Tall Skinny Kiwi

5 Web 2.0 Spring Cleaning Projects. Done!

Spring is upon us. Here are a few small Web 2.0 projects that I have managed to get done in the past week.

1. Set up Flock as my default browser. (done). Goodbye Firefox and Safari. Flock has been one of the favourite browsers in my harem but now will become my preferred browser-dashboard, Flickr gallery, RSS reader as well as being another blog editing platform, working alongside Ecto.

2. Collate my many web 2.0 life streams into a single multi-streamed gush. (done).

3 Storm into Google, gather the bots and train them all to search my blog responsively, regularly, respectfully, and await my every command to either find, hide, dismiss or prioritize my thousands of blog posts. The last one is a doozy. This is all possible through Google Webmaster Tools (done) and submitting to Google a site map of my blog (done).

4. Add a new and improved web 2.0 friendly template for the blog (done), including a small dashboard for my web 2.0 addictions.(done)

5. Web 2.0 linked signature for Apple Mail (done)

Technorati Tags: blog, web 2.0

Michel Serres

Simon Critchley: "Coming from a background in phenomenology, I'd like to ask you about your relationship with modernity."
Michel Serres: "Maturnity! Why do you ask me about that?" (link)

Michel Serres is my favourite French thinker and author and yet only a few of his works are in English. Notably, The Troubadour of Knowledge (some of which is on Googlebooks). I first read Michel Serres in a The Postmodern Bible Reader. It was one of the best chapters in the book - "Meals Among Brothers: Theory of the Joker" which is a mindboggling, fast-paced complex little piece on socio-economic theory drawn from the encounter between Jacob and Tamar. I thought to myself . . . now HERE is a guy who is just as scatter-brained as I, impossible to box up into one category, probably more ADD than me, and yet absolutely brilliant!

I think i liked him so much because i found an author with a mischievous artistic bent who mashed genres, categories, and expectations and who was confident enough to play with structure, bending grammatical rules to create something profound and poetic. Which is why so much of his nuanced writing is untranslatable from the French but when it does make it into English, its amazing and it invites playfulness and creativity into the writing process. Spike Milligan meets Teilhard de Chardin. At my best, when I am writing well, when words flow effortlessly and transcend boundaries, I find myself thinking of Serres.

Jean Luc Marion is also a favourite but he is far more wordy and not nearly as much fun.

Interesting, I was having a chat with Leonard Sweet some years back and Len told me that Michel Serres is his favourite author. Howzat??? Len used Serres's thinking on "third places" in his book Soul Tsunami. Anyway, I found an interview with Serres from 1995 that Wired was going to publish but they chickened out.

I would love to meet Michel Serres, and hope to one day. In the meantime, a blog has been set up for Serres readers which even has a video of Serres dancing in a club . . . club without poles . . in case you were wondering.

Technorati Tags: michel serres

Barna: Churches Behind in Technology

"Blogging is also invading the ministry world. One-eighth of Protestant churches (13%) now have blog sites or pages through which people can interact with the thoughts posted by church leaders." New Barna Research Describes Use of Technology in Churches.

I appreciate Barna's thoughts and his interview results are helpful,. but I don't see God's people as late-comers to technology, either historically or presently.
The institutional church? OK, maybe.
Probably.
All right - definitely!
But I am also seeing the other side - the people of God willingly create and use the new technologies. I could name many of the current movers and shakers of the new media revolution and tell you what church they belong to. [but i wont]. However, whether we fully explore the implications of that technology, or the changing mindset that results, is another matter.

Related: (TSK) Barna on House Church, The WiFi Enabled Church, Barna's Revolution

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: blogging, blog, barna

Technorati Tags: barna, blog, blogging

Polaroid Film for Africa?

Emma Boyd goes to Rwanda and Uganda in 2 months. She needs Polaroid film to give photos to people on location. Got any?

