Tall Skinny Kiwi

24 hours in London

I am currently in London and will stay with Nathan Herrington tonight at Shannon's house. (Nathan is the son of Jim Herrington - a friend of mine in Houston and author of "Leading Congregational Change") Shannon is not here - she is at our house in Orkney, Scotland. She arrived last night, a few hours before I left for London.
Where am I now? The Apple Temple, of course. Just checking in and updating my software on their Wifi. Anyway - if anyone needs to catch up with me, send me an email and maybe we could do an afternoon coffee on Friday.

Sports Day

This is Abigail who came second in one of the races. Three of our daughters had their sports day today.

London and Birmingham this week

Heres my schedule this week.
Aberdeen, Scotland. Thursday morning
London, Thursday afternoon - Friday night
Birmingham, Saturday (Resource)

Podcasting in Denominational Perpespective

PODCASTING. I was just thinking how different technologies connect with different denominations and church streams.

2004 - WORDS
Although the emerging church people were well into blogging by 2004, there was a huge upsurge of blog publishing that year which attracted the Reformed folk who love to write and read words. Creating your own RSS feeds and aggregating others was the rage. Blogging became respectable. The PDF file became a stable form of publishing. Technology for layered PDF's with multimedia (including movies) was available but no one in the church really used it.

2005 - SOUNDS
By the end of this year, Podcasting may have won over the Baptists and others who love preaching and sermons. If the podcasting movement goes from word based sermons to music based tracks and experiences, then the Charasmatics might kick in. The emerging PodJockeys might not necessarily be the most famous preachers. Maybe a few conference speakers will sell their "enhanced podcasts" with chapter breaks (now enabled in iTunes 4.9) as audio versions of their books. Or replacements for their books.
Here's an interesting convergence: The DJ's have been adding words to their sounds. Now the Podcasters will be adding music to their audio. Somehow, the two will meet in the middle.

2006 - MOVING IMAGES
Maybe I am stereotyping here (forgive me) but Video Blogging might take off with the Pentecostals and others who already do a lot with video. Or maybe the podcasters will want to add some visuals to their audio feed. Or even better, maybe the underground movement of Video Jockeys (VJ's) will have a wider audience to show their creations. Either way, as broadband becomes standard and digital cameras accept video as well as still shots, video blogging or its new forms will be popular.
Now if only I can get some better lighting and a can of Jimmy Swaggart hairspray . . .

Further:
Jonny Baker has more about podcasting.
Or read my "Podcasting and Godcasting"

Ken Taylor 1917 - 2005

Ken Taylor died this month. He paraphrased a version of the Bible called The Living Bible. It was passages of this Bible, that formed the first Christian book I ever read - a devotional book called "The Living Light" that my youth group leader gave me when i was 12. Phil Johnston has more about Ken.

Congregation and Aggregation

In short, I think if we want to get a more accurate picture of the church in a complex society, we need to look at the church gathered and scattered, the congregation and the aggregation.
The congregation is the regular gathering that is often weekly. A lot of new believers gather in a weekly event with the same believers each week in the same place. This is normal in a simple society.
The aggregation is the seasonal or irregular gatherings that may be yearly or just a spontaneous gathering. In a complex society with modular expressions of church, or a transitional society with high mobility, those on pilgrimage or in the underground church, the aggregation might be a more accurate way to measure growth.

Hanging with Mission Geeks

Ok. I got my wifi on.
We are having a good time geeking out on strategy and mission talk and prayer. Here are the bloggers among us. Reinhold Scharnowski (Switzerland), Marc Van der Woude (Netherlands), Andreas Wolf (Germany). Si Johnston is also around and will ferry over to Orkney with the group.
And I am feeling a lot better - almost 100% I had to sleep a lot and use the wet and dry saunas here at the hotel (feel sorry for me?)

How geeky? Well, we will continue our strategic talks, important and world changing as they are, despite the All Blacks vs England/Ireland Lions rubgy game going on. Thats how geeky.
However, Si (from Belfast) is nowhere to be found.

