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Whether followers of Jesus go to a worship service or not (see sunday's post), they do tend to stay connected. Many of them turn up yearly at large festivals to "check in" to the wider family, and during the week they are in and out of each others houses.
I was wondering if anyone in USA was using Dodgeball social software to stay connected - it lets you know when you are within 10 blocks of any of your friends-of-friends. Not available here in London yet.
Notorious Typos in the Bible - One of the famous ones:
Exodus 20:14: "Thou shalt commit adultery." 1631 King James version.
Reinhold Scharnowski has some good thoughts on the Christians who won't be turning up to a worship service today, but who are just as much a part of the family of God as anyone else.
Here is Reinhold's post:
"John Barrett estimates that there are 112 Millions of churchless Christians - men, women and children who confess Christ as their Lord but do not belong to any of the traditional churches. This number is growing fast. I know at least 50 of them. Either this is the Great Apostasy or it is a Great Apostolic movement. Apostolic means "to be sent" - maybe many of these are "sent" out of the Church walls and into the world God so desperately loves? This would necessarily require a radical new-definition of "church": liquid, dynamic, defined by relationships and not by meetings and structures. If we take this seriously - wow! If church is "the ever changing form of God`s mission into the world" (one of my own definitions), then church is - and has to be - a reflection of the way people live and relate to each other. I still believe in meetings - we will need them until the end, I think - but they are not the essence of church, just one of many ways church becomes visible.
This weekend is Pentecost - a great time to reflect more and deeper on these things that will determine my personal future a lot."
Reinhold heads up DAWN Europe from his base in Switzerland. He will be participating in our Global Roundtable at Greenbelt Festival on August 26th. Should be great to have him here in England. His writings on postmodernity and its impact on the European emerging church may be the first written in the German language.
All is well with us, as we check out for the weekend. Hand is healing. House is clean. Pizza party went well again last night. We now have a regular stream of Muslims coming so we have to use Halal meat. We watched Return of the King last night.
Have a great weekend everyone.
News Feature:R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and fresh-faced youngster Mandy Moore have joined forces to find religion.
June 3 will be 3 years of blogging under the tallskinnykiwi name - come back then and i should have something for you.
Hang the VJ is one of the most interesting event of the onedotzero8 digital film festival in London. Monday 31 May at 7pm. Anyone else interested in meeting up there?
here is the schedule for those of you coming to hear me speak tonight at blah.
menu
1. intro: a profound apology (5)
2. tree by the river: a connected theology (10)
3. p.h.a.t.: an apostolic strategy (10)
4. forward slash: a new media epistemology (10)
5. couch grass: a deep ecclesiology (10)
6. storm: a narrative missiology (10)
total: 55-content + 5-drizzle = (1 hour)
Here is the movie of Jonny singing folk songs in USA for you to download and have a laugh. jonnyinusa.mov is a QT File- 9 Meg. Don't take it too seriously. Original (without Jonny) is at archive.org
From Thomas, OurDailyBlog"Each day we ought to renew our resolutions and arouse ourselves to fervor as though it were the first day of our religious life. We ought to say: "Help me, O Lord God, in my good resolution and in Your holy service. Grant me now, this very day, to begin perfectly, for thus far I have done nothing.""
May 24th, 1985 is the year I hopped on a plane and began my overseas pilgrimage with God. I had sold my car and used the money to buy a one way plane ticket. I flew to Singapore with a group of young people. We were joining a mission called Operation Mobilization for a 2 year commitment. From Singapore i led a mission team into Malaysia. I was 21 years old.
5 weeks later, I was in Europe, where I would lead another team into Austria, and return to Belgium to meet the girl who would pilgrimage with me in mission and marriage. We joined a mission ship, the M.V. Logos for 2 years, taking us around much of South and Central America and many of the islands. We were convinced that we were doing then what we should always be doing - serving the global church.
We were poor (we received $5 a week pocket money to get an icecream or two), enthusiastic, prayerful, bold and usually sunburnt. And we were very happy. I am still happy. The greatest people in the world, to me, are missionaries. They embody the selfless lifestyle of Jesus more than anyone I have met. My heros are missionaries. I always wanted to be one. Even when i was 12, before i even knew God, i was impressed with missionaries and saw myself doing what they do.
