Tall Skinny Kiwi

June banner is from . . .

Like the banner for June? Its pottery my wife just made and is selling at the Sorting Room. The image above is from two of her bowls.The name of her business is Gone2Pot. I need to put up a website for her pretty soon. Her best selling items are "comfort mugs" which are thicker and do not have a handle so they keep you warm on a blustery winters night.

A bunch of stuff and links at the end of the week.

Stuff: John Crowder turns up Mike Morrell's blog and shows that he really does have a brain. A new blog for Aussie Geoff Westlake called WWWestlake. Seth Godin gives good advice on non-profits and philanthropy. I wont even mention the white trash pastor who got arrested for solicitation in a Wal-Mart parking lot . . . ahh . . forget i said that . . and forget i mentioned Mark Driscoll's message on masturbation and men that churn their own butter, encouraging John Bloom to coin the word "Masturbergent". Oh . . I didnt say that in the first place . . good. Ten reasons why the Emerger didn't cross the road, and why the Reformed guy didn't do any better. And lastly, my friend Cybersoc, currently in Amsterdam teaching on social media, insists on showing off his phone video streaming through qik.com which apparently converges with Twitter, and rubbing my nose in the sore fact that my 3 year old Motorola cant handle the new technology. And that sucks! But one day God will judge the Qik and the Dead. Have a nice weekend everyone.

The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing And Why, by Phyllis Tickle

"While no observer is willing to say emphatically just how many North American Christians are definitely emergent at the moment, it is not unreasonable to assume that by the time the Great Emergence has reached maturity, about 60 percent of practising American Christians will be emergent or some clear variant thereof."
Phyllis Tickle, manuscript for The Great Emergence, How Christianity is Changing and Why, by Phyllis Tickle. Comes out October 2008 so don't take that quote as gospel . . just yet.

This blurb of mine is a little premature . . . but i cant wait.The manuscript arrived last week and I dropped everything to read it. It didnt take long to read - its not a long book - but its a GREAT book and perhaps book of the year, If N.T Wright's Surprised by Hope doesnt beat it. I was asked for a quote for the book (I'm not worthy!) and so . . .

I cannot speak highly enough of this new book by Phyllis Tickle. Astonishing, in its panoramic scope, cultural insight and lucid brevity, 'The Great Emergence' pinpoints the global emerging church movement within the greater drama of Christianity in a new world. Finding her bearings from previous revolutions and locating our present upheaval within the rhythms of human history, Tickle shows us why The Great Emergence will not die away but will instead inaugurate and define the next epoch of Christianity. This book will raise eyebrows and expectations.

Right. Enough with the official blurb. Its a damn good book. Buy it! It will be on my Top 10 Emerging Church book list.

I should also say that Phyllis's book made me uncomfortable in a few sections with some of her future scenarios but I took these as predictive rather than prescriptive. And her link between the charismatic movement and the emerging church movement made me squirm a little but its a fair observation and one that history will no doubt shed more light.
The book is an amazing work of both artful prose and scholarly accomplishment and I would recommend, as I do with all of Phyllis's books, to buy the hard cover version and show it some respect.

Read on for two more juicy quotes. (Hope the publishers wont mind -Hi Chad! Just these two and I promise i wont spill any more beans . . .)

Technorati Tags: emerging church, phyllis tickle, the great emergence

Sorting Room in the newspaper yesterday

Our Sorting Room opening last week made the Orcadian, the local weekly newspaper.

Technorati Tags: orkney, tag

Technorati Tags: orkney, tag

SLOT Festival in Poland - Your Invitation to Join Me and 5000 Other Weirdos

Last year at SLOT Festival we had a blast. This year will be even better PLUS there will be a roundtable for emerging church leaders running throughout the program. This is your invitation to join me and about 5000 others in Lubiaz, Poland, July 9-13, 2008.
Yeah . . .  BRING IT ON!!!!!!!

