Frank Viola's Blog (11)

I’ve been using Facebook for over a year now, and I like it better than any of the other social networks out there, including Twitter (micro-blog) and the Ning sites. I especially like it over MySpace. What I don’t like about it, however, is that the site seems to be ultra sensitive. I’ve had friends deactivated from it for that reason. See Mike Morrell’s recent post about this. It’s quite informative. (By the way, if you don’t know who Mike is, he’s a marketing genius. You’ll find his endorsem… Continue

What follows is the afterword in From Eternity to Here. To my mind, it’s one of the most important parts of the book. So I’m publishing it here. Note that PTM has a small number of copies of “From Eternity to Here,” “Reimagining Church,” and “Finding Organic Church” for bloggers to review on their blogs. If you are interested in one of these titles to review for your blog, email Jeanette at PTMIN@aol.com, put “blogger review” in the subject line, and then give her your blog url and your mailin… Continue

Kingdom Confusion: Part II I’d like to continue our series on "Kingdom Confusion" as promised. You can read Part I on this site or at www.frankviola.wordpress.com/ In this post, I wish to address a somewhat popular cliché that I think misses the mark on what the New Testament (NT) teaches concerning the kingdom of God. Here's the cliché: "Jesus mentioned the church only twice; but he mentioned the kingdom over 100 times. So He really doesn't care about the church as much as He does the kingdo… Continue

The following interview was done by Chad Crawford over at Homebrewed Christianity. In it, I speak about the kingdom of God a bit. Next week, I’ll be blogging about the kingdom in a more focused way. And I’ll be taking dead aim at the present “kingdom vs. church” fad … where the kingdom is pitted against the church. Note to all blog readers: This Friday is going to be open-phones. So stayed tuned! Tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday, I’ll let you all know when the ReChurch Library launches. —–… Continue

This week (probably Wednesday or Thursday), Present Testimony Ministry will be launching a new “ReChurch Library.” The ReChurch Library will include the following 7 resources (at a huge discount). 1. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church (book) 2. Pagan Christianity (book) 3. Reimagining Church (book) 4. From Eternity to Here (book) 5. Finding Organic Church (book) 6. Bethany (booklet) 7. Challenging the Simple Church Movement: Taking Higher Ground (audio CD containing numerous sp… Continue

“Discipleship” and “missional.” These are the two big buzzwords on the Christian landscape today. Of course, there is also “simple church.” But that’s another discussion for another time. As I speak in conferences throughout the world and meet people who have jumped on the discipleship bandwagon, or the missional bandwagon (or both), I make several observations. Two Streams of Missional There seems to be two different streams in the missional world: 1)Those who are stuck with D.L. Moody’s m… Continue

So many Christians I meet today, whether in person, on social networks, or through emails, tell me that they are living in a spiritual wilderness. They feel alone, spiritually isolated, and they don’t have too many Christian friends that they are experiencing a rich and full fellowship in Christ with. Some of them attend a church on Sunday morning, yet still, they are living in the desert and they know it. Some have given up on the traditional form of church altogether. And they are in serious… Continue

This story is worth passing on, I think. Enjoy! Orginally posted: http://frankviola.wordpress.com/ —- A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked… Continue

Just want to let the Common Root community know about www.Shapevine.com - it's a great new site designed for those interested in missional church. It's been up for a few years, but they just revamped it. Lots of good resources and such. Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford built and manage it. Blessings, Frank Continue

The following is my interview with David Fitch, a major figure in the contemporary missional church movement.I will be leaving this interview up on the first page of this blog until next Monday. So there will be no blog post on Thursday as is our usual custom. Next Monday, I will interact with David’s answers. That will kick off a series of new articles that I’ll be writing entitled “Beyond Missional.” These articles will be short and will deal with such weighty matters as Christian discipleshi… Continue

The following is a transcript of a spoken message I delivered a number of years ago. The puncutation captures the spoken form. I trust that it will minister life to some of you during this season. ———— The Psalmist said that the Lord made known His ways to Moses, but made known His acts to the children of Israel. We have a God that does not do anything arbitrarily. He is very deliberate in what He does. He has His own special ways of doing things. He has specific ways of dealing with His creat… Continue