However, I feel that the first and most important question in church planting or serving an established church is the question of identity. That is, not “What are we to do?” but rather “Who are we?”

Questions of the church’s identity seems to be what started the emerging/missional conversation in the first place. Remember that? I know. I’m so 2008.

For people of faith, our missional identity is crucial to engaging our emerging culture and generations. Knowing who we are is key to mission. Because, without a clear sense of our identity, we become pushovers for attractive fads with no real sense of purpose. Most new church plants are not “new” except for the fact they did not previously exist. They simply have new packaging.

In other words, emerging church/missional church/fresh expressions (I forget whatever label we are using these days) is not about lighting candles, listening to U2, and drinking coffee. The church is God’s instrument sent into the world to actively participate in His redemptive mission. As the sent, missionary people of God, the church must understand its fundamental purpose as being rooted in God’s mission to call all people into a reconciled relationship with himself.

Who are you?

No one really cares about what you do, how much you give, or how many countries you take tourist – err I mean mission trips to.

So here is a roundup of some the more interesting links I pointed to through twitter this week.

Scenes from Brazil’s Crack Epidemic – bit.ly/IEHCTw

Astonishing Tribal Portraiture, Taken Using Western Eyes bit.ly/IY7mMe

Arrested Development: The Criminalization of America’s Schoolchildren bit.ly/Jff6qL

Is ‘the Culture’ Really the Church’s Problem? bit.ly/K5OMUz

Never-before-seen photos from 100 years ago tell vivid story of gritty New York City bit.ly/K5MpRx

Does the government define your marriage? If so, how? If not, why?

Actually, that’s 3 questions.

Leave your answers in the comments. Let’s have a CIVIL conversation.

Dissonance increases with:

• The importance of the subject to us.
• How strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict.
• Our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict.

To release the tension between the two opposing thoughts, we can take one of three actions:

• Change our behavior.
• Justify our behavior by changing the conflicting cognition.
• Justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.

See if you can recognize how some are trying to release the tensions caused by holding two opposing thoughts at the same time.

Its a fun game to play.

Do you know of any other examples besides the one’s John Stewart gave?

Turn out the lights and enjoy the BEST church web site ever. Ladies and Gentlemen the Evangel Cathedral bit.ly/JHBgoH // your welcome

— Michael Carpenter (@miccarpenter) May 4, 2012

If you fill it with water they will comeinstagr.am/p/KLb5aPA0J5/

— Michael Carpenter (@miccarpenter) May 3, 2012

“@CLIFFhutchison: The @ChurchArgenta has a pool! #churchargenta#poolparty instagr.am/p/KI3tTquKeq/ // meet our pastors everyone.

— Michael Carpenter (@miccarpenter) May 2, 2012

Land’s Al (ibi) or, Mohler Selects Which Sins May Be Minimized by His Silence bit.ly/IAp5Md

— Michael Carpenter (@miccarpenter) May 2, 2012

10 reasons why men should not be ordained for ministry: bit.ly/K6r6QT

— Michael Carpenter (@miccarpenter) May 2, 2012

The 13 Most Useless Majors, From Philosophy to Journalism bit.ly/Iic2uw // I majored in #6 and minored in #1

— Michael Carpenter (@miccarpenter) April 30, 2012

It cost millions to run for office. But what does that money buy?

Yes, I don’t vote. However, I would like to…if some of the solutions presented at the end of the documentary PRICELE$$ (trailer embedded below) become a reality. I watched the entire film last night on PBS. It is worth the hour. To find air dates in your area click here.

Learn more about this documentary at www.pricelessmovie.org

Greed was calculated by comparing average incomes with the total number of inhabitants living beneath the poverty line.

Envy was calculated using the total number of thefts — robbery, burglary, larceny and stolen cars.

Wrath was calculated by comparing the total number of violent crimes — murder, assault and rape — reported to the FBI per capita.

Lust was calculated by compiling the number of sexually transmitted diseases — HIV, AIDS, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea — reported per capita.

Gluttony was calculated by counting the number of fast food restaurants per capita.

Sloth was calculated by comparing expenditures on arts, entertainment and recreation with the rate of employment.

Pride is the aggregate of all data from the six other sins, averaged into an overview of all evil.

Go ahead…I will wait…

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Ok. Got it?

