Tall Skinny Kiwi

Slot Art Festival in Poland: Some reflections

Slot Festival rocked! Its an arts festival in Poland run by followers of Jesus but its much more than that. Its one of those festivals that people get really attached to and come back each year. Thousands of them. And earlier this month we drove across Europe to join them.

We set up our Tipi right next to the main monastery building (left). Its a dang huge place - the largest monastery in Central or Eastern Europe.

In fact, we were told that at 333,000 square meters, its the largest OBJECT in Central or Eastern Europe. Its REALLY REALLY MASSIVE, even with 5000 young people running all over it. Oh - that centre picture is my son Sam showing off some new skills to his sisters. About 120 skills were offered in daily training sessions. Abigail learned nun-chucks.

The chapel got fixed up nicely with art installations of all kinds.

This picture on the cathedral wall is the basis for my monthly banner that i just uploaded. You can see the other images from Slot weaved into the banner.

These guys next to me (left) are Jesus Freak leaders. All these photos are mine, btw, except this one which Hajo took. Check out his blog post on Slot for a lot more.

A few of us met the folk that maintain this monastery and we were shown inside what was described as the best example in the world of a Baroque ballroom. Really magnificent. And all this was build for the 70 monks who lived here. Imaging trying to raise funds for that today!

These Ukrainians started their first festival last year and invited me to come and join them in 2008. Might be worth a trip. They had a thousand people come last year which is a great beginning.

Technorati Tags: festival, poland, slot, slot festival

Rowland Whitehead (Bilbo) visits Orkney

Rowland Whitehead is only here for a day but its an enjoyable time together. Rowland was part of the UK house church movement in the 1960's and is now encouraging new things in Barbados. We have been chatting about the history of the Jesus movement and the similarities with the current emerging church movement. I am helping him set up a blog right now - the man has LOTS of stories that should be told. His blog, a few seconds old, can be found at BarbadosBiblo.wordpress.com

Rowland went with the Bilbo name because he was asked recently whether his gift to the church was like Frodo or Bilbo and since he has been around for some time and is now helping the next generation find their place, he went with Bilbo.

Abigail's birthday

Yesterday was my daughter Abigail's birthday. She turned 12 and Dad was there. Which is a change because i have missed the last 3 birthdays since they always fall on Greenbelt Festival time. But I left Greenbelt a day early to get back home. I made a lasagna - her favourite food and the bakery across the road made a huge caramel donut for the cake. And Abigail was happy!!

Pub Crawl Anyone?

Shannon Hopkins is organizing another pub crawl around London this Saturday to distribute The Truth Isn't Sexy beer mats. All for the cause of stopping human trafficking. Get involved here.

Ecumenicism, Attack Dogs and Curious Cats

This morning I read David Aikman's interesting article on Christianity Today called Attack Dogs of Christendom. Of course the emerging church movement is quite blatantly on the firing line as you well know. Pastor Ken Silva gets a mention from David as the man "leading the charge against alleged ecumenicists", which might actually be true -Ken's daily postings have gained him a lot of search engine cred and authority for his bark. I don't believe Ken is the nastiest or the meanest. In fact, we have exchanged emails on occasion and I find him quite approachable and accountable. If he is critical that the emerging church re-appraises Reformation assumptions then he is correct. Many of us no longer believe the Roman Catholic Church is the most accurate representation of the Whore of Babylon. For that, we start by looking inside ourselves, which btw is a lot more dangerous than sticking with the anti-Catholic view of 17th Century Reformers under threat of losing their land and their power to Rome. Maybe there is a bit of Babylon in all of us.

QUIZ:
Take the "Which Theologian Are You?" quiz recommended by Andrew Kenny. I took it this morning and came out as John Calvin - which shows you a little of my theological background.

Regarding criticism of the emerging church, I think I was one of the earliest or perhaps the first [Dennis MacCallum was actively critical but had not yet published anything] to publish something critical (Postmodern Church Time-Capsule, 1999) but this was written as an insider and probably used too much humor to get a serious reading. And although my tone was satirical, I was presenting it as a correction and tongue-in-cheek encouragement rather than a mean, exaggerated dismissal. But since then, there have been many others. More recently, Don Carson and John MacArthur have written books to criticize the movement and there is a daily list of criticisms that emerge in my RSS reader. In fact, sometimes a search for "emergent" yields mostly critical responses and very few positives. Anyway, I don't propose to solve the whole thing today . . .