Anyway. 19 years later. I am still going. Thanks God. Thanks for the freedom to follow my heart. Lets do another 19!
Blah - here is the link to the event i am speaking at next Wednesday, May 26th.
Having brekkie with the nice people from the radio show. went pretty well, tell you about it later.
[Day later] Rob Frost is a nice guy and someone who is really active in doing ministry as well has having people talk about it on his radio show. When we finished breakfast, he hopped on a plane fora 5 day preaching tour of the small islands off the coast of England, starting with the Shetlands. The man is a doer. and a great networker. He invited me back for another show so I couldn't have upset his listeners too much.
Also on the show was a Doctor named John (oops, forget his last name) who is doing research on human brain disorders related to babies. And a filmmaker, Norman Stone, who is re-releasing a movie called Man Dancing in the Movie. Nice guy, Norman, and we hope to stay in contact.
Its been a hard one this week - and it has left me a little depressed.
- i was one handed with my injury
- i missed the nashville event
- i didn't really do the reading i was hoping to do (curse that workaholism!)
- my external hard drive is not talking to me
- my computers are not talking to each other
- the cut on my hand has not yet sealed. It awaits a ventriloquist to bring it to life.
- my bank decided to play hard to get and we waited over 3 weeks to get my support deposited. Its in now, but waiting to pay the rent has worn me out.
- i feel down and out of season.
- i want to do something physical but my hand wont let me
- did i tell you all my friends were in 'Nashvegas' (Lemenspeak) eating BBQ?
- without me
Now i have to run off to a radio station for an interview.
Will i be honest?
Yes.
Welcome Andrew, tell our listeners how you feel this morning?
Awful. Life sucks . . . and then you die!
Well, maybe not that honest. But i certainly don't feel the need to put on a happy church face. Call that post-charasmatic, if you like. [Can people who never were fully charasmatic, still experience post-charasmatic symptoms?] The English call it "post-Kendrick"
On the positive side, I have been having some good thoughts this week:
1. Couch Grass.
Its a rhizome structure, like potatoes. People liken the web-like interconnected structure of the internet to Rhizomes. The thing about rhizomes is that they do not multiply- they are a single multiplicity that extend themselves outward into new territory, yet maintain their oneness. If we are to adopt a similar view of church, then Couch Grass is either:
a) a pest that could wipe away 30 years of Church reproduction/multiplication theory, or
b) a framework for understanding the invisible unity of the church while maintaining a missional strategy.
Maybe i wont tell anyone about Couch Grass. Or Rhizomes. Too controversial. I studied at Fuller School of World Mission, under Peter Wagner, where i learned much about church growth and church planting. i would hate for something as simple as the existence of Couch Grass to undermine the idea that churches must multiply or reproduce as seperate entites, rather than maintain their unity as a single organism. Maybe i will just keep it to myself, and this little online journal of mine, that my dad reads once a week, and a few people here and there that stop by.
2. Seeding the Gospel
When I download a Div-x movie file using BitTorrent, i can do so only if someone has "seeded" that movie first. There is no central server. I take it from one of the seeded sites. As i am downloading the file, i am also uploading it at the same time to many others. If i get greedy and limit my upload, then my download is also limited. There more i give, the more i can take. (To the one who has much, much more will be given.) There is an interesting download/upload relationship that reminds me of the teaching/discovering of pilgrimage, and the receiving/passing on of discipleship. We don't wait until we get the whole file before we pass it on - in fact, with BitPass, the only time you are allowing others to download from you, is when you are downloading it yourself.
I like the word "seed", as a VERB.
Seeding the story of God.
Seeding communities of God.
Seeding is a better word than "planting", as in "church planting". Planting suggests something seperate and removed - a very modern and individualist way of seeing church - [my church, your church, my empire, your little "pot plant" experiment].
Seeding in the geeky sense of the word, and combined with a Couch Grass Ecclesiology, is a way of seeing it as an extension of the same thing.
That fits with my understanding of the One Church that i belong to. It also fits with my preference for underground, discreet methodology.
Or, as Roland once said.