Typepad Themes Added

I like the Typepad blogging platform and have used it since converting from Blogger back in 2003. However, it has lagged woefully behind Wordpress in the aesthetics department. Until now. There's a few new pretty-darn-good-looking typepad themes available as the result of a recent theme making contest. The theme I am using today is called HP Wicked Fun. I will probably leave it up for a few days before hacking into it and making it mine. I think it was made by Gwen Stefani.

update: hacked already. japanese theme continued as a hat tip to gwen.

Technorati Tags: blog, typepad

Ratatouille

We made ratatouille for lunch from an old French recipe. Elizabeth helped me cook it. Tasted great! Unfortunately, our 6 year old daughter Tamara felt it was not authentic and certainly not as good as what Remy the rat cooked on the Disney movie. So next time, we will probably use the movie recipe from Thomas Keller. Oooopps. That link slipped off. Try this link here.

Technorati Tags: rataouille

344 links to the blogging 2.0 world

Just when you thought you knew everything about blogging. . . 344 links

Technorati Tags: blog

Graphing Social Patterns East 2008

I am thinking seriously about attending the Graphing Social Patterns event in Washington, DC. June 9 - 11. Looks fantastic and it will have a bearing on some of the web 2.0 projects we are doing this year, in particular the online platforms for spiritual pilgrimage and justice issues. Anyone else going? I was thinking of asking if i could live-blog the conference in return for a pass. Lets see what they say.

Related: GISUser, Upcoming, O'Reilly, Facebook,
TSK: Church 2.0

Next-Wave Cover

"Gonna see my name on the cover
Gonna buy five copies for my mother
Gonna see my shining name
on the cover of the Next-Waaaaaavve"

World Changers - 5 week course

Did you know I watched "Amazing Grace" at the East India Docks in London? Best place to watch it. Really.

Bob Beltz of Walden Media tells me the World Changers Resource website is now up and a resource kit is offered. Well done! Some of us were hoping for an earlier launch - like - to coincide with the Amazing Grace movie, but at least the Calvary finally came. And its not too late at all to start a 5 week course for a small group journey into what it means to bring transformation to your world in the way William Wilberforce did 200 years ago. Chuck Colson (here on TSK last month) writes a hearty recommendation for the WorldChangers course. [MP3 broadcast here]

Anyway, if you cant afford the whole kit, just buy the book "World Changers Live To Serve" - its got the 5 week small group discussion guide in it.

Technorati Tags: amazing grace, bob beltz, walden , walden media, world changers

World Malaria Day - Project Blackout

My profile is blacked out today on Facebook as part of Project Blackout: One Million Faces Against Malaria.

"On April 25 - World Malaria Day - we will attempt the most audacious experiment in Facebook history. We will attempt to blackout all the profile pics on facebook. This will be done to draw attention to the one million faces every year that die from malaria."

Technorati Tags: facebook, malaria

Grassroots Festival - Keynotes and talks on DVD

My keynote and others are now available on the Grassroots DVD. Also check out Grassroots Roundup by Forge bloggers.

Tangible Kingdom

The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Excellent book from two guys who understand grassroots, missional movements. I really enjoyed reading through it. Made my blood boil in a good way. My recommendation is on the back cover which is the ultimate sign of QUALITY ASSURANCE.
“Plunging deeper and deeper with Jesus into a grassroots incarnational life is what this book is about. Many aspire to it, some write about it, but very few live out the rhythms of such a holistic lifestyle in the way that Hugh and Matt and their families are currently doing. I am thrilled to see their journey in book form.”
Andrew Jones, Boaz

Technorati Tags: hugh halter, missio, quality, tangible kingdom

Five Senses BBQ

On Saturday we went out for a BBQ on the beach, hosted by Malcolm and Rachel. Malcolm runs the All Five Senses Tours in Orkney and does the whole fire-starting, connect with nature, survival in the wild, windy, wacky, wilderness thing. And his BBQ was PRETTY IMPRESSIVE!

