Tall Skinny Kiwi

Emerging Philanthropy Spotlight No. 1: The Indian Taxi Fund

"So here’s my modest/ambitious proposal . . . create a scale-free network that doesn’t rely on multiple lines going to one source. To get rid of the lines altogether and create spiders. And to leverage the crowdsourcing of blogs and the benevolence of businesses and individuals." Josh Brown, My Proposal.

A great example of emerging philanthropy 2.0 is what Josh Brown is doing in raising micro-loans for social enterprises overseas. He calls it The Indian Taxi Fund. It started off as a way to raise $7500 to help Amit (below, on the left) in India buy a taxi and be self-sustaining in his Christian based voluntary work but is now becoming something much larger.

Josh (right) has been donating a huge percentage of his work as a web designer but is also leveraging others into blogging, giving or loaning small amounts. He has raised $1000 in the past week towards launching social enterprises through these tiny loans. For those that lend $25, Josh is sending out a free book. I have just added "Wanting More" by Joel Vestal to that list because Joel sent me a number of these books to go to a good cause and I am sure he would be thrilled to hear about this project.

Josh is a web designer with Red Cowboy Designs, and co-conspirator of the successful Nic and Josh podcast which now has over 300,000 subscribers. They interviewed me and my Brazilian buddy Olgavaro in Chattanooga a few years ago.

Interesting Facts:
93 - the percentage of total rural borrowings among India's little people that came from private persons in the early 1950's.
100 - the minumum number of people needed to start a credit union in order to launch a successful Co-operative. [From Father Topshee's seven steps for missionaries.]
1854 - The year CMS missions executive Henry Venn recommended credit unions as a necessary step in establishing mission in Sierra Leone.

Related:
- "A New Kind of Hierarchy" (2006) for my thoughts on scale-free networks
- Mission and the Fourth Sector for more on cooperatives, credit unions and mission.
- Josh has just launched a magazine called Talk of the Bay

More spotlights on emerging philanthropy coming this week, to co-incide with the my thoughts on the Council on Foundations 2008 and philanthropy 2.0 discussions.

Technorati Tags: cof2008, philanthropy

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

Perspective from Steve Hawthorne

I met with Steve Hawthorne to chat about my chapter in the next version of the world famous Perspectives course (if they give it the green light) We talked a lot about Steve's prayerwalking experiences in the 80's and his concept of praying on location with information for, as he coined it, "on-site with insight". Great chat. When we talked missiology I felt him leaving me behind but that is to be expected from such a bright missions geek. Thanks for the drink, Steve!

Oh - the beard. Well I was hoping to film a Youtube tribute to Flight of the Conchords with Derek but neither of us have had time to script it. Next time.

Technorati Tags: perspectives

Micro-credit

Good post on AnglicanFuture on micro-credit enterprises overseas. I was recently pointing to Henry Venn's suggestion of banks for Sierra Leone in the 1850's as a viable mission strategy for today. Its encouraging to see these projects around the world. Believe it or not, we are thinking through a micro-credit system here in Scotland for new businesses because most government funding is only for larger and more established enterprises.

Emergent Church India

Jan 13-18 - "The International Symposium on Dalit Theology in the 21st Century sets out to initiate a collaborative discourse among younger theologians committed to Dalit emancipation in the Indian church and society at large. It provides a platform for emerging voices and a showcase for the resources of Dalit theology as a theology of life for all." Link

Wish I could be a fly on the wall for this gathering next week in India. I am fascinated by Dalit Theology, Christian Ashrams, and the Indian understanding of Emergent Church. I saw the Indians were using the term "emergent church" in a missions publication in the 1970's. Anyone going to this event???

Also, I would like to purchase a copy of The Emergent Church in a New India, by Felix Wilfred, if anyone has one. [PLEASE]

Technorati Tags: dalit theology

More Emerging Philanthropy

I have been amazed to see the changes in philanthropy over the past year due to emergent thinking and web 2.0 technology. Some of this was highlighted yesterday in the Financial Times in an article entitled Charity No Longer Belongs at Home. Websites mentioned are Kiva.org (small loans for third world entrepreneurs) and Innocentive.com (matching seekers with opportunities with solvers who have solutions). The last one is similar to Generous Giving which has been matching requests with donors for many years in the world of Christian mission. I wonder what next year holds?

