Tall Skinny Kiwi

Family Pilgrimage

Well . . . the whole family decided to join me on this trip. Fair enough. We are packing the Peugeot right now and cleaning the house. So . . . here is a basic schedule

Monday 30th - leave Orkney. Sheffield by evening, hopefully in time for Shannon's birthday party
Tuesday 1st. Appointment with some people regarding missional cells and emerging culture in Europe
Wed - Ferry to France early morning. Germany by evening. Set up tent at Freakstock
Thursday to Sunday. Freakstock
Wednesday - back in Uk. Visits in Cambridge? and then a quick stop at Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.
Friday 11th. - back in time for Pizza and a movie in our house

Global Roundtable and Emerging Church Seminar

I am off on Monday to Edinburgh and then Germany. I am taking my son Samuel on this trip. One of the highlights for me will be teaching a seminar at Freakstock Festival in Germany on the emerging church. I will be teaching it from a German perspective and will base my history on what God has been doing through the Germans over the past few decades, as well as the influential thinkers behind this current reformation including Bonhoeffer, Hartenstein, Barth in the 30's. And if we get time, Gustav Warneck, one of missiology's founders a century ago.

Jesus Freaks International are one of the many movements of God inside the European emerging culture. Started by teenagers in the early nineties, the Freaks quickly grew to 100 churches in Germany filled with mohawks, piercings and VERY LOUD MUSIC. Today, they exist in a number of countries and their festival attracts 8000 participants. This is where the Global Roundtable will happen.

The roundtable is called Die Gefaehten, a word that I cant spell without looking it up but it means "The Fellowship". 50 leaders have been invited from around the world. All of them are part of what God is doing in the alternative underground sub-cultures. Leaders are coming from, if i remember . . Peru, Macedonia, Russia, Norway, USA, and many more countries. And, of course, Germany.

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

How To Ask Foundations for Money

Today I am writing up some proposals that i will be presenting to a number of Foundations when i am back in USA next month (Aug 21-25). This kind of thing really wears me out but its a necessary part of mission work and getting the job done. My previous mode of working was to ignore the Foundations and do everything without money as much as I could. But Donors also want to play a part in the Great Commission. Especially the more exciting stuff that I have been involved in this past decade -the mission of God in the global emerging culture - and I have a responsibility to make space in the playground for them also.

As far as writing up proposals go, I have no natural tendencies or gifts in this area [and Puh-leeeze dont bombard with me emails] but I have been taught by the best. On a number of occasions, I have sat under the Proposal Guru Dr Steve Steele (ex-DAWN, now Global Strategist for the Maclellan Foundation) and jotted down notes on how to partner with donors in a way that benefits both parties. In fact, I went through this again last week in London at a special meeting I organized for some emerging culture leaders from around Europe and some representatives from Maclellan Foundation - Lee Behar and Steve Steele. I didn't blog on this meeting, and probably wont, but towards the end of our meeting I asked Dr Steele to give some advice to the group on approaching American Foundations for their projects. He smiled and began to talk and our pens came out and notes were frantically taken and when Steve had finished, there was a suspended hush, a religious silence, a monumental awe-filled appreciation of BIBLICAL proportions!

I wouldn't broadcast all his secrets in a blog post [he really should write a book] but I will pass on a few snippets of wisdom that I know he wouldn't mind me sharing. If you find yourself in a position where you need to raise support for mission projects, and you want advice from a Master, then read on . . .

Technorati Tags: foundations, puppy

EC Conversation Pieces

- Scot McKnight (who has retaken first place on technorati EC blogs for the second time) discusses Spencer Burkes new book.
- Out of Ur has a good article on Monasteries for Spiritual Formation
- Paco Rosic from Sarajevo is painting the Sistine Chapel in Iowa and he is choosing the grafitti aesthetic. HT: Chad Brooks
- Russel on Blogging as the New town square
- Rick Warren gets a blog (comments not allowed)
- Washington Post: Cyber-savvy pastors blog when the Spirit leads them
- Steve McCoy's Missional Baptist blog closes up shop. Reformissionary will continue. HT: Stephen Shields

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, emergent, emerging church, monastery

My Wife is Cool

Debbie took a class on the medieval art of painting on stained glass at an English cathedral last week. Its a dying art form. She learned from someone who studied under the Italian masters and was invited back for a further 3 days at her farm. No one else in the class was invited to go further.This is her first piece. Isn't it stunning? We are looking into building a kiln so we can make the cathedral glass and fire them ourselves up here.

