A little while ago I found out that Dallas Willard had finally passed away after a painful (and fairly private) battle with cancer. It’s an odd thing, really, when someone of such profound importance and weight passes on to be with Jesus. Recently I was reading a biography of someone with such weight and importance and in [...]

It’s always “funny” the questions you get on the road when you’re training people at Learning Communities. One of the things people hear, sort of on-the-side of things in Learning Communities, is that as a team, we gather every morning from 8:30-9:00 for Morning Prayers. This seems to intrigue a fair number of people because [...]

A month or so ago I wrote a blog post called “Embracing all Streams of our Spirituality.” I talked about how almost all of the healthiest people and church communities I’ve run into have integrated parts of all 6 of the streams of our Christian heritage (Holiness, Charismatic, Evangelical, Contemplative, Social Justice + Incarnational). The idea is [...]

Two years ago we arrived in Pawleys Island with 3DM for a season of investment and to help build out a movement that had given so much to Elizabeth and I. Many of you have been tracking that journey on this blog, various Learning Communities, other events, emails, phone calls, skype, etc. And so here [...]

If you haven’t seen the movie Moneyball yet, you need to. Like now. Click out of this window. Close your laptop. Get in the car. And go buy it. Not rent. Buy. If there was ever a metaphor for what the church is going through right now…it’s found in this film. If there was ever [...]

I had a coaching call recently with a few people who have Missional Communities that are in the inner city. The “leaders” are predominantly white and they are going into neighborhood that are predominantly not (this isn’t to say, of course, that only minorities live in the inner city). I hear questions about this pretty [...]

Here’s a quick thought on something I’ve been mulling about for the last 24 hours. There is a deep, rich and varied tradition of spirituality within the Christian church. And with all of them, you can trace them all back to within one hundred years of the start of the church. Here’s a quick snapshot [...]

One quirk you might find out about me is that I “scare easy.” It’s somehow made its’ way into the team vernacular here at 3DM. An unfortunate reality for me, to be sure. So you can imagine my chagrine when this video was sent around the team yesterday…though it’s pretty funny…  

You need to know upfront that I’m a Les Miserables-aphile. I read Victor Hugo’s classic in 8th grade…and I’ve returned to it regularly. I’ve seen the musical in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Broadway in NYC and in London. I’ve got a few different versions of the musical soundtracks, including the best one, the 25th Anniversary edition. [...]

Because American evangelicalism often sees trends in what churches go after, it’s not uncommon to see common themes emerge in a cultural sense. One of the interesting things in working with so many churches is getting to see those themes up close and personal. For instance, a decade ago, there was a massive theme of COMMUNITY. [...]