Technorati Tags: charities, fund raising, philanthropy

Edinburgh 1910 and 2010

2010 marks one hundred years since the mother of all modern mission conferences, the International Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, 1910. Needless to say, many of us have been working towards it and this blog post should update you.

LATEST NEWS: The lectures from Edinburgh 1910 have been digitized and are now available online. This is a HUGE gift to the mission scholars and historians of the world. Special thanks to Prof Masuzawa and to the librarians at the University of Michigan who have pursued this through the Google project.

ALSO: David Hesselgrave has just released his lecture notes on the "Edinburgh Error". Download it at the end of this post, and if you feel up to it, write some comments and send it back to me.

June 6-10, 2010 is the date given by WCC for the Missions conference in Edinburgh. I have mentioned it before. Some of us have been preparing for a number of missions conferences in 2010 to mark the anniversary of the Edinburgh event, a conference that sparked the incredible missions movement of the last century and eventually the modern ecumenical movement. Jacques Matthey, of the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, challenged us at the 2001 Great Commission Roundtable (Malaysia) to put aside time for the events in 2010. I met with him in Geneva last year for a pizza and chat about 2010 and he said it was quite open source but he was hoping for some good cooperation among organisations for the various initiatives that will take place in Edinburgh and around the world.

These initiatives include, but are not limited to, Lausanne III in Cape Town South Africa, which I have blogged, and Ediinburgh's Towards 2010, spearheaded by the Scottish and led by Ken Ross. And of course whatever we do in and around the events in Edinburgh. A number of us have been working towards a roundtable event in 2010 that we hope will compliment what is already going on. In cooperation with other mission agencies and denominations, we have been hosting a number of global roundtables for leaders of emerging church [we probably cant use that word anymore] movements since 1999. We see this culminating in 2010 with a gathering and presentation of resources to help the global church in this time of transition and opportunity. Towards 2010 will have info on the Edinburgh event and subscribing to the TallSkinnyKiwi blog will help you stay updated as 2010 draws near. Button in the top left corner. DO IT!

In the meantime, its a good opportunity to reflect on the past century and read some good material. I have on my shelf a number of books related to Edinburgh 1910:

- Edinburgh 1910: An Account and Interpretation of the World Missionary Conference by W. Temple Gairdner. I am really proud to say that my copy is a first edition, [allow me to boast a little here] bought in 1910 by Rev. Dr. Samuel Bickersteth, whose wife published the Bickersteth War Diaries. It even has a 1910 Glasgow bus ticket inside and I have to say its one of my favourite books in my mission section. You probably wont find this book but you can read most of its contents in Google Book search under "Echoes from Edinburgh" [same book, different name] by W.H.T. Gairdner.

- Ecumenical Foundations: A History of the International Missionary Council and its nineteenth century background, by William Richey Hogg, is another book sitting proudly on my shelf. Written later on (1951-52), this book explores the historical setting of the Conference and tracks its global impact.

But you poor sods probably don't have these cool books on your shelf. However, there are some fine resources online for your viewing pleasure:

WCC has a short history of Edinburgh 1910 and the conferences that followed.
1910 Conference: Its Place in History [PDF] by Ken Ross
The Great Commission 1910-2010 [PDF], by Andrew Walls who is considered the primary expert on [or at least the person most obsessed with] Edinburgh 1910.
"Will We Correct the “Edinburgh Error”?— Future Mission in Historical Perspective (Revised) [PDF] just released by missiologist David Hesselgrave. Even better, download Hesselgrave's paper with my comments and notes - The Skinny on Hesselgrave and the Edinburgh Error [PDF]. Open it with Adobe Reader, comment on it and send it back to me with your notes and I might add them. Here it is:

Technorati Tags: edinburgh 1910, edinburgh 2010, mission

In God's Name: Economist on Global Religion

Interesting article on Global Religion in the Economist this week by John Micklethwait. Its called In God's Name and it deals with tension in religion and politics around the world.