The menu was nettle soup, grilled limpets, sausages on willow branches, dandelion leaf salad, potatoes roasted in the embers, and for the climax . . . half a lamb cooked in the ground on hot stones, wrapped in seaweed and covered over for 4 hours.

The lamb was spectacular. Only pepper was added. The salt taste came from the seaweed and it was just the right amount. Malcolm felt that 3 1/2 hours would have been perfect but we were all too infatuated with this neo-lithic Orkney ordeal to argue. Well done, Malcolm!!!

Technorati Tags: five senses, orkney

Community Interest Company - Just like a Cooperative but totally different.

So. Apparently the government has finally found a slot for our us. It looks like our social enterprise, which kicks off next month as The Sorting Room, will not be an official Cooperative after all. There is a new type of forth sector company, introduced in 2005, called a "Community Interest Company" (CIC) that seems to fit us. I actually haven't heard the name before until today.

Definition:
"A CIC is a new type of company, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. CICs will be easy to set up, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community." CIC

Clive Sheppard is the consultant who has come up to Orkney to check us out. Really nice guy. Does a lot with eco-villages, youth work, social enterprise, and he once had Kaiser Chiefs play at his recording studio/music venue. We have Euan Smith to thank for this connection: Euan the entrepreneur extraordinaire, and our ambassador for Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Euan met Clive at a social enterprise meeting in Inverness 3 weeks ago and things have really taken off since then.

Anyway, thats all I know. Not much more than you. Heaps to learn about CIC.

Related: TSK on Fourth Sector and Mission

?? - what would be equivalent in the USA?

Technorati Tags: cic, community interest company, social enterprise

Google Webmaster Tools: Search Results from each country

Google webmaster tools now has a feature that lets you see what google searches people did to find your site FROM EACH COUNTRY! I had no idea they were so different. Its really worth a look. Here are my number one search queries in which my site appeared:

USA - "andrew jones"
UK - "habbohotel uk"
New Zealand - "kiwi nudes"
Germany - "Horst Schafrenek"
France - "sex house"
Turkey - "i dress"
Netherlands - "andrew jones"
No results yet from China, Australia and a few other straggling countries.

And if you don't have Google webmaster tools, then do it. And set up a site map so you can control those Google bots, wild beasts all of them, and point them to the blog posts they need to see.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, google webmaster

HTML Email Signature in Apple Mail

Thanks to Josh Brown and the excellent instructions by C. Wess Daniels, I now have an html email signature that works inside Apple Mail. Not as straight forward as it sounds but very rewarding to see my Web 2.0 addictions on display for the world to see. Next step is to add a dashboard with the same addictions to my blog. When i get time . . .

A Gothic thought

There's an old gospel song that goes . .

"Oh, the land of cloudless days
Oh, the land of an unclouded sky
Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day"

Thats probably not attractive to Goths.

"Cloudless skies? Oh my Gawd! Can we bring our umbrellas?"

Hey - if you are into all things Gawthic, then check out Steve M's poetry on his Outcast Press site. Steve has been a friend for a decade and we have enjoyed his poetry written on street sheets . . . and now available online.

Technorati Tags: goth

UGC Finder: Piping Hot News into your Wurld

My friend Robin Hamman (Cybersoc) has just released a tool for tracking down news based on key words.
Its called UGC Finder.

"I've dubbed it UGC Finder - for journalists that uses Yahoo Pipes to aggregate and filter the results of keyword searches for tagged content and conversations in social networks and media sharing sites." Robin Hamman

"The UGC finder will track much more than Technorati blogs - it will track
* Tweetscan (search of public tweets on twitter)
* Flickr (photosharing)
* Youtube (video)
* Technorati (blog search)
* Icerocket (blog search)"

This could be really helpful. Basically, I have been reading the blogosphere through key word searches for the past 2-3 years. Rather than reading the same blogs or authors, I have been doing a key word search on technorati, creating a watchlist, and then dropping the RSS feed from that watch into my news reader. Everyday I track the words the whoever is using them. Which is ok, and its gets me to the site within ten minutes of when that word is posted, but my results have been limited to whatever ends up in the Technorati basket. All that is about to change. I think. If Robin's dastardly invention proves successful.