Aberdeen until Saturday

I am leaving tonight for Aberdeen for a strategic meeting with DAWN Europe. Back late Saturday night. We will have WiFi at the hotel so i should still be in touch.

I am also sick - terrible phlemmy chest but the doctor just gave me antibiotics and i should be OK. We have a guest from Germany here this week who also works as a doctor in London - Marcus - he told me that i need to rest and should not work so hard . .. all the time. He also told John Mulinde (Uganda) the exact same thing when he was in Uganda. I don't think John (who I met 2 years ago ) listened to the Doc but I AM SURE THAT I WILL LISTEN, just as i have been listening these past 20 years.

BTW, speaking of Africa - I will be in Jo'burg (South Africa) early October with DAWN. Cool. But that means I will NOT be in Cartegena, Colombia that week.

The Stones Cry Out

(click to play QT movie - only 82k)

breath calls to breath
fire answers fire
shout melts into cloud

the stones remember
this looping story
of man and his
fire and stone

the stones know better
the stones cry out . . .

Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking

The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking: Recipes and Traditions from Jesuit Bakers Around the World, by Rick Curry
What a great book! Its much more than just 80 recipes for bread. The book is a journey into the history of bread and its relationship to the Body of Christ and the companions ["with bread"] of Jesus, as well some spiritual rhythms to transform the kitchen into an altar. I have always had a deep respect for the Jesuit priests and brothers, for their example of contextual ministry, for their scholarship and their holistic view of seeing the spiritual value of mundane tasks . . . like kneading bread, or washing dishes.
I would recommend any student who comes up here to Suddenly Seminary to read this book and then join me in the kitchen.

My Gripes About Emerging Church Brasil

Only one gripe, actually. We have really enjoyed working with Olgavaro Bastos who has come out to be a part of our roundtables and training events in Tokyo, Austin, England, and Prague. We love that movement . . but there is one thing that bugs me . . .
. . .unless we speak Portuguese, we cannot understand a word they are saying on their web site.

In some ways, I like that - it preserves their culture and language and enables them to be unique. But having all their resources and stories in English (and Spanish) will enable them to speak into a larger world where there are also many emerging church movements, although often smaller and not as vibrant or colorful. And the rest of the world REALLY needs the Brazilian gift.

The first words of the English translation arrived this morning for me to check over:
"Who are we?
A movement encouraging the establishing of new communities (expressions of the Body of Christ) in the emerging generation, also called the Tribal Generation . . ."

Baptist Talk [Updated]

"Ed Stetzer provided the other highest water mark. He defined missional as "a church on mission in its setting," which was fine for a starting definition, but could have been a little stronger by including the incarnational aspect of it. He busted the SBC wide open by reminding us that the culture that we are the most connected to is the culture of 1954." Marty Duran

- Steve McCoy has the skinny on the bloggers, the talks, and what really mattered at the Southern Baptist Convention last week.

- A number of us will be at the Baptist World Alliance Congress but so far we will not have a high profile role. Pete Grieg (24/7 Prayer) will be sharing whats going on with prayer and boiler rooms and Simon Hall (Revive) will be organizing something subversive. I will be there to cheer them on. So will Si Johnston (Protest4.com), Shannon Hopkins and others

Emergent Church: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A report on Emergent Church from Alan Roxburgh who is a deeply respected teacher and advisor. Alan brought together 40 leaders from USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia in conjunction with Allelon. I was with them also, and also acted as a "listener, tuning in to the larger picture of what was happening and reporting back to Alan and the team.

Here is Alan from his report entitled "Emergent Church: Filled with Creative, Energetic Potential.
"Something is happening! It may not be all the postmodern things that are claimed, but there is something going on here that has the potential to be deeply missional and innovative for the church on this continent . . ."
"At their best they courageously and joyfully enter the worlds of Goths and tattoo parlors to form Christian life in, with, beside and for people who would never be welcome in most congregations. At their worst they become the purveyors of more experiential, artsy, aesthetic forms of religious goods and services."

