Monthly Archives: April 2005

We live in a dangerous world. People are out to get us. They want to kill us, maim us, abuse us, steal from us. They want to destroy our way of life. And we don’t know what to do. Thursday, … Continue reading →

Late last year, in accordance with the United Methodist Book of Discipline that declares that a “self-avowed practicing homosexual” is ineligible for appointment as a United Methodist pastor, Beth Stroud lost her clergy credentials. Today the verdict of that court … Continue reading →

Here are links to the 10 parts of my review/discussion of Steve Sjogren’s, The Perfectly Imperfect Church: Redefining the “Ideal” Church. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part … Continue reading →

With this post I’ll close out my discussion of the 13 “paths” Steve Sjogren traces for the “struggling church” to become a “perfectly imporfect” church. The eleventh path, True, deals with doctrines & beliefs. Sjogren divides these into those that … Continue reading →

Time to get a move on here, so in this post I’ll deal with several of Sjogren’s “paths”s to becming a “perfectly imperfect church.” Path 8, which he calls Trusting, is about small groups. Small groups, he says, are the … Continue reading →

Michael Totten has been paying close attention (on site) to the recent happenings in Lebanon. If you check out his blog you’ll find many insightful reports on his time spent with Lebanese hunting for freedom. In a post today he … Continue reading →

Steve Sjogren’s seventh path, Inclusive, is inaptly named for us in the mainline churches. When we use the term “inclusive,” we’re usually talking about gender/racial/ethnic boundaries. Sjogren uses the term as synonymous with (or very similar to) what others call … Continue reading →

Sjogren’s seventh path on the way to becoming a “perfectly imperfect church” appears very rarely in church growth books. He says the church needs to be Safe. “Feeling ‘safe’ is the assurance that nothing is going to be forced upon … Continue reading →

In his prescription for struggling churches wishing to become “perfectly imperect,” Steve Sjogren has so far stuck with the usual fare. The next path he suggests breaks the mold – Fun. He says, “I have come to the conclusion that … Continue reading →

Within a long report by John Allen in the National Catholic Reporter, I found the following: In graduate school in the 1950s, Ratzinger found himself fishing around for a topic for his Habilitationsschrift, the book-length contribution to research a German … Continue reading →