Tired of the Show – By Troy Hamby

This blog was written by my friend Troy Hamby, who is planting Sanctuary Church in the Baltimore suburbs. What he is saying, feeling, and dealing with mirror closely our situation here with Renovate. Enjoy! Stolen/borrowed from http://troyhamby.com/2010/03/20/im-tired-of-the-show/ ———– If you ever want to experience the greatest stress imaginable, plant a church! We are only in the [...]

The Gospel and Redemption

These are our meeting notes from March 21 2010 – in a series called “Vintage Faith and Contemporary Spirituality” —– 3/21/10 Vintage Faith and Contemporary Spirituality Week 1 The Gospel and Redemption ____________________ Questions to consider for this series: When you think of today’s spiritual atmosphere, what comes to mind? How does that differ from [...]

Spiritual Conversations

I was on the phone with one of our guys at Renovate today on the way home from work. We were discussing ways to have spiritual conversations with our non-Christian friends. We both agree that it’s hard to get around to talking about God with people who don’t believe or aren’t interested in church. These [...]

Does our Piety Keep us from following Jesus?

I’m reading an article from the Winter 2010 edition of Leadership Journal.. Some of you may have seen this. On page 15, there is an article regarding a pastor who decided to “live like Jesus” for 1 year. I encourage you all to check it out. The last section of the article asks him “Are [...]

What Should I Tell Them?

I’ve been listening to the song, “Should I Tell Them?” by a Christian music artist by the name of Shaun Groves today. I’m posting the lyrics below so you can read them, then I’ll do some follow-up commentary. Walking with you is not without hazards Trippings this traveler’s curse Price paid for falling is more [...]

The Christian Life, Without Expectations

The title of this blog is somewhat of a misnomer. There really is no Christian life totally without expectations. Even non-Christians have preconceived notions on how Christians should talk, act, and live life. What I would like to propose is the Christian Life Without False or Unrealistic Expectations. There are two groups on my mind [...]

Book Review – Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola

The subtitle of this book is “A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities.” I’ll say that is a correct subtitle, if you agree with Viola’s approach to church and church planting. I will start this blog the same way Viola starts his book, and that is disagreeable. He lost me when he [...]

Imagine with me

I’d ask you to close your eyes and imagine with me, but then you wouldn’t be able to read this…. Think back to when you were a child growing up. Think about the town you grew up in, its people, its places, its culture. How did those people think, act, speak, and view the world? [...]

Book Review – No Perfect People Allowed

John Burke is the founding pastor of Gateway Community Church in Austin, TX and also founded the Emerging Leadership Initiative. ELI is the church planting network that I am partnering with for Renovate Church in Winchester, VA. He also wrote the book I am reviewing: NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED: creating a COME AS YOU ARE [...]

Reaching Winchester

So how do we reach Winchester? Moreover, how do we go about reaching the postmoderns in Winchester?? Here are some best practices I’ve come up.. These are from my research project. It includes results from interviews, church observations, and a review of over 30 literary sources. It’s not completely exhaustive, so you’ll probably think of [...]