"I do not trust spectacular things. Give me the seed growing secretly everytime"
[Roland Allen, responding to request for spectacular stories, in a missionary report, 1933.]
See, even Roland like the word "seed". But he was re:mixing Jesus who said it first.
Right, off to the radio station. To be myself. My depressed self. My self that is down and kicked about but is enjoying a flickering, smouldering hot burning lantern inside, something the Bible and my church friends would call JOY.
At least i don't have to shave!
"Do do do do do
Too much Insania
Pray for the time when GOD will restore . . ."
Peter Andre, Insania (next release)
As sung live on Ministry of Mahem, May 22, 2004. Will he release it with "God" or "love"?
I am taking the stitches out of my hand today. Since the accident last week, it has healed really well - no infection, and i will get a great scar that deserves a better story than a falling mirror. Picture follows (if you're brave enough to look . . .)
No, that is not Ghandi - that is Brian McLaren wearing sandals at emergent convention in Nashville.
Photo from Cleave whose blog wins the Skinny Award for giving the best blog journalism on what happened this week at the Convention. (Seen a better one? Let me know)
With body modification like this, who needs chop sticks? Tongue splitting. Just dont do it! Daaaang!
Although, you could taste different parts of your pizza at the same time . . . the pinapple AND the ham .. .
noooooooo . . dont do it!
Ahhh . . my radio interview is on at 9am this Sunday 23rd, (not Monday, like i said earlier). And I am speaking at Blah 6:30pm on Wednesday 26th (not 25th like i have previously said).
Numbers, dates, they are all the same to me. Maths never was a strong point with me.
This is an advance notice for our Global Roundtable event this summer, in particular for those of you buying plane tickets to be here. The actual roundtable event, that we will probably call "Epicentre", in the tradition of Epicenter (USA, 2001) and Epicentrum (Europe, 2002), will be held at Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham, Friday, August 27th, from 2pm to 5pm in the Crest Room of the Grandstand.
There will be a welcoming event in London on Thursday, August 26th, and the festival runs until Monday 30th.
The cost for the festival is 70 pounds and that includes FREE ACCOMODATION if you bring your tent. The Roundtable should be free to you, assuming we can raise a little money to make it all work. The roundtable will be an Emergent/Boaz/DAWN sponsored event. It was suggested by Brian MacLaren, as i have mentioned before, but you should know that Brian will not be able to be with us this year.
We have invited key leaders of emerging networks around the world and will be inviting a few more. There will be a limit of 50 leaders present at our Roundtable. Already, they are coming from Japan, Brazil, Australia, USA, Germany, Holland, Switzerland . . . Do you know of someone that really needs to be there? Let me know and i can send an application to them.
Much more information soon . . .
I am adding some comments to a friend's book today - a book about emerging church that will come out next year. I was writing about our redefined relationship with media and the Matrix came up as an example. Sure would hate to leave my thought undiscovered and untested for a year, so i will blog it out here. This redefined relationship with media has been . . .
. . . "reflected in the way we experienced the Matrix films.
1999 - Matrix 1: Within a week of its theatrical release, we Emailers had a discussion that continued for 2 months.
2003 - Matrix 2: Within a week of its theatrical release, we Bloggers posted a single weblog entry that added to our interpretation and appreciation of the movie. It lasted a few days.
2003 - Matrix 3: Within a week of its theatrical release, we VJ's had access to enough footage to reuse the video in our own presentations. Even before its release, we could download the movie trailer files, edit, modify, and reuse in totally different ways.
2004 – Matrixonline.com: Within a week of the matrixonline.com game release, we Gamers will have another playground, another world, another community in which we can play and live.
Within 6 years, we have moved from Consumer, to Commentor, to Co-author, to Citizen"
This is the biggest list and i will add to it as you tell me who else is there in nashville.
If you cant go to the convention, you might as well experience it through the bloggers who will be there.
Michael Toy (best so far)
Adam Cleveland (also a good details man)
Lilly Lewin
Jen Lemen
Doug Pagitt
Jonny Baker
Charlie Porteous
Mark Riddle
Gareth (Moot)
Jay Vorhees
DJ Chaung oops - DJ Chuang
Harpstrings
Bob Carlton
(more added)
Mark
Aaron O
dan is the howard stern of theoblogians. i like the guy - he came to our wabi sabi event last year and we got to meet. but he does swear a lot (corrected), even in my comments - coop interviews him.
