TallSkinnyKiwi

Memorize Ephesians With Me

Last year I challenged you to read through the Bible, using the One Year Bible Blog. Some of you emailed me to say it was really helpful. Cool! If you have never done it before, I highly recommend it. And its not too late to start.

2010 will be a sporadic year for me with internet access. I think I will be on 5 continents this year and there will be many days when I will be without WIFI and unable to get the daily download. So I was thinking something different. Instead, I offer you a new challenge - memorize Paul's letter to the Ephesians with me and my team.

Its a great exercise to memorize a book of the Bible because it gives you a chance to mediate on it as you memorize it and you also see the wider flow of the book rather than some isolated verses. Besides that, part of the CapeTown 2010 event that I will be taking part in later this year, includes a focus on Ephesians. You can download the Ephesians study plan here.

So, how about it? What's the matter? ARE YOU CHICKEN?

Best Religion Blog 2009: Father John Kicks our Butts

Father John Zuhlsdorf not only won the Bloggers Choice 'Best Religion Blog' for 2009 but he also raced passed us all on Technorati's Top Religion Blogs. In fact, he is miles higher than us and it might be impossible to catch him. Well done Father John! His blog, called What Does The Prayer Really Say?, gets updated many times a day and is quite holistic in its outlook - really good posts on almost everything - which is what I think blogs should be about anyway. Check it out.

How To Spot a Church Movement

Good conversation at Neil Cole's blog on whether the organic church movement is actually a movement or not, and what some of the secrets of igniting a movement might be. Lets be honest - most of us wouldn't recognize a a spiritual movement if it turned into a giant marshmellow and fell on our head! And its even harder to spot one when it is going on around you.

So what does a spiritual movement look like?

Dr Paul Pierson, my missions history prof at Fuller, and a pastor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, compiled a very helpful list of characterstics of renewal movements. I used his ideas to research the Toronto Vineyard movement when it was only 6 months old. Thanks Ryan for asking him to write them down so that others might use them.

"Dear Andrew; Ryan asked me to send this to you. The list of factors observed in revival and renewal movements throughout history is flexible and some of these can be combined, but here is a list.
- They always begin on the periphery of the institutional church
- They are motivated by a transforming experience (grace) of God by an individual or group.
- The result is the desire for a more authentic Christian life that often leads to concern for the church and world.
- Face to face groups for prayer, Bible study, mutual encouragement are important.
- New methods of selecting and training leaders become important. These are less institutional, more grass roots and lay oriented.
- There are theological breakthroughs, that is, rediscovery of aspects of the Biblical message that have been forgotten or overlooked by the Church, usually they involve a focus on the gifts of every believer.
- There is a leveling effect, distance decreases between clergy and laity, social classes, races, men and women, and denominations.
- The movement is countercultural in some ways, often because it reaches out to those who have not been valued by their society. - Consequently there will be opposition by many in the dominant culture and church. - There will often be manifestations of spiritual warfare. such movements sense the reality of evil and the need to recognize the vistory of Christ in the cross and resurrection.
- At times there will be unusual manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit; healings, visions, glossalalia, miracles. etc.
- More flexible structures of church and mission will be needed and often emerge, different from traditional structures.
- The movement will be led to significant recontextualization of the Christian message, which will be communicated more widely by lay persons to those outside the church.
- New music is often a characteristic.
- Biblical concepts ignored by the traditional church but relevant to the hearers are often discovered.
- There will be a growing concern for the marginalized, often expressed in ministries of compassion.
- At a later stage this often leads to concern for broader social transformation.
- As the movement matures there will be concern for the renewal of the broader church.
- As the movement continues to mature many will see themselves not only as part of the particular movement but as citizens of the Kingdom of God, transcending their own movement.
- Finally, every movement is less than perfect and often messy at the edges and sometimes, at the center. This is inevitable as long as sinful humans are involved.