Report on Human Trafficking

Baptist Standard has details of a new American report on sex trafficking.

On the UK front, Protest4.com are meeting in Edinburgh in July as a part of the G8 talks and Live Aid. Talk to Si Johnston if you want to be involved.

Billy Graham: More Thoughts

"The evangelist's upcoming New York crusade recalls his historic confrontation with segregation, fundamentalism, and mainline theology nearly 50 years ago." Christianity Today

- Submersive Influence has the best blog post.

I had the privilege of working with the Billy Graham team during their San Francisco crusade - great time and a great honor. I got to know Scott Lenning really well - his son was the same age as mine. Scott now works for MarketPlace Chaplains USA. He's a good man.

Steve Knight is Manager of the Internet Department of Billy Graham Evangelism Association and is heading off to Moldova shortly to help in the training sessions. Steve has been involved in the emerging church/ UnderGround Railroad/Steiger Ministries for many years and he blogs at Knightopia. He also weighed in at 86% Emergent.

A 6 Week Pilgrimage

My daughter Elizabeth (12 years old) is preparing for a 6 week pilgrimage to Spain - the Camino de Santiago. Elizabeth will be going with our dear friend Cindy. Debbie has the skinny on her blog.
We walked part of is as a family a few years ago - we prayed, walked, read our Bibles, talked to other spiritual seekers and pilgrims along the way. It was an incredible time - Tamara took her first steps on the Camino. Thousands of seekers go every year to Spain for different reasons.

Die Gefährten: Roundtable

Invitations go out next week to the Global Emerging Church Roundtable to be held in Gotha, Germany at the Freakstock Festival. I am really excited about this one because it brings the focus back to the underground countercultures that gave the emerging church its start in so many counties.

We are expecting about 50 leaders and representatives from 30 countries. The dominant group will be German which is great  - the Germans have so much to offer and teach us. I am always impressed when i go there. (Last April I spoke at Kubik)

The name of the roundtable was decided by Mirko and the other Germans like it..
... "gemeinschaft" has a cool meaning - or "gemeinde" also ... but as mark posted in your blog - it sounds boring. since a few days, i like the word "gefährten" - the german title from "the fellowship of the ring" was "die gefährten (des ringes)" so my suggestion is: "die.gefährten" - maybe mark has a better idea - he is also german :) and cooler than me ;)

We already have representatives and leaders from USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, UK, Middle East, and a lot of possibilities from European countries (if i can convince their denominations or mission groups to buy them a train ticket). There are some spaces available if you know of someone who is impassioned for their country, has won the trust of the institutions, and is already starting or empowering others to start new contextual forms of ministry in the emerging culture, then let me know with an EMAIL.

You can pray for those who are coming - that it will be a time of understanding the times, and sensing God's heart for what needs to happen. There will be teaching and training over 2 days so pray for those teaching. Trevor MacPherson from Vancouver, will be there also. There will be NO COST for the roundtable (thanks to JesusFreaks and BOAZ) but it is strictly invitation only and delegates will have to get their own transport figured out. But anyone can come and have a really fun time at Freakstock with about 6000 - 7000 young people freakin out over Jesus with bad haircuts and loud music.  There is a fee for those just attending the festival but it is very reasonable and scalable for Eastern European countries. More later.

(Images from Jesus Freaks Homepage)

No More Fighting

My daughter Abigail was in a musical last night. We joined about 800 others in watching the performance and songs, some of which Abigail and her school friends wrote. The guy singing from the table is a Bosnian pop star. More on my wife's blog

"Tomorrow there will be no fighting.
Tomorrow there will be no riots.
No more ruined, empty houses.
No more lies and empty promises.
Tomorrow there will be more talking.
Tomorrow there will be more listening."

You might be Emergent If . . .

Time for the end of the week links - scrap pieces of unrelated news and random links :
- Some Chinese house churches are being closed. Link
- Carmelite Nun who created PrayTheNews.com dies. Link. HT
- Ekklesia has some good links to articles on house churches,
- Racial issues - Rudy recommends reading PostmodernNegro's post on deep ecclesiology.