How bummed i am that i cant be there. As you know, i was supposed to give a few seminars entitled "Forward Slash" -a 2-part series that dealt with ministry in a new media world. As it turned out, there was an accidental "slash" of my hand and i am all stitched up and unable to travel. At least you will get to meet Jonny Baker, who just VJ'ed a seminar at Grace Cathedral (San Francisco). Jonny's seminars are on the same time as mine were and I was feeling bad that some people would have to choose.
Those of you from England can hear "Forward Slash" in London at an event called Blah, May 25th. You can also read some material that i will post soon here.
David Crowder is leading worship and you should look out for VJ Travis also. Many of my friends are speaking - cant list them all, but if you want to meet some of them, then look out for Spencer Burke of The Ooze, Mark Miller, Joe Myers, Tim Conder Dan Kimball, Tim Keel Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt (who features in my article "Buffy The Backside Slayer"), Holly Rankin Zaher, Mark Scandrette (who i talked into coming to San Francisco in 1998) and Chris Seay (who talked me into coming to Austin in 1998), Brian MacLaren, Alan Roxburgh
There were also some guys that i was looking forward to meeting - Brennan Manning, Robert Webber and Dave Tomlinson, who i should have met by now since he also lives in London.
Especially Brennan Manning. Dang it! I'm going to miss out on meeting Brennan Manning. Brennan Almighty. Dangit. Once we were driving through New Orleans and we thought of stopping in and seeing him. But we figured he would be too busy to see us, him being famous, and us being peons. but hey - you guys will get to meet him in person. The Great and Humble Brennan Manning.
Am I rambling?
Lots of bloggers will be there in Nashiville - who has a long list of them???????
Emergent Convention starts tomorrow and I was supposed to be sharing a room with Stan Parks. We were going to share the cost of the room - but now i guess he has to put out some extra money. Now i feel bad.
Stan has been working overseas in Indonesia for a long time, but now is part of a missions start-up called WorldconneX, backed up and blessed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas - same hyper cool people that have been helping to cover my back for the last 5 years.
So if you are in Nashville this week and you see Stan, buy him a coffee or a meal. Or maybe someone out there wants to share a room with him - let me know (males only need apply)
The mystery worshipper at Hillsong London had a very similar experience to our family's visit earlier this year.
Newsmap lets you visualize patterns in world news rather than just read the details. God is in the details. But He is also in the patterns.
Dude. I made it on to the Arkaos web site. Now i have really arrived.
Where is my mother??????
This is me, wearing my grey hat and thrift store lab coat at the London Virgin Megastore last week. The VJ's were having some difficulties with the Oxygen 8 Midi and i was offering my wise counsel, since i also use an Oxy8, and use the same Arkaos software that was being demonstrated.
As it turned out, my advise was useless - it was a faulty Midi and they just replaced it and got on with the show. But i got to meet these VJs and we hope to see each other again.VJ Toby (Chris- on right) lives in Berlin - he put me on to Archive.org where i have been downloading some killer 40's and 60's religious film footage. Amoeba (Scot- in front) is a fine young Scot who offered me all his video stock from his cool web site. As for trade tips, we all have come to the conclusion that compressing QT video in photo jpeg format (at about 25 frames per second) is the most efficient way to get the file size down and keep the quality up, and prevent crashing the computer during the show.
Oh yeah - i also met VJ Michela, an Aussie video geek now based in London. She had her first website up in 1993 (impressive!) and is working on an open source video project online.
PulpFiction is a new RSS/Atom newsreader for Mac with great filing system . . .BUT it costs money so i will not be getting it. Rumor has it that Opera's new browser 7.50 will act as aggregator as well as browser. I am downloading it now.
Yuk. I hate doing radio and i haven't done it for about 10 years. But England is a different country and maybe it wont be so intimidating. Christian Premier Radio with Rob Frost. Breakfast show. Next Sunday 23rd, (not moday as i said earlier) at 9am. I think you can hear it on the internet here. Pray for me.
