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Posts Tagged ‘outreach’
Micro-ekklesia
Thanks to Lyngine for forwarding this rather interesting article from Newsweek to me. Lisa Miller (the article’s author) writes that a recent Pew Forum study shows that 7 percent of Americans worship in small groups in house churches rather than attending larger gatherings/congregational settings. The article goes on to explore some of the reasons – [...]
No Pain No Gain
“Liberal” churches may be sabotaging themselves by reducing the commitment of their members – so suggests a recent report in New Scientist. The persecution of early Christians may have had a dramatic effect on the spread of Christianity because the sacrifices of martyrs and confessors instilled in others the idea of sincerity: “few would willingly [...]
It’s All In The Numbers
This morning’s rounds turned up two curious pieces of news. Firstly, FaithLab reports that Daniel Akin, the president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary wants Baptists to have more babies – in order to numerically overwhelm the growing Muslim population in the US. Europe – he suggests, will be taken over by “the Muslims” without [...]
Make Disciples of All Men
There has been a small flood of articles on “conversion” in today’s religious news round-up. The two that caught my eye are a BBC report (here) on the Church of England’s consideration of a motion re-emphasising its explicit aim of converting people to Christianity; and Andrew Brown’s post (here on Guardian CIFBelief) reflecting on “evangelisation” [...]
This Is How We Practice – But How Do We Talk About It?
Making my morning rounds recently I’ve been struck by the number of essays, news items, and “other” that in one way or another touch on the idea of why religion matters to us, to the world around us. This morning, for example I read a discussion guide of Krista Tippet’s book Speaking of Faith: Why [...]
Ad Campaigns – Do They Change People’s Minds?
I’ve been watching the “wires” (religious news sources) and have seen an interesting effect of the London/DC Atheist bus campaign; a debate, within the wider Christian community about how to reach out and inspire others with the message of the Gospel. What I’m seeing is both a conversation about the benefit of getting people talking [...]
Making Our Voices Heard – OC/IC Blogging 101
I regularly rummage around the net looking for tips on better blogging. My thinking is, if this site is going to be a useful resource for the OC/IC community then I need to invest in making it as attractive and user friendly as possible. Most of the articles and sites I’ve read are designed for [...]
Art, New Media, And The Case For God
Over the past two years I’ve posted more than once about the interaction between new media, outreach, and sparking creative projects within the community. Here, at Iconia Menachem Wecker has written a post well worth reading. In it he observes that many religious communities using new media are failing to take the opportunity to present [...]