Most intriguing thought of the week was from Jolly Blogger who started off something in his comments section that I am sure will get some milage - "You might be Emergent if . . ."

Here are a few of mine. You might be Emergent if . . .

- you apologize for your avatar or habbo character not turning up to Cyber Church on Sunday.
- you know the best way to scrape candle wax off carpet
- you have considered putting dreads in your gotee
- you have more metal in your face than on your hands
- you email your wife even though she is in the next room
- you write so much in hypertext that you think your name starts with "a href"
- you don't remember how to send a letter through the post. [more]

Getting Your Kiwi's Straight

I write this post as a response to the confusion on the Jolly Blogger post about Kiwis and the Emergent church and also because many of you ask.

A kiwi is:

1) a flightless bird native to New Zealand
2) a fruit formerly known as the Chinese Gooseberry
3) a person who comes from New Zealand, also known as GodZone country.

Emergent Kiwi (Steve Taylor) is a New Zealander with one of the best books on Emerging Church - Out of Bounds Church. as well as an interesting blog post A-Z of the Emerging Church
Paul Fromont is Prodigal Kiwi
Duncan MacLeod is Post Kiwi, since he now lives in Australia.
There are plenty more Kiwis where they came from like Rachel, who blogs at Cre8dJournal and Stephen Garner at Greenflame. And even more Kiwis have dispersed around the globe and are acting as salt of the earth and light of the world. Yeehhh Kiwis!!!

I am one of that blessed dispersion, the issuing forth of export-quality Kiwis to bless the families of the earth d;-] I am Tall Skinny Kiwi, because I was born in New Zealand and left when I was 17. I am also 6ft 5ins and fat-deficient.

Please do not confuse Kiwis with Aussie bloggers like Phil Baker and Andrew Hamilton who might be interesting and on rare occasion have something to say (The Emerging Missional Church: Thoughts in Progress" by Darren Rowse is a good example) . . . but PAH LEAZE do not settle for anything less than the GENUINE KIWI ARTICLE.

Do I hear an AMEN from God's Chosen?

Orkney's G8 Gig: July 2

Update: 9 bands including Junction Pool [Celtic-Fusion band] from Edinburgh. The concert will be called Orkney Musical Stramash. All profits go to Make Poverty History through Christian Aid. Organiser John Adams from Kirkwall.

Theological Worldview Quiz

I took a theological worldview test and came out Wesleyan. Dang. I didn't want to be Wesleyan. I thought John Wesley was a bit of a jerk at times, despite writing lots of great songs. I always liked George Whitefield better.

"You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists."

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 86%
Emergent/Postmodern 71%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 64%
Neo orthodox 54%
Reformed Evangelical 46%
Fundamentalist 39%
Roman Catholic 39%
Classical Liberal 25%
Modern Liberal 21%

What is your theological worldview?
Thanks to Lev, whose Dad took the test and came out "Emergent/Postmodern"

Blessitts web site and Orkney

“Our website visits exploded from of all places Saudi Arabia! Our site Statistics show almost 32,000 people visited our site from Saudi Arabia in one month! The huge increase in visits was from Saudi! Now get this 10%, 1 out of 10 visits to the website came from Saudi Arabia! Out of our top 10 Referral sites, 7 are in Arabic! When you see the hits are from Saudi one can easily see what is happening. E-mail has been flooding in to us from Saudi.”
How did that happen? Arthur made a pilgrimage to Orkney with his cross.

A Coordinator for Emergent Village

Tony Jones (the other white Jones) was selected to head up the national work of Emergent Village. Lots of discussion on that on the Emergent Village blog and Jay has a good post on why Tony is not the Anti-Christ.
The initial title "Director" did not really fit Tony and will be replaced shortly with "Coordinator". Emergent really needs a person to pull together the volunteer efforts - plenty of work to do and having a point person take care of it makes sense. Doug Paggit used to be that guy when the group was Young Leaders (although Molly Smallen was doing all the grunt work) and no one complained that there was a Director. I think its fine.
And the other emerging church networks in North America seem to have director (Emerging Church Network has a Director, Underground Railroad has a director) so a Coordinator for Emergent Village might be a good idea.