An interesting conversation/cohort at Emergent Convention this week will be the Failure of Youth Ministry. Somewhat related is the talk of unrealistic expectations from groups like Acquire the Fire. Mr Careaga sticks his neck out.
This particular emerging church conversation started when I took a shot of answering some questions from Steve (Christianity and Renewal Mag). It became a conversation among bloggers that has just had its snapshot taken at a blog called Emergesque yesterday. There is a whole Sunday afternoon's worth of chasing links there, so i wont waste your time with more words. Have fun!
Do we have a definition yet?
Probably not, but we do have a more SYNOPTIC view on how the emerging church is defining itself.
You know what we really need before we can agree on a good definition? We need people from the absolute OTHER spectrum of emerging church (old/crusty/fossilized/residual/ church - we still love them very much!) to tell us how they would define us,
AND
we need some people from disciplines other than Religion to shed light on our definition,
and then we might have something that we can give back to those who are asking us "who" or "what" we are and how that is different.
Anyway, go take a butchers.. .(a look)
In the meantime, let me fend off all those people who are desperate for that all-elusive definition of Emerging Church.
A Definition:
The Emerging Church is . . .
. . . whatever Doug Pagitt says it is.
What church will i go to today?
- Well, we are all going over to the home of Phutan and Maggie for what they call a "fellowship meal". I have a feeling this could be the start of a new "church" - one with couches, food, a juice machine, a bible and a sunday paper. This couple not only blogged on their wedding day earlier this month, they also kept blogging on their honeymoon in greece. Phutan also blogged his incredibly profound and romantic wedding vows, at our request. The wedding order image is here and i will be uploading a movie i made soon - of the boots in the wedding. maggie was married in her doc martins.
- Later today is "Fea5t", a post-alt.worship church in Hackney that started last week. I have been attending the meetings that led to its birth, but could not be there for the big moment.
- At 9pm on my computer is Cyberchurch at Church of Fools,, which is almost a week old.
- And of course i am logging into other bloggers today, to see how they are doing - since these people are also part of my "church".
- I just sent a report to my team members at DAWN. We at DAWN Europe meet 4x a year to check in with each other - something that we would see as a significant part of our church experience.
- And next week, other parts of my church known as Emergent Village will be meeting together (without me) on Tuesday.
- And on a larger scale, by my famiy's participation in our visible church expressions today, we form part of the church of the city of London, where we live - a church shared by all who follow Jesus in this big city.
So. What church do i go to?
Same church as you.
Want something great to read today? Check out Phutan's wedding vows . . .
called "A Husbands Love"
"Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for another.
Maggie, I will sacrifice my life for you, if the time comes I will give my life up in your place.
I will gladly die for you but more than this I will live for you.
Live to honour you to lift you up to make you feel the most loved person who has ever lived.
I will live to make each day a brighter day because I am here with you.
I will make the mundane days into the glorious.
The difficult days will be like climbing to the summit of a mountain together, and if you can’t make the last few steps I will carry you,
I will carry you to see the dawn ahead.
The amount of information available to me
at any moment is overwhelming.
Give me a filter over a funnel anyday.
I like filters
filters
and not funnels
I am deluged with numbers
swamped by words.
Information chases me/pursues me with
bloodhound persistance
Messages, almost all of them meaningless,
are laying seige to my email box
looking for pinhole portals to enter my world
and become an entity.
Its official: i am canceling next week's USA trip, due to the injury on my hand
Gory details:
I cut my left hand very badly this week, catching a falling mirror (good reflexes) and it sliced through a lot of muscle. The x-ray showed no permanent damage, tendons are ok –and I ended up leaving the hospital with only 5 stitches. But my arm is in a sling and I am a one handed man for a while, and certainly not fit to travel.
Forward Slash - the seminar i was going to teach - i will be posting much of it here - stay tuned.
Shame not to see many of you in person - lets try next time!
From Thomas in Norway:
"I am a youth leader in our church and am blessed to lead a growing and committed youth ministry. We have lately realized something quite interesting (at least we think so), and I just wanted to ask about your opinion. You are probably familiar with the term: Belong –Believe –Behave. We have sensed a shift here moving towards: Belong –Behave –Believe. The youth that connect with us tend to start behaving before they believe.
