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City Life at Austin.BloggersPub

Archive for the 'City Life' Category



The Austin Statesman ran a piece on downtown churches that are committed to renewing the city. The cool thing is that Eileen connected it to other church planting efforts in our local network PlantR.org. About a third of the article covers our church, Austin City Life . Here’s an excerpt:
Some are part of a local […]

Tim Chester on Busyness

Tim Chester is co-author of Total Church:

Have you ever been irritated because there was a queue at the supermarket till?
Do you regularly work thirty minutes a day longer than your contracted hours?
Do you check work emails and phone messages at home?
Has anyone ever said to you: ‘I didn’t want to trouble you because I know […]

Slums are Good for Cities?

In “Bright Lights, Big Cities” Matthew Quirk argues for the goodness of burgeoning urban slums. Contrary to intuition, slums, shantytowns, and squatter settlements reduce national poverty. Quirk points out that sixty-six percent of the migrants who move from rural to urban contexts make more money. Yet doesn’t it take more money to live in (or […]

Supercaptialism and the Soul of the City

Richard Florida recently pointed to Judy Judt’s review of Robert Reicht’s new book Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life. In this review she warns of the overconfidence that has historically accompanied successful capitalist societies. With surges of economic growth and national peace, cities can become complacent about social needs. She points out […]

Would you Like A Song with Your Coffee?

Starbucks is now offering music downloads heard in their New York and Seattle stores, directly to your iPhone or laptop. While waiting for your coffee, you can instantly gratify your desire for the song heard overhead. Simplifying your spending, this NYTimes article reveals that pretty soon your phone will function as an electronic wallet.
Admittedly, marketers […]

Bono is in Town

According to Austin360

How Shall We Then Work?

This is an excerpt of a forthcoming article for Boundless, which should run pretty soon.
In washing windows in the towns of East Texas, managing an Italian café in a quaint neighborhood of metropolitan Minneapolis, working security for a top advertising firm in Boston (no, I didn’t have to wear a goofy uniform or ‘get’ to […]

In his book To Live in Peace: biblical faith and the changing inner city, Gornik rehearses John Perkins’ (Voice of Calvary) well-known “three Rs” for justice and reconciliation: relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution.

Relocation - following the example of the incarnation, we are to live where we want to make an impact.
Reconciliation - pursue vertical and horizontal […]

Cultural Transformation?

I hesitate to cheer for cultural transformation, though not because I like the world just the way it is. Hardly. I read the paper this morning. I hesitate, though not because I don’t believe that the church impacts the world. It has impacted the world and will continue to do so. I hesitate because I […]

A few observations from the first two chapters of book of the Acts regarding church/church planting:
1) Jesus deliberately launched the Church by avoiding predictive talk about the timing and nature of a political future kingdom (1:6,7,11).
2) The power and presence of the Holy Spirit, not well-honed arguments, was central to the success of the global […]