schools.

One school that is still thinking through how best to do this is Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, PA (near Philadelphia). Biblical is in the midst of a transition. Like most periods of change, it has not been without fits and starts. But, I appreciate their passion to create a "missional" focus. I had a great time there a few weeks ago teaching, "Entering the Missional Conversation."

I have loved teaching at schools like the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, Reformed Theological Seminary, and some of my own denominational seminaries, but I have decided I need to focus so I can have longer interaction with students and faculty colleagues.  I am doing so be putting my focus on two schools with a high view of scripture and a focus on mission: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A few months back, I talked about my role at Trinity.  I taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School a few weeks ago (the pic above is from that time) and I will be doing so at least twice a year. Here is the info about my most recent class and I will be teaching there again this fall, October 26-30th. Trinity is a remarkable school and I encourage you to check it out. I am honored they would invite me to teach there.

Here on the blog I also mentioned that I was joining the faculty of Southeastern. Southeastern is a great seminary with a growing influence inside, and well beyond, the SBC. If you're considering a seminary education, you should give SEBTS some serious thought. In June, I'm teaching a D. Min. course at SEBTS titled, Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. 

So, my two schools are Trinity and Southeastern, two schools focused on God's global mission with a high view of scripture. I hope to see you there!

Here is the syllabus for my upcoming class at Southeastern:

This week I'm at Biblical Seminary teaching a D. Min. course titled, Entering the Missional Conversation. I thought you might find the syllabus interesting.

Biblical Seminary exists to produce missional Christian leaders-
men and women who incarnate the story of Jesus with humility and authenticity and who communicate the story with fidelity to Scripture, appreciation of the Christian tradition, and sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of postmodern culture.

Guest Professor, "Entering the Missional Conversation," Biblical Seminary, Hatfield, PA (March 23-27)

Well, I only have one speaking engagement this week, but it's a long one-- teaching a D. Min. seminar all week long at a seminary - Biblical Seminary in PA. 

Biblical Seminary asked me to lead their faculty retreat last year.  I was glad to spend a day walking through the history of the missional idea (Newbigin, DuBose, Van Engen, Guder, GOCN, Keller, etc), my thoughts how evangelicals can embrace the missional turn without falling into the same errors as the conciliar missions movement did during the missio dei emphasis of the 50s and following, and the challenges of the missional turn today.  We had a robust and stimulating day-- and it led to my "Meanings of Missional" series here at the blog. 

I am thankful that they asked me to come and teach a course with them and I look forward to the week in Philadelphia.

Advance 09 Conference Registration Now Open

Here is some info about an upcoming conference that just went live this week.  Be sure to visit the web page at www.advance09.com.

Christ promises to build the Church, and that no force will prevail against it. Yet, the local church has been heavily battered in battle. Sadly, churches in America are in steady decline, with over 4000 closing their doors and 500,000 members leaving each year--never to return. This is not what the Lord desires. The Apostle Paul tells us that " . . . through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places". The local church is called to lift-up Jesus so that all the world might see Him. The local church is called to make known the Gospel and to be the vehicle of redemption for the world. Led by local churches, Advance09 is a conference committed to the resurgence of the local church for the glory of God. Our aim is to equip attendees with the Gospel so that the local church might become all that Jesus calls it to be. At this conference, we hope to ensure that on our watch and in our time we honor Jesus and see the resurgence of the local church. Advance09 is open to anyone: pastors and lay-leaders; church members and regular-attenders. We invite you to join us in this Great Cause.

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL (outside of Chicago) is a great school. There are a number of reasons why Trinity is a great choice for graduate and post-graduate work, but I'm short on time so let me give you one reason you should enroll: I would love to see you in my D. Min. class this Spring.

I have been too busy to keep up my normal blogging pace, but will get back to that soon. In the meantime, let me mention a couple of things coming up on Thursday.

Tomorrow, Eric Geiger will be by the blog to answer questions from his newest book, Identity: Who You Are in Christ I will post his interview early in the morning and he will be answering questions all day. Feel free to drop by.

