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Here’s another thought that grew out of our Missing God series at Jacob’s Well. We miss God not because God isn’t there, and not just because we don’t know where to look, but because we eliminate certain places as potential “Godspots.” Among the many reasons for doing this, one is close-minded, and even anti-intellectual. It [...]

The church likes to declaw God. It's the calling of Jacob's Well to let God be dangerous.

Jacob's Well is part of God's advent conspiracy, to be Christ in ways that change things. This includes the video used on Sunday, Dec. 14.

I was meeting with my GroupLife group on Sunday evening and Steve, one of our hosts, said, “You hear people say you ought to practice what you preach, but I wonder if we shouldn’t just practice.” Wow. Of course that brought up a very good conversation about the virtue and pitfalls of preaching. Legislating faithfulness or proclaiming judgment are dangerous areas for us human beings and this ‘bad news’ method of sharing ‘good news’ seems dubious. But there is value in connecting actions to words. You can be good forever, but aren’t you – at some point or other – obligated to tell people why?

Preaching is always autobiographical for me. Not that I talk about myself, but what I’m talking about is something that I am struggling with. I guess that if I don’t find the content for my message personally engaging and at least somewhat troubling, I keep looking for something more worthy of all our time. Sometimes [...]

Working on my message for Jacob’s Well I got to thinking about our relationship to God and what God wants with us. God doesn’t - as far as I can see - need us for anything. Rather we were created to need God. Or let me put it this way; we were created to be [...]

On Sunday (November 30, 2008) Jacob’s Well gathered at the Urban Hub of Urban Ventures, one of our strategic partners in serving the community. If you were there you may have been surprised by how we shared Communion. Some people were actually offended by it. That was the point…It was supposed to be! Let me [...]

If you are helping lead part of GroupLife, this is for you. Feel free to pass on to anyone else. Thanks! Greg

Author: jacobswell
Keywords: GroupLife Jacob's Well Minneapolis Groups emergent church
Added: November 14, 2008

I’m in Sioux Falls today (Thursday, 10.23) and tomorrow at a “Churches Planting Churches” conference. I’m speaking about Jacob’s Well as a congregation that was launched by another church two years ago (Bethlehem Lutheran Church) and as a church that is launching a new church. We are planning our establishment of a second site in [...]

I’ve taken my half year sabbatical from this blog and it is time to resume it. I love writing in it and the side of myself and my ministry it feeds, but I had to hunker down for a while to get things in order. As small a part of my life these entries represented, [...]

is there something more to working out and becoming physically healthy?

Author: jacobswell
Keywords: jacob's well minneapolis comotion commotion running work health legs jimmy eat world
Added: September 22, 2008

a little video we did for our Fall '08 series, called CoMotion. It features Tony Kocanda working up a sweat. Is there more to working out than just being healthy?

Author: jacobswell
Keywords: Jacob's Well Minneapolis CoMotion running thoughtful shoes legs Jimmy Eat World music video treadmill
Added: September 19, 2008