The Crypt has become the happening place in this weeks launch of Church of Fools. Anyone who's anyone is showing up there. (click on images to enlarge) or view some movies of the launch.
With a limit of 25 avatars, its difficult to get in. At least the lucky people who made it in are talking about important things . . .
Jesus in Beijing - new book by Aikman:
"the intellectual center of gravity for Christianity may move decisively out of Europe and North America as the Christianization of China continues and as China becomes a global superpower..."
"We prayed and felt a peace about it" Randy, CFO
Great to see that Crockett's Bluff Community Church are really praying their way thru Revelation 13 as they implement their techno-tithing strategy. Said 27 year old homemaker Allison, "I was really shocked, like, 'is my pastor Nicolae Carpathia or something?' But when Pastor Bud told us our contributions were still tax deductible, I was reassured."
The Skinny on tithing implants? When your pastor wants to slip a chip under your skin, its time to find another church. Serious.
Wait. the story gets worse . . . read more about "no chip no donut" and to see if the story is true or false...
My friend Todd Hunter just got appointed to head up Alpha in USA. Link from Next-Wave
I shared about my lengthy struggle with PayPal in The Skinny on Support, and many of you encouraged me strongly to persevere.
Well, after weeks of work and endless phone calls to about 12 PayPal reps (my wife was calling, not me) we finally were able to delete our american account (which we tainted by living in Czech Republic and moving again to England) and start an english account.
Does it work?
I have no idea, but you are more than welcome to try it out!
So . . . now we r ready to receive sommmmmmeeeeee LOVIN'!
And please know that even if you don't ever shoot any $$$-LOVIN-$$$ our way, then you are STILL highly valued friends and we treasure your xoxoxox-LOVIN-xoxoxox and covet your prayers for our family and team.
From "We know more than our pastors", by Tim Bednar:
"After a year of blogging, I no longer seek to be “the” cyberchurch, as the name ”eChurch” implies, rather I participate with bloggers who collectively link the cyberchurch into existence. . . As believers use blogs for spiritual formation and organically form the cyberchurch, the memes we co-create are emerging from cyberspace and beginning to transform the traditional church. I believe this change will result in what may be called the “participatory church”. . .
The blogging cyberchurch is not a cathedral with set rules, processes or content, rather it is a bazaar that bloggers wonder around attempting to create order using hypertext."
Daring Fireball suggests being straightforward in your title tags, and upfront (first few sentences) in your emphasis - that way the Google God will sweep by you and bestow favour upon your article.
Speaking of evildoers, check out these 3 internet offenders: judas, absalom and delilah
No more Ned Flanders preaching at the pulpit (which i actually thought was really funny), no more public outbursts of profanity (which i am not releasing on this site) and no more playing at the altar (like i was doing). The Church of Fools people have added some adjustments to their virtual sanctuary, making it harder to stir up trouble. There will be more church wardens with the power to "smote" evildoers who violate the rules, thus logging them out. Or if u like, CyberExcommunicate them. Which is interesting, since the designers of Church of Fools also designed MTV's The Osbournes game, which actually DOES have a tiny bit of profanity.
The Church of Fools is open right now for u to have a look around. Enter here, but remember . . . if u swear, u might get SMOTEN! . . i mean SMITTEN! . . i mean SMITED! . . . u know what i mean.
The Crypt downstairs was a good place to hang out after the service, and its still hard to get in because of the crowds.
Was Church of Fools successful as a chat room ? ABSOLUTELY
But they are framing it as a church which raises eyebrows and generates news stories. You have probably already read of my experience and seen the videos, 1 and 2. For other stories, check out BBC, the church of fools account of the raptured minister, the Bishop's sermon "fabled ship on a cyber ocean", CNN, the times article and yahoo.
The Skinny on Cyberchurch?
