During my years at Wycliffe College, I listened to many students wrestling with whether they were called to ordination. They were often surprised when I told them that was not the right question to be asking. The place to start was by asking what their gifts were. Our Anglican system’s three-fold order of deacon, priest, […]
Can Three be Divided by Five? Varieties of Leadership Read More »
Leadership comes in many shapes and sizes—not just one. And different situations call for different styles of leadership. So what types of leader does the church need right now? Clichés become clichés for a reason—usually because they are true. So I am going to risk saying that because the church is in crisis, we need
The Four Kinds of Leader We Need Read More »
John Bowen is the author of What is a Fresh Expression of Church? A Beginner’s Guide to a Movement that is Changing the Church. The first half of the booklet explains what is (and is not!) meant by the phrase “fresh expressions of church,” and unpacks why fresh expressions of church might be needed and
What is a Fresh Expression of Church? Read More »
You never how things are going to develop. A few years ago, Stephen Andrews, the Anglican Bishop of Algoma, asked me to speak to each of his four deaneries about mission. So, over the course over eight months or so, I visited Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Huntsville, and gave the same
Roots and Wings: The Evolution of a Conference Read More »
John Bowen’s book, Evangelism for ‘Normal’ People, was published in 2002. Since then it has sold 10,000 copies, and been used as a textbook in several seminaries. But 2002 is a long time ago. What does the author think now? It all began with an email. I had known Andy when he was a
Having Second Thoughts about Evangelism Read More »
“Discipleship” is rapidly becoming one of those irritating buzz-words, like missional, inclusive, and green, guaranteed to get people asking with a certain edge in their voice, “But what exactly do you mean by that?”
In the case of discipleship, at least we can blame Jesus. His Great Commission is often cited as justification for our interest in the topic. And as you might expect, Jesus sheds some light on what we mean by the word. After all
How Disciples are Made Today Read More »
The fourth annual Anglican church planting conference, hosted jointly by the Diocese of Toronto and the Wycliffe College Institute of Evangelism, took place last week at St. Paul’s Bloor Street. Numbers at this conference have grown from 60 in 2007 to 180 this time. As one of my colleagues commented, “Aslan is on the move!”
“How Did it Go?” “Thanks for Asking!” – A Report from Vital Church Planting East 2010 Read More »
What exactly is Fresh Expressions? More than anything, it seems to be a spontaneous initiative of the Holy Spirit—if that doesn’t sound too presumptuous. One thing it is not, however, is a program. There is no Fresh Expressions manual with a one-two-three handy-dandy guide to setting up a wonderful fresh expression of church. In some ways,
Fresh Expressions training begins to take root in Canada Read More »
Vincent Donovan was a Catholic missionary to the Maasai in Tanzania in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His book Christianity Rediscovered (Orbis 1978) has been a best-seller ever since, and I am not the only teacher who has used it in classes on mission and evangelism to help students think through issues of Gospel and culture.
Fresh Expressions of Church among the Maasai? Read More »
Interest in Fresh Expressions seems to be everywhere. Bishops are talking about it. Students are talking about it. Every church doing something new-even a coffee hour after the main service-seems to be boasting that it is doing a \”fresh expression.\” And, of course, Canada now has its very own Team Leader for Fresh Expressions Canada-Nick
Is Fresh Expressions just the latest \”Flavour of the Month\”? Read More »