BY JOVE, my dear Cybersoc, you have solved the mystery! The answer was in the PIPES all along!

Trivia. Last week I was in Australia, doing some online research on the rhizomic structure of the internet and the article i was reading on rhizomes was from the Cybersoc himself. Small world.

Technorati Tags: cybersoc, robin hamman, ugc finder

Doved Out

For those who found this week's Dove Awards a little sickening, Steve Camp suggests the Episkopos Awards.

Tom Sine interviewed

Rodney Olsen interviewed social entrepreneur Tom Sine yesterday. Jarrod McKenna was in the studio and makes the cut. Available here on Sonshine FM [MP3] I was with both the Sines and Jarrod last week in Australia. Good to hear their voices broadcast wider.

Online Communities and Church 2.0

The sandbox for iGoogle opened yesterday. Should be exciting to see new apps for Google's Open Social. I am really interested in the idea of spiritual communities launched natively through phone and web apps and I think this one could be a part of the scheme of things.

Are you also thinking about online spiritual communities? And the potential of Web 2.0 for Church 2.0? Love to hear what you are thinking. Send me an email. I may want to ask you some questions.

Also, any readers out there who are considering attending the Graphing Social Patterns Conference next June or attended the GSP West Coast conference last month?
What about Google's Developer Event in San Francisco in May?
Are you at Web 2.0 Expo right now???? [Lucky sod!]

Come forward please. Come on up to the front. Yes . . . I see that hand . . .

Technorati Tags: web 2.0

Not blogging

Dont feel like it. Dont wont to. Dont have to. AHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhyeaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

FFFFFrreeeeeeeeeedddooooommmm!!!!

Steve Hu on Newbigin

John Morehead interviews Steve Hu. Its good. Its a follow on from this post. Read it.

Context [Part 3]: Between Absolutism and Relativism

The subject of contextualization and the example of Paul in Athens (Acts 17) has been lingering here and popping up on other blogs. Daryl Dash just mentioned that John MacArthur at the T4TG conference referred to this conversation [other details deleted]. Phil ends his series on Paul and Charitableness, to which I also see a need both charitableness AND confrontation rather than forcing to take sides. Gentleness and respect go a long way in winning a hearing . . "I see that you are religious in every way"

Here is where I end up. I cant say much more about responsible contextualization without repeating myself in Part 1 and Part 2. But I do want to bring it down to land with this final installment.

Hi from Dubai

Ten hour changeover at Dubai so I took off into the city. I am at an internet cafe in downtown Dubai, a dynamic fast growing city in the United Arab Emirates. Reminds me of Las Vegas. Lots of new construction here. Cranes everywhere. I heard last year that 17% of the world's cranes are here in Dubai. This place is fast becoming quite a hub and I am wondering if it will become a place for east-west connections and spiritual learning in the future.

Heres a screen shot of my right-justified Google from Dubai.

Technorati Tags: dubai

In Perth, Western Australia

Back in Perth on the Sunset Coast after many years. Really nice city. Wicked sunset last night. Today I went for a swim and body surf. Like many people fortunate enough to be born in New Zealand, I might roam the earth, living out the Kiwi mission of being salt and light to a boring and dark world but wherever I roam, I still call Australia home!

The meeting last night went well. Geoff Westlake and I talked about the global emerging church movement and Perth's role. These guys came up from Waroona, a town 150kms away and smaller than my town in Orkney. Hope it was worth it. Geoff will pay for your petrol if it was disappointing.

Technorati Tags: australia, perth

Blog Talk

I met up for coffee with Problogger Darren Rowse in Melbourne for our first face-to-face. We were talking about doing a blogging event together at next years SXSW in Austin.

The Pope got blogged on his USA tour.

