TallSkinnyKiwi

Changing World, Changing Church

I was in the CMS office today in London and happened to meet Dr. Michael Moynagh, author of Changing World, Changing Church. Haven't read the book yet, but i really liked meeting Michael - and he promised to come back to London sometime and have a curry with me - look forward to it very much
Official tag: Mike is Director of the St John’s Centre for Futures Studies and Director of the Tomorrow Project, which engages with emerging trends in British society.

Google visitors

Andrew Careaga mentions his Google hits of the day. Well, here are 5 Google visitors today and what they typed to end up on my site;

moving to London from USA
sun nudes
goat sacrificing
ibook vs powerbook 2004
news feeder

5 person video chat

Yesterday, on a train to Zurich, a Dutchman named Ap asked me if a 8-person video chat was possible. I told him no, not yet. However, I just found a 5-person video chat software that is not only cheap ($40) but also operates in Dutch.
What does this mean for church? Maybe it means that when 2 or 3 come together, with a video cam, and they hook up with 4 other groups of 2-3 people with a video cam, then they really can have a small group meeting on the internet, no matter where they live. Will it be as good as a real live group meeting? Of course not. But it might be helpful for an occasional global connection without having to travel to each others cities. ispq.com is the site. Thanks Jason

Teaching Series May 1st

Come back on May 1st and I will start a daily teaching series on new media, new mind, and finding your voice on the internet. This has been requested by a lot of people and its about time i did it. Much of the content from Forward Slash will be included.
I will be sending the teaching out to your news readers as a RSS Feed. If you don't already have a news reader, you might want to download a free one and get it set up. PC users should go for the News Reader with the unfortunate name of FeedDemon. Mac users would be wise to get NetNewsWire Lite. "Getting Started With RSS" is good resource for those new to using a News Reader.

Exegeting U2

"If you're a fan of U2, when you come to a situation of discouragement, when you need to be encouraged to persevere, you may come to that situation with "Walk On" in your head. There's just a natural connection that you make of these different texts and these different ways of telling the story of the world that we're in." Beth Maynard, Dick Staub interview
Good interview for preachers who like Bono. Walk on . . I mean Read on . .

Back home from Switzerland

I had a great time in Switzerland. Its really a crime not to come to this country - they have done so much to make life easy. Switzerland is a unusual place. The people have a down-to-earth mountain-people feel to them, and yet they are incredibly structured and organized. Imagine Beverly Hills in the Appalachian Mountains, and you get the picture. Visiting Switzerland is like a trip to the chiropractor - you find yourself getting aligned, adjusted properly, re-calibrated to the invisible Grid of life that Switzerland does so well in making visible.

The Foursquare Europe Team made me feel very welcome and embraced. Check out the gifts in my hotel room! They also gave me some glass napkin holders and were constantly asking me what they could do to serve me. I felt like a king! One thing that hasn't changed about Pentecostal denominations is the language of gift-giving - they are fluent in it.
They also gave me permission to be myself - to speak how i wanted to, without doing my preacher voice. So i talked casually, invited participation, read some poetry (sTorm) with the visuals i have been working on.

Marc and Kathy Shaw were the people behind the conference and they did a tremendous job. 21 countries were represented and all were taken care of. Marc and Kathy are leaving Europe to pastor a church in Hillsborough, Oregon. It was obvious that their 16 years in Europe have built an incredibly strong ministry and many will be sorry to see them go. But go they must, and there will be reward and rest waiting for them.

I got invitations to many cities - Kosovo, Belgrade, Tirana/Albania. Dang - where will i get the time?

For those of you asking, the background music from the presentation was "Where is the Love" Black Eyed Peas (instrumental version) and the Swiss coffee time video at the coffee break was produced by my friends at the Fuse Factory in Lausanne.

Those of you I talked to about blogging - Typepad.com and blogger.com are the places to start. I recommend typepad if you dont want to get your hands dirty with html code and blogger if you would like to save some money and learn some computer language.

Reinhold Scharnowski came to visit me on Sunday on his new vice - a Triumph bike that he shares with his son. We went for a walk in the hillside and got a little lost before we found the trail again. So nice to see him again.

Another Alpine weekend

Don't you just hate it when everyone gets to stay home while you have to go to the Swiss Alps and eat the world's finest chocolate, breathe fresh alpine air and listen to the ringing of cow-bells and old men blowing long horns on the mountainside? I know I do! Still, I have been to Switzerland about 7 times in the last 4 years (for example here and here), but i have never done anything recreational there - no skiing with Prince Charles, no snowboarding, nothing. And this weekend will be not different. Talking and hanging and drinking coffee. Life is rough!
I wont be blogging this weekend, but when i get back (Monday) I want to start a new series on OurDailyBlog and hopefully give away some of the teaching that i will be using this weekend at the conference. So have a great weekend everyone, and pleeeeeeease . . dont feel sorry for me.
Thanks George Howell of WaterCarriers.org for a gift that helped me get the plane ticket and set up my family for pizza on Friday.

/ in Switzerland

/ ? Thats a forward slash symbol, in case you were wondering. Tomorrow I leave for Switzerland to teach at a conference called Carpe Manana. This is my first public release of a narrative missiology called Forward Slash. The focus will be understanding the major shift from old media minds to new media minds and the challenges this brings to those of us ministry. I will be with about 230 missionaries and i expect to have a really good time. Switzerland is always nice!

Here are some of my actors from the gospel of Luke. Thats legion on the left, and the bleeding woman on the right. They were taken from hillmancurtis.com (with Hillman's permission) with the help of a trial version of Snapz Pro screen saver that can capture movement on screen and save it as Quicktime. If i wanted to, i probably could have made the whole thing without a video camera.
On a technical note, I have used Arkaos software to add the effects, pre-record many of the sequences (don't have time to push buttons when i am speaking) and will use it to do some live effects during presenation.
Powerpoint? Of course not. If God is a VJ, then the Devil uses Powerpoint.
I have created about 60 QT video loops and have them layered with transparency or, in the case of the screen shot below, placed the looping videos within other still frames. (loop on the notebook computer is from sofake.com) Hope it doesnt all crash on me. If it does, I will just have to switch mode to old-time preacher boy.

Whats with all the L's?
Go ahead. Make fun of me!!! Call it the Festival of Alliteration, if you want to (I know that i make fun of those guys). I very rarely use aliteration, in fact I cant even spell it, but i am guessing that this is the language that resonates with these mission professionals (4-Square) and so i dont mind switching over to modern-speak. I used to be fluent in it.
Pray for me, that God's timely word will equip these people to forward slash their way into becoming effective storytellers and partythrowers in Europe.

You can catch me and Forward Slash in London (Blah - May 25th) [26th-thanks Jonny] or Nashville, USA (Emergent Convention - May 18-22). If my puny iBook is not up to the challenge, i might change the title to "Forward Crash".

head down

My head is down and i am working hard. I am focused and grouchy. I am teaching in Switzerland this weekend and i am not ready. I only had about 2 years warning on this conference. Thats why i am getting everything ready at the last minute. I fly off on Friday. Pray for my poor family who will put up with my pre-conference mood swing for one more day.

3D Future of Church?

Church of Fools opens on May 11th, thanks to Specialmoves.com in London.
"It picks up the challenge of Archbishop Rowan Williams' Mission-shaped Church initiative –to create new expressions for Generation X-Box" says Steve Goddard, from Ship of Fools
Link from Coop