TallSkinnyKiwi

Germany, France, and then home

OK - GCIA conference wrapped up today and we are closing up the DAWN Europe meeting this evening. Tomorrow I go to Freakstock Festival in Gotha for the day and then off to Wolfgang Simsons house with my family for one night. Sunday we will all be at Taize, France, with a few other families and friends. Then off to south of France for planning meeting regarding our Austin Texas event next March. Then off home to Scotland.

I am not sure how much WIFI i will have over the next 2 weeks. Probably not much. But even if you dont hear from me for a while, please keep us in your minds and prayers.

Moodle for Distance Learning

One group here at the GCIA is using moodle.com for their distance learning solution - allows for wiki, course work, etc.

Posters for Patriots of the Old Modern Way

These posters from Nic and Josh are also quite funny.

Nic and Josh were in my Happy Hour last night. I invited them because they are some of the very few people I know who do a podcast worth subscribing to. And over 150,000 subscribers agree with me. Its called the Nic and Josh Podcast and I was very honored to be their guest last year while in USA.
Nic and Josh and our group were discussing the Pyromaniac posters on the emerging church and I guess they have created a few responses IN KIND. See them here at Josh's blog.

If you like these posters, keep reading to see some more. And if you might also be amused by yet another anti-Emerging Church article called . . .and I am not lying . . .

Why Al Queda Supports the Emergent Church by Frank Pastore.
[edit: i removed link to this article at request of R.S. and i should add that that article has no connection at all with Pyromaniacs]

The Ugly Blogger - Wikiklesia

Despite my chapter called "The Ugly Blogger", positive endorsements for the first Wikiklesia e-book, released a few days ago, are coming in.
"The hive-mind of Christianity speaks! It brings news of the future. Uttered like a prayer retrieved from the year 2030, spoken in a new tongue, a new form. Listen!" Kevin Kelly, co-founder, Wired Magazine / Long Now Foundation.

If you have read my chapter and want to discuss it, then leave some comments below. If not, buy the book and lets talk.

Related: Wikiklesia: World's first self-perpetuating nomadic business model?

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, business, new media, web 2.0, wikiklesia

GCIA: Day Four

Day 4. We are talking about VIDEO.
- Keith Stonehocker: Convergence in media EG., CBS going into print. Christianity Today going into video
- Stephen Jeffs telling the story about Octillion.tv - their video on demand service. Now live after 3 years development. Octillion = a REALLY BIG NUMBER. Video for streaming or downloading.
- John LaRue from Christianity Today - online courses are over. It was complex and people wanted to own the material. Faith Visuals are popular - you can upload your video resources and make some money. Lots of free video also.
CBS, South Korea (no relation to USA company) has been broadcasting since 1954. Big focus on delivery to phone. They have a prayer meeting each morning with his staff of 67 workers.

More:

me so corny i bore you long time ten percent

One of my domain names is becoming available. I couldnt decide what i wanted for my birthday last year so I bought myself a stupid domain name that makes me laugh everytime i say it.

mesocornyiboreyoulongtimetenpercent.com

My intention was to make it a collection of the cheesiest sermons ever, starting with my own, and then expand to include all manner of religious kitch. But . . . you know . . . so much other trivial stuff got in the way and i never got around to it. But if it strikes a chord and you want to help me find the appropriate material, then let me know and I might pay for another year.

Happy Hour - Thanks Everyone!!!

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for coming and participating. great time with you, despite the hiccups

Original: Hey - this will be my very first video cafe so its sure to go embarrassingly wrong but I invite you to be a part of it anyway. One hour together, as I announced a few months ago. I will have some guests live on video and i might be playing a few vids as well. The theme will be new media and internet based communities/ministries.

Thanks to the programing genuis of the Shapevine Crew, I will be narrowcasting from the Global Christian Internet Alliance meeting in Berlin. This is a gathering of about 60 key players in the world of internet portals and Christian websites around the world. The alliance has been growing since its inception in 2001 with the encouragement of Christianity Today. Its quite an appropriate place to kick off my Happy Hour which, if it doesnt TOTALLY SUCK, might become a monthly feature of this blog. We will do this today, Wednesday July 25th at exactly 7pm German time. Check out the clock below to get your times right or go to world time server and get your city timed up with me.

Berlin

And yes, Dr Jackson, you are invited.

Pyromaniac Posters for Emerging Christians

The keepers of the Reformed Holy Grail at Pyromaniacs have released a series of images that poke fun at and show their take on the emerging church - which is not favorable. Each image points to a website. The missional image above points to JesusCreed and the cussing image (below) points to my blog post on cussing and offensive language.

What do I think of these images?

I really like them. I may not agree with the conclusions or assumptions that have motivated them, but I appreciate the quality, the humor, the approach, and the tone. I see them as an invitation to respond with something similar. Maybe this is a new way of debating using images and media . . . and i like it. I will probably show the images on my Happy Hour tonight and discuss them with my guests. Here are the complete set at Pyro here, here, here and here.

Wait - i just found them on one site - Go to posters at Spurgeon.org. What do you think? Which is your favourite?

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

Global Christian Internet Alliance: Day Three

Tony Whittaker is talking now on Internet Evangelism Day which started in 2005. I remember it, actually. I think I was involved. Tony is talking about misunderstandings about the web and confusion with old media methods. GOOD! No one has really said this well at the conference until now and its necessary to talk about it. A website is not a tract. He also mentioned the Gray Matrix and tackled the 99% problem - that 99% of Christian media is written for Christians. Hhhhhhhmmmmmmm . . ..

I arrived a little late this morning at the GCIA because I had to talk to my wife. My family leave today for Freakstock Festival in Gotha, Germany. I will stay behind for my meetings here in Berlin.

Back at the conference: Eric has an amazing web portal in France called TopChretien. He has been talking this morning about how the site was developed, how partners were added, business models etc. Many people click on the site to register their interest in following Jesus and I think he is using Google earth to locate them near a church. Something like that. Its also good to see healthy approaches to business and income generation which will help these portals become self-sustaining and help other countries get going.

Thanks to Zondervan for their email newsletter yesterday that not only promoted an e-book that is not theirs (Wikiklesia) but also pointed their readers to this blog to read about the Global Christian Internet Alliance. For those just tuning in, you may want to start at Day One. Blogging From the GCIA: Day One, Day Two, Day Three

Dave Hackett talking about some really cool stuff.

Oh yeah. Last night we went out to Lukas Gemeinde and my friend Axiel gave us the skinny on Berlin. We prayed for the city and had a good time of worship. Heres a picture of us last night. Keith Stonehocker, in the foreground, is one of the main culprits behind pulling this conference together. He My wife had a great chat with Keith's wife Carolyn last night and really likes her.

This and other photos by Rolf are here.

Technorati Tags: gcia, web 2.0

Shapevine.com

No, Shapevine.com are not represented here at the Global Christian Internet Alliance but I mention them here because tomorrow night, July 25th at 7pm Berlin time, they are hosting my video chat called Andrew's Happy Hour. See you there.