EXCERPT: "Part of that secular fury, especially in Europe, comes from exasperation. After all, it has been a canon of progressive thought since the Enlightenment that modernity—that heady combination of science, learning and democracy—would kill religion. Plainly, this has not happened. Numbers about religious observance are notoriously untrustworthy, but most of them seem to indicate that any drift towards secularism has been halted, and some show religion to be on the increase. The proportion of people attached to the world's four biggest religions—Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism—rose from 67% in 1900 to 73% in 2005 and may reach 80% by 2050 (see chart 2)." In God's Name.

Related: I read Philip Jenkin's new book God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis. I read it on the plane from Seattle to London. A good read but quite of lot of NUMBERS and STATISTICS - unlike Karen Armstrong's new book The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, which I read on the journey from London to Seattle, a book which takes a much more narrative and therefore readable approach to history and religion. But Jenkin's book is a worthwhile read if you are interested in the new Europe that is coming to grips with its Muslim immigrants. It was recommended to me by CMS General Secretary Tim Dakin, who gave it a very high and strong THUMBS UP. And since I work for CMS, I felt compelled to buy it. I will give a review of the book soon.

Technorati Tags: christian, fundamentalism, religion

Prayer Feeder - New 2.0 App for emerging churches

New application for churches and groups by developer Stephen Dominy who is beta testing it right now. It offers more privacy than a Facebook app. You may have read what Stephen said about it earlier this month on Emergingchurch.info I have started a test group called Missional Communities. If you want to be a part of roadtesting a new group, go to Prayerfeeder.com and ask for an invite. I just might even let you join. And thanks Stephen for letting me know about it.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, prayer feeder, web 2.0

Getting the Bible Wright

Pryomaniacs Frank and Dan are halfway towards a 1000 comment quest with a provocative blog post against emerging church and other movements that threaten the Fundamentalist claim to supreme power and a uniquely correct view of Scripture.

Its called . . Emerging Church: bad as Gutless Grace Girliemen? Worse than Wrongheaded Wrightophiles? Sillier than Leaky Canoneers? and it will probably break the record of 1000 posts, although the only people who will have the time to plummet its depths will be those without gainful employment.

[update: Mike Morrell has the skinny on the Pyro site and this current controversy]

As a blog post, I think it is enticing, artistic, bold, and I appreciate how it invites criticism from foe as well as friend. And although I appreciate the post, as I said on my comment which helped them progress toward their goal by one degree, I do beg to differ from Frank and Dan on a number of points . . .
as well as being lumped in with Benny Hinn who drives a much nicer car than I, who tends to his hair far more than I and whose stage-led ministry looks ENTIRELY different than mine and the non-celebrity type people i hang with in the emerging-misisonal church scene.

First off, I really think Frank and Dan's definition of "missional" does no justice to the word. None. Whatsoever. Rather than describing the grand initiative of the Triune God, our framework to understand the Scriptures and our example in Christ for being obediently sent into the world, Frank and Dan downgrade the word with relativism and syncretism.

". . . This is what the people want—verbal meat-chubbery—and frankly, from what we understand, giving people what they really want is called missional these days." Frank and Dan, Pyromaniacs.

Giving people what they want? OK - don't get me started. I have already posted about the importance of missio dei, where the word missional comes from, and why I prefer to talk about the "emerging-misisonal church".

Let me tackle the issue from another angle - something i think is more inherently problematic in this ongoing debate. It has to do with the way we approach, interpret and apply the Scriptures in our world. Let me quote from Frank and Dan in their provocation:

"And if the most central issue of the Bible—how can man be just before God?—has been misunderstood by basically every one of the holiest, godliest, most consecrated and devoted men of God for centuries; if, that is, our most elder brothers in the faith have, every one of them, answered that question wrongly, and only a specialist engaging in specialized sub-category studies can unearth the true answer to this basic question...

