Becoming an Inside Out Church
“Oh, that God the gift would give us to see ourselves as others see us” Robert Burnes The Declining Church Tom Bandy observed, during his recent visit to Australia, that the decline of mainstream institutional Christianity was about ten years more advanced than in the USA and that some of the Australian responses to the […]
Between Thought and Faith, Culture and Religion
Background to Dialogue The following paper by Doris Lax and response by Tom Bandy were part of the presentations to the annual meeting of the North American Paul Tillich Society in November 2000. This society is one of the largest and most diverse academic societies associated with the American Academy of Religion. Doris Lax is […]
Breaking Through to a New Sense of Mission
Leading congregational leaders to deepening their spiritual discipline and breaking through to a new sense of mission…a story… What happens when denominational issues impact upon the local congregation? What happens when these issues cause people to leave and de-stabilize the congregation? What happens when the Senior Minister decides to leave and takes significant leadership and […]
Giving
“Giving USA”, the definitive publication on charitable giving, has recently come out with their 2004 issue which has the giving numbers for 2003. The results are not very good, but somewhat expected. For 2003 Americans gave away 240.72 billion dollars which is an increase of 0.6% when adjusted for inflation. This is on par with […]
Empowered Passions
. . . in a New Language A new language emerges out of the ashes of modernism. It is decidedly the language of metaphor, and it will definitely ride a wave of emotion. This new language will involve all forms of communication in a sensory, emotional multimedia more real than reality itself. Like all arts, […]
Find a Partner, Play to Win – Lives!
On February 1, 2000, my heart pounded with excitement, gratitude and joy, as young, African American students from the Senior High across the street, walked tentatively over to the brick-framed house two congregations had purchased and had been remodeling for months. They were making it into a safe haven for after school activities for these […]