The Emergent Church - 1980

Another book for my vintage emerging church book collection. "The Emergent Church:The Future of Christianity in a Postbourgeois World" " by Johann Baptist Metz, 1980 (German), 1981 (English). Found it yesterday online and it arrived today. Thats fast.
The book has some good thoughts on "towards the second reformation", and forming church with power from below (postbourgeois) .
The other books are The Emerging Church" by Larson and Osborne, 1970. John Carr's book is more of a commentary on Ephesians.
HT: Dan Kimball who seems to dig up these books out of nowhere.

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

Mother, Please

Really hilarious movie - Betty Crocker with an attitude.
View at Helios Design Labs or download original for a better copy: motherplease.mov (3.9 Meg)
HT: Michela at RemixableFilms

Technorati Tags: video, vj

Icons and the Possibility of a Tropological Theology

Worship using icons, images and multimedia is being discussed right now, especially in relation to Calvary Church's stance on iconic worship and the emerging church. It might be helpful to look at the idea of tropological theology.

Tropological theology is found all the way through church history. "Augustine suggested a four-fold sense which would later be adopted by medieval theologians: (1) literal; (2) allegorical; (3) tropological or moral; and (4) analogical." Theology Adrift, Bible.org

According to Viggo Mortensen Snr, some scholars believe Martin Luther gave the tropological (relating to the soul) interpretation priority over the allegorical (relating to the church) in his interpretation of the psalms. (Link) Dr John Barber says "Luther’s mature exegetical approach, which was the tropological method of Bible interpretation (it emphasized the spiritual and existential side of Christian living), came to fruition between 1516-1519". [Luther and Calvin on Worship and Music, PDF]

Paul Hiebert speaks of the doxological or tropological theology that "is done in the context of worship, and stresses the mystical, sacramental and iconic nature of truth. The key question it addresses is, “How can we comprehend complex, transcendent truths about God and reality that lie beyond words, logic and human reason?” It uses nondiscursive signs and tropes such as icons, metaphors, types and parables to communicate transcendent truth." (Paul Hiebert, Spritual Warfare and Worldview, p. 167, Global Missiology for the 21st Century, ed. William Taylor)

Technorati Tags: missiology, worship

Swarm released by Digg Labs

Swarm: A great Web 2.0 info-experience and i already have an account. All kinds of news and info popping up on the screen in the same way my brain works . . . but . . . no RELIGION news! Come on, we are waiting . . .

Technorati Tags: tech, web 2.0

Emerging Church Stuff

Emergent Poetry: The ladies of Emergent Village have created Efflouresce, a really beautiful poetic/image piece that you can download for free. [PDF]. Thanks Holly. HT: EmergingGod

Postcolonial Read: Andy Crouch interviews Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye in Experiencing Life in the Margins.

Catholic Criticism:Domenico Bettinelli bemoans the ". . . many lapsed Catholics flocking to these “emerging churches,” the fruit of both The Scandal and two generations’ worth of poor catechesis." and "losing more and more Catholics to the latest fads, trends, and “ear-tickling.”

Internet Ministry: Aussies should check out Darren Rowse's seminar on Thursday 27th in Melbourne called Internet: Mission and Ministry. Darren will be compiling a list of web resources.

Technorati Tags: catholic, emergent, emerging church, poetry

Technorati's New Look

Great to see Technorati revamp its excellent site, but when OH WHEN are they going to correct the bug that causes my blog to be counted twice??????????. And yes, i have emailed them about this problem.

Technorati Tags: technorati

The Porpoise Diving Life

I am NOT an easy target for people advertising their ideas and products and I cannot be bought. This is what i am telling myself as i write a blog post on the porpoise diving life.

I am, however, grateful to Bill Dahl for my new embroided Porpoise Diving Life hat that keeps me . . um . . shaded and protected from fuzzy thinking about the life of Jesus in the emerging culture. Yeah. Something like that.

