Two Guiding Principles for Launching a New Church

In a recent conversation with someone about starting a new church, I articulated two principles that are shaping what we’re doing at Fulcrum. If you’re looking for theological depth or piercing missionary insight, you’ll probably be disappointed.

1. I want to start a church that I’m excited to be a part of. (Larry Osborne gave me this basic principle at a conference earlier this year.)
2. I want to start a church that I’m comfortable inviting my friends to be a part of as well.

These aren’t the only principles shaping our activity of course, but they are an important part of the conversation.

What do you think about these?

Recent Reading

Here’s a few books I’ve had the chance to read through in the past couple of weeks.

The Tangible Kingdom: This book was recommended to me numerous times over the past couple of months. I finally picked it up and started reading. It’s full of practical advice and stories about how to create incarnational community in our neighborhoods. Biggest takeaway for me was to proactively invite others into the life I’m already living, rather than trying to figure out how start living a different life.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: This is my favorite of Donald Miller’s books. Truth be told, I had a hard time getting all the way through Blue Like Jazz and his other books have been good, but not memorable. This one hit me were I live. I love stories, storytelling, and narrative theology. The story of Miller looking for his father brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. This book challenged me to make sure I’m living a good story. I also liked this book didn’t come across as a Christian memoir, but rather a memoir that happened to be written by a Christian.

The Great Emergence: I wanted to like this book, but it didn’t do much for me. I’ve heard Phyllis Tickle speak several times and loved what she had to say. She’s a wonderful writer and obviously knows her stuff, but I think I’ve read enough other books along similar lines that this one didn’t break any new ground for me. I could see myself recommending it to someone who was asking initial questions about the emerging church though.

Some Things I’m Enjoying These Days

Here’s a rundown of some of my favorite things these days.

Music: Kings of Leon
TV: Community, Flash Forward, Fringe, House, and The Office.
Food: Torchy’s Tacos, Shady Grove, and Star Co. Coffee.
Books: My Kindle, The Tangible Kingdom, and The Golden City.
Workout: Bikram Yoga, Crossfit

Why I Don’t Blog Much Anymore

Just the other day I ran into someone who said that he reads my blog. I immediately felt guilty for not posting more often. This blog has been the biggest casualty from our move here. I just can’t seem to get into a blogging rhythm anymore.

One possible reason is that I used to spend long hours in my office and there would be plenty of time for composing posts. I’ve been on the run so much since we’ve moved here, I haven’t had a lot of dead moments in front of the computer.

Another reason is that a lot of the content on this blog has been from the overflow of my preaching. I’ve tended to post things here that I’ve wanted to process for a teaching series or that I’ve pulled from past messages in order to create a conversation. Since I’m not preaching each week, I’ve got less material to draw from.

I’m also reading less. I used to read a book a week. Right now, I’m lucky to read a book or two a month. (Since my Kindle arrived in the mail on Saturday, maybe this will change?) Again, less reading means less to talk about here.

Twitter has also hurt this blog. I’m tweeting more and blogging less. My thoughts are shrinking from the size of paragraphs to less than 140 characters.

I’ve also spent a lot of the last twelve years living in a theoretical world. I had the luxury of preaching, teaching, and writing about things that weren’t necessarily practical or things that I wasn’t able or willing to practice myself. Now I find myself in an environment where I have to be willing to live out what I’m thinking and talking about in order for anything good to happen. This means I’m doing more. It also means that I’m also speaking less in an effort to avoid giving myself more things to do.

We used to have some really good conversations around here didn’t we? We will again, I promise. I’ve just been too busy living to blog about it.