Revenge of the Blogger's Wives

I remember the good old days of tap tap tap late into the night and my wife yelling at me to get off the computer and stop blogging my life away. But now I prepare breakfast for the kids while she prepares her morning blog post. Even worse, my email jams up with comments directed to her blog. And don't ask me for a link to it here . .

Things are worse at Jordon's blog. In his sickness, his wife has executed a hostile takeover, despite singing a pre-nuptial agreement saying she would never blog there.

As for Derek and Amy's blog, I only see one link to Derek's thoughts and 6 to Amy's.Although I should tell you, Amy is the web designer and coder in the marriage and was posting at Shookfoil.org a long time before the joint-custody of their current blog.

Suddenly Seminary OFF

Sorry people - I cant even get into Suddenly Seminary tonight on my dial up connection. ADSL gets here next month (July 27) and I am just gonna have to wait. Sorry about that.
"Are we we are the waiting." (Green Day)

Who is Your Church?

“He has been restoring to the body a living knowledge of what it means to be the mystical body of Christ” Amy Chapman, Who is Your Church? ::1

My wife has been hooked on this series by our dear friend Amy (the Amy who married Derek in our back yard). Well done, Amy!!!!!

Custard

I will be teaching at the Custard Factory, Birmingham (UK) on July 2nd as a part of Resource, an ongoing training year for ministry in the emerging culture. Jonny has talked about it already and has more details. Its open to anyone who would like to learn. | was thinking about the emergent behavior of custard, and also baking powder (also invented by Alfred Bird) and how it relates to creating church in the emerging culture. Jesus had a lot to say about leavening agents and the Kingdom so this should be a good place to discuss it. Reading Roland Allen's book (Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes that Hinder It- PDF) will help.

And yes, the building is the original Bird's Custard factory which is now one of the largest art villages in Europe. Should be fun!!!

Alliance SCP Packing Up

Really Upsetting News: The Alliance for Saturation Church Planting involved in 27 countries and based in Budapest has announced that it is closing next year. This is a real shock and cause for much grieving. Lee Behar is the team leader - a godly and enthusiastic [en-theos] man who has acheived remarkable things as head of ASCP. I emailed him over the weekend. . .

ME: "Lee I have been really upset the past few days, especially as i think of you guys going back. you have done so much good and i have enjoyed my times with you . .. . man. . . . so bummed. hope you guys are feeling like God is in control .. . because He always is, and always uses these times to redirect us or bring fresh resources to the situation."
Lee: "Thanks, bro. Yes, we're doing fine, fully committed to the goodness and sovereignty of our awesome God. Just because the ASCP is going away doesn't mean a lot of good people won't continue to do a lot of helpful things in this region. . ."

As you know, I go to Budapest every September to participate in their conference. I am really going to miss this team, and i hope there are ways to allow some of them to continue. I would expect this week, when the team has put their thoughts together a little more, that you might read some reports and thoughts and possible next steps from some of the bloggers on the team. You have possibly already met Scott Frederick (Budapest Scot) and Gabi from their visits to Suddenly Seminary.

BLOG BREAK UNTIL TUESDAY

Not for religious reasons but technical. Phone lines are down in our house and repairman comes Monday. Please not I will NOT be blogging nor responding to comments. Nor will Debbie on her blog. Thanks. Have a great weekend.

Blog Estate Sale: Musical Equipment

The late Larry Trammel of Ablaze Ministries has left behind a lot of musical and video equipment. It would really help out his wife if those in USA would buy some, and you know how we church people love to help out widows. Scott at emerge.typepad.com has the skinny.

