If you are new to this blog....

Welcome! The primary purpose of this blog is to explore and encourage around what it means to be winsome and sent into the world for God's glory. If you are new here, the definition of "lighthouse-searchlight" or our missional journey is a good place to start. Come peruse the blog and add me to your RSS feed!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

blog highlights

When people are new to a blog, they usually just pick up reading with new posts. But it is my hope that new readers will connect to some of the archived material. I am posting this as an end-of-2009 marker of what has gone before. This "highlight" page attempts to pull together and list some of my favorite posts and series of posts.

Favorite single posts, missional:

God's Refrigerator Door - perspective over worship and worship styles

Don't Waste Your Time - on the primacy of worship as the foundation for mission

Website Outreach Philosophy - the missional vision behind our website design (note: since this post, we have moved to a new site, but the philosophy and major "sections" of the site are the same)

VBS on the Road - story of taking our Vacation Bible School outside the walls

Searchlight-in-Training
- a missional look at parenting my young daughter

More than Cookies - narrative of two memorable days in ministry that highlight our growing missional mindset along with the mess and the "glory" of being a lighthouse and searchlight church

Significant single posts, denominational:
God on the Move - description of how God used one small-church pastor commissioner to "move" the 2008 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Ichabod or Scribbling on the Wall - one description of my calling to serve in the Presbyterian Church (USA); for those who are struggling...

Favorite series:
Frost Defines Missional - part 1, part 2, part 3 - blogged through Michael Frost's presentation on missional church at the 2007 PGF conference

Missional Identity in the Small Church - this is a seven-part series chronicling the visioning, communication, implementation, etc... of a missional identity at Good Shepherd. This material was compiled for a workshop I taught, but comes from an officer retreat in 2006. This initial link has links to the successive posts.

The Talent Challenge - a real-life missional "parable of the Talents" exercise I gave the congregation while I was on Sabbatical. Links below are to two follow-up reports.
  • Mission Benefit Concert - a $20 talent turned into a fabulous fund-raising concert for our missionaries in Spain; raised $1800!
  • Family Business in Nicaragua - a $20 talent sent to our missionaries in Nicaragua purchased equipment for a start-up sewing classes
Sabbatical - I wrote a summary of what I learned each week of a twelve-week sabbatical; some wonderful lessons.
Wednesdays Night Experiment - initial description and follow-up reports of our "Wednesday night experiment" of pushing the Wednesday night church meeting outside the walls into the neighborhood. Some exciting results!



Tag Cloud

2014 2015 accountability acts advent archive art arts ash wednesday aslan assurance audio auditions authenticity bands belief bigotry blessing blob bloggers blooper reel bluegrass body of christ book book reviews boomer boundaries breadth of worship builder bus calling Calvin Symposium cd ceilidh change character of god chart christmas church church partnerships civility commandments commentary communication community con ed confession confirmation contemporized hymns crisis CS Lewis culture D.Min. dance darkness death definitions denomination depth of worship discernment discipleship discourse dismissal dissertation drama early church easter ecclesiology ecpc emergent church error evangelism excellence exile exodus experience experimentation facebook failure faith family of God father fear fellowship fellowshippres following forgiveness friendship frost fruit frustration funerals GA ga219 ga220 GAhelp generations genX gift gifts girl scouts good news Google gospel grace gracious witness gspc youth hands health highlights holy spirit holy week hope hospitality humility humor hymn image of God imago dei improvisation incarnation inclusion index information insider language institutions interns invitation iTunes james jazz Jeremy Begbie john piper jonah joy judgment Keith and Kristyn Getty kids kindness language law lay renewal leadership legalism lent license life light lighthouse linked articles links listening liturgy loneliness love lyrics maddie shuler meme mentoring mercy metanarrative mgb commission millenials ministry networks miscellaneous mission missional missional identity missions moderator montreat mumford music narnia neighborhood neighbors new wineskins new year news newsletter NEXT NEXTchurch nicaragua noticing obedience obstacles organizations outreach palm sunday parenting participation pastor pastoral ministry pcaus pcusa peace performance peter pgf pictures plagues planning podcasting poetry politics ponderings pornography post-modernism prayer preaching presbymergent presbyterian global fellowship presbytery publishing questions racism reader reconciliation recordings recycled goodness redemption reflection refugees relationship relationships repentance retreat righteousness risk roadblocks rss rules sabbatical safety salt samaritan satan satire scotland searchlight searchlight 2.0 sectarianism self-righteousness seminaries sermon snippets sermon-song sermons shalom sheep shepherding sin small church social media song songwriters songwriting spheres of influence spirit spiritual lessons spiritual power stewardship stories story sub-culture summary sunrise talent challenge tears technology teenagers Ten Commandments terrorism testimony theater theft theological education top posts tragedy transformation translation travel trees trinitarian worship trinity trust truth twitter union with christ valentines VBS video virtual reality vision waiting website wednesdays out wee kirk welcome witness word cloud wordle words workshop worship writing year-end YL you tube youth