This is where I try to bring together several blog posts from the interwebs which is a lot like herding cats.

First up is JD Payne who gives some Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters. Well worth the read, but they are meant to be practiced.

Second, my friends at The Upstream Collective have been in Copenhagen all week. You can read about how they are learning to be cozy and content.

Also check out this video on how one church uses short-term mission trips in their overall disciple making strategy.

Third, Almost M suggests that we Cross Culture Through Literature.

Next, Ed Stetzer started back blogging every Monday on all things missional with Converts to What?

Ed’s post prompted some well thought out push back from JR Rozko. However, I do feel that JR missed the intent of Ed’s article which only touches on one aspect of all things missional which this video over simplifies (I give some thoughts here).

And David Fitch thinks we all worry to much about whether the emergent, organic, missional church is a Movement or a Fad [don't you love all the modifiers we come up with for the word church ].

Finally, the most interesting post of the week has to be Christopher Hitchens getting the atonement right.

From Blind Beggar:

Christopher Hitchens was in Portland recently for a speaking engagement. Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell interviewed him for a local publication, Portland Monthly. The interview was pretty much what one would expect, but I did find the following a fascinating observation from Hitchens:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Feel free to leave any and all links in the comments to posts I missed this week.