Another badge for my collection from a new portal in town. "Wikio is Europe's number 1 news portal and we have recently launched our Top UK Blog rankings where your blog TallSkinnyKiwi currently stands at number 75"

Godblogcon blogging convention will be held in Las Vegas Sep 19-21. I will be one of the speakers. Details are not up yet but you might want to start planning to be there.

Internet Monk, on behalf of the Asbury Bloggers Society, puts forward a list of top bloggers Leading the list is . . . hey . .wait a minute . . thats ME!!! [sounding surprised] . . . what incredible foresight and impeccable taste has our IM friend.
"1. Tall Skinny Kiwi- Is there a better blog to model everything we all like about blogging? Andrew blogs his life without going into cat pictures. He blogs ministry, important ideas, and contemporary developments in evangelicalism with equal ease. It’s a visually interesting blog that makes all of us consider what a comprehensively interesting blog should be. At Andrew’s blog everything is in balance and familiar, but also constantly changing and fresh." Internet Monk, The Distinquished Faculty of the IM School of Blogging
Thanks Michael. BTW have you seen my cat called Charlie Chaplin? Really, check it out. Charlie Chaplin, now older and bigger, is missing at the moment and we are hoping she [yes, a girl] will make her way back home. Say a prayer for Charlie.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

Grassroots Reflections

Grassroots Mission Festival - Well balanced program. Good speakers and speakers who were good people. Enjoyed the late night sessions at the local. Interesting for me to see the mix of people here, ethnically speaking, and to see how that affects the church emerging in Melbourne.

Photos are here on the Life Expedition site - this is the church that hosted the event with FORGE. Its a student based church with over 60% of its people from Asia - lots of mainland Chinese. I had a coffee with Tim, the pastor.

Thats Tim on the left with Steve from Queensland. We were chatting about curious mix of conservative non-drinking achievement-oriented Asian Australians with the laid-back Ocker white Aussies and how good and pleasant it is for these two groups to come together in unity, forming a unique blend and perhaps a view to the future

Good response, I felt, to my keynote on Saturday night. Thanks everyone for a nice reception and encouraging words. Look forward to meeting again. We have a lot of ground to cover. John O'Donohue's blessing is here.

The Aussies were right . . .

Grassroots Festival going really well. Great to be with old friends from Perth and east coast and some new friends from NZ and all over. I did a storytelling session this morning with the title "The Aussies Were Right: They bloody well DID start the emerging church movement". This was an exploration into the Aussie contribution towards emerging-missional thinking, beginning with Alan Tippet, John Smith, Tom and Christine Sine (Christine is an Aussie and both she and Tom are here with us at the event) and up into the present time.
The paper on Alan Tippett I referenced is here: [A Post-colonial missiology, by Colin Dundon, PDF]
Mike Frost was keynote yesterday (excellent as usual) and Sally Morgenthaler did really well this morning. Say a little prayer for me when i speak at 7:30pm tonight.

Who's blogging the conference?
Not me, since I am too busy yapping.
Not Backyard Missionary (right) because, since becoming National Director for FORGE and therefore the primary person behind this festival, poor Hamo is a little busy. I think Duncan Macleod (centre) the Pacific Highlander is the best bet so far if you want to track what is going on here at Grassroots.

Technorati Tags: grassroots

London to Dubai to Melbourne

Had a good coffee meeting with some people in London including Jonny and Jenny Baker, Shannon Hopkins and a family from Winston-Salem. Now I am about to endure great boredom on the London to Dubai and then the Dubai to Melbourne flights. I am flying Emirates because they had the cheapest flight. I haven't flown them since 1985.

What am i reading? I am reading "Kingdom Come", which is a compilation of the speeches from the WCC missions gathering in Melbourne back in 1980. And if that gets too boring, i might watch a movie.

OK - maybe a few movies.

Election candidates

ooops. came out twice.

Election candidates

Ted Elmore is not sure who to vote for so he sent me this image.

.