Say, don't I look smart in my white, beefy 100% cotton Porpoise Diving Life t-shirt? Such deep thinking and challenging articles call for a cup of tea in my new white, ceremic 12oz Porpoise Diving Life cup. Just the thing for contemplating the July issue of Purpoise Diving Life.

Technorati Tags: porpoise diving life

Long Tail of Godmakers Mormon Movie

"Mormon theology in 6 minutes" as someone called it . Its the number one rated educational video on Digg and its an old retro animation that i saw 2 decades ago when "Temple of the Godmakers" was shown at our church [Talk about the long tail . . . .] But now you can watch it and discuss it with Mormons at Mormon Stories.

Reflections on Blah

30 of us met for 24 hours at High Leigh conference centre near London. We were discussing emerging church USA and UK, based on Ryan's book. The scene was overwhelmingly Maccentric.

Reminds me of that emerging bloggers cartoon with the odd man out. PC users, a scarce and persecuted minority here, brought out their laptops with fear and intrepidation but the atmosphere was ecumenical enough to allow for users of all systems to take notes together.

Ryan Bolger and Karen Ward did a great job, considering they had events in different cities each day without a break. Jonny Baker, who was organising this event, took a photo of them which tackles the question of emerging church being a CULT. I have always been suspicious of ORANGE. BTW - my blog gets No1 Google rating for "goat sacrificing cult". I must put that on my resume.
Karen also helped with the worship and led a communion service with some great visuals.

Steve Collins gave an excellent presentation on network theory which is available at SmallRitual. Good thinking on the Monkeysphere and Lattice which caused me to add . . . "Lattice not forsake the assembling of ourselves together." I have blogged before about understanding scale free networks.

Then we mapped out out we are all linked to each other and discussed the joys and perils of networking. Shannon Hopkins led a discussion on networking and partnerships. Which is a worthwhile pursuit.

Technorati Tags: emerging church

Days of the Dead at Cornerstone

Interesting conversation going on about Cornerstone Festival's Imaginarium theme this year - named Days of the Dead. Quite controversial, actually. A 'covert mission' to witness to the Christians at Cornerstone has led to a conversation that will no doubt explode onto the wider stage. Slice opens the issue, and accuses Cornerstone of introducing occultism. Lint Hatcher responds from Cornerstone's perspective.

Mike Hartenstein mentions the 'protesters' in his report who were handing out leaflets and wrapping toilet paper around the Asylum tent and i can only guess this is a reference to the 'covert mission' mentioned earlier. John Morehead, a speaker at the Imaginarium, speaks on his blog about the thinking behind the theme, and the connection between halloween and Days of the Dead.

Michael at Evangelical Resources was there at Imaginarium. He has more links than me and is the next blog-stop if you want to track this conversation. He says Cornerstone's attempt was "itself devoid of occultic elements" and feels Slice "dramatically overstates" what happened .

As for me and my house, I think we need to address festivals and rituals and decide for ourselves and our families whether they should be redeemed [like Easter and Christmas] . . . or NOT. We also need to be very thoughtful in our contextualization lest we "blunder" our way through and end up losing the prophetic message or in syncretism. Its a tricky balance.

Related: Trevor McPherson who heads up the Underground ministries Roundtable each year at Cornerstone will be at our Roundtable in Germany next month. Maybe he will give us the skinny.

Technorati Tags: cornerstone

The 1% Rule and Our Blogging Dilemma

It has been said that one in 100 is a content creator, or so i read today from Mindy McAdams who interacts with the 1% Rule from Charles Arthur:

"It's an emerging rule of thumb that suggests that if you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will "interact" with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it.
It's a meme that emerges strongly in statistics from YouTube, which in just 18 months has gone from zero to 60% of all online video viewing."

Well, having one percent do the content creation is all very well, but our little group at High Leigh Conference Centre has a problem . . .

We are group of 35 people having an interesting conversation about the emerging church in UK and how it compares with emerging church USA, especially as presented by a book written by Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs called Emerging Churches. Its a book that i once said was the BEST BOOK ON EMERGING CHURCH. And , this is our dilemma . . . we cannot find anyone who wants to blog an entry with all the participants and their corresponding hypertext links. What we really need here, is a GRUNT blogger, a peon blogger, a newbie blogger with no credentials who will put in the necessary work to create an informative blog post that we can all point to. But so far our group, being far shy of 100, has not produced such a person to create the content.
But jonny baker, says it will probably be mark berry.

