TallSkinnyKiwi

London

London today. We just got Elizabeth's new passport which expired this month. Both Debbie and I had to be present so this is one of the reasons we are down here. All went well. The kids are now at Hamley's and Samuel and I are here at the Apple Store. Which is how i am blogging right now.
Feast tonight at Shannon's house with Si, and others coming over.

Cambridge

We arrived last night at Phouc-Tan and Mags house. Great time. They are well and are in the right place. Mags was a girl in my youth group at North Beach Baptist Church in Australia when i was a youth pastor there 1991-1993. They were married last year in London- all the bridesmaids wore Doc Martins and Mags the bride also had a pair all during the ceremony. And yes, Mags has met the other Maggie in Cambridge.

Mac, blog and photos

CC, Oklahoma: Andrew, Do you have any advice for a Mac user that wants to blog. I had problems trying to blog because the software was not Mac compatable to post pics and such. Blessings in carrying the Faith, CC
TSK: That’s easy. If you go with blogger, use flickr.com as your photo uploader and manager. But if you fork out a few bucks a month, get typepad.com and they will take care of all your image unloading and management needs. Have fun.

Jones family On the road

We leave tonight on the ferry. Yes, the whole family. Our van is at the mechanics, waiting for parts but we will be borrowing a Land Rover (thanks Miriam!)
Shannon Hopkins is also coming with us. We are working on a tour for the autumn of an art exhibition based on the life of Jesus and a corresponding conversation about the gospels. Here is our schedule for next week:
Tuesday (tomorrow)- Cambridge, UK
Wednesday - London
Friday - France
Saturday - Berlin?
Sunday - Prague
Tuesday - Amsterdam?
Wednesday - London
April 6 to 13 - Debbie in Mexico and I am watching the kids and bringing them to Scotland.
April 22-27 - Andrew in California and Debbie watching the kids. In California I will be talking with Fuller Seminary about emerging church training with colleagues.
Appreciate prayer for safety and sanity as we drive. And for the strengthening and encouraging of God's people that we meet with. Our trip does not seem complete. Are there people out there we need to meet with on the way? Send me an email.

New Book: Wanting More

My good friend Joel Vestal of ServLife was one of the original guys connected with Young Leaders (pre-EmergentVillage) His book called Wanting More is great. I wrote up some thoughts for it a few months ago and look forward to seeing the whole thing. If you are interested in how missions is looking and feeling in the emerging church around the world, then pre-order this book. At least download the first chapter.

Crowded House drummer dead

Paul Hester found dead in Melbourne. Very tragic news. Crowded House was one of my favorite bands. I have followed the Finn Brothers from their incredible Split Enz days in New Zealand (True Colours was a total classic album) through Crowded House and up to the present. I am sure they will be grieved beyond words over this news. Link.
Blogger-musician Mike Lane in Melbourne might have the skinny. Yes - right here.

Deja Vu: The 5 year loop

March 24, 2000 is when our family left California and flew to London on British Airways. We transferred to a smaller plane at Heathrow and flew up to Aberdeen where we lived for 4 months.
Fast forward 5 years. Exactly 5 years. To the day. March 24, 2005, And I fly to London on British Airways, transfer at Heathrow to my flight to Aberdeen. Deja vu!!

Easter at the Ring of Brodgar

Easter service this morning, held at the ancient Ring of Brodgar.

At 8:30am, the weather was sunny and fantastic. Highly unusual.

A small band led us in some hymns.

“People were gathering here at the time of Abraham” [intro comments]

The guy on the radio was hilarious. He commented, tongue-in-cheek, that the believers were celebrating Easter at the Ring of Brodgar, while the Druids were celebrating in the Cathedral. ha. ha. ha.

Home Again

I just made it back home. I missed the ferry yesterday, after a 7 hour drive through Scotland. The youth hostel was closed and so I found an Inn that i stayed at last night. I HATE paying out for that, but I had slept in my car in Scotland last week and it was really cold- so i splurged 25 pounds, slept well, and had a great breakfast.

Nice to be home with the wife and kiddliwinks!!! Now its time for Easter. Tomorrow we gather with all the Orkney believers at the Ring of Brodgar, where people have gathered for 5000 years.

Are We A Threat to the Gospel? (Restored)

UPDATE: This is getting a little unwieldy. Can we keep in mind that this is not a matter of baptist church VS emerging church but rather Mohler VS McLaren. And remember that Mohler does not speak for all Baptists, just as McLaren does not speak for all in the emerging church. See a really good response at Reformissionary, Emerging SBC Leaders and also Christdot. Best conversation is at SBC LEADERS

ORIGINAL POST:
“Leaders Call Emerging Church Movement a Threat to Gospel”. “A recently developed way of envisioning church known as the ”Emerging Church Movement“ deals carelessly with Scripture and compromises the Gospel, according to a prominent evangelical scholar and a Southern Baptist seminary president.” David Roach, Baptist Press, summarizing D.A. Carson and Al Mohler.

Al Mohler and Don Carson are both worth reading because they have given attention to us. Al Mohler read “The Post Evangelical” andDon Carson attended an Emergent Convention. [Correction: John in comments says he did not attend but only heard a CD - thanks John] I think its great that they are taking the effort and they deserve our respectful treatment as we respond to them.
“Dr. Carson doesn't understand us.” says Brian McLaren who gets spanked again, this time with a Baptist rod.
I wish the Baptist Press would critique some young Baptists inside the emerging church scene and not Brian McLaren who would be criticized by Baptists whether he was part of the emerging church or not.

Al Mohler: “The worldview of postmodernism -- complete with an epistemology that denies the possibility of or need for propositional truth -- affords the movement an opportunity to hop, skip and jump throughout the Bible and the history Christian thought in order to take whatever pieces they want from one theology and attach them, like doctrinal post-it notes, to whatever picture they would want to draw.” Article

So, are we a threat to the Gospel?
That hurts. I have devoted the last 25 years to the living out and telling the Good Story in about 40 countries. I was under the impression that I was HELPING the story get told, not hindering or threatening it. So what about letting me respond to that last paragraph, as one who was raised a Baptist and has also been identified with the emerging church . . .

[update] - ahhhh . . my blogging editor messed up here and deleted the rest of my thoughts. I am sorry! No disrespect intended to those of you who posted comments. If anyone copied and pasted my whole post, please let me know.

(update2] thanks Darryl for the .pdf file. Darryl at dashhouse.com To read the rest of this post, either Download PDF file of this post here. or keep reading the email that Darryl sent me.
(Soooooorrrrrryyyy that is so confusing.)