As for ecumenicism, I see the modern ecumenical movement as a viable one as long as it retains its original link the the missiology that birthed it (Edinburgh, 1910) and not a weak theological compromise. The word itself οἰκουμένη (oikoumene) is used in the Bible as "the whole inhabited world" which should be in the sights of every one who claims the name of Christ. Jesus's desire for oneness among his followers was made very clear and certain (John 17) and is not an option for us. We need to learn to get along, even with those who disagree with us. Ken, who is well-known for his anti-Billy Graham articles, sees the emerging church movement as bringing Protestants back to the Roman Catholic Church, who are somehow behind the ecumenical thrust.
I disagree. [Hi Ken!]
I believe the modern ecumenical movement was initiated by Protestants in the first part of the 20th Century and the Catholics did not warm to it until mid century. I also believe it was the charasmatic movement [thank you Chuck Smith] that achieved much of the present ecumenicism that the RCC now enjoys with Protestants rather than any emerging church attempts. In fact, there is much in the emerging church movement - such as decentralized leadership [priesthood of all believers?] - that Roman Catholic leadership still struggle with. Obviously there is much to do before the world is reconciled with God and itself . ..

How does the word "ecumenical" sit with you?

Related on TallSkinnyKiwi:
- The Skinny on Emergent Criticism (2004)
- Watchdog sites and emerging church criticism
- Cats and dogs at The Missional Church: Reformed Heritage?
- My experience with the Charasmatic Catholics

Technorati Tags: catholic, christianity, church, emergent, emerging church

Issac Everett - Transmission

Coffee this morning with New York's Issac Everett who is getting interviewed by numerous radio stations. Issac's church in NY is called Transmission. His CD is being talked about a bit here and you can find it on Proost.

Technorati Tags: puppy

Bloggers, let us link one another.

Hey, all you bloggers enjoying fellowship under the WIFI cloud at Greenbelt's Think Tank. I just want you to know that I will not be hanging with you this year since i am speaking on missions instead of new media but please know that I link you very much.
I LINK you all.
I really LINK you, man!
No . . you don't understand . . . I REALLY LINK YOU, MAN!
Bloggers, let us link one another and let the linkage abound among us. By this, will people know. Let us link our enemies, and those who never link us back. Link on.
See you next year.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, greenbelt festival

Proost Relaunch Today

Fantastic emerging church resource website called Proost. Its been giving some of the very best digital and paper resources for ten years. The new site has a subscription system and regular resources available to you. Check out the animations and movies and the images like this one . . .

Want to give feedback on the site? Talk to Jonny.

Technorati Tags: proost

The Skinny on Greenbelt 2007

I am here! At Greenbelt Festival. Along with about 20,000 people. My tent is set up and sleeping bag rolled out. The weather is gloriously sunny and kind which is a problem because I didn't bring my hat or my sunglasses. The last 3 years have been rainy and cold so all my Greenbelt memories are of my shivering in the rain wishing i had dressed warmer.

Best bets for the Festival:
No. 1 - Coldcut. I met one of the Coldcut VJ's at Hang The VJ in London a few years ago and have been a fan ever since. I bought Sound Mirrors as soon as it was released. These guys invented their own VJ software to do their stuff and have been around for about 20 years. Pioneers. Really. And now performing at Greenbelt. Waaaaaaayyyy Cool!!!

Runners Up:
- John O'Donahue, poet and writer of blessings - which is a genre that might give me some space for some of my poetry. Read this one of John's and get blessed!
- Pete Rollins is featured as one of the headliners this year. Good. He has deserved it. He is a great thinker and great friend.
- Delirious are back. These guys are part of church history now and they still rock, despite being adored by the more mainstream church.
- Becky Garrison of The Door is speaking a few times on satire and new atheism. Her book on new atheism, when it comes out, quotes my blog post "The Skinny on New Atheism" so I know she is a person of great discerment and taste.
- Shannon Hopkins on entreprenuial stuff and The Truth Isnt Sexy.
- Ikon always does a great alt. worship thing.
- Fuse Factory, who we hung with throughout the summer, are doing a few things here, including visuals for communion on Sunday.