Technorati Tags: blogging

Daft Raft and the Wellie Throwing Contest

Its been a great week here in Stromness with the Shopping Week celebrations. For the record, I came second in the Wellie [Gumboot] throwing contest and third in the 100m run against the other dads.

The noisy pink raft called Shiela's Wheels was the most interesting contestant in the Daft Raft race. We are talking about entering a raft next year.

I am on a ferry tonight and at High Leigh (near London) tomorrow for 24 hours with Emerging Church leaders from around UK. Ryan Bolger and Karen Ward will join us.

How Your Emerging Church Can Stay in Calvary Chapel, Inc

You LOVE being in the Calvary Chapel fellowship of churches but are scared that your emerging church style worship will get you kicked out. I feel your pain and understand the tension. CC a great fellowship with an incredible history. In fact, my wife grew up in SoCal and was a regular at the Costa Mesa events during her college years.

Roger Oakland recently gave a clear summary of Chuck Smith Snr's stand on the emerging church and why "no Calvary Chapel pastor heading down the Emerging Church road movement would be permitted to use the name of Calvary Chapel. . . "
"We have great problems with the use of icons to give them (Emerging Church) a sense of God or the presence of God. If they want to have a tie with the historicity of the church, why not go back to the church in Acts, which seems to devoid of incense, candles, robes etc., but was filled with the Spirit." PDF, the skinny

But wait . . . before you blow out those candles and dismantle your alt. worship stations, there may be a workaround for multi-meida contemplative worship in the Calvary Chapel world.

- You could always appeal to the Second Council of Nicea 787 which names 'the pictoral icons" as something good which the church has received. But they may not appreciate church history as much as you do.

- You could appeal to Jean Luc Marion's treatise of icon vs. idol in his excellent book "The Crossing of the Visible" [clue: idols receive the 'gaze' but icons pass it on to the subject of worship] but they may not have read Marion.

- Or . . . and this might be the best idea .. . you could just set up your worship within the boundaries of acceptable Calvary Chapel practice. This sphere might actually be larger than you think and does, in fact, include space for iconic stations . . . but you have to use CC language to get away with it.

Here's the deal. I am pretty sure that Calvary Chapel, Inc will allow you to set up a "display that represents a religious viewpoint". I say this because Calvary Chapel insisted on using a multi-media station in a Christmas celebration consisting of a two-mile long Holiday Fantasy of Lights a few years ago. I was reading this on Christianity Today and since then have found the incident all over the internet.

- see Calvary Chapel Church, Inc. v. Broward County, 299 F. Supp. 2d 1295 (S.D. Fla. 2003) (holding that Broward County must include Calvary Chapel’s “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” display in its annual “Holiday Fantasy of Lights” event so long as the display identifies the Church as the speaker) [link]

What i am saying is that your multi-media worship display might be, as is was for a Calvary Chapel in Florida, a "constitutionally-protected private religious speech" (link)

Technorati Tags: calvary chapel, church, worship

Emerging Church the Fastest Growing Group in Christianity?

Great to see the Americans getting on board with the emerging church, which is being described as the fastest growing group in Christianity. CBS investigates with a special report. Unfortunately, their video focuses on the worship service based churches and does not go out to the house churches and cell churches where much of this growth is happening.
HT: Smart Christian

Want to support it? We have a global emerging church leaders roundtable next month in Germany with a special emphasis on underground ministries, street ministries and new church movements among the postmodern subcultures. 50 leaders from around the world have been invited from countries as diverse as Peru, Russia and Macedonia. Many of them need help with their airfares - and this is where you might be able to help. Let me know in an email if you want to play.

Want to complain about it? Steve Camp is hosting Gary Gilley's anti-emerging church blog post.

Also, Emerging Church Research has the TOP 50 Emerging Church Blogs. Nice to see so many familiar names. BackyardMissionary is not hypertexted so here is the link [hint - hamo is worth reading]

Technorati Tags: emerging church

Emerging Church Bloggers Cartoon

Mac? Yes
Typepad? Yes
Earphones? Yes - just bought another set.
Bonos (sunglasses)? Yes, on occasion.
Crowder (gottee)? NO - I cut it off a decade ago. Maybe I would be an imposter also.