Also, if you are around Chicago, be sure to come by Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for an afternoon conference (open to the community). I will be teaching on the missional church. Info is here.

Let me add that Trinity is a remarkable school and I am quite pleased with my time here. I will be talking more about the school and why you should come here!

Here are some of my notes from class today.

I would like to suggest that what evangelicals need is an adequate ecclesiology if they are to discover resources to deal with the longstanding problems that the critics have identified and quite ably analyzed... Now, many evangelicals are aware of their ecclesiological deficit. In fact, one of the recurring criticisms of evangelicalism is that it has no adequate ecclesiology (p.11 Liturgical Theology The Church Worshiping Community, Simon Chan, InterVarsity Press Downers Grove Ill, 2006)

Two quotes from Husbands and Treier

Both the best and worst of evangelical ecclesiology are rooted in the passionate evangelical commitment to mission. This engenders flexibility that contributes significantly to the accusation that evangelicals do not have an ecclesiology. We do - but our ecclesiology is so flexible that it is difficult at times to identify an effective one. (p.70, The community of the Word; toward an evangelical ecclesiology Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier, editor. InterVarsity Press, 2005).

The strength of evangelicalism is its willingness to adapt its practices to the demands of Christian mission. The weakness is its willingness to neglect our identity within the people of God. An improvisational ecclesiology recognizes the demands of adaptation and faithfulness, committing us to both. We must learn properly to confess in word and deed that the church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. But what those marks mean in particular times and places requires discernment under the guidance of the Spirit. (The community of the Word, p. 71).

From my fellow Southeastern faculty member John Hammett:

A great number of churches in North America are undergoing radical changes as they take new forms and new approaches and move in new directions. But the new forms, approaches, and directions are anything but monolithic. Formerly, if a church identified itself as Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Methodist, one knew pretty much the stance of that church. Such labels are no longer sufficient, or even that helpful. Is the church traditional, contemporary, seeker driven, postmodern? Is it a megachurch, a house church, a cell church, a metachurch? (John S. Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, page 302-303.)

And, one from Shelley who cautioned two decades before the most recent explosion of evangelical innovation:

It should be a source of deep concern to evangelicals that while professing faith in an infallible Bible, they have produced so few worthy books on the Biblical doctrine of the church. (Bruce Shelley, Evangelicalism in America (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), p. 124.)

And one more for good measure from Howard Snyder:

In Paul's thought the body is not a simile for the church. The church is not merely like a body. The church does not merely resemble a body in its diversity, unity, and interdependence. It is the body of Christ, who is its head. Every member of the body is, in a mystical sense, a part of Christ. (Christianity Today Magazine, online article: Editor's Bookshelf: Biology Class for the Church, Howard Snyder maps the genome of the body of Christ, David Neff, posted 11/01/2002).

Have a great Wednesday.

Sitting in the faculty lounge at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and getting ready for my class.

I am glad to be part of the team, but I need to give them an updated picture.

I will be teaching "Becoming a Missional Church" (class syllabus is here) On Thursday, I will be spending the morning with uberbloggers Bill Kinnon and David Fitch (and David also moonlights as a professor and a church planter). We will be shooting video and I will share more details on that later.

Thursday I will lead a conference at Trinity from 3:15-6:45pm. I must admit to being confused about it so when I get more info, I will post it here.

I am in my hotel room in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is late, but I am feeling a "blog urge" and wanted to post.

Tomorrow (at 5:30a.m.), I head over to Springfield, Missouri (and it is midnight here!). So, I better make this a quick post. I am speaking to two Baptist groups in two different states. I am in the heartland with Baptists in Missouri and Arkansas.

I recognize that most of my blog readers are not Baptists and thus do not necessarily speak "Baptist." Thus, a little explanation might he helpful.

Tomorrow, I am in Springfield, Missouri to speak at Baptist Bible College. Bible Baptist College is part of the Independent Baptist church movement. Wikipedia explains:

Independent Baptist churches (also referred to as Independent Fundamental Baptist, or IFB) are Christian churches holding to generally Baptist beliefs. Like all Baptists they are characterized by being independent from the authority of denominations and church councils. However, the reason for the distinction, "independent," is that they eschew even the Baptist conventions or associations in which other Baptist churches participate (although many Independent Baptist churches do belong to fellowships). They remain autonomous and congregationalist in nature and are generally fundamentalist in teaching. The IFB movement is not a denomination per se, but there are similarities that run throughout most Independent Baptist churches.

