Tag: pending

It seems like there’s always another local church in the news for pulling some outlandish stunt or another. And sometimes its hard to tell what their intention was, and other times its pretty clear that they were looking to get in the news.

One way we can begin interpreting these surprising actions by a local church is to examine their beliefs and determine whether they would be considered “orthodox”. Orthodoxy can be defined as the “right belief” about God and is typically characterized by the ancient creeds of the church.  To compliment their orthodox belief, we can then consider the “orthopraxis”, or the “right practice”, of the church.

Typically the orthopraxis of the local church is expressed in much broader terms than orthodoxy, and of the two is what flexes as local churches contextualize their practices to reach new members.

We have found 7 examples of surprising things that churches have done to attract […]

Love Chapel Hill is a church plant rooting itself in the cultural center of downtown Chapel Hill. Lead Pastor Matt LeRoy calls it “a beautiful collision of college students and homeless men; young professionals and families; artists, activists and academics.”

We believe that the most eloquent articulation of the Gospel is a love that gives itself away. This belief fuels our evangelism efforts and strategies. So we give ourselves away through “Strangely Warmed,” an initiative to collect and personally deliver warm winter clothing to our homeless friends. We orchestrate “piano drops,” leaving a piano on a busy street corner for artists to play and crowds to enjoy. Sounds weird, for sure, but in a creative town that draws artists and musicians from all over theSoutheast, it’s like speaking to them in their native language. We started “Grace on Wheels”—a partnership with the local Transit Authority providing neighbors in poverty with free […]