Bible people

Bible People crossing my path:

1. Lovely email today from Iain Mair, Executive Director of Gideons UK. I met Gideon Andrew Gray and his wife in Kirkwall yesterday where they are setting up an Orkney meeting for tonight at St Magnus Centre (7:15pm) and tomorrow morning at an internet cafe. I like Gideons - I have met them all over the world. Anyone who insists on putting a Bible in rooms where people can read them is a friend of mine. Unfortunately I cant make their evening meeting tonight because i am having pizza and a movie with my family, like i do every Friday night. But I wish them well.

2. Also an email from Larry Wilson (ForMinistry) who has been giving a leg up to the American Bible Society to leverage them into the blogsophere. Larry didn't have to tell me about their new blog Emerging.ForMinistry.com because I already knew. I think everyone in my little group knows that American Bible Society hosted the bloggers lunch at Emergent Convention. 37 bloggers turned up and ate Italian food at a nice place and chatted about the new blog. I know that. Everyone knows that. And everyone who knows us knows that. Thats thousands of bloggers right there, all giving the thumbs up to the blog. Dont know what you think, but thats pretty good marketing strategy. Cleave has a good report and Will has the official list.

Even in Aberdeen

I am putting together a small retreat for my DAWN mission colleagues in Aberdeen, Scotland at the end of the month. I stumbled across these words today from Rachel, who i met in Norway last year.

"Even in Aberdeen,
in these days,
the heart of the granite land;
I'm going to take off something.
Something is going to spread.
Something from the North
down to the Borders
and up to the Highlands,
to the Islands

Getting to Orkney

Hey pilgrims . . . some of you are on your way here and need suggestions. Here are the best ways to get to us.
- Fly to Inverness, catch the bus or train to Thurso, and take the short ferry (90 minutes) which goes 3x a day straight to our little town of Stromness.
- Get to Aberdeen (easyjet?) and take the long ferry (6 hours) which goes 3-4 times a week. Check timestable at
Northlink Ferries If you really want an authentic pilgrimage to Orkney, i suggest sailing on one of the ferries across. If you have to fly, then come into KOI (Kirkwall, Orkney) on British Airways. But really . .. a significant part of your pilgrimage will be your journey itself so make the most of your travel time.

End of Week Links

- Postmodern Ministry Takes Us Back To The Bible, a good article by David Posthuma. Thanks Debra Watkins (from my home church Austin First Baptist)
- "Church growth conference helps pastors feel like miserable failures" (Link)
- Dan Phillips is blogging from the Thomas Merton Retreat this weekend
- Embracing the Gift, CIVA conference June 16-18
- Nemi cartoon on predestination
- Steve Taylor tries "Transitional Church" on for size (thanks AJ)
- Betachurch.org critiques the website of Mars Hill in Seattle. Lets hope they don't come after our ugly blogs!

My Bio

I have updated my official biography. Those who wish to link or quote from it may do so freely.

"Kerk-zijn in de postmoderne cultuur. Speciaal voor voorgangers en gemeenteleiders organiseert de Werkgroep Gemeentestichting van de VPE (Verenigde Pinkster- en Evangeliegemeenten) op zaterdagochtend 12 april een bijeenkomst in Den Haag over kerk-zijn in deze postmoderne cultuur. De spreker is Andrew Jones, een out-of-the-box denker die de hele wereld over reist om leiders en gemeenten toe te rusten over vernieuwend gemeente-zijn." Link

Introducing . . . emRG

Let me welcome officially a new group. emRG stands for European Missions Research Group, a "a collaborative learning network for missions researchers to jointly gather and effectively communicate accurate, relevant research in order to catalyze the multiplication of believing fellowships throughout Europe"
emRG is the official research network of Hope For Europe, and one of the many ways DAWN ministries is silently working underground to boost Gods work globally. You will also see Reinhold on HPE as one of the church planting coordinators.

