TallSkinnyKiwi

Emerging Church Stuff

I couldn't resist playing with the Friend of emergent badge. I always enjoy my times with the Emergent crowd but there are also things that sometimes bug me - as with any organization - so I suppose i am a friend and a fiend. But more of a friend.
If I had a badge for every emerging church network I support, I would need to build another column to hold them all. Emergent seems to get the lion's share of publicity for the global emerging church and so I tend NOT to blog about them as much as i would like to. There are many AMAZING emerging church networks and movements around the world that many people have not even heard of and I like to even up the playing field - since most influential Christian publishers and websites are based in USA.

Speaking of . . .
- Tribal Generation happens in Brazil, June 14-17. There will be emerging church networks from all over Latin America. I should be there also, having been involved with TG since 2000.

- Die Gefaehrten, a Global Roundtable for the Underground Emerging Church, will happen in August 4-6 in Germany. Invitations have already been issued and leaders will be participating from all over the globe. And yes, I will be there.
- and in Malaysia this October, 500 young leaders will be gathering at Lausanne sponsored event. I was invited as an 'old guy' - being over 35, but am not sure if i will be there or not.

Technorati Tags: Emergent, emerging church

WeMedia Fringe Event - May 3

The WeMedia Fringe Event is confirmed for Wednesday evening, May 3 somewhere in Soho, London. Robin Hamman (Lead Troublemaker) has asked me for a list of participants. So this is where you send me an email and let me know you will be there with £15 and a smile. Do it today if you can. Let me know if you are a media student and want to help with podcasting - BBC 5 have offered a journalist and will probably use your audio.

Some of you might be at the Official WeMedia Global Forum anyway - which is a great idea - please take copious notes and tag your blog posts with "wemedia" for Mr Technorati's roll call - Your evening is free so you can come over to the Fringe. WeMedia organisers are aware of the Fringe event and there seems to be a healthy amount of mutual respect and collaboration. Which is good. They even give kudos to my original PoorMeMedia post. If you really cant attend either event, you poor thing, then check out the chat and video options on the official site.

Here is an unofficial map so you can visualise us: [click to enlarge]

Robin has the line up of speakers for the Fringe event which now includes:

• Suw Charman, Executive Director, Open Rights Group
• Paul Evans who blogs at nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com
• Michael Tippett,founder of nowpublic.com
• Neha Viswanathan (withinandwithout.com and globalvoicesonline.org)
• Tim Ireland, online marketing expert and activist who blogs at bloggerheads.com
• Dr Chris Yapp, Head of Public Sector Innovation, Microsoft
• Ben Metcalfe (benmetcalfe.com / backstage.bbc.co.uk)
• A political blogger who goes by the name of "Quido Fawkes" (order-order.com)

Technorati Tags: wemedia

Tsotsi

Last night Debbie and I went out with friends Nigel and Jo to see the South African movie "Tsotsi". Really enjoyed it!
When i was in South Africa a few months ago they asked me if i had seen the movie and i embarrassing had not. but i can hold my head up high around south africans now!

Our Kitchy Kitchen

Scored an ultra-kitchy 1950's (???) pantry larder this week for our kitchen. My bid of £7 was the highest. This would have cost a fortune back in the States or even in London. I don't think anyone looked inside it to see the inbuilt canisters - or maybe it just wasn't their style. . . . anymore.

Adventures in Hybridity. Part Two.

A little background on the previous post and a little thinking out loud.

For the past ten years, we have been traveling around the world connecting with followers of Jesus who are forming new kinds of faith-based aggregations. Many of these people do not attend church on a Sunday. Many of them used to be "members" of churches but now only go on occasion to stay connected or not at all. Their most significant communal rhythms happen through a number of separate events and occasions in homes, coffee shops, clubs, festivals, etc. And in the past 7 years, the internet has become another of those places where spiritual gifts are shared and the accountability of relationship is maintained despite physical distance.

In 1997, we helped to start an intentional community (urban monastery) in San Francisco. This became the base for our ministry and the various events connected to it. Since we were meeting almost daily for feeding the poor, studying the Bible, worship and prayer, sharing the story of Jesus, many in the community did not feel a need for a Sunday service.