Now. Mark your map, using the symbols for the 5 elements of city below.

PATHS: The familiar routes people follow. Paths are the channels along people customarily, occasionally, or potentially move: streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads, etc.

NODES: The places where multiple people intersect. Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are intensive foci to and from which he/she is traveling. They may be primary junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another. A node is a distinct hub of activity: marketplaces, plazas, bus stations, or intersections.

DISTRICTS: Areas with perceived internal sameness. Districts are medium-to-large sections of the city, conceived of as having a two-dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters ‘inside of,’ and which are recognizable as having some common identifying character: neighborhoods, suburbs, housing projects.

EDGES: Dividing lines between districts. They are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. The termination of a district is an edge: shores, railroad cuts, edges of development, walls.

LANDMARKS: Points of reference defined by physical objects with prominent visual features, usually large and visible: building, sign, store, park, or mountain.

Go ahead…I will wait…

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Ok. Got it?

Now imagine you are flying 30,000 ft above your city and you begin to notice these paths that people are following. These trails intersect one another in various nodes causing people to gather in distinct districts marked by edges all with particular landmarks.

For most this is easy to imagine. But what if you could see this reality in virtual realtime?

That would be helpful. Especially in planting a church. Because instead of asking people to leave their familiar paths, nodes, and districts and come to a particular location, the church can become a part of the rhythms of the city. Simply stated, knowing how people experience the city gives insight into culture.

Introducing Livehoods.

The Livehoods Project presents a new methodology for studying the dynamics, structure, and character of a city on a large scale using social media and machine learning. Using data such as tweets and check-ins, we are able to discover the hidden structures of the city with machine learning. Our techniques reveal a snap-shot of the dynamic areas the comprise the city, which we call Livehoods.

Livehoods allow us to investigate and explore how people actually use the city, simultaneosly shedding light onto the factors that come together to shape the urban landscape and the social texture of city life, including municipal borders, demographics, economic development, resources, geography, and planning.

Vote for your city. Maybe they will map it for you.

But until then, is there a way to use social media check-ins to aid in learning the culture of your city?

On, April 10, thousands of people will go barefoot around the world for the second annual “One Day Without Shoes.” It’s an event organized by Toms Shoes–the company that built a brand around the buy-one-give-one charity model–to raise awareness about the impact a pair of shoes can have on a child’s life.

But the day will also shine a light on the Toms model, which is facing two existential flaws that threaten to undo the company’s social impact and business success.

The Toms buy-one-give-one model does not actually solve a social problem.

First, the Toms buy-one-give-one model does not actually solve a social problem. Rather, the charitable act of donating a free pair of shoes serves as little more than a short-term fix in a system in need of long-term, multi-faceted economic development, health, sanitation, and education solutions.

“What’s wrong with giving away shoes?” you might be thinking. “At least they’re doing something.” The problem, we’ve learned, is when that “something” can do more harm than good. As Time recently noted, an increasing number of foreign aid practitioners and agencies are recognizing that charitable gifts from abroad can distort developing markets and undermine local businesses by creating an entirely unsustainable aid-based economy. By undercutting local prices, Western donations often hurt the farmers, workers, traders, and sellers whose success is critical to lifting entire communities out of poverty. That means every free shoe donated actually works against the long-term development goals of the communities we are trying to help.

The fact is, Toms isn’t designed to build the economies of developing countries. It’s designed to make western consumers feel good. We can see that in the company’s origin story, as the Toms website proudly tells it, in which founder Blake Mycoskie saw the problems barefoot children in Argentina faced and decided to start Toms. Mr. Mycoskie didn’t ask villagers what they needed most or talk to experts about how to lift villages out of long-term poverty. Instead, he built a company that felt good and that was good enough for him and Toms’s nascent consumers.

Be sure to read the rest of the article here.

Do you agree with the flaws that the article points out?

What else would you add to the three things the article suggests Toms and consumers can do?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

1. You can always start with first thoughts or impressions: What do you think of the story? How does it make you feel? Favorite scene?
2. What causes the thief to have feelings of regret for what he did?
3. What motivates the thief to leave regret and move towards repentance?
4. What allows the thief to experience redemption?
5. The thief moves through regret, repentance, and redemption. Where are you along this journey?