...it makes you wonder not only why God wrote the Book, but why He made such a poor job of it. Why couldn't He manage to get it Wright...er, right, the first time? Why didn't He make it plain enough for non-specialists to "get" what He was saying?"
(Frank and Dan, Pyromaniacs)

The first thing that grabs me here is what is presented as the "central issue" of the Bible - how man can be just before God? Now that may have been clearly adequate for Martin Luther and others but it seems suspiciously too small to me. Too small, too humanistic, too individualist, too man-centered.

Technorati Tags: bible, chris wright, emergent, emerging church, fundamentalism, mission, missional, n. t. wright, theology

IJFM Missions articles online

HUGE amount of missions reading now available in PDF form. I'm talking about the past issues of International Journal of Frontier Missions.
HT: Scott Burness

Lausanne III, WEA and Geoff Tunnicliffe's doctorate

“Friends, this is your day and this is your chance. This life is the one life you have. So which it is going to be? Are you going develop the heart for the world? Are you going to make a difference for Jesus Christ? If you are, then you’ve got to come close. You’ve got to connect with people with real needs." - Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director of World Evangelical Alliance, upon receiving his honorary doctorate last week in San Francisco. Geoff is an outstanding Canadian who I have met a few times at mission conferences. Congratulations, Doctor Tunnicliffe!

Related: There was a Lausanne meeting last week in Hungary where they discussed, among other things, mission in "a post-Christian, post-modern, pluralistic world". Lausanne had recently decided to partner with WEA towards Lausanne III, to be held in Cape Town, October 2010. If you are Baptist, you probably know that William Carey suggested an international missions roundtable in Cape Town for 1810 but it didnt happen. The 1910 International Missions Conference in Edinbugh happened a hundred years later and kicked off the modern ecumenical movement based around missions. It is not really known whether the organisers knew about Carey's plans a hundred years earlier or not.

I have been thinking about Edinburgh 2010 for 6 years. In 2001, I gave an emerging church presentation at the Great Commission Roundtable in Malaysia where the two groups, Lausanne and WEA, came together with AD2000. We talked about the 2010 conference in Edinburgh as a hundred year celebration of mission partnership, at the suggestion of Jacques Matthey from WCC. I will probably still be living in Scotland in 2010 so I will no doubt be involved in some mission events in Edinburgh. Let me know if you are also planning something or have any strong ideas on what should happen. Be great to see the emerging church globally bring in some worthy contributions to the celebrations. It would be a great way to bring together the fruit of our many international roundtables. And yes, I am familiar with the Edinburgh Towards 2010 website and events and hope that we can compliment what is already going to take place.

Technorati Tags: geoff tunnicliffe, lausanne, wea

Is mission the mother of theology?

Its one of the questions i have been asked to deal with this week at the camp for Baptists.

Missiology or Theology? Chicken or the egg? Is missiology a slice of the theolgical cake or a foundational layer? And what about the sequence that goes missiology-christology-ecclesiology? Or as Alan Hirsch has laid it out, Christology-Missiology-Ecclesiology. How would you sequence it?

Thoughts? I might not be able to respond for a few days but i would be interested if anyone had some enlightenment on this.You will no doubt quote Kähler to me [someone says "WHOOO??????"] with his famous phrase that mission is the "mother of theology" (Martin Kähler) but how do you think it all adds up? And is this consistent with a Baptist missiology - something that will be important to this group. Well, important to me anyway.

Getting Shaped by God at Camp

Off to a camp today at the Frontier conference center near Northampton. People have been asked to read "Shaping of Things to Come" by Hirsch and Frost or listen to a series of talks by Michael Frost. All of this dealing with the kind of churches we are creating. I will be teaching from the life and ministry of Jesus along the idea of being SHAPED as people and as missionaries, and looking at the shaping of our ministry structures in light of the current culture and past history, and of course, in the teaching and practise of Jesus. APPRECIATE PRAYERS to say what is on God's heart.

I wont be using much multimedia but there are one or two video clips i hope to use. One is Flea Circus Playstation commercial that Jonny Baker showed us last year. It carries the idea of shaping pretty well.