How Emerging Churches can Avoid Insitutionalism

" However, my research with congregations3 which profess to be a part of the Emerging Church conversation/movement indicates that organizations can both survive and thrive without
becoming institutionalized, that is, without utilizing taken for granted patterns and routines in organizational structure, processes, or ideologies. In other words, my research shows that it is possible to resist the forces which compel homogenization through the utilization of very specific, deliberate, and intentional strategies."

Josh Packard, "Organizational Structure, Religious Belief and Resistance: The Emerging Church, PDF. HT: EV

Technorati Tags: emerging church

How to be a Cool Postmodern Dude

DIY coolness kit from Jon Birch
Thanks Becky Garrison for the tip.

Blog Till You Drop

"Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet." NY TImes explores the ugly side of professional blogging.

Technorati Tags: blogging

Love Bristol team are here

The team are here from Bristol. 15 of them who have driven up in 2 vans and didnt sleep last night. Really nice people who are working with the poor in Bristol and doing a thing called Love Bristol. They hope to have an arts centre downtown that will be quite similar to our Sorting Room but perhaps not organised as a Cooperative.

I planned a Texas style BBQ but unfortunately when i came back from the butchers with some chickens [free range, thank you] my beef ribs were ablaze and had been on fire for quite awhile. Must have been that Stubbs BBQ sauce [thanks brian and whitney]. So we switched plans and I cooked up a large organic salmon on the grill.

Proper Confidence and the Place of Certainty

After some chats with a number of fundamentalists over my posts on contextualization, and being falsely accused of being "liberal" . . . again . . I thought I would post these notes from the best book I have read on the subject of confidence and certainty. I am talking about Lesslie Newbigin's excellent book called "Proper Confidence: faith, doubt and certainty in christian discipleship" (1995). I wish John MacArthur would have tackled this book in The Truth War because it gives what i believe is a far more balanced approach to the subject of certainty that what is presented as typical of emerging church views.

I have blogged a paragraph or two at Newbigin on Fundamentalism and Liberalism but I might will put a few more of his words here for those who dont have the book. Basically, Newbigin locates his faith in the person of Jesus Christ rather than scientific methods. Which reminds me of the hymn, "I will not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand"

Check out Proper Confidence on Google books and read on for some quotes.

Going Downunder

I will be in Australia next week, mainly for the Grassroots Festival and I think it will be a really fantastic time. Sally Morgenthaler and some other great speakers, far more interesting than myself, will also be there.

2 best places to catch me are:
Melbourne - Grassroots Festival, April 11-13
Perth - "Coffee with Andrew Jones & Geoff Westlake" Tuesday 15th at the SU House, 82 Matlock St, Mt Hawthorn from 19:30.

Julie Blick [ julesblick at googlemail dot com] is handling my schedule.

L'Abri in the 21st Century

"L'Abri will continue to exist as long as the evangelical church is putting off so much of its youth," John Sandri, L'Abri,

Interesting article on L'Abri at Christianity Today called "Not Your Father's L'Abri" where Molly Worthen talks about the shift from the 60's to today and the kind of people who are coming (disaffected evangelicals). I have visited two L'Abris (Switzerland and Massachusetts) and I was really impressed by the amount of young people there. They have always had a good understanding of the arts and the need to dialog through things. Last year I met Ellis Potter in Poland who was a great teacher.

Technorati Tags: l'abri

Ansel Adams in Edinburgh

While in Edinburgh last weekend I popped into the photography exhibition Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius at the City Art Centre. Fantastic! Ansel was one of my main inspirations behind me trudging up hills with a medium format camera to wait and wait and wait until the drama of the sky opens and the light comes through and the music begins. I havent taken the kind of shots that I aspire to yet but am working towards it. I have an old Hasselblad film camera that I adore.

The Face of Half Dome, Ansel Adams, 1927

According to the documentary, after climbing up to this ledge, Ansel only had two plates left. The first one he used as normal but the second, which is shown here, he stained red to give contrast to the snowy lines. And he ended up with this fantastic shot.

Context [Part 2]: Between Mindlessess and Recklessness.