1. I think there a 2 approaches to church in new media technology: representational and recapitulation. The cyberchurch approach is somewhat representational - it is shadowing the old structures and making them live again on the screen. this is cool and there is a place for it. England's i-church (just announced), is also bringing the old forms into new media. Others (eventually most of us) will follow the way of recapitulation - of seeing fresh ways of church happen within the newly formed structures and cultures that are native to new media. this is probably the realm that i hang out in and in which i am experiencing the dynamics of church. Another thing to remember is that new media does not replace, but enhances existing technology. And emerging culture sees new technologies as finding their place in the nested layers of the existing.
2. In a new media culture, modularity wins over singularity. New media people may have multiple expressions of church life, multiple commitments to multiple communities, all of which are either brought to the front of our priorities or sent to the back. Commitment in a new media church cannot expect old school membership to a singular institution. Tim Bednar, pastor of an E-church in USA, speaks of this in "Can you only attend a cyberchurch like E-Church?"As for Cyberchurch, lets add it to the way we church, knowing that it will never replace the assembling of ourselves in the flesh, and the smell of real coffee.
The Skinny on Cyberchurch 2.0 - coming soon
Beliefnet.com: Van Helsing' takes the radical step of portraying the Roman church as a force for good. but some people r leaving statements to the contrary.
Blogger.com has launched a new design. Looks good. More templates and comments. Lets see how they do on customer service.
Anyone aspiring to be a THEOBLOGIAN should start by reading Coop's Blog Tool Roundup
How historic! Opening day at UK's first 3D Cyberchurch, which turned out to be a big success. Huge hats off to Church of Fools.
I made a few screenshot QT movies:
(Broadband) There is me on the stage (17mb) or me ascending the pulpit (13 MB), both of which will give u a good idea of being there.
(Modem - you poor sods!)) An embarrassing moment for me when a girl sat on my lap in church (1.8mb) (u will see me shift down the pew like a gentleman) and some after service chatter (3.3mb).
You can click the images below to make them bigger.
The service started on time, with the bishop of london presiding. I was the invisible man . . .
since i was invisible, i decided toget a better view and join the bishop of london on the stage . . .
Dont tell my Mother!
this morning i had an accident with a falling mirror. luckily, i caught the mirror and it didnt break. Unluckily, it sliced thru a lot of muscle on my left hand and my wife rushed me off to the hospital.
not too bad, mind you. only 5 stitches. and the x-ray showed that no damage was done to my tendons,
Still, dont tell my mum!
So i am typing with my good hand (which only has a small cut) and my left is IN A FLIPPIN SLING
So dont be expecting bookloads of writing on this blog over the next week.
I am also reconsidering whether i should be travelling to nashvile next week or not.
So . . . there u have it.
on a brighter note, i made it back from the hospital in time to attend the first 3D cyberchurch service at church of fools - pictures later on.
". . . we ought to read simple and devout books as willingly as learned and profound ones . . .
If you would profit from it, therefore, read with humility, simplicity, and faith, and never seek a reputation for being learned."
Thomas a Kempis at OurDailyBlog.com
this is the day
that the LORD has made
we will rejoice
and blog in it.
SHOUT
to God and give him
public acknowledgment
publish good news
yes, bloggers
you with the voices online
make his deeds known
to the ends of the earth
Splattered over my Sunday paper today (web story here) are photos of naked Iragi prisoners of war, humiliated and tortured in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, (is this the only place?), and the word "Shame" applied to Amercia and UK.
I suppose i am new to this conversation - i didnt realize that there are hundreds of digital "postcards" of Iraqi's posing naked and trembling with fear for the personal fulfilment of prison guards. Dang - did our guys really do this?
(Some pictures are here, and interesting comment) Andrew Sullivan is also on it.
This week there was a near-riot, or at least a verbal riot, when 50 Islamic militants starting a shouting match one mile from my house. They were accusing the "Christian West" of addiction to pornography and are hoping to one day put up the Islam flag on 10 Downing Street. (They were later denounced by the more moderate Islamic community)
This is really big. The secrets that were exposed this week, and the hundreds more digital images that are coming, will probably affect all of us.
Dude, this is so wrong. So shameful. Is this really us - our people - our countries? I have a lot of questions, like you, but I want to suggest that we listen to each other, while we wait for answers.
I am waiting for some retired WWII Vets to assure me that our side didn't commit the atrocities to our prisoners in the 1940's that were done recently in Iraq.
I am w
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