we be church

[Sore Thumbs] The Presence-Shaped Edition

Tim Keller on Preaching, Cities, and Relating to Culture

At a recent event in London at Westminster Chapel Tim Keller delivered a very measured and well thought out combination of talks and seminars on the importance of churches in the city, preaching to change people in their seats and finally relating to surrounding culture the right way. I didn’t go but by the wonder of the internet Newfrontiers have published video of the talks for all to see. I have added the last one on Relating to culture to this post below.

Preaching the Gospel
Why Cities Matter
Cultural Transformation

Tim Keller – Cultural Transformation from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Terry Virgo on “Why Church Plant?”

Over at Terry’s blog he has written a two part series on why church planting.

Church planting, it has been observed, is the most effective form of evangelism. Some statisticians have done the sums and worked out that you get more individuals saved through church planting than from any other form of evangelism. Sadly, however, by simply adding up the numbers they are in danger of missing the point.

Terry makes a strong case for church groups to be “presence-shaped”.

When ‘He is here’ all things are possible. This is what makes God’s people unique – His presence goes with us.

Why church plant 1
Why church plant 2

[Sore Thumbs] The Afrocentric Edition

I thought it would be good to link to a few things that stand out every week and which are worth pointing people to, hence the name sore thumbs.

Broadband in Africa

“By December 2007 terrestrial broadband networks were now available in every capital city in Africa, some 50% of main cities, 10% of secondary cities and 2% of towns…” (read the article on the White African blog)

EveryBlock

“EveryBlock filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city.” A web service currently only for the major cities in the US it’s a good way of researching civic atmosphere of your local community… (use the web service)

Get Better at Contextualization

“Contextualization and church planting aren’t anything new. These have been practices of the missional church for centuries, and in comparison to what is passed off as contextualization today, our early planting fathers put us to shame…” (read article on The Resurgence blog)

Mass Baptism

“People pressed as closely as they could on one another, in five (?) lines. They estimated they baptised about 700 people that day.” An beautiful photo story of hundreds getting dunked in Pemba Bay, Mozambique. (see the sideshow)