I am not IFB, so I am particularly blessed that they would invite me to share with their students and the pastors attending the conference. We will be talking church planting and evangelism and I look forward to it.

Tuesday, I am back in Bentonville where I will speak to the Arkansas Baptist Convention. They theme is Reaching Generation Next Now. I will speak just before lunch and will share some research and speak on engaging emerging generations. After I speak, I will meet with some contemporary church pastors over lunch (see below).

Part of what I help the International Mission Board is help them connect with innovative pastors to get them involved in global missions. During lunch on Tuesday, we are hoping to do that very thing. Jeff Noble, who came with me to Poland last week (see his interview here), is organizing a lunch meeting of innovative church pastors who might want to talk about engaging in church planting in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rob Brown, who oversees much of the work there, explained the opportunity this way:

Come visit the IMB teams serving in Central Europe to see what God is doing and prayerfully explore how their churches can serve alongside these teams in impacting peoples with the gospel through creative access venues and relational exchanges.

If you are interested, be sure to check out my recent Europe posts here and contact Jeff immediately if you can come to lunch on Tuesday in Bentonville.

Updated: Check out this article. It just came out and gives great info about the partnership.

Good night.

My paper on the emerging church is now online. It is in a journal along with some other issues. You can download the journal here and read my article inside. (I am not publishing it here so that that NOBTS web site gets a few hits.)

The journal flows from the influence of two major streams in the church today. Others have reported it elsewhere and I will repeat it here: there is great energy in the Reformed and in the emerging church movements-- much more than we find in some of the other movements vying for attention.

The first section deals with Calvinism. And, in the spirit of keeping my focus on the topic at hand, I am working hard to resist any comment on the contents thereof.

I wrote a paper on the emerging church. My paper is not a "Baptist" paper like some of the others in the journal. By that I mean I am not writing about Baptist denominational distinctives or from a Baptist denominational perspective as my presentation is more broadly evangelical. That is partly because I presented it first at the Evangelical Free Church Midwinter Ministerial, an annual denomination wide theology symposium of sorts that asked me to come in and keynote for a long (8 hour!) day. I shared a very truncated version at a conference on the emerging church at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. In both cases, I made revisions after each presentation and the presentations and paper have been a work in progress.

I welcome you to take a look at the paper and correct me where I am wrong, update or clarify my history, and just discuss in general. I am going to watch the thread for a bit and see what I can learn.

Three people "respond" to me in the journal: one says I was too hard, the other too soft, and the third just right. (Just kidding.) The other papers all share their own ideas-- they are not simply responses to my thoughts. They are worth a read. One is written by the President of a College (Free Will Baptist Bible College). He has a good grasp of the issues. The second is by Jack Allen, who may have been off his medication when he wrote it. And the third is by Page Brooks, a professor at NOBTS, who told me that he mostly agreed with me because he read all my books while a student. (I immediately commented to him that I was ONLY 42. Grin.)

Andrew Jones (tallskinny kiwi) was gracious enough to take a read and help me out with some suggestions. As part of the research, we had help (on the history part) from Dave Travis, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, Andrew Jones, and Brian McLaren. If you have any more ideas on the history, I would be particularly interested as I will publish that part in a book (linked here). I focused on the U.S. expressions here, but have about 6 pages I edited out (due to space) that dealt with more international expressions.

With that being said, my evaluation is my evaluation. And, for that matter, historical errors are my own as well. I have tried to be fair and that means I will please few. But, such is life. I am a critic of some things in the Emerging Church, but I work hard to be an honest one. (When you have been lied about yourself by key religious leaders, I think you try to be more sensitive to others.) But, at the end of the day, I think an increasing number of voices who identify themselves as evangelical and emerging are expressing concerns similar to those here-- my paper is neither brilliant or filled with new insights.