The leader of emRG, Andreas Wolf (Andi) is a DAWN colleague of mine and we see each other about 4x a year. Andreas and his wife are coming over to see me in Scotland this month. Andi is a research geek and just loves numbers and powerpoints and mindmapping software. The guy mindmaps every conversation. Honestly. I could show you vastly complicated maps based on the most trivial of after dinner conversations. He probably mindmaps his romantic conversations with his wife and power points them afterwards for evaluation and confirmation. Andreas is blogging in both German and English at Andisperpective.typepad.com. Scott Friderich (who sometimes appears at Suddenly Seminary as "BudapestScott") is also part of emRG and is also a numbers geek like Andi. And both these guys are hooked up with Eurochurch network (the network formerly known as the European Church Growth Association) which is the same group that I spoke to in 2003 and led them in a worship experience that involved images taken on the property that morning.
As for emRG . . . more power to you and we look forward to hearing some numbers that inspire us!

Steve Collins: An Ecology of Relationships

". . . church isn't an organization. maybe it's an ecology of relationships. there's a story to live by, not a checklist. and the canonical story stops before anything gets to be an institution - maybe to save us. it's interesting to imagine, if all forms of church were extinguished [though not belief] and we had to start again from scratch, what would we bring back? Steve Collins

Emerging Missional Conference Down Under

This will be a good one to attend. July 1-3 in Melbourne. Thanks Hamo for the link.
I have met most of these guys in my trips down to Australia and can say that they are not all behind other countries but actually are giving leadership to the global scene. In fact, the RE:Source meeting next month in Birmingham was partly inspired and guided by their influence.

FORGE is a great network of emerging churches, training conferences and a 21st century DAWN strategy. Their book “The Shaping of Things to Come” is possibly the most muscular apology of emerging-missional ecclesiology in our age. If you liked Newbiggin in the 80's and the book series from Gospel in our Culture in the 90's then The Shaping of Things to Come will get you up to date. Or even better, go to the conference.

PSP Hacking

Its a month old and we are already talking about the evolution of the world of PSP hacking that traces its history way back to May 5. Now thats a fast world. And what do the hackers do? They make programs for old black and white Game-Boys, giving them a new reason to live. Viva the LONG TAIL of Gaming! Wired:PSP Hackers Go Retro

The Church in Our House

Tonight! We have invited the Stromness Baptist Church to bring their mid-week service/Bible study into our house for the next two Wednesdays. Really nice people. We need to do some cleaning and cooking. And i need to get all our musical instruments in order. And everyone gets to meet our cats. This one is Squeaks.

Are We a Movement?

A big question at Wikipedia regarding the global Emerging-Missional Church is this: Is it a movement or not?

It hasn't been easy to answer. Some countries have seen fast organic growth, spontaneous reproduction and display definite signs of being a movement and other countries just have a few networks or even just a few churches and would not be a movement at all.

I was stumped . . so I asked my history teacher from Fuller School of World Mission, Dr Paul Pierson. In his class in 1995, we studied revitalization movements and he had 7 criteria (or was it 10? my memory fails me). These were never published online. I know because I googled and googled and googled until the heated twinges of early carpal tunnel forced me to cease googling and instead ask Ryan to track him down and ask him. Which he did. Here is the answer.

Email from Dr Paul Pierson [typos corrected and bullets added]:

"Dear Andrew; Ryan asked me to send this to you. The list of factors observed in revival and renewal movements throughout history is flexible and some of these can be combined, but here is a list.

- They always begin on the periphery of the institutional church
- They are motivated by a transforming experience (grace) of God by an individual or group.
- The result is the desire for a more authentic Christian life that often leads to concern for the church and world.
- Face to face groups for prayer, Bible study, mutual encouragement are important.
- New methods of selecting and training leaders become important. These are less institutional, more grass roots and lay oriented.
- There are theological breakthroughs, that is, rediscovery of aspects of the Biblical message that have been forgotten or overlooked by the Church, usually they involve a focus on the gifts of every believer.
- There is a leveling effect, distance decreases between clergy and laity, social classes, races, men and women, and denominations.
- The movement is countercultural in some ways, often because it reaches out to those who have not been valued by their society.