Cartoon found on Mixed Moss

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, emerging church

Emerging Church Diva

Is this the face of the USA Emerging Church? Karen Ward is enjoying a week in UK as the Emerging Church "Diva", representing as much as she can of the emerging church around USA. At home in Seattle, she is part of an urban monastic style church and has been blogging since 2001.

Karen is part of the BLAH tour going on right now in UK called Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in a Postmodern Culture, hosted by Ryan Bolger. If you live in the UK, then make sure you get to one of the Blah sessions held around the country over the next week. Schedule here. Ryan Bolger (Fuller) and Karen Ward (COTA, Seattle) will be leading these sessions based on the book. More details on PDF.

I will be with them next Thursday in London for a 24 hour thinktank.

Technorati Tags: emerging church

Afternoon walk

Saw puffins today during an afternoon walk with some friends. Chis dives in a blowhole during our walk.

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Originally uploaded by tallskinnykiwi.

Esther: 7 Parties and the Old Guy with a Mullet

This week is Stromness Shopping Week - probably the biggest week of the year for our little town. Tourists everywhere and a heavy schedule of events. Last year, on the last and great day of the Shopping Week, I preached on Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7). This year, having been asked again to preach [suckers for punishment], I will look at another week long party and the lady (Queen Vashti) who messed it up on the last day. Weird parallel.

So, this morning at Stromness Baptist Church, I will be retelling the Esther story, which is what the youth were learning during their CE camp this week. Esther is the little orphan girl who changed the course of history while sitting on a couch. Thanks to the wise advise of her mentor - the old guy with a mullet named Mordecai. Actually, he may have adopted the mullet after his rise to prominence, as did other Persian dignitaries.

Mullets rock! This is me with my mullet wig last October in Nevada, USA, standing next to my wife whose dreadlocks are actually real. I will bring the wig along this morning for illustration, although Mordecai's mullet probably had ringlets (like dreadlocks) at the bottom. This is according to Mullet scholars Mark Larson and Barney Hoskyns in their classic book 'The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods' . . . a book given to me by Derek Chapman (standing next to me in photo) and from which i now quote:
"The Persians wore their hair shorter than the Assyrians, although if anything the bi-level effect of the Persian Mullet was even more pronounced, with the top consisting of tousled curls and the bottom fanning out across the shoulders in long braided ringlets."

Esther, by John Everett Mallais

I count 7 parties in the book of Esther and we will look at all of them, one by one. The Kingdom of God is, like the feast of Purim, a time for feasting, joy, generosity and justice. I think it is also a time in this Post-christian Europe for the church to act like Esther and not Queen Vashti. I have mentioned this before a few years ago but will throw it out there again:

Vashti was the only wife.
Esther was one of the girls in the harem.

Vashti was a host.
Esther was a guest.

Vashti lived in safety.
Esther lived in danger

Vashti thew a private party for her selected friends.
Esther threw a public celebration for her people.

(but wait . . . there's more)

Technorati Tags: bible, esther

Pilgrimage to St Boniface Kirk. Part One.

We have just visited a fantastic place that most people never see - one of the oldest pilgrimage sites in Scotland and a place with huge historical significance.

St Boniface Kirk is a small unassuming chapel on the island of Papa Westray. It was built on ancient settlement that has been lived in continuously since the 2nd millenium BC. St Boniface's is one of Orkney's two pre-reformation churches left standing after the Reformer's Crowbar Crusade - i suppose they couldn't make it out this far to demolish it. And a good thing too!
The church was a significant ecclesiastic power in the 8th Century and possibly the seat of Orkney's first bishop. It may have been the ecclesiastic centre for Orkney and the Shetlands, as well as being the key missionary outpost for monks going north on mission to Scandanavia. It had a strategic link to Northumbria.

[Our daughter Tamara, smelling the flowers in the chapel]
The present kirk has been enlarged over time and somewhat restored. It is owned by the community and occasionally has services, including the annual St Boniface day celebration on June 5th.
At the back of St Boniface's Kirk is what locals called "Munkerhoose" or Monks house. It is the crumbling remains of bee hive cells that were used by the monks on their way to bring the gospel to the north. Unfortunately, these historic monuments are now being washed out to sea. More about that soon.

