The Columbia Partnership

Associated Baptist Press - Opinion: Fairness and freedom

[This article concerns Norman Jameson, a Ministry Colleague with The Columbia Partnership.]

(ABP) -- Another Baptist editor has been ushered out. And that thud you hear is another door to Baptist freedom slamming shut behind him.

Technically, Norman Jameson is still editor of the Biblical Recorder of North Carolina, one of Baptists’ historic newspapers, until the end of the year. Technically, Jameson was not fired; he chose to resign. He did so with characteristic grace. But the reality is that the Biblical Recorder’s board of directors also made a choice. Rather than stand behind the editor they hired just over three years ago and the outstanding work he has done by every measurable standard, they threw him under the bus of the so-called “Conservative Resurgence.” The Resurgents want their own man in the editor’s chair, and Jameson is not their man.

Missional: Does the Word Still Have Value? [Conversation with Gary Nelson and David Fitch]

Nelson/Fitch - Missional - Does the word still have value? from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

Posted via email from The Columbia Partnership

Fuzzy Church

Download McConnell, Fuzzy Church, 10.25.10 Edition

A Travel Free Learning Article

By William T. McConnell, Ministry Colleague with The Columbia Partnership

Voice: 513.367.4316, E-mail: BMcConnell@TheColumbiaPatnership.org, Web Site: www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org

TFL Dialogue, Bill McConnell on Fuzzy Church

Fuzzy Vision

I can’t see. I didn’t know that until I entered the first grade. When I complained of being unable to see the writing on the board I was whisked off to the eye doctor and fitted for my first pair of glasses. The eye doctor mumbled some odd numbers like 20/200 and kept shaking his head. Soon I was fitted with a great pair of very unattractive glasses. This was back in ancient times before several great innovations in lens technology so I had glasses with rather thick lenses. Kids being kids they immediately dubbed my glasses and me “Coke bottle bottoms.”

Frankly, I didn’t care what they called me. I could see. There I was, six years old, and for the first time in my life I could see the things that other kids had been seeing all along. I discovered that one could see individual blades of grass without having to lie down on the grass. Trees have individual leaves. A baseball thrown to me could be seen before it was just inches away. A whole new world and a whole new way of seeing the world had opened up to me. Call me names, I didn’t care. Life was suddenly bright and clear. I especially loved the clear part. It took a bit of adjusting, but adjust I did and love it I did.

Associated Baptist Press - N.C. Church Aims to Replicate Course-Changing Experience for Others

WILMINGTON, N.C. (ABP) -- Staff members at First Baptist Church in Wilmington, N.C., say their experience at a church conference in Florida helped change their congregation for the better -- so they sought to recreate the experience for other churches.

The host church's contemporary worship band leads music in the 145-year-old sanctuary at one session of the "Hopeful Imagination" conference.

First Baptist hosted and co-sponsored a conference Oct. 22-23 dubbed “Hopeful Imagination: Traditional Churches Finding God’s Way in a Changing World.” Other sponsors were the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF of North Carolina, the Columbia Partnership and the Center for Congregational Health.

More than 300 clergy and laypeople representing churches from nine states and multiple denominational backgrounds heard the staff from the Wilmington church tell stories of how the congregation has changed over the past 10 years.

Associated Baptist Press - Unusual Prayer Meeting Proves Ministry Catalyst for N.C. Church

WILMINGTON, N.C. (ABP) -- A prayer meeting hosted by a non-church member and featuring speaking in tongues, anointing with oil and the blowing of a ram’s horn might not seem like the typical turning point in the history of a respectable, 200-year-old congregation like First Baptist Church of Wilmington, N.C.

Jayne Davis, an associate pastor at the host church, leads a session on spiritual formation.

But that’s what happened at a critical juncture in the church’s efforts to take a leap of faith and open a huge new center for church and community ministries. And church leaders are glad they didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand.

They told the story to make the point -- during a session at the Oct. 22-23 Hopeful Imagination conference -- that congregations should look for ways to make ministry opportunities happen, rather than enumerating reasons why they can’t do it.

  The church had been engaged in controversial negotiations to buy the old New Hanover County Jail building, bidding $1 million for the property. A local developer put in an upset bid, but miscalculated and offered $50 less than the necessary amount. Nevertheless, county commissioners decided not to honor the church’s bid.