A-Team visit 24 Set

Ok - I'm impressed! The theo-blogging crew of A-Team went to visit the crew of the TV show "24". Here is Roger Overton hanging with Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). I cant really compete with that. Once our Young Leaders (pre-Emergent) team got a tour through the MTV studios in New York and we got to see some famous pop stars and talk to some execs. But I don't listen to that pop stuff and didn't have a clue who i was meeting. So that doesnt count. But the A-Team hanging with the 24 actors is definitely KUDOS-WORTHY.
Now if the A-Team had visited the set of LOST . . . then i would be SUPREMELY impressed!

Davos 2007

The World Economic Forum in Switzerland has opened its doors to bloggers this year - special meetings and opportunities for bloggers. In one of the meetings, Gordon Brown gives a big endorsement to blogs. Check out ForumBlog, Daylife, and the Davos Conversation which seems to have the skinny and links-a-plenty to the various MSN blogs.

But more interesting is the attention given to the cyberworld of Second Life where some of the interactions are happening. Even Rueters has an online presence and is giving coverage to Davos with an avatar-journalist. We should pray for this event and ask God's wisdom for financial, cultural and political leaders. Good to see Bono there.

Blogging Friends: Mike Todd of Waving or Drowning

Technorati Tags: davos07, davos, world economic forum

Elizabeth's Birthday Today

My tall lanky daughter Elizabeth turns 14 today. Happy birthday LittleBit. Dad will be home in time for the celebrations. You can say happy birthday to her on her bebo where she is known as LittleLiz93. There you go . . are you sufficiently EMBARRASSED now by being on your old dad's blog???

Wiki Words

- Wired's Big Question Wiki needs some people to help fill in the blanks to BIG questions like:
Where is the Holy Grail?

- SmartBibleWiki.com is under development, courtesy of the omnipresent Dr Andy Jackson of SmartChristian who has the skinny;
"SmartBibleWiki.com will be an open-source website dedicated to the interpretation of each book of the Bible. I will keep you informed as things unfold, but I would appreciate your prayer support as I take this initial step with already having a heavy teaching and ministry load."

Look for it soon.

Technorati Tags: wiki

At Big Chill House

Update: Meeting went really well. So glad we chose Big Chill House as the venue for our business meeting. Funky space, nice staff, and a great lunch menu. Food was incredible and cost around £8-10 each main course. And having a free room was a cheap way of running a meeting.
The Naxos Nook was comfortable but there were no power outlets for computers and the Wifi was not connected to the internet. This wasnt a problem for us since were were not using computers or internet, but I would not use the room for multimedia presentations.

As for our meeting, we had about 14 ministry leaders during the day including British, Germans and Americans. Thanks to Lee Behar of the Maclellan Foundation for great advice and guidance in making our dreams a reality.

Hey. I look forward to meeting some of you today at the Big Chill House in London. We have booked the room called Naxos Nook which is next to the Love Inn. Very cool space. We must use it again for other events. Thanks Jonny B for suggesting this meeting space.

London meetings

Sorry I have been so silent. I have been behind on a number of deadlines and didnt feel right about blogging until i had completed some things. Internet at my hostel is down so i am at a crowded internet cafe.

i met today at Church Mission Society HQ. Good lunch with Jonny Baker, Gareth and Tim who video taped me for a documentary they are making.

In the afternoon I had another meeting onboard HMS President on the Thames river. This was a planning and vision casting meeting for Pentecost Festival 2008 which will be a London-wide ministry weekend involving, probably, 30,000 people. Rob Frost was managing this meeting and you will probably hear more from him in the near future on this event, that he sees as a 5 year commitment that will see 100,000 people involved in London by 1012, the year of the Olympics.

London This Week

I am in London from Monday until Thursday. Some meetings to attend - all VERY TOP SECRET as usual. One of them I am organizing for emerging church start-ups that need some encouragement. A group of us from Germany and UK are meeting to help each other out with the administrative side of getting things off the ground. Just a small group of leaders - and not open to the public. But I will tell you about it afterwards. There might be a one hour open session for new projects on Wednesday if anyone is about to launch something WORTHY this year. If so, send me an email and tell me about your project - which should be concerned with evangelism or church planting in the emerging culture.

London lovers may want to read my one day experience called “Losing My Religion in London: Part One - Four” or my pilgrimage to Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle

Scot McKnight's Five Streams of Emerging Church

Speaking of Christianity Today and emerging church, Scot McKnight has written another superb article on the emerging church scene in North America and UK. Well . . . mainly North America. Its called “Five Streams of the Emerging Church: Key elements of the most controversial and misunderstood movement in the church today.” Its one of those articles that is worth linking, pointing, printing, distributing, etc. No doubt it will be well read over the weekend.
Here are the 5:

Prophetic
Postmodern
Praxis-oriented
Post-evangelical
Political

Also: The emergence of emergent on CT

More on Scot at Tallskinnykiwi:
Emerging Movement: Future or Fad?
Emerging Church Blogger of the Year
Scot McKnight at Westminster
What is the Emerging Church?

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

What did you go out to see?

Pilgrim, pilgrim, where have you been?
I've been to London to visit the emerging church scene
Pilgrim, pilgrim, what did you there?
I found a little queen sitting on her chair.

from "What did you go out to see?" by Andrew Jones, BC, Jan 2006.

For those of you reading my missions article in the Books and Culture [Christianity Today for conniseurs of fine thinking] you can interact with me in the comments below if you have any questions or further insight. The article is NOT on the internet. That means you need to subscribe or buy a copy of the magazine to read it. Which isn't a bad idea.

Special thanks to Andy Crouch for his great job in editing. If you find the article a little CRYPTIC, please realize it was far more labyrinthian before Andy helped beat it into submission. For the record, the last time I wrote for CT was in 2000 - an article on Dante on the occasion of his 700th birthday and it was John Wilson who was cursed with the job of editing that one.

BackYard Missionary Takes a BackSeat

Andrew Hamilton (Hamo), perhaps the best known Aussie Emerging Church blogger, has stopped his blogging efforts after 4 fabulous years as the Backyard Missionary. Hamo and I were in the same youth group when we were teenagers and our journeys are somehow joined. I have been toying with the idea of stopping my blog, especially after seeing all the hype about it, but Hamo has beaten me to it. HT: Mark Edwards

Unforgettable Hamo blog moments:
1. Incarnational vs. Attractional Mission - read and linked all over the globe.
2. Chat with Don Carson when Hamo and Geoff are told they are not heretical enough to be considered "Emerging Church". Start with my overview of the conversation

.Hamo - we SALUTE you! See you back in the blogosphere in a few years time?

Technorati Tags: emerging church