Technorati Tags: missiology, mission, orkney, pilgrimage

CE Camp

(phone-blog) Christian Endevour Camp on Westray Island. 55 kids, 3 of them mine. Ten children made first time commitments to Jesus. Special thanks to George and Pamela from Belfast who did an excellent job.

12-07-06_2019.jpg
Originally uploaded by tallskinnykiwi.

Pilgrimage site: St Tredwells

UPDATE: Camping on the island of Papa Westray - next to St Tredwells - a nunnery and pilgrimage site dating back to the 8th Century.

Tredwell (Triduana) was a nun living in the monastery there (you can see the small round island sticking into the loch). A King told her she had beautiful eyes, or so the story goes, and she plucked them out and sent them to him on a stick. Over the centuries, pilgrims with eye problems travelled here to bathe in the waters, but not after walking silently around this loch a few times. And often on their knees.

12-07-06_0915.jpg
Originally uploaded by tallskinnykiwi.
Camping at hostel next to st tredwells pilgrimage site.

The Monastic Island Papa Westray

Off with the family to the islands of Westray and Papa Westray. We have our tents and are bringing our bikes on the ferries. Back in a few days. Papa Westray has a population of 72 and some great history. Tell you when we get back.

Reinventing Jesus: About the Book

A book came in the mail for me to review. Reinventing Jesus: What the Da Vinci Code and Other Novel Speculations Don't Tell You, by J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, Daniel B. Wallace

I suppose reviewing books on the blogosphere is still in fashion . . even though we should probably be reviewing .PDF documents and significant blog entries. Imagine if the first books coming off Gutenberg's printing press were reviews of the latest SCROLLS . . . lame!!! . . . but I just read this book and want to give a word UP.

So . . . about the book . . . An excellent book. A readable book. A perennial book with, unfortunately, a seasonal title. It deserves to be bought and read and stored and studied - with or without its current connection to Da Vinci Code and The Jesus Seminar. The book is an easy reading account of why and how we have the New Testament. These facts should be commonplace but its amazing how easy we forget and how stupid we look in the process.

Postmodern thinking, summed up by the extremist forms, gets the usual spanking but I resonate with the author's approach to truth-seeking through avoiding the two extremes of total despair and absolute certainty.

Bottom line: We can trust our Bibles. There is an "embarrassment of riches" to draw from and the minor differences between the 5,700 Greek texts are miniscule in numerical significance and do not affect any foundational doctrines, despite what Da Vinci Code tells you.

Self Disclosure: One of the authors, Dr. Daniel Wallace, is my cuzz. Or more accurately, he married my wife's cousin, Patti, and we are therefore in a familial contract to respect each other's work, so that potential family Christmas celebrations [which have yet to happen] may not be spoiled by two members of the extended family becoming embroiled over a theological dispute over 'dynamic equivalence' and Benjamin's theories of translatability.
Dan's a great guy, highly inteligent. . . intelligent . . . and he teaches New Testament Greek at some up-and-coming seminary in north Dallas [he..he..he]. As well as training the nation's spiritual leaders, Dan is also one of the guys who wrote my Bible [Dan was senior editor for The Net Bible] and when i read it i often think of him in a dank basement, slumped over the manuscripts, adding oil to his lamp and consulting crumbling books from authors long dead. In moments like these, I conveniently forget that Dan uses a Mac, and at one time, or so he told me in Prague, requested a 125 terrabyte laptop from Steve Jobs [no success on that one, btw].

btw - you may want to visit my blog buddies who are also reviewing this book:
[added later] Pryomanic Dan Phillips has perhaps the premier post and attracted some controversy.
Roger Overton at The A-Team would have liked to have seen more on gnosticism but still, he says the book "does a commendable job of making the scholarly discussions accessible and relevant to 'motivated laypersons' without dumbing down the material".
Justin Taylor commends it.
Dan Kimball (author of "The Emerging Church") liked it so much he did a 5 week series at his church and had one of the authors Dr James Sawyer come and teach.
Michael Kruse has the fullest review and gives 6 conclusions [hint . . go there next]
Stephen Shields calls it an "excellent and unique treatment".
ChristusNexus is keeping track of the reviews.
Mark D. Roberts gives it a thumbs up
Internet Monk Michael Spencer recommends this book "without reservation". But then he was given a bag of white castle cheeseburgers along with the book.