Also:
- Billy Bragg is here and comes well recommended.
- Aussie statesman John Smith is around, again.
- Graham Cray always has something to say.
- Helen J. Hicks, who i met in London a few months ago, plays on Saturday. Apart from that, check out the Proost display. Proost relaunches on Saturday with a new website and a ministry resource company.
- I speak at 7pm in the CMS tent on being set free to be the church. If you come to my session, you will unfortunately miss the band Verra Cruz that we have run into already this summer at other festivals. My son hung with them in Italy last month at Rock on the Rock Festival. Everyone loves them. They will probably be HUGE one day so its a good opportunity to met them before their heads get too big.

After my session on Saturday, and also on Sunday, hymn singing in the organic beer tent is the obvious choice. Oh yeah - Beer and Hymns. Another best bet for the festival. Talkin' bout old fashioned hymns sung with a songsheet in one hand and a pint of St Peters ale in the other. Its the way, according to Paul Roberts, that hymns were intended. This was the surprise hit of last year and also the one event that had more noise violation complaints from the town folk. Which is surprising because it was all human voices, singing at the top of their lungs, and there wasnt a lot of amplification.

Sitting next to me:
Paul Roberts, who is sitting on my right, recommends the Foundation service called the "Un-knowing God" and also Doug Gay on emerging church.
Gareth Higgins, sitting on my left, says Peter Toscano (comedy), John Tavener, and his own film review of the year on Monday.

Anyway, thats the skinny. For another opinion, check out Greenbelt 07 at Dave Walker's Cartoon blog.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, greenbelt, greenbelt festival

Nexus, Glasgow

I am planning to be at the brand new Nexus conference in Glasgow this Thursday, 23rd. The Church Without Walls day seems good and it will be good to see Peter Nielsen again. I was invited to a lunch on the emerging church on Friday with a lecture from John Drane [sorry John - hope it goes really well for you] but unfortunately i will be traveling down to Cheltenham for Greenbelt Festival. Could the person who invited me to that lunch please contact me again - i have lost your email.

Technorati Tags: nexus

My Talk at Greenbelt Festival this Saturday

This weekend I will be speaking at Greenbelt Festival on "Set Free to Be The Church". Saturday from 7pm at the CMS tent. Come along and fill up the empty seats so i don't DIE a humiliating death when nobody turns up at my session. I will try to tackle the new forms of church/community arising in this new media revolution, and the missiological insights that can free us to be the people of God as we should be. I hope to have a few guests with me who can speak about different areas of that freedom. Saturday 25th from 7pm to 8pm in the Church Missionary Society tent. In fact, CMS is running an excellent program on Setting The Captives Free which will tackle everything from stopping human trafficking to emerging church issues.

For the very elite few of you who attend my teaching sessions each year at Greenbelt, [God bless you . . every one!] here is a reminder of our journey so far.

2004
In 2004 my lecture was called Forward Slash: A Narrative Missiology. It dealt with "emerging culture, new media minds, a deep ecclesiology, new church structures, values of new media culture, ministry in a post-post-literate culture, and an apostolic pattern appropriate for this century."
I think you can buy the CD from Greenbelt here.

2005 - I spoke on the spirituality of blogging. We dipped into Athanasius and came up with about 10 ways in which blogging can be a spiritual discipline. Greenbelt neglected to record that earth-shattering moment but you can see the outline here.

2006 - I was there at Greenbelt but not speaking. Instead I joined the Fuse Factory VJ team and helped them set up their audio-visual installations.

2007 - I am flapping my lips again and hope to bring insights from the previous lectures into this new one. God help us all. C U THERE!

Related:
Weather forecast for Greenbelt
Dave Walker of Cartoon Church

Technorati Tags: church, emerging church, greenbelt, greenbelt festival, mission, missional

Facebook and new churches

LifeChurch.tv are attempting to start a church through the Facebook platform, or at least help create new aggregations through leveraging the Facebook API. More about it here from Bobby Gruenewald.

As for me, I find Facebook annoying, especially the zillion friend requests I get each day. However, I should really ask:
1. Anyone else doing this?
2. Pros and cons?

Technorati Tags: church, church planting, facebook, web 2.0

The Gospel According to Czechs

More emerging church people in the newspapers. This time a Bible translator and church planter. Listen to how this newspaper describes the birth of their first community . . .

