I’d noticed that some people were searching for information on ’saving bellevue,’ so I’m not surprised to see that www.savingbellevue.com is now up and running — with 34,000 hits.

I think it’s safe to say that the dynamics of congregational disagreement have changed. Even a few years ago, it was relatively rare for the downtrodden or disgruntled to have any platform to speak to the rest of the church. It now takes about 15 minutes to set up a website that can reach the entire congregation, or more, as SavingBellevue seems to have done.

So, where it used to be risky to allow too many dissenting voices to be heard; it is often more risky now to try to stamp them out. Blogs and websites depend largely on credibility. A baseless attack will usually appear baseless — but persecution lends an air of legitimacy to the dissent. It’s Glenn Reynold’s ‘Army of Davids’ idea happening in the church. Quite frankly, if you have to jump a fence at a gated community to make an unnanounced visit to a deacon who questioned governance practices, you’ve probably crossed a line.

More reading at http://www.bellevuetruth.blogspot.com/

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette republishes a fascinating article from the Wall Street Journal about churches trying to implement Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven model.

Even if you think Warren has a lot to say about starting churches, I think the Warren-approved “Transitions” model often brings disaster. While PDC is at least based on personal experience, Warren hasn’t ever transitioned a church. Stories like these show the sad mess that results from a poor plan.

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Tags: TomKat,toupee,Tom Cruise

Well, I hope you enjoyed your fall — because the good folks at World Market were putting out Christmas decorations tonight.  The day after Labor Day.  Good. Grief.
Even the workers were glum.  All three that I saw said, “I know, it’s way too early,” or something like it…

My wife and I have watched The Gospel and Second Chance recently — both are surprisingly good church-based films.  Christian cinematography has been talked about for years,  but I think Passion of the Christ started a chain reaction that means there is finally money to put into quality religious movies.

Interestingly, both movies have similar vilians: the self-absorbed megachurch pastor.  In the Gospel, a church is torn apart by a young pastor’s ‘vision’ of joining the mega-rev club by plastering his own face across the city.  And in Second Chance, a secretive executive pastor and church board fills-in for the developer from Ernest Goes to Camp.
What does it say that two very different groups of Christians, when allowed to create expensive  movies, both invest in stories about alienated and upset congregants?