I hope this is helpful. Cordially, Paul Pierson

"Dear Andrew; Ryan asked me to send this to you. The list of factors observed in revival and renewal movements throughout history is flexible and some of these can be combined, but here is a list.
- They always begin on the periphery of the institutional church
- They are motivated by a transforming experience (grace) of God by an individual or group.
- The result is the desire for a more authentic Christian life that often leads to concern for the church and world.
- Face to face groups for prayer, Bible study, mutual encouragement are important.
- New methods of selecting and training leaders become important. These are less institutional, more grass roots and lay oriented.
- There are theological breakthroughs, that is, rediscovery of aspects of the Biblical message that have been forgotten or overlooked by the Church, usually they involve a focus on the gifts of every believer.
- There is a leveling effect, distance decreases between clergy and laity, social classes, races, men and women, and denominations.
- The movement is countercultural in some ways, often because it reaches out to those who have not been valued by their society. - Consequently there will be opposition by many in the dominant culture and church. - There will often be manifestations of spiritual warfare. such movements sense the reality of evil and the need to recognize the vistory of Christ in the cross and resurrection.
- At times there will be unusual manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit; healings, visions, glossalalia, miracles. etc.
- More flexible structures of church and mission will be needed and often emerge, different from traditional structures.
- The movement will be led to significant recontextualization of the Christian message, which will be communicated more widely by lay persons to those outside the church.
- New music is often a characteristic.
- Biblical concepts ignored by the traditional church but relevant to the hearers are often discovered.
- There will be a growing concern for the marginalized, often expressed in ministries of compassion.
- At a later stage this often leads to concern for broader social transformation.
- As the movement matures there will be concern for the renewal of the broader church.
- As the movement continues to mature many will see themselves not only as part of the particular movement but as citizens of the Kingdom of God, transcending their own movement.
- Finally, every movement is less than perfect and often messy at the edges and sometimes, at the center. This is inevitable as long as sinful humans are involved.

I hope this is helpful. Cordially, Paul Pierson

Winkie Pratney's Communication Secret

Winkie Pratney just suffered an aneurysm last week and "apparently is not doing very well." His speech is slurred and he might have some memory loss. Quite a shock for a guy who speaks to half a million youth each year. I heard Winkie speak in Portugal last May - a wonderful, dynamic warm-hearted speaker, although a little obsessed with stories of his medical tragedies. I am sure this one will become a story also.

One of his communication secrets, he told us, was to win the trust of his audience through personal stories. Most of the time in his presentations is devoted to stories of his life and his actual challenges are very short, but memorable and life-changing.

And Winkie wants everyone to know that, despite his unusual name, he is NOT a gay teletubbie!

Top 5 Memories from YL/Emergent

My Top 5 memories from YL/Emergent:

1. Glorieta, NM: National Evaluation Forum or New Edge gathering in 1998. We wanted to allow people to respond to the messages through visual and tactile means. So we set up an art studio in a broom closet and installed a resident artist (Derek Chapman) for the event. My wife Debbie put chunks of clay around the conference center. I had this idea of putting paper all over the walls so people could write on the wall whatever God was telling them or maybe questions they had. Before long there were scribbles all over the place and the chunks of clay were becoming pieces of art. Funny thing was that as we traveled around USA to speak at churches, we kept seeing chunks of clay and other art supplies. Debbie got a buzz out of that.

2. Orlando: Doug and I did a workshop at the National GenX Forum in Florida, 1999, in which I suggested we dont mention the word "postmodern", which by this time had begun to get worn out. We had a great time and I was laughing so much I could hardly continue.

3. Atlanta: 5 of us were at this stupid big meeting full of show-offs. This one guy, who's ministry was named after himself, gets up to the stage which had his name plastered on 3 different banners around the stage. Mark Driscoll was next up to speak after this braggart and instead of trying to do one better, he simply bows his head and prays for the entire time a prayer of repentance for our arrogance. Then he walks back to our table and sits down. Sweet! Soooo timely and prophetic. I'll never forget that one.

4. Glorieta, NM. Innovative Church Conference, 1998. I think Rick Warren and other big shots were there. Lots of Southern Baptists. About 5 of us were invited to share our stuff and it was Bob Hope's birthday so I thought I would liven it up a little by dressing up in red golf pants and arriving in an obnoxious manner with a bag of golf-clubs on my shoulder, non-seeker friendly, non-postmodern outfit. At least i thought it was funny.

5. Glorieta, NM. Emergent Gathering 2005. Rather than give a talk I made pizza for a hundred people and taught on the yeast of the Kingdom as we made dough. Some of it is on video.

Goodbyes to Emergent Village

Since New Years Day, the focus of this blog has been transitioning to something different - locating and equipping missional entrepreneurs around the world that God loves. Its a movement that doesn't really have a name but its good. I will not be using the emerging church vocabulary and this blog will be more geared to covering the wider mission, church and social enterprise scene as well as resourcing people - like you - to leave a lasting impact on their world. I wont be carrying the emerging church conversation or daily tracking its ups and downs, even though many good things will continue to happen under that label.