Here are some images from our time last year at Slot which takes place on the grounds of an old monastery. From left to right, (1) our Teepee in front of the monastery - THATS WIERD! (2) some friends with Debbie - thats Gaby (center, from Hungary - see her photostream from 2006) and her friend from Bulgaria, (3) Some very cool people who have started their own festival in Ukraine and (4) and the Kiwi Cafe where I hope to be teaching my session in July and probably where DJ Kenny Mitchell from New York might be spinning at 3 in the morning. . oh . . and  (5) is my kids learning some skills.

My friends from Connect Europe have sent out an invitation this week. Here is the skinny . ..
"At SLOT every summer for about a week more than 5000 people gather for the biggest alternative youth-culture festival run by Christians…..a meeting-point of the christian and secular culture with a lot of significant consequences for both sides…all informations about the vision, style and focus of the festival you find on their website - www.slot.art.pl

Everywhere all over Europe people have been starting a journey to find new ways of expression of Gods love for our western society and culture – new forms of church and community are springing up out of nothing and more and more it is important to network with each other to inspire, encourage, connect and learn from each other. The SLOT-ArtFestival is an inspiration in itself for this whole process and journey we are at right now….an ideal place to gather together to think, pray and get new impulses and find new friends who are on the same journey…

This year we are offering a ROUND-TABLE during the whole festival  – a platform to gather, network, think and pray together…..main focus will be the subject of how can we live a relevant christian life-style together in community, the building of missional communities and how these can look like…we will have a room during the whole festival to meet, hang out, discuss, and pray together…we want to present our ideas, thoughts, needs, questions and create an environment for expression of our vision and desires what we would like to see develop in the near future…the JesusFreaks will be there with a coffee-tent – an ideal place to hang out and meet new friends…The Round-Table-Gathering will be embedded into the whole Festival-Programme….and we will have a chance to meet a lot of creative people from all over Europe during this time…you can stay the whole time but also only some days…..depends on your time and availability…."  Florian.

Invitation and more details here. Flying into Wroclaw is best and Ryan Air is cheapest.
EUROPEAN GATHERING @ SLOT englisch-1.doc

Some vids . . .

SLOT by Day (btw - the voice saying "Toy Est Slot Art Festival" is mine.)

More Slot by Day

SLOT by Night - A band called 2 Tim 2,3 give some evening devotional comtemplation

Surprise hit for our family was Me Myself and I, a fantastic Polish band. Hey - check out their Myspace and somebody invite them overseas. They rock and i am not just saying that because they gave us their CD AND our kids and the neighbours here in Scotland play it all the time.

Last one. Tthats me in the black hat and that guy is not really Bono, despite what VJ Spir says.

Technorati Tags: festival, poland, slot, slot arts festival

10 Worst Movies About Jesus

The Wittenburg Door lists the 10 worst movies about Jesus. I think Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter takes first prize. HT: Becky

Technorati Tags: jesus, movies, wittenburg door

David Pierce on Tall Skinny Kiwi

David Pierce, director of Steiger International and No Longer Music is my guest today. You can interact with him in the comments section if you want to ask him anything. Great guy. Amazing ministry. From a barge in Amsterdam to the ends of the earth, taking its message of hope to "some of the darkest places imaginable, including closed Islamic countries, terrorist clubs, squatter villages, anarchy festivals, brothels, junkie joints, punk & goth music festivals, Satanist clubs and New Age gatherings."

David, it was great to have you at our roundtable in Germany. I have a video of you encouraging us all to be courageous and not wimpy. You are pretty hard core. Do you get accused of being rude?

Yes, unfortunately sometimes I have been accused of being rude. I think it’s because I am going deaf from being in so many clubs and so now I don't realize that I am shouting all the time. I also have the habit of spitting when I speak, which has also been a problem.

You end up in some dark places with your band. Tell us the hairiest experience you have had recently.

I could give many examples, but the most dramatic one that I can think of is when we played for the second time at a hard-core satanic club called the House of Satan in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In spite of the fact that you could taste the darkness when we went there the first time, we knew that Jesus wanted us to go back. The club was packed with a mixture of Gothic kids, Satanists and speed freaks. We played in a cellar that looked like a cave. The cement walls were all painted black and there was only one slow pulsating strobe light, which made you feel like you were on a bad acid trip.

