via Give Us Your Lavishly Rich, Your Xenophobic | CommonDreams.org.

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At the present juncture of history, Western Christianity is suffering from a bad case of spiritual amnesia. Even those who claim to be devout or conservative often know little about the history of their faith traditions. Our loss of memory began more than two centuries ago, at the high tide of the Enlightenment. As modern society developed, the condition of broken memory — being disconnected from the past — became more widespread. Indeed, in the words of one French Catholic thinker, the primary spiritual dilemma of contemporary religion is the “loss and reconstruction” of memory.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-butler-bass/is-western-christianity-s_b_554231.html

When we get into this memory loss or maybe memory block, then we forget that Jesus didn’t come for the church but those disconnected from God. We forget that Jesus critiqued the religious institutions of the day as not being in touch with God’s mission. We forget that the Christian  faith  did not start with our most recent experience of it. We forgot that Jesus Christ calls us to sacrifice for the other and not preservation of self. We forget what it means to live faithfully beyond religious patterns. This is who we got to a post religious world and why we need a post religious church

First the CHRIST-mas tree from Boss creations

“When I became a Christian a few years ago,” says Boggs, “I was appalled by the secularization of the Christmas holiday. When retail stores started substituting ‘Happy Holidays’ for ‘Merry Christmas,’ and schools began calling their Christmas programs ‘Winter Plays,’ it all seemed ridiculous to me. That’s why we have created products that remind people what the Christmas season is really all about – the birth of Christ.”

Then Jesus shoots Santa to make the point about the true meaning of Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwYN8UStxow

Something seems wrong with that picture. What is the faithful response to keeping the true spirit of Christmas in a post religious world.

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Video from the folks over at Mosaic -LA

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The site name will change to reflect that focus as well. This is not a reflection on anything happening in the emerging or missional church converstations. Rather it is the conclusion of a trend in my own thought and focus of my theological reflection and praxis that I am current exploring in light of cultural shifts.

Hopefully something of substance will “emerge” from this initiate which can add to the ongoing adventure that is the christian faith in our time.

Religion – Salon.com.

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Should your church start a nonprofit? | Faith & Leadership.

To really “fly,” the church may need to set up the program as its own nonprofit organization. In my work as a speaker, teacher and consultant in the nonprofit management and ministry development field, I’ve found that many churches with schools or preschools consider this model, and it is also commonly used for community development activities such as affordable housing, youth development, job training and health clinics.

New Hope South Bay and Newsong merged last summer to form a unique partnership. Though New Hope – a multi-site church with two campuses – essentially went under the umbrella of Newsong to become one of Newsong's multi-site campuses, the merger has involved little change in terms of governance and structure

via A New Kind of Multi-Site Church | Christianpost.com.

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