This Series on Contextualization:
[Part 1]: Does it Matter?
[Part 2]: Between Mindlessness and Recklessness
[Part 3]: Between Absolutism and Relativism

Phil Johnson puts forward a good response to my response. I had not previously read his thoughts on the subject of "contextualization" but I can now see that he has a few good points to make and is not naive about the subject at all. Sorry if my post did not do justice to Phil's argument.

Sorry if I was acting all messed up towards you.

"Phil Johnson’s current post on contextualization . . . should be read to get a clear picture of what Johnson and his supporters hear when they hear "context." Summary: the worst aspects of culture embraced at the most cost to the clarity of the gospel. Is that what missiologists and missional pastors mean by contextualization?" Read more from Phil on Context here.

What I hear Phil saying is that the word "contextualization" is suspect of being a cover for cultural accommodation and ethical compromise and we should consider losing it from our vocabulary.

Well, I guess I would have to answer your question with another question. If we dump the word "contextualization" what word do you suggest take its place? Catholics have called it "inculturation". Protestants have preferred "contextualization". The word "syncretism" fell out of favor a long time ago and is now shorthand for a compromising accommodation to the local culture. And will doing away with another word stop the abuse? Probably not.

Here are some initial responses to Phil's last post Coffee Klatch and some thoughts on why the subject is relevant to me.

Context [Part 1]. Does it matter?

When John MacArthur reportedly said a few weeks ago at the Shepherds Conference that "contextualization is a curse" and "the apostles went out with a complete disdain for context"
. . . I said nothing.

When his sidekick Phil Johnson followed it up with "Regarding contextualization, Paul did not adapt his message to the values and beliefs of the culture the Athenians lived in"
. . . I went on pilgrimage to my inner monastery and renewed my vow of silence.

When Phil added a few days ago that Paul used NONE of the strategies of postmodern missional ministry [culture, contextualization, conversation, and charitableness]
. . . I stuck my teenage son's smelly sock down my throat so that i could not speak and then smeared raspberry jam on my keyboard so that i could not blog.

But when a commenter on Phil's blog responded with "I never thought that ANYONE would see Paul's evangelism to the Athenians as "contextualisation"!
. . well . . . I could contain myself no longer. The sock popped from my mouth and nearly knocked my 'Perspectives' off the bookshelf, and the raspberry jam magically dissolved, presenting me with a bright and shiny set of keys to tap out some response.

A quick recap:
Phil over at Pyromaniacs has a big post called "Paul on Mars Hill: Part 1". which is worth reading just to see how people can read the same story and come up with opposite conclusions. His second part "Paul in Athens" got posted today and is consistent with his argument.

Phil's graphics are great, as usual.

But I find his argument hard to swallow. Read on.

Technorati Tags: contextualization, emerging church, mission

Rural Amish and Emerging

Speaking of all things rural, check out this Amish emerging church

Happy April Fools to you all!

New Bishops Mission Order

Jonny Baker, who swears he is not up to his usual April Fools tricks, posts about a bishop's mission order being created in the Church of England to enable a new form of church that isn't within parish boundaries. Check it out and then download the document.

Are We Rural or Urban?

"Jeff’s opinion as to why rural emerging churches aren’t at the forefront of the conversation is because “churches in smaller areas are engaging their communities in ways other than plugging into the local arts hotspots,” and therefore, they “aren’t getting the same recognition or coverage.”" A rural emerger in Ohio, Emerging Rural.

The good folk at Emerging Rural [not a slam on rural people, I meant "folk" in a friendly people kinda way, not a Dukes-of-Hazzard yee-haa cousin-marrying mullet-wearing kinda way . . . God forbid that I allow negative stereotypes on this blog! and anyway, its just Luke Geraty and not a bunch of hillbillies.] were thinking I might start up something like this but then I am still figuring out if I am rural or urban.

Most places in which I am involved around the world with our mission are urban settings. Some very urban. But I live in the Orkney Islands with