Day Three

The Three Questions and answers By Bobby V

1. Are you a Priest or a Businessman? Favor the priest within. Great "things" in your church is going to atteact other christians not the Lost looking for a place called home.

2. A healthy Church a Growing Church? No. there is no such thing as a healthy church. the church like a hospital should be a place for healing of the unhealthy, the sick and the depraved giving the life giving message of jesus Christ which is the cure. If you want a church to grow, the answer is relationships, friendships. Church growth should be framed in a new word. "bear fruit", love faithfulnes etc....

3. What is the sickness in our worl? the sickness is lonliness. pragmatisim, narcasisim, unbridled restlessness

Are these questions that speak to you to change, grow and seek new avenues to reach the unreachable to move you out of your seat???

Emerging Event

Wow what a start. On this 2nd day of the event there have been a wide variety of speakers with lots of personal testemonies. Having Buzzy announce this event was a huge draw of the crowd to the respective meeting rooms.

The campus here at the Crystal Cathedral is an awsome site and visiters are welcome to take tours here. I've seen alot of different people.

We have experienced a little technical difficulties with the Blogger Cafe and connectivity but I think it's a good thing. Too many people trying to log into the system. I think there wasn't an expectation that so many people would be trying to log into the system at the same time.

Although this is a Faith Forward "event" I am still waiting to hear more about moving faith forward. Those of us who are out pastoring the small churches, trying to bring the gospel to those disenfranchsed with the big box church, Trying to bring the message to regular people who are wary of the "church". I stuggle to hear what is relevent. But then I guess we are moving forward and the door is cracking open and the proof is here in this room with everyone here open to the possibility of hearing something new, powerful and relevent to move them, thier lives and thier ministries.

Some have talked about not changing the church, keeping the same old same old. Keep the service the same, same service, same message, maybe add a praise band, put jell in our hair, light a candle, say it's ok if we wear jeans and a t-shirt and say were are emerging. Emerging from what? If you aren't changing and you aren't moving are you emerging from anything? I wonder if it's realize that that is not working for all of us any more? So the big question? How do you reach someone like me???

it begins

NEW VIDEO HAS BEEN ADDED TO OUR MYSPACE ACCOUNT - CHECK IT OUT:

last night was the kick-off of the faith forward forum, and i think this is going to be a rather interesting event. buzzy, set the tone and said it best - "this is a conversation, let's talk."

if you have questions for any of the speakers - please email them to "questions@faithforwardforum.com" and we will be passing them along for the forum and the blogger cafe.

here are some pics - maybe a bit "on the blur" but it was dark, and we were "far away"

john o'keefe [of ginkworld] and spencer burke [of the ooze] catch-up, and plan how best to get the cafe off the ground.

the worship experience started us off - it was a great time.


todays happenings:

[8am - 12pm] session 2:
speakers: bobby v schuller, brian houston, rob roberts, eddie gobbs, ryan bolger, diana bass, jim palmer -

after the speakers we will be breaking into forums - and the faith cafe will be open and we hope that some of the speakers will come by and add more to the conversation.

[1:30pm - 5:30pm] session 3:
speakers: eddie long, francis collins, michael guillen, mike flaherty

after the speakers we will be breaking into forums - and the faith cafe will be open and we are hoping to get some of the speakers to join us to comtinue the conversation.

[7pm - 9pm] session 4:
speakers: judah smith and leonard sweet

we will be posting more as we go along.

Will Science Destroy The Christian Faith?

By
Michael Guillen, PhD [bio for event]

For all of our vaunted sophistication, we scientists aren’t very good at predicting the future. We can’t tell you what the stock market will be doing tomorrow or the next day … or how long you’ll live … or (notwithstanding the scientific hyperbole you read and hear about in the media) how warm or cold our planet will be three decades from now. Why, we can’t even predict what temperatures will be like three weeks from now!

So it’s with a great deal of caution and humility that I’ve agreed to speculate about what effect I think science will have on the Christian faith in generations to come. To tackle tough, big questions such as these: Will Christianity survive its present-day confrontations with science? If not, then what will replace it? And if so – if Christianity does survive – what will it look like? Will tomorrow’s believer bear any resemblance to today’s? Will changes among our brothers and sisters in Christ be for the better or the worse?

In pursuit of some reliable answers, I’ll:
I. Take a look at the current spate of anti-religion books authored by angry, hostile atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett. All of them seek to pit science against religion, mind (IQ) against faith (SQ). How does the logic and certainty associated with science differ really from the logic and certainty associated with religion? And are IQ and SQ truly antagonistic, as these authors insist? Or synergistic?

II. Take a look at where Christianity presently stands in relation to science. Is science – with its systemic repudiation of God and the supernatural – causing scientists and others in droves to lose their faith? Can a smart, scientifically-sophisticated, 21st century person believe in God? I’ll offer answers by looking at what the latest polls and statistics are telling us … and at my own experience as a theoretical physicist.

III. Take a look at what exactly we mean by the Christian faith. Are we truly talking about the future of the “faith” as perfectly defined by the Holy Scriptures? Or about the “church” as imperfectly defined by the physical, bureaucratic, and in many cases political institutions we support with our tithing and attendance?

IV. Finish by taking a look at who or what I believe poses the greatest threat to the faith and the church. Is it science? Is it the secular world? Or is it we ourselves … we “self-described” Christians?