YUK! thats gross! Keep the burgers . . and I will keep the book.

Technorati Tags: bible, da vinci code, dan wallace, reinventing jesus

Have WiFi, Will Travel

Well I dont have one, yet. But since many conference centers don't have a Wifi connection, like the one i have just come from last week, I could always bring my own along. The Kyocera KR1 Mobile Router might be just the ticket. Laughing Squid has roadtested it and BoingBoing approves but it looks like it will only work for my American conferences.

I have also been toying with the idea of using web-based conference material rather than computer based. With wfi, I could just lead people through a web presentation and they could access it also in real time, and after the conference. Very Web 2.0 . . . My only holdback is the lack of wifi at most conference centers and churches. But all that will soon change with toys like this one. Does anyone have one yet?

Related: The Wifi-enabled Church

Other Tech News;
- Next generation Mac OS 5.1 [Leopard] should feature calls from i-chat 4.0 to traditional phone lines [macrumors]
- $60 software to be released this summer called Crossover will let you run Windows apps on an intel Mac without buying Windows. [MacCentral]

Technorati Tags: church, conference, mac, mobile, tech, wifi

Sleeping In London's Airports

Last night was my first time sleeping at London's Gatwick airport and I found it quite comfortable. My trains were late and i didn't arrive at Gatwick unitl 3:40am so I only got an hours sleep. But it was my best experience yet spending a cheap and convenient night at another of London's airports. Packing my camping pad and sleeping bag made a difference.

The Best London Airports I have slept in:
1. Camp Gatwick - Carpet and quite a few benches. Quiet and respectful of campers.
2. Camp Heathrow - Unusual places to sleep and plenty of shops that stay open.
3. Camp Stanstead - Dozens of young Eurotravellers make this a continental experience
4. Camp Luton - Hard floors, bright lights, and loud announcements blaring all night long.

Technorati Tags: airports, london

Yemi Challenges the Western Church (Phone blog)

Yemi Adedji challenged our group [and the Western church] today about power. The western church has form, but not power. Missionaries from the West did a disservice to the Africans when they refused to teach them how to deal with the supernatural elements of their world [maybe they didn't know] and the vacuum created by them has led to new movements of African young people starting their own churches - in which issues of power, dark forces, healing, miracles, etc, are addressed. The Western church, Yemi said, needs to take these things seriously, even in their own country.

Emerging Church in Central Africa? I got the same answer as i usually get: The leaders are all mostly young. Very few older people in the picture.

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Originally uploaded by tallskinnykiwi.

Technorati Tags: africa, emerging church, mission

A Mosque Visit Today

Went to the Mosque today with our group. Our guide was Ahmed Bahm, spokesman for the Gloucester Muslim Association, who has written a number of articles, including a piece in tomorrows newspaper - the one year anniversary of the bombing in London, July 7th, 2005. Ahmed was very courteous and spent a good hour explaining Islam and answering our questions, and giving us a tour through the Mosque - the ablution area for bathing was the most interesting.
Many of our group (twice as many females as males . . . thus all the veils) will be living in Muslim countries very shortly and it was good to find out as much as we could. And i have to ask the question again . . . when it comes to giving up careers and home-country for the gospel and the global plans of God . . where are all the men? And puuuleeeeeeze will people stop saying the missional church is male dominated because i keep looking and i see what i see and i see what they write and the two don't add up.
btw - I have conveniently cropped this self-taken phone-camera image so that you don't see how far my hair has receded. If only they had head-coverings for men . . .

Technorati Tags: islam

Africa Bible Commentary Launches Today

Email from Steve Knight (Knightopia)

"Hey Andrew, Well, I’ve officially left BGEA (http://www.billygraham.org/), and I’m now on staff with SIM (Serving In Mission) as their new International Communications Coordinator. I figured, what better way to be missional than to work for a missions organization, right? ;-)

Anyway, I’m writing to let you know about an exciting project that SIM has been involved with called the “Africa Bible Commentary”! It’s the first-ever complete commentary of the entire Bible written in Africa by African theologians for African pastors and practitioners. Of course, Zondervan is publishing and distributing it in the U.S., and Rick Warren and John Stott (among others) have given it rousing endorsements – so we’re hopeful it will gain an even broader, international audience."