The team leading worship and kids programs are flying over from Tempe, Arizona. They set up a blog called C.O.M.Team comes to the UK. These guys are quite impressive. A few months ago they sent out a music CD to all the kids coming to camp so that they can be familiar with the songs.

Anyway, have a great week everyone.

Emerging Church Portugal

The Portuguese crowd had a conference last weekend which went really well. Barbara, who i have mentioned before, is raising money for some land near Lisbon where many of them will live in community and have a base for ministry around Europe and among street kids in the cities. Some of us are putting a little money towards it because we believe in the vision and in this exciting and passionate emerging leaders. Read more about this land on Barbara's blog ShantiPilgrim. Check out her little hut in the woods . .

I had a fantastic time in Portugal back in 2004 [blogged it here] and I will be there again September 10 -12, 2007

Technorati Tags: emerging church

Will the Church that is NOT 'Missional' Please Stand Up?

My friend Tim Conder has an article on Leadership blog Out of Ur called Missional Buzz. He says . .

"Today, it would be almost impossible for “the real missional church” to stand up. Yes, there are plenty of imposters, but there’s no one true example to play the day’s mystery guest. And any panel of celebrities probably wouldn’t accept the outcome.
So many fellowships that once boldly self-identified as cell churches, meta-churches, house churches, seeker-style, or purpose-driven now claim to be missional. It’s such a buzzword that it’s fair to ask, “Is there really any such thing as a missional church?” Although some use the term glibly, I believe the answer is “yes.” "

HT: Kevin Cawley and Smart Christian

Technorati Tags: emerging church, missional

EuroChurch Conference

Details are online here. Switzerland April 17-19, 2007. I will be there and I think they are going to let me speak on the web/cyberspace/blogging and its relation to the new church planting movements. Subject not confirmed yet but the theme for the conference is . . .

Technorati Tags: church, dawn, mission

Lausanne World Pulse: Paulo on Portugal

My buddy and team member Paulo Pascal has an article on Portugal in this months Lausanne World Pulse. Paulo has a lot of cred with the emerging church movement in his country and with the more established denominations and streams. He also keeps the Evangelical Alliance on the straight and narrow missional path. His attempts at blogging have so far been unsuccessful. But we love him anyway!

Our team did some meetings in Portugal a few years back [see my blog post] and will meet there again next September.

Technorati Tags: mission, lausanne

Cup of Tea with the Grandson of Roland Allen

I had a cup of tea yesterday with Hubert Allen, the grandson of Roland Allen ["the prophet'"]. A very warm and humble man who is delighted that a new generation is reading his Granfer's book almost a century later. Roland Allen predicted his writings would be ignored for many years and he was right. Hubert signed my copy of his book "Roland Allen: Pioneer, Priest, and Prophet and showed me some new editions of his 'Granfer's' books, including the classic Missionary Methods: St Pauls or Ours and The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church.There are some other writings and snippets and thoughts that have never been published. Hubert said I can come over next time and view some of those documents. COOOOOL!!!!

Hubert's lecture on his Granddad given in 2003 worth a read. Heres the PDF:
The Continuing Relevance of Roland Allen
by Hubert Allen, [PDF 225kb]

Related: My thoughts on Roland Allen and Mega-churches in cyberspace

Technorati Tags: roland allen

Fusion National Weekend Today

Today I am speaking to university students at Fusion National Weekend in Oxford. Look forward to hooking up with some of you there. My seminar is called "The Skinny on Being Missional". I will be representing Church Mission Society and its 200 year history of figuring out what it means to bring missional concepts to our local context - and in this case, in the context of the university, the internet, and the neighborhood. The other seminars at the same time as mine should be avoided. Really.
And if you are interested in a short term mission overseas, come see me at the booth or check out this site.

Technorati Tags: fusion, missio dei, mission, missional

Strategic Conference at Copenhagen, Denmark

I've gone to Copenhagen, land of the Danes who are famous for their humor. Wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen, friendly old girl of a town, as Danny Kaye once put it so . . . HANS-somely . .. thank you very much. I''ll be here 'til Friday . . try the veal! And why not let good ol' Danny lay down some audio carpet to help you enter into the spirit of this blog post? Here we go . .

