Every Sunday morning, we’ll be posting articles and links that are saying something important about church, culture, and mission. Here’s what resonated with us this week on the web:

Church & Theology

JR Briggs is interviewed by JR Woodward at the V3 Movement about his book, Fail:

Woodward: In learning to understand failure, you take a chapter to talk about shame, why is it important to understand and work through our shame?

Briggs: Shame is so universal. We all understand have felt it – and many of us are controlled by shame. As ministry leaders, if we don’t deal with shame ourselves, we not only inflict pain and damage ourselves, but also inflict pain and can potentially hurt the people we are entrusted to lead. If we don’t deal with shame we go into hiding, we put on masks and we live a live of deceit. If we are seeking to model life with Christ, we can’t wear masks. If we pick up masks, we put down the cross – thus, abandoning our primary calling as pastors.

Efrem Smith writes about pursuing an empowerment theology:

Now, I want to recognize that the face of empowerment is becoming more and more diverse but that really isn’t the point I’m trying to make. The real question I’m getting at is, what would the Church and what would our world look like if we followed the empowerment strategies and theology of Christ? I believe if we did, the Poor would be empowered to lead Churches. We’d see even more ethnic and gender diversity when it came to leadership. We’d see more indigenous leadership. The broken, the oppressed, the marginalized, and the Poor would become apostles, prophets, church planters, missionaries, and executives; advancing the kingdom of God like we’ve never seen. We’d see an incredible revival and transformation in under-resourced communities.

Anderson Campbell contributes to The Antioch Session with a post about his book, Father Factor:

Now, I have children of my own. For the entirety of both of my daughters’ lives, I’ve been involved in some sort of Christian ministry job. My oldest daughter, Sydney, was born during my final year of seminary. Since then, I’ve been a church planter, a college minister, a staff pastor at a megachurch, and a seminary professor. How could my faith not rub off on them? When Sydney was eight, I recalled my baptism and the prayer I’d prayed as a child. It occurred to me that I’d never really talked to Sydney about what she believes about God and Jesus. Maybe it was time to have that conversation.

News & Views

Sarah Pulliam Bailey reports at Religion News Service about Mark Driscoll’s resignation:

Mark Driscoll, the larger-than-life megachurch pastor who has been accused of plagiarism, bullying and an unhealthy ego that alienated his most devoted followers, resigned from his Seattle church Tuesday (Oct. 14), according to a document obtained by RNS.

John Ortberg expands on this at Parse by looking at the moral dynamics of pastoral resignation:

I was struck, too, by the language quoted in news reports yesterday to describe this situation. The pastor, the board said, had been guilty of arrogance—along with other attitudes and behaviors associated with arrogance. But had not been charged with “immorality.”

When did arrogance cease to be immoral?

Jonathan Merritt reports at Religion News Service about Hillsong Church’s statements on LGBT issues:

At a press conference for the Hillsong Conference in New York City today, Michael Paulson of The New York Times asked Houston to clarify their church’s position on same sex marriage. But Houston would not offer a definitive answer, instead saying that it was “an ongoing conversation” among church leaders and they were “on the journey with it.”

On The Missio Blog

We continued in our October series on Mission-Centered Unity:

Suffering as the Pathway to Unity, by Derek Vreeland

Rejecting Rejection, by Gregory Crosthwait

My Journey to Missional Ecumenism, Part Two, by John Armstrong