In 1998 we hit the road, traveling full time around USA for the next few years. Then our travels took us to Europe where we have witnessed the same thing. In every city we discovered believers who didn't 'go to church' but we being used by God to impact their cities and were forming spiritual communities not bound by a Sunday event. They didn't like the word "house church" because they had not really traded one model for another. It was more complex than that. Deeper.

Technorati Tags: christianity, church, complexity, Emergent, emerging church, hybridity, religion

Adventures in Hybridity. Part One

I want to explore something here. The emerging church, not as a new unattached model of church existing in a tense opposition or competition to the inherited model, but rather as a hybrid, a convergence of old and new, inherited and fresh, old media and print based, liturgic and spontaneous, house and cathedral, a new kind of hybridity existing in a complex web of life in which it is increasingly hard to see people as either church goers or non-church goers. And something that creates tension with previously established authority structures.

An email was sent to me last month and the author (i will call her Bertha) gave me permission to blog it here. Its just one email but it represents the questions of millions of young people who are thinking similar thoughts. I run into them all the time and I dont always know the right answers. You may want to ponder her questions and add your own sentiments.

"Hey Andrew, it was really good to see you in _____ a couple of weeks ago, I know it was brief, but it was a breath of fresh air to chat with you.

It's been a few years since I've been involved with the church, I've been floating around on the edge for a while, and it's hard to know who to talk to as people tend to be either in church (and tell you what you should think/do) or out, and most of my friends are also in the same position on the edge and so don't really know how to help each other, we just talk about it and agree! I hope you don't mind if I get out abit of what's in my head, as I just had a brainwave that you might understand.

Technorati Tags: christianity, church, churchless, Emergent, emerging church, religion

'Evangelical' - Time to Change the Word?

Jonny Baker mentions an interesting Christianity Magazine article where John Buckeridge suggests the "tide has gone out on the "e" word"

I find it really hard to part with ANYTHING. I am unashamedly retro. I tend to stick with things a long time. My shoes WEAR OUT in ways embarrasing to my wife but i hate to throw things away. I just said goodbye to my dressing gown (robe - US) after 17 years of fond memories.

Same for my vocabulary. I have been fighting for the "emerging" word for quite a while, despite people saying it no longer means what people think it means and I also advised a large denominational agency last year to keep the word "evangelist" because I believe it is coming back into currency. So any talk of abandoning the word "evangelical" will not be a totally objective exercise if i am part of it. But at the same time, sometimes words wear out and need to be replaced in order to keep the same meaning. Nostalgia can sometimes interfere.

Technorati Tags: christianity, evangelical

Challies New Site

Discerning Reader is a new web site for Tim Challies, web master for the conservative crowd. Its got book reviews, DVD reviews and some more book reviews. Its his best design yet [love that KIWI green] and will no doubt be a well-frequented site, since Tim is famous for his book reviews. Did i mention there will be BOOK REVIEWS on his site?
But whats up with the BOOK thing? Where are the reviews of scholarly PDF's and momentus blog posts? I am hoping Tim will acknowledge the new media world of electronic publications as well as those old paper inventions. The site also needs a space for readers to leave their own comments and book reviews. Come on, Tim.

Recently Printed PDF's

I only print off articles when i need to bring them into the bathtub. Here are two worthy PDFs that made it to print today.

1. Complexity Theory as Model and Metaphor for the Church (pdf) by David Wollert.
2. Hybridity or The Third Space and How Shall We Describe the Kingdom of God (pdf) by Johnathon Ingleby

Technorati Tags: complexity, hybridity

PoorMeMedia

UPDATE: WeMedia Fringe is confirmed for 6:30pm in London. Official program at WeMedia Global Forum is online. Sounds like there is some collaboration between the two which is great!

ORIGINAL POST: Bummer - I will be in London on May 3 but I cant afford the $795 [ cough . . cough ] to attend the WeMedia Global Forum and was wondering what to do. Then i discovered that Robin from Cybersoc is organizing a WeMedia Fringe event for all the poverty-stricken bloggers and info geeks.

Technorati Tags: wemedia