Missio Dei at DTS

Following on from their great series on the emerging church some months ago, Dallas Theological Seminary tackled the idea of "Turning Theology Inside Out: Missio Dei". [HT: Matt Glock] Dr Mark Young has some blog-worthy thoughts [Podcast 1, 2, 3] that will have Reformation fans tip-toeing through the Tulips.

Tell you what's cool. I hear American church leaders and professors going on and on about being missional - missional this and missional that - but they very rarely invite seasoned missionaries to come and offer their advice on what it actually means to bring insights from the mission field into the local scene and so they end up rehashing their old ideas with new vocab. Not so this time with Dr Young who has been overseas for two decades. I have never met Mark but a few years ago I gave a lecture on emerging church at the Evangelical School of Theology he founded in Wroclaw, Poland.

I am just listening to the series right now and might have some thoughts later. This Saturday I am teaching something similar called "The Skinny on Being Missional" at Fusion National Conference in Oxford.

And no, that Blues Brothers image is from me, not the Seminary. Although once i walked into my old pastor Charles Swindoll's office at DTS and saw a very cool Terminator-type poster with Swindoll in his leather jacket. It was called "The Serminator". Oh yeah - another coincidence. Charles Swindoll is now Mark Young's pastor at Stonebriar Community Church.

Related on TallSkinnyKiwi:
WHATEVER and the Missio Dei
What I mean when i say "Emerging-Missional" church
Thoughts on Missio Dei
The Missional Church: Reformed Heritage?

Technorati Tags: missio dei, mission

Haggard and the Hazzard of Hotels

Since we are all talking about Ted Haggard [without cementing the accusations] and pastors with a little common sense are examining pot-holes and booby-traps in their own lives, I want to throw a little thought out into the blogosphere that might be of some help to traveling preachers, missionaries and executives. Not because i am perfect, but because i am aware of the constant struggle for purity and the increased pressure that travel adds to it. And I have been traveling for a few decades and have stayed at countless hotels so this thought has been brewing for a while.

Mark Driscoll's advice for traveling ministers is good and I recommend reading it - although his comment on wives letting themselves go is as Emerging Mosaic points out, a little UNTIMELY [dang Mark, couldn't you wait a week before bringing Mrs Haggard into the equation??] and his advise on ALWAYS traveling with a partner or child is helpful in an idealist world but not really practical for those without a hefty budget or those who are road warriors for the Kingdom. I travel a third of my time. I work in lots of countries and cities and if i had to bring someone with me on every trip, my kids would never get educated and i would have to ask my supporters for a much bigger travel allowance. MUCH bigger. And raising funds from churches and individuals for my own ministry at its current lowly level is tough enough.

And like Mark Driscoll, God has been gracious - neither myself nor my wife (who is traveling from Orgeon to Houston today) have ever slept with anyone else - ever. And you can just imagine the offers i get with my stunning good looks.

OK - point taken . . .

Most of the time I travel alone but i am careful where i stay. If i have a choice, I crash on a friends couch. In summer I bring my tent. I even crash on airport floors to save a few bucks and travel time. If i don't know anyone in a city, I usually stay at a youth hostel. Its really cheap and i stay in a room with 5 or more people. I have to sleep with my wallet and passport in my pocket or under my pillow but it keeps me away from hotels where i am all alone and where weird things happen.

Heres the deal. Hotels can be treacherous places for people of God to stay at because of the spiritual residue from weird and dark things that have happened in that room. OK - some of you will think me loony here. And some of you don't believe in demons. But let me play it out.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, ted haggard

In Memory of Jim Montgomery

Jim Montgomery passed away a few days ago. I was told of his struggle with cancer quite a while ago but his family did not want a lot of publicity. He was one of America's greatest missionaries of last century, a man went through some paradigm shifts in the Philippines and, like others before him (Newbigin, McGavran) came back to his country to launch out with something new. He started DAWN ministries, along with two South American friends, as a ministry that would help entire countries implement a nation-wide strategy for saturation church planting, through clear goal setting and finding the key person [the John Knoxer] for each region. This kind of thinking helped millions of churches get started, first in the Philippines, and then globally.