Thanks Steve - Link at SIM. We will be expecting a sharp looking SIM website in the near future from you.

Technorati Tags: bible

Theology and the Emerging Church

Andrew Perriman has an excellent post on the leading characteristics of an emerging theology.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, theology

Doug Pagitt's 40th

Doug Pagitt turns 40 today. I was invited to celebrate at his birthday retreat - a small, manly huddle of unshaved men in a cabin in Northern Minnesota . . . who are no doubt rubbing mud on their hairy chests and playing mindless games of sumo wrestling without the padded suits.. . .
. . but alas, i am busy in England.

I have always been a big fan of Doug Pagitt. We met in San Francisco in 1997 when our family was ministering with street kids. Doug was working for Leadership Network and his role was to create a group of Young Leaders that would help bridge the transition in ministry from the old to the new, and be able to explain it. That group of 10 couples later changed their name to Emergent but well before then, we had a lot of good times and interesting conferences. The big one was 1998 New Edge Conference in Glorieta, New Mexico - if you were there and took pictures, please let me know because i am collecting media for a history of the emerging church.

You can see here, at the Braveheart statue in Stirling, that I am just a little taller than Doug. Some of my fondest memories of the late 90's included Doug - not just the conferences and events but rather the conversations over meals, squeezing our two families into a station wagon in Scotland, chasing gators in Florida, roller coasting in Texas, video gaming in Dallas, eating prime rib in Santa Fe. Great times.

Happy 40th, Doug!

Related: Pagitt on Emergent, Sharing a room with Doug
Doug has his own page on Wikipedia if you get time to write in some pertinent details.

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At Redcliffe College and BANNED from my own blog!

I am currently at Redcliffe College in Gloucester - about 2 hours from London. I managed to get the code for the internet but am BANNED from my own blog. I can access other blogs but not mine . . . so if i am not responding to your comments on my site, then you know why. DansGuardian is the company that handles it. I emailed them today.

I am here at Redcliffe for some mission meetings this week in conjunction with CMS. Joe Kapolyo from Zambia gave us an African understanding of the Book of Ruth this afternooon - excellent! This morning I gave a short devotion on third space, and the desert in Scripture. I quoted from an EXCELLENT .PDF by Dr Johnathon Ingleby, who teaches missions at this school. The article, based on a lecture he gave a few months ago, is called "Hybridity or the Third Space and How Shall We Describe the Kingdom [PDF]" and believe me when i say . . . its the PDF OF THE YEAR!!!! Totally worth downloading. Trust me!!!

Kiwi missiologist Cathy Ross just turned up and she will probably teach tomorrow. There's also a good library here and i am spending some time [outside meetings] doing research on missiology - reading the lectures and papers from the International Missionary Conference in Edinburgh of 1910 - all 8 volumes. Lots of good stuff. Tell you later.

Technorati Tags: cms, missiology, mission

Amazing Grace and the Blogosphere

Walden Media (who gave us The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe) are releasing a movie next March that might set the bloggers keyboards a-tappin'. Amazing Grace is a movie based on the life of William Wilberforce, set to release on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slave trade in UK.

I was talking to some CMS mission personnel who have seen a preview of the film and there is already discussion about how this movie could support their existing efforts in bringing Christ's freedom to those bound up in forms of slavery, like African Snow, a play about slavery in the 21st century, and Free for All, a youth theatre troupe that will tour the cathedrals of UK over the next year. According to Russell Price, who is heading up CMS theme of Setting Captives Free in this years Greenbelt Festival, Walden Media are steering the marketing away from their previous associations (disney?) and may, in fact, ask the church crowd to help with the promotion.

Do you think the blogosphere will give favor to this release? I know we didn't do much at all for LWW and even less for Passion. But what if this movie was connected to some of our own efforts to stop slavery and enable freedom. Is it OK to talk about collaboration in promoting this movie if there is a win-win situation? And does it have to happen haphazardly or could we be more strategic, if we believed in the goals of this movie? What do you think?

Technorati Tags: amazing grace, movies, wilberforce, walden