What makes a congregation bivocational and more likely to thrive into the future is the dual calling of the congregation to fresh understandings of mission and function—mission that is rooted locally, focused, and so primary that the church is willing to risk self in the cause, and functioning that is responsible, complementary, experimental, and not pastor-dependent, but lay-owned.
A Christian music and arts festival – established in 1973 and first held in 1974, Greenbelt festival is in its 33rd year, and, at the last festival, attracted around 19,000 festival-goers.
The Telegraph lists the top 10 worst Bible passages as announced at Ship of Fools:
…neuroscience is increasingly producing insights into human behaviour that are relevant to society … this progress also brings new ethical concerns
On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.
Walking along, I found myself thinking about healthcare. With 45.7 million uninsured — roughly one out of 6 Americans — I tried to imagine who that one vulnerable person was: the kid on the scooter? The guy with the guitar? The woman watching the hawk? Strange to think how easy it is in a public park — and how hard, apparently, in a town hall meeting — to recognize that what benefits some of us benefits us all, that when we work for the common good we’re all better off.
I was very glad indeed to hear from you; I am far from you and have never seen your faces, but you have given me a good gift and made me very thankful. I wish I could see you all in my own eye and shake hands with each one of you, but I say thank you, my kind friends, ever so much.