TallSkinnyKiwi

My Dad also

My dad died on Friday night. He was told that I was on my way to Australia and that means a lot. He went quite suddenly - his time had come and it wasnt a surprise. I am glad he didnt have to attend his youngest son's funeral - "No father should have to bury his son" (LOTR)
So tomorrow we have Lewis's funeral and the day after we have dad's. Who would have thought they would go out together?

Singapore

Cool. I havent been here for many years. The airport is way cool. A swimming pool on the roof and free internet everywhere. I will be coming through Singapore next Saturday and will have time to meet with any emerging church people. Send me an email.

I spent 5 weeks in Singapore and Malaysia back in 1985 with OM. Very different now.

Australia for a week

I am in London tonight but am traveling out to Australia tomorrow for the funeral of my brother and will be in Brisbane on the weekend. I might also be able to pop down to Melbourne later next week. I will be spending time with my dad who is very sick and possibly seeing his last days. I might also be able to pop down to Melbourne later next week. I will be in Singapore the morning of Saturday Dec 4 for about 6 hours, if anyone wants to hook up for a spicy breakfast. I will back in london late Saturday night, the 4th Dec, too late to speak at the Emergent UK Conference - my apologies to those who were going to hear my seminary on Saturday. The last time this happened (Nashville) I suggested people go to hear Jonny Baker who was speaking at the same time. Well this time, Jonny happens to be speaking the same time again, so go and hear him.

I had a nice dinner with Maggie and Phouc-Tan tonight in London, and a visit to the Apple Store. Great time. But i do feel a little depressed right now. thanks for your prayers.

Like a Rhizome Cowboy

Here are the details of my presentation "Like a Rhizome Cowboy: The Skinny on emergence principles for network-based churches" given at The Sheffield Centre, November 2004.

On the road again

Off again for meetings and a conference. This is my schedule: Aberdeen today Sheffield Tues - Thursday. London - Friday to Tuesday.
I have Saturday free in London if anyone wants to meet up.

I go to Rio

I go to Rio . . . De Janeiro . . . next May, and not just coz my baby smiles at me (she does), but because i will be speaking and learning at Tribal Generation's yearly event, the event that i always get invited to, and yet never get there.
"New Generation or Urban Tribes is a global phenomenon where frontiers are not barriers, where the values are still being defined in a world called post modern. In EUA and Europe the phenomenon is called Emergent Generation and it is made of people that have their values and aims strongly influenced by a global world . . ."

That quote (as well as the images) is from the Brazilian TribalGeneration.org website, translated for English speakers like me. Olgavaro Bastos Jnr has been involved on a leadership level with many of our global emerging church events - we were together in Japan, Colombia, Texas, England, Portugal and Prague. The emerging scene there is huge, and is all over Latin America, but Brazil and Chile seem to be hubs.  Much for us to learn from and a welcome mat to contribute what we can.

Apple Temple of Cool Opens

New pilgrimage site in London, one that i hope to pay my respect to in about 2 weeks. The Apple Store opens in London in about an hour. WISH I WAS THERE!!!!!!! I have been waiting over a year for this - it should be a highly spiritual experience, and a droolworthy one, as this cartoon from GeekCulture shows.
Apple may be a cool company and sometimes I may get a little too excited about their products, but I really do owe a lot to them - through their simple products, I have been able to create stuff, publish my thoughts, put movies online (since 2000 on my old iMac) and more. and that . . . is my testimony.
Next big Apple Temple? Probably Toronto.

BiG Blogging

Google has been experiementing with a blogging system for corporations. Its called Blogger in Google (BiG) amn we may see it soon. Here is an screenshot.

Emergent Criticism

It looks like Emergent is about to enter a season of blow torching from the mainstream church. How should we handle it?

Is Emerging Church a Renaissance Recapitulation?

Is Emergent a recapitualtion of the Renaissance? The question is asked by Thomas Brown in a comment this morning. I say yes, but . . . we would have to look at Emerging Church in 3 stages . . .