Jim's 8 books are available as free downloads from Dawn Ministries. His most famous book "DAWN 2000: 7 Million Churches to Go [pdf]" totally blew my mind when i read it - the guy was a BIG thinker and, deep down, I yearned to be a part of something like the movements he talked about. I eventually met him in 1996 at Fuller School of World Mission at a class taught by Viv Grigg. In 2000, I joined forces with DAWN ministries as a part-time Associate for Emerging Generation - along with Wolfgang Fernandez (who helped launch DAWN with Jim) and was able to spend some time with Jim in Colorado Springs. He was very enthusiastic about the emerging church movements and told me about a house group he has started in his own home that was attracting young people - teens actually.

Technorati Tags: jim montgomery, mission

Lausanne Young Leaders

The Lausanne Younger Leaders Meeting in Port Dickson, Malaysia seemed to go well. Lots of younger people went - over 500 from 110 countries. There were reports at Christian Today and Christianity Today and you can check out the offical LYG blog to find some more participants.

Some of them blogged:
Life in colour
Getting bloggy with fish
Sivin Kit who didnt have far to go.
Dwight Friesen had a good honest report.

I didn't go to YLG 2006 but I was present in 2001 at the same place - Port Dickson - for the Great Commission Roundtable which was a large gathering organized by Lausanne, WEF and AD2000. In fact, Donny from Indonesia and myself (non-western and western emerging leaders) were asked to address the were the larger missions conference and share our thoughts which was an honor for both of us.
This time around, they capped off the age limit to 35 this year but i did get an invite to go and be an old guy there. Glad it went well.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, mission

My History of the Emerging Church. Part One

A little more history of my love-hate relationship with what is now called “Emerging Church”. Put this account with other histories to get a fuller version of what has happened in the last two decades in the church of North America and around the Western world.

I should start by saying that what happened in USA twenty years ago was not called “emerging church” nor “missional church”. In fact, it wasn't even recognized as a movement or trend or even a 'conversation' until many years later. Here is the beginning of my history - at least from my viewpoint.

In 1985 I sold my car and bought a one way ticket to Europe. I found myself in Austria, leading a summer team for Operation Mobilization with about 15 young people. I was 21 - and obviously much older than the most of the group and, having two years training at a Bible College (WABC) I was supposed to know what i was doing [haha] so somehow i got stuck as the team leader. There was no church in the town we were living in, or the towns around it, so we started one. We met in a house weekly and was led by the locals. It didn't have its own building or paid leadership . . but it really was a church.

In 1986, I visited USA as a 22 year old missionary, working on a mission ship called the M.V. Logos. There were 130 of us on board, including Debbie, who I would marry the following year. Our goal was to stimulate USA and Canada towards a vision for what God was doing globally, and help them to think of their own backyard as a place for God's mission. It was a few years before the word “missional” was put into usage (1991) but it would have helped us a lot to have a better vocabulary back then.

It was highly unusual, actually, for the mission field to come to USA - a nation of mission senders and a country that thought of itself as a “Christian” nation. North America had sent out missionaries for years but for the first time it had come to them, and in the form of a ship headed up by a new breed of missionaries from about 40 countries, less than ten coming from USA.

We changed our strategy for North America, switching from missions mode to teaching mode - to encourage believers to see the mission field around them as well as the one overseas. We visited Norfolk, Baltimore, and quite a number of ports through Canada all the way to Montreal. We did prayer walks around the cities and ministry wherever we were invited. We preached in their churches, hosted conferences on board the ship around prayer, worship, missions, evangelism, and held quite a number of meetings for immigrants. In Baltimore we had a meeting for the Chinese and the missionary David Adeney preached. Quite a few famous preachers and missionaries came on board to encourage us. My favorites were Stuart and Jill Briscoe, Don and Judy Hamman [who took us all the way through Nehemiah] and Abe and Marg Van Der Puy. Abe's wife Marg (nee-Saint) told us the story of how her husband was martyred in Ecuador. Those were great times.