Right.

Also over is any official relationship I have left with one of those emerging church groups called Emergent Village. EV is a hard group to leave because its a flat structured organization and there is no one to inform that you are de-friending yourself, or getting de-friended, from this "generative friendship". Also hard because there are so many wonderful people still involved.

The EV website stated last year, "Those who started emergent were at the National ReEvaluation Forum in 1998; those who will take it into the next chapter will be at Christianity21." I wasn't at Christianity21 but I have been watching as new theological emphases and sectarian attitudes towards church emerge (well described by Wikipedia's North American Emergent Movement) and it is just not something that I can lend my name to or my time. In the early days, I joined the leadership of the Young Leaders group (that eventually became Emergent Village) because it was more about uniting churches around mission and equipping people to reach the next 'postmodern' generation. I hope they can shift it back again to its origins.

Best memories of Yl/Emergent? See the next post.

Unbogged

We got bogged down right before New Years. How does a 4x4 get bogged? Probably by trying to go where mere mortals dare not. Anyway, some of you were asking if we got unbogged and yes we did. It was a family effort and it involved digging a ditch in the miry clay.

  

Back on solid ground again, in more ways than one.

A Response to Tony Jones

Tony, thanks for your post "Lonnie Frisbee and the Non-Demise of the Emerging Church". Some thoughts of mine in response.

The twittersphere condensed the key thought of my post into something i didn't intend to say and there was some confusion.

And the title's question mark didn't come out on the URL so the date seemed more like a statement than question.

So I will say this with room for tweets and retweets. Some of them have been tweetshrunk to fit 140 characters.

I have not read "The Decline of the Emerging Church" by Bill Dahl but will read it on Next-Wave when it appears.

As for a Marxist treatment of the word "radical", honestly, dude, I didn't even know Karl Marx had a surfboard.

"Demise" and "emergent" were your words, not mine.

I do think 2009 marked a transition into maturity for most of the 50 movements and groups I considered.

I posted on 10 types of emerging churches that have evidenced the transition to a level of maturity and acceptance here.

Lonnie Frisbee movie? I felt the 3 issues were marital infidelity, the lack of transparency and the historical cover-up.

[ --------- this line deleted upon request-----------]

The second generation of leadership may NOT choose the "emerging church" label and probably wont.

Maybe your controversy among conservative churches has more to do with your theological positions than what kind of churches you are attempting to start.

I read your post from yesterday that recommends clergy refuse to do legal marriages. I thought it was unorthodox and threatening to marriages.

Your post on marriage was disturbing and controversial. So yes, there is controversy but . . .

The controversy you are stirring up seems unrelated to the main emphasis of the emerging church movement.

Thus the need for some of us to move on from the label and get on with the job.

Every blessing for 2010

Andrew

 

Happy New Year

Happy new year to you all. Hoping, praying and blogging that 2010 will be a new beginning, a new blossoming for you in the areas that matter most.

Hope also that u can join my journey this coming year and that I will have the priviledge of joining yours.

Andrew

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Best Books of 2009

I thought the most readable and timely book, considering this years economic downturn, and the discussion of prosperity after passing of Oral Roberts, is Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide ('Cause I need more room for my plasma TV) by Karen Spears Zacarias. Its also a hilarious read and has the best cover art. By far!!!

The book I read most often was Justification: God's plan and Paul's Vision by Tom Wright. See my review here. Reading this book as part of this interesting theological discussion is better than following a good TV serial. I read it 3 times.

The most fascinating book was Merton and Sufism: The Untold Story, but the book was published many years ago so it probably doesn't count. However, considering the challenge of our response to Islam that becoming such a big issue, this book has some fascinating insights.

The most frustrating book was The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah which made me feel bad about our itinerant lifestyle, as though "geographical fluidity" was a life-style choice of the rich and white, rather than an intentional ministry decision. In fact, it t has led us to be downwardly mobile in a huge way, rather than upwardly. And of course the unfortunate chapter on emerging church in which all the color was removed and placed in other chapters in the book. I appreciated Julie Clawson's take on the book which articulated some of my concerns and relieved me from responding myself. Good chapter on the church growth movement, however and the need for postcolonial thinking in American churches.