"Soon enough, a group of bohemians and artists was meeting at Katka’s studio, rapidly converting to a Christianity that lacked denomination or doctrine — an ecumenical hodgepodge flecked with subversiveness in the waning days of communism . . .This impromptu collection grew into a congregation, though not without interference."
PP newspaper, last week

That could be a description of emerging church people anywhere in the world. But it happens to be a group in Prague, Czech Republic. Sasa Flek, the subject of this newspaper articl is a dear friend and we have just spent time with his family in the south of France. He used to translate the Scriptures out of the basement in our house in Prague. Now we are gone but the translation - both Old and New Testaments - are almost completed. Sasa just let me know that the last paragraph of that article was actually the opposite of what he was trying to say - it just came out wrong. So please don't jump on him.

Sasa uses artwork in the individual printing of Bible books. His translation of Song of Songs uses Chagall's paintings. I wish there was similar creativity in the English language. Also, in 2002, Sasa began sending out sms devotionals from the Bible to people's phones. It quickly became a list of over 300 people and perhaps one of the first sms communities.

Sasa . .. you rock and its great to see you acknowledged in your home country.

Technorati Tags: bible, czech

Emerging Church Front Page News in Austin

Emerging churches made the front page in last Sunday's Austin Statesman in an article entitled "Austin's 'emergent' Christians finding a new path". Its a good article and totally worth the read. Unfortunately, there are some key people from the 90's that did not get mentioned in the article (Drew, Brian and Whitney, Derek and Amy, Shannon, John and Sherry, etc) as well as emerging churches that don't look like churches, and some institutions like BGCT that have supported these works. But still, its VERY COOL to see these guys on page one of the local paper.
HT: Mike Clawson

Coincidence - Last Sunday we were driving home from a planning meeting in France for a prophetic arts event in Austin next March. This event will be called Mangola and will be led by Derek and Amy Chapman. It will be connected to the previous Austin events (Ecclesia 1999, Epicenter 2001, Wabi Sabi 2003) but will be DIFFERENT - more spectacular, better organized, more international and probably invisible to the church world. I will let you know when more info is released.

But back to that article. . .

The church Mosaic (no relation to Erwin McManus) featured in the Austin Statesman article, has just left the space that we first used in 1999. Its a very cool space. Read on for the story.

Technorati Tags: austin, baptist, emergent, emerging church

Emerging Church Posters: A Gracious Response

I told you about the Pyromaniac Posters taking a shot at the emerging church. And the response from people like Nick and Josh. But since then, and while i have been on the road, there has been a lot of talk about it, even at Christianity Today, and some emerging church people have responded in kind with their own posters - taking the same title but giving a different angle on the subject. I LIKE THEM A WHOLE LOT! They are not nasty or defensive but simply a gentle, gracious and reasonable answer for some of the things we hold dear.

See these and more from Grace at Emerging Grace

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

Reflections on my blog fast

Blog-Fast: As you know, I haven't blogged for 2 weeks and month before that was scarce. It was not really a planned blog-fast but rather an attempt to focus on my family needs while traveling and get stuck into some really important events that we were at in France, Poland and Germany.

Losses: I have lost over a 150 permanent links in the past 2 weeks. They tend to slip off when blogging ceases or slows down. This drastically reduces my google-ranking and is a price one pays when blog-fasting.

Gains: Apart from strengthening my family and marriage, I have emerged from this blog-fast refreshed and ready for a new season of blogging, with different perspective and the desire to rethink my blog, especially in regard to its economic function. Tell you what i come up with later.

Related:
Thinking about a blog fast?
The Spirituality of blogging
The Spirituality of NOT blogging

Blogaholicism - Blogging less and living more.

Twenty Blogs for Christian Leaders

Cynthia at the Digital Sanctuary recommends 20 blogs for Christian leaders, one of them being this one. Much thanks for the recommendation - nice way to be welcomed home after 5 weeks on the road.

Arrived Home

Just arrived back in Scotland. The last week or so has been busy and non-internet time but now i have wifi again and will be getting down to answering your emails and blogging again.
It was a great trip. Exhausting at times, but worth it all. Thanks for your prayers for safety and provision.

Leaving for South France

France. Packing up. This is our Tipi and car.