At a missions conference in Washington DC, I went out with a multimedia presentation created by the mission which involved two slide projectors and images of faces. Nothing else but faces. And the soundtrack of “People Need the Lord” - which i know you would think cheesy if you heard it now but this was 20 years ago and people were really moved. Even the other missionaries presenting at the conference left their booths and came over to see it. You might know that i kept on going with the multimedia thing - I have progressed from slide projectors to VJ software but throwing images on a wall still gives me a buzz. Actually . . . there are some multimedia worship events where we still bring out a few old slide projectors . . .

In 1987, I left the ship in Costa Rica and traveled back to USA with Debbie. We were married in Fullerton, California and I was hoping to do some more study in theology and missions. While we were there, I worked as an electrical assistant. We installed the computer system at Toyota headquarters in Los Angeles, which sounds impressive but it was mostly pulling coaxial cable through ceilings. Some of the electricians were interested in learning about God so once a week, after work, we gathered and studied the Bible. They all cracked open a can of beer and the event got stuck with the unfortunate name of “Beer and Bible”. I called it a Bible study but they called it CHURCH, since it was the only form of church that they were involved with.

Technorati Tags: christianity, church history, dieter zander, emerging church, logos, mission

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

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.

07-07-06_1526.jpg
Originally uploaded by tallskinnykiwi.

Technorati Tags: africa, emerging church, mission

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

my experience with the charismatic catholics

i just had a really amazing experience. A few days ago i preached at a charismatic catholic church in bari, italy. it was only for 10 minutes and i was not the only person behind the pulpit . . . but this experience was huge for me and i want to process it a little here in the blog. do you mind hearing me out? it would help me to have someone listen.

don't i look sharp in a white shirt???? even without my hat, which, by the way, got left behind in Dublin last week.
This is the official photo of our team with Father Matteo and Father Anthony. you will see that i am just slightly taller than Marc van der Woude . . . a well established fact that he will no doubt dispute.

Matteo proves his charasmatic credentials with a vigorous hand waving.

Technorati Tags: catholic, charasmatic

At Glendalough, Ireland

Had a great time at Glendalough, the Celtic monastic site made famous by St Kevin. Its an amazing place and I really enjoyed a prayerful, nostalgic walk about the monastery grounds. Really peaceful and full of history. You can imagine what it felt like to arrive at the monastic city after a long pilgrimage or being a fugitive on the run and finding refuge here.

We worked on drawing a Celtic knot just as the Scribes did. I know it sounds terribly arrogant for a Kiwi to be teaching celtic knotwork in Ireland but actually much of the knotwork was from my ancestors, the Picts. We looked into the symbolism of the Celtic knot and what it said about Trinity, movement, borders, etc and then explored some thoughts on pilgrimage. Brad and the Journey blog have some images and thoughts.

After that we opened up Luke 10 to see Jesus idea of pilgrimage/ministry for his mission team and how that compared or contrasted with ours. Sometimes it was a grinding contrast which is not always fun or ear tickling as much as motivational pep talks or intellectual oratories but very necessary as we align what we are doing with the mission of God.

Technorati Tags: celtic, emerging church, mission, missional

Emerging Church Japan

When I was in Japan i was continually asked if i knew Lowell Shepherd. I still haven't met him but I like what I hear. In a fascinating interview with emergingchurch.info that i found on the Baker blog, Lowell throws out some great thoughts:
- "The non church movement however, is evidence of the Mission of God being expressed in Japan and I believe deserves a second look by missiologists."
-"The fact is that the western model of Sunday church meetings, and full mid week programs are wholly incompatible with the Group oriented society that pervades Japan. "
Regarding the emerging church movement in the west, Lowell feels that there is too much talk and "emerging" as a word feels a tad arrogant. He can say that if he wants to.

I was really impressed to meet many young Japanese church planters in Tokyo and in the south. I attended one of their "parties" which involved sitting on mats eating really good Japanese food, discussing spiritual things with all kinds of people - mainly university students, while the DJ was spinning 1960's James Bond tracks. Loved it!!!!! Cant wait to get back there. The image here is me teachi