Paul says in I Corinthians 2:1-5 that he preached Christ and Him crucified so that people will not be convinced by human wisdom but by God's power. I knew that it would be stupid to go in the House of Satan in my own power; I desperately need to see the power of God. That’s why we lift up the cross.

A lot of postmodern ministries and groups working with today's youth get criticized for not being confrontational enough. You seem to be out on the other spectrum with your hard hitting, full frontal evangelistic ministry. Is that because of the type of people God has called you to?

I don’t think so. I think everyone today is sick of hearing lies all day long and are desperate to hear the truth. Sadly, they are not hearing the truth because often those of us who know the truth remain silent. This seems especially true in the Christian music and art scene.

It seems that when Christians do enter the art scene, they only perform for other Christians. Those who do dare to go before a secular audience often hide their message by speaking in such an obscure code that only Christians recognize it. Or maybe they dare to speak, but they do it in a way that sounds like a bunch of slogans and clichés.

[HEY - KEEP ON READING - ITS JUST GETTING GOOD!]

Technorati Tags: david pierce, no longer music

Carson or Keller at an Emerging Church Festival?

Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago today. Hey, if anyone there chats to D.A. Carson or Tim Keller, please invite them on my behalf to one of the many emerging church festivals this summer in Europe. People of their calibre don't usually make it to the festivals here, despite thousands of young people who really appreciate some good Bible teaching. There is no honorarium and you have to pay for your own flight, and you might end up in tent and lining up for port-a-loo access but then so do the other speakers - which of course limits the kinds of speakers who choose to come to these events.

I got asked to speak at SLOT Festival in Poland today and said i would do one session - hopefully in the Kiwi Cafe. Its a fantastic festival. About 5000-6000 young people. Unfortunately I can only be there for 2 days and they need teachers who can give a good 5 day series like Sy Rogers did last year. Now that would be a good one for Carson. He could not only teach for hours each day but he could also meet a lot of emerging church leaders from all over Europe. In fact, we are having a roundtable at SLOT this year for leaders and he could speak to us all and pray over us. Good idea?

Charismania and Emergent Snobbery

Just when the Christian blogosphere was quietening down,
just when the EC critics were running out of things to say,
just when EC promoters were rehashing and remashing old posts,
just when the blog-dust was settling,
all of a sudden . . .
there came a man named John.

Mike Morrell joins the gazillions of others bloggers posting about John Crowder in what he calls his most ambitious blog post to date called Charismatic Chaos or (Holy) Spirited Deconstruction? in which he suggests there is a little "emergent snobbery". You will find the post right under his incredibly long lists of tags including "glory realm" "sloshed in the spirt" and "gold dust".

Also relevant: I just read the manuscript for Phyllis Tickles book 'The Great Emergence'. FANTASTIC book! Comes out later this year. What's interesting is that she ties the emerging church movement directly to the charismatic movement (as Luke Walker did in "Remembering Our Future") and points to John Wimber as proto-emergent. Uhmmmm . . try squirming out of that one!
TSK: PostCharismatic? and New Charismatics

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church, john crowder

Emerging House Church Movement

Update: I just saw an excellent video of Reggie McNeal addressing the Reformed Church of America. He gives a good update on the house church movement. At least watch the first ten minutes to get a global view. Stay longer to hear why it will be really tough to go through this shift.

Original:

"They're [the house churches] based on small-circle organizing, have little to no authoritative control, and rely on the innovation of distributed social movements. It's this same type of organizational structure that is the secret to the success of Wikipedia and craigslist."
Rob Mackay and Ori Brafman (The Spider and the Starfish) in an article for the Huffington Post called "Small Is the New Big in Progressive Politics" HT: Homebrewed Christianity

I said something very similar a few years ago when i discussed emergent theory and the house church movement in a post called Tiny is the New Small. Speaking of small churches, I just finished cooking a pile of crepes for the 50 people that attend our small church so we can have breakfast together early Sunday morning. Try doing that with a bigger church.

Related on Tallskinnykiwi: Tiny is the New Small, House Churches Have No Sex Appeal. Yeast and Bud Emergence, Emergent Theory and the Emergent Church

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church, house church, reggie mcneal, reformed