TallSkinnyKiwi

Staying connected with Dodgeball

Whether followers of Jesus go to a worship service or not (see sunday's post), they do tend to stay connected. Many of them turn up yearly at large festivals to "check in" to the wider family, and during the week they are in and out of each others houses.
I was wondering if anyone in USA was using Dodgeball social software to stay connected - it lets you know when you are within 10 blocks of any of your friends-of-friends. Not available here in London yet.

Bible Typos

Notorious Typos in the Bible - One of the famous ones:
Exodus 20:14: "Thou shalt commit adultery." 1631 King James version.

Christians without Churches

Reinhold Scharnowski has some good thoughts on the Christians who won't be turning up to a worship service today, but who are just as much a part of the family of God as anyone else.

Here is Reinhold's post:
"John Barrett estimates that there are 112 Millions of churchless Christians - men, women and children who confess Christ as their Lord but do not belong to any of the traditional churches. This number is growing fast. I know at least 50 of them. Either this is the Great Apostasy or it is a Great Apostolic movement. Apostolic means "to be sent" - maybe many of these are "sent" out of the Church walls and into the world God so desperately loves? This would necessarily require a radical new-definition of "church": liquid, dynamic, defined by relationships and not by meetings and structures. If we take this seriously - wow! If church is "the ever changing form of God`s mission into the world" (one of my own definitions), then church is - and has to be - a reflection of the way people live and relate to each other. I still believe in meetings - we will need them until the end, I think - but they are not the essence of church, just one of many ways church becomes visible.
This weekend is Pentecost - a great time to reflect more and deeper on these things that will determine my personal future a lot."

Reinhold heads up DAWN Europe from his base in Switzerland. He will be participating in our Global Roundtable at Greenbelt Festival on August 26th. Should be great to have him here in England. His writings on postmodernity and its impact on the European emerging church may be the first written in the German language.

Checking out and the naked truth

All is well with us, as we check out for the weekend. Hand is healing. House is clean. Pizza party went well again last night. We now have a regular stream of Muslims coming so we have to use Halal meat. We watched Return of the King last night.
Have a great weekend everyone.

Finding his religion

News Feature:R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and fresh-faced youngster Mandy Moore have joined forces to find religion.

blog birthday coming up - June 3

June 3 will be 3 years of blogging under the tallskinnykiwi name - come back then and i should have something for you.

Hang the VJ

Hang the VJ is one of the most interesting event of the onedotzero8 digital film festival in London. Monday 31 May at 7pm. Anyone else interested in meeting up there?

Blah: menu

here is the schedule for those of you coming to hear me speak tonight at blah.

menu
1. intro: a profound apology (5)
2. tree by the river: a connected theology (10)
3. p.h.a.t.: an apostolic strategy (10)
4. forward slash: a new media epistemology (10)
5. couch grass: a deep ecclesiology (10)
6. storm: a narrative missiology (10)
total: 55-content + 5-drizzle = (1 hour)

Here is the movie of Jonny singing folk songs in USA for you to download and have a laugh. jonnyinusa.mov is a QT File- 9 Meg. Don't take it too seriously. Original (without Jonny) is at archive.org

Starting the new week

From Thomas, OurDailyBlog"Each day we ought to renew our resolutions and arouse ourselves to fervor as though it were the first day of our religious life. We ought to say: "Help me, O Lord God, in my good resolution and in Your holy service. Grant me now, this very day, to begin perfectly, for thus far I have done nothing.""

19 years

May 24th, 1985 is the year I hopped on a plane and began my overseas pilgrimage with God. I had sold my car and used the money to buy a one way plane ticket. I flew to Singapore with a group of young people. We were joining a mission called Operation Mobilization for a 2 year commitment. From Singapore i led a mission team into Malaysia. I was 21 years old.
5 weeks later, I was in Europe, where I would lead another team into Austria, and return to Belgium to meet the girl who would pilgrimage with me in mission and marriage. We joined a mission ship, the M.V. Logos for 2 years, taking us around much of South and Central America and many of the islands. We were convinced that we were doing then what we should always be doing - serving the global church.
We were poor (we received $5 a week pocket money to get an icecream or two), enthusiastic, prayerful, bold and usually sunburnt. And we were very happy. I am still happy. The greatest people in the world, to me, are missionaries. They embody the selfless lifestyle of Jesus more than anyone I have met. My heros are missionaries. I always wanted to be one. Even when i was 12, before i even knew God, i was impressed with missionaries and saw myself doing what they do.
Anyway. 19 years later. I am still going. Thanks God. Thanks for the freedom to follow my heart. Lets do another 19!