One Trillion Dollars

" . . .although Protestant and Catholic churches [in USA] have raised - and spent – close to one trillion dollars on domestic ministry during the past two decades, there has been no measurable increase in one of the expressed purposes of the church: to lead people to Christ and have them commit their lives to Him.” Barna. Link

Suddenly Seminary Tonight

UPDATE: From 8pm to 9pm GMT. Just a check in tonight. Hardly anyone knows so there may only be a few people - but i will be there.
Tuesdays at 8pm GMT. Resumes tomorrow. Head for "Suddenly Seminary" and be ready for a chat. habbohotel.co.uk and password is boaz1
Nothing serious on Tuesday - just reconnecting. We can chat about missiology (previous post) if you like.

Mud Slinging Over. Time to Fly

Can I say it publicly? The season of emerging church mudslinging is over. Now its time to bless each other, rise up with wings like angels . . . and fly. The last month put a lot of good people on the defensive and many leaders had to pause for a moment and offer some explanation or apologies or a defense. The wheels stopped turning. But something has shifted, the public bashing of megachurch seekerchurch emergentchurch postmodernchurch housechurch is no longer cool, the hipness of judgmentalism is no longer hip despite us living in an age where everything is published and a misquote on a bad day is only a google away. Sorry Bob Hyatt, but you will have to find another addicition.

MealTime Habits of the Messiah

"Jesus was killed because of the way he ate"

If you like that statement (from Robert Karris) then you will love this book. If you have heard the way I preach in a church from the story of Jesus and then weave in the other stories and issues, and if you liked it, then you will love this book. Not the aesthetics, mind you - they don't work for me - when are Zondervan going to quit that 1994 "i'm so grungy GenX gimme back my damn skateboard so i can wear down your park bench" kind of graphic? This book would have done better with something friendlier, warmer, classier, HOME-IER. I guess they were aiming at the church youth group crowd - and to be honest - this is a really good church youth group kind of book. But its more than that! I had to mention the poor choice of typeface, btw, simply because the rest of the book is so dang good that i don't want to sound like a swooning schoolgirl at a Jonny Depp autograph singing.

So did I enjoy the book?

Affirmation (A Response to Aaron)

Aaron.
Thanks for your questions regarding Emergent's Official Response that you published there and also sent to me as an email. I said i would take a shot at answering them if no one else would and so far, they remain unanswered. My answer was too lengthy to post on that site so it is here instead.
- i am not setting a precedent and I don't expect the other signers of the document to come up with even more statements.
- I am speaking for myself and not for the group or any other group
- Other signers of the document may not necessarily agree with my answers.

I believe in working in community on theological and missiological issues and have made use of many conferences, roundtables, and work groups to hammer out ideas. It makes sense to tap into the creeds and other statements of faith that represent a very large section of the Body of Christ. I was a participant and presenter at the Great Commission Roundtable where I and others involved in emerging culture formed some strategic alliances with folk from Lausanne Movement for World Evangelisation and the World Evangelical Alliance ("a network of churches in 121 nations that have each formed an evangelical alliance and over 100 international organizations joining together to give a worldwide identity, voice and platform to more than 335 million Christians"). I have maintained my relationship with these groups and respect them very much. For this reason, I make reference to and quote from a number of globally recognized evangelical statements that i agree with, although you may not, coming from a Reformed theological background.

As an evangelical, I "affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice." (Lausanne Covenant )
I publicly affirm the statement of faith as given by the World Evangelical Alliance I also publicly affirm the Iguassu Afirmation from the Global Consulation on Evangelical Missiology, the Lausanne Covenant, the Manilla Manifesto and the Apostles Creed.

Emerging Church Leaders: Finland

Marc Van der Woude just got back from a training of emerging church leaders in FINLAND, and some serious soaking in hot water. (Link) The blond one is Heli who was with us in Switzerland recently. Oops. Sorry - they are ALL BLOND!!!
Marc - i am soooo jealous! See you in Aberdeen! Marc also offers some good advice on apostolic teams from our mutual friend Erling, the blogger-poet-apostle from Norway who you probably know from I Am Somebody.

Roundtable