This paper was done before I did some additional interviews with some leaders of the Emerging Church. I will put those here on the blog so you can hear from them directly over the next few weeks. Don't just listen to people talk about people--listen to the people about whom they are talking.

As I mentioned at the conferences, if you want to know more about the emerging church, the books I recommend (read in order) are:

1. The New Christians by Jones
2. Emerging Churches by Gibbs and Bolger
3. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church by Carson
4. Why We Are Not Emergent by DeYoung and Kluck

I suggest you read them in order because you should hear from a movement before you critique a movement. The books I list are not necessarily the best, but I think they are helpful because they are influential and help you to understand the ideas of proponents and critics of the movement.

I have started into Phyllis Tickle's new book so that may bump the order around a bit. However, I am having doubts about her premise that "emergence" is a 500 year shift of Christian faith. I will delve into that later, but I simply do not see the movement as nearly that influential. This week many have said that emerging is going away-- well, I doubt that. However, I do not think it is the new Protestant Reformation either.

Once you get over your fixation with printed paper, read the Emergent Village blog, Tall Skinny Kiwi (Andrew Jones), and Jesus Creed (Scott McKnight) to better understand the emerging church and its beliefs.

It's also worth noting that in the midst of all this emerging/emergent talk, there is in-house discussion about the validity of the continued use of the terms themselves. Without theological unity among those who adopt the term "emerging," and in light of the ongoing confusion between Emergent and emerging, many are dropping or distancing themselves from these words. Dan Kimball is holding onto what "emerging" meant years ago when he wrote his book, The Emerging Church, but believes the term is used so broadly that defining it today is difficult. Bob Hyatt is just about done with the term, Andrew Jones is dumping it, and Doug Pagitt is using a new term (in addition to the others).

The emerging and Emergent church is an important ecclesiological issue worth working through. Check out the links and my paper, and as always...

Chicago is on my mind.

I am heading there in a couple of weeks to shoot a day of video on Comeback Churches for the Assemblies of God. Should be good...

I am staying over a few days with Donna to get a feel for the city.

If I don't end up preaching somewhere, Dave Ferguson has invited me to lunch so I will probably visit the big yellow box called Community Christian Church. Dave and Jon are contributing to our new book, Multisite Churches: Guidance for the Movement's Next Generation So, I owe Dave (and Jon) and will probably have to buy the lunch!

I am trying to get to Chicago more often because of my new relationship with Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. As I recently blogged, I just joined their faculty.

This Fall (November 17-21) I will be teaching a course titled "Becoming a Missional Church" at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School just outside of Chicago, IL. The course description reads,

Transformational ministries in today's rapidly changing culture require churches that are "missional" from a biblical, theological, and cultural perspective. This course will help you better understand the cultural context in which you serve and teach you how to apply biblically faithful and culturally relevant missiological strategies to your ministry. Special attention will be given to North American cultural shifts, the missional/sending nature of the church, effective communication in various cultural contexts, and emerging ministry patterns in North America.

You can download the syllabus here. Auditors are welcome!

TEDS is a fantastic school and I am looking forward to teaching and interacting with the students. I will be making a point of being on the Trinity campus while in town, so if you are a student there, I hope we can visit.

I will also teach a one day conference on November 20, in Hinkson Hall, (located in the Rodine Global Ministries Building on campus). The conference, also called "Building a Missional Church," runs from 3:15-6:45 and is open to all, but registration is limited. This should be a great gathering of students and pastors. Stay tuned for coming website and how to register.

I will come back in December to be part of a Cornerstone Knowledge Network meeting. We did some architecture research for them (see here.) They are meeting the 9th and 10th, and I will be with them on the 9th and will get some time at Trinity while I am there.

In the Spring I will be back in Chicagoland teaching another class at Trinity. This course will be on "Planting Missional Churches." While there I will lead a forum for sub•text on March 12th, 2009 (more details coming soon). sub•text is a new initiative begun by local pastors by Joe Thorn and Steve McCoy and emphasizes the preaching and practice of the gospel in the suburban context.

So, now I just need tickets to the White Sox game.