TallSkinnyKiwi

Letters to the House Church Movement

Rad Zdero has released a new book today: Letters to the House Church Movement. Its a collection of ACTUAL, REAL, GENUINE letters. Almost sounds . . . biblical. My endorsement on the book says . . .

"I am thrilled that Rad Zdero has released this series of insightful letters into book form... a timely, biblical, poignant yet gracious response to real-life concerns... Highly recommended!" Andrew Jones

I just want you to know that I havent pushed all of Rad's books. I felt his Global House Church movement book was a little over-reaching in its title and therefore a tad disappointing, even though a helpful read. This new book, however, is far better and gets a thumbs up from me. Well done, Rad!!!

Blogging Still Matters in 2011

Its a classic piece of 2009 blog-candy for executives, businessmen, and you have probably seen it already, but I want to post it today.

I think blogging matters in 2011, more than ever, especially as bloggers shift their game towards online publishing on mobile devices and pull their various streams together to highlight their voices and products. It takes a coordinated social media approach to do this and a blog is one of the main platforms to pull it off.

I am putting together a blog-training event for this coming weekend in Perth, West Australia. I hope to inspire and equip a group of ministry professionals to bump up their online profile and use social media to extend their impact. I might even use this video.

Here's a transcript from Twistimage. Gotta love this . . . huh??

Seth Godin on Blogging...

"Blogging is free. It doesn't matter if anybody reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matter is the meta-cognition of thinking about what you're going to say. How do you explain yourself to the few employees - or your cat - or whoever is going to look at it? How do you force yourself to describe - in three paragraphs - why you did something? How do you respond out loud? If you're good at it [blogging], some people are going to read it. If you're not good at it, and you stick with it, you'll get good at it. This has become much bigger than, "are you Boing Boing or The Huffington Post?" This has become such a micro-publishing platform that you're basically doing it for yourself... to force yourself to become a part of the conversation, even if it's not that big. That posture change, changes an enormous amount."

Tom Peters on Blogging...

"I will simply say that my first post was in August of 2004. No single thing in the last fifteen years - professionally - has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. It has changed my intellectual outlook. It has changed my emotional outlook, and it's the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude I've ever had... and it's free."

Curating Worship

A passage I read this morning from One Year Bible Blog was from Joshua: "And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan."

We might say that Joshua 'curated' the stones, or set them up in a way that they would tell their story to those who saw them. Curators of art shows or musuem pieces are quite well established in today's vocabulary, but curators of worship is a term that is still gaining ground, and mostly limited to alt. worship, emerging church and fresh expression environments. At least it is for the moment.

Len Sweet discussed the "worship curator" in 2004

"Curators—a new position which is already manifesting itself in what the English call alt.worship (alternative worship) circles. A curator is a servant of the people who curates (not leads) worship by functioning as an “installer of art and creator of an environment that is conducive to experiencing God” (see Andrew Jones, “Is This the Next New Worship?” FaithWorks)." Len Sweet, New Job Descriptions for the Emerging Church, 2004

The article of mine Len was referring to was a Faithworks article [no longer online] in which I discuss curating worship. I first heard the term in 2000AD at a London EC church called Vaux, which had a worship curator for the service I attended.

Two books came out recently on the subject of curating worship, both written by friends of mine. And both excellent books.

1. The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader, by Mark Pierson

Mark Pierson coined the term "curating worship" in the 1990's and his collaborative book The Prodigal Project was one of the greatest emerging church books ever. EVER! And in this book called The Art of Curating Worship, Mark outlines the history of the movement, the passion behind the art, and the skills needed for worship leaders to move into a posture of curating rather than [my word] conducting. I totally recommend this book and I apologize to Mark, who I got to see again in NZ last month, for not pimping this book the moment it came out. When Mark sent me the manuscript last year, it was about the most enjoyable read I had seen in a long time. If you lead worship then you simply have to have this book on your shelf.

2. Curating Worship, by Jonny Baker and friends

Jonny Baker is one of the best Christian bloggers on the planet, the author of Alternative Worship, and is also the guy behind 100 Worship Tricks, already in its third season, which I think is the largest resource of free worship tools available

His book is a complilation of his own thoughts and others by leading worship curators, mainly in the UK. While it may not have the raw passion of Mark Pierson's book, or the horses-mouth authority that Mark brings to it, Curating Worship makes up for it by including a wide range of curating practitioners who offer practical wisdom and resources. Also a great book and addition to the concept of curating worship.

Lausanne Fringe (audio): Missional practises and the pitfalls of emerging church

The final audio segment from Lausanne Fringe in Cape Town. This is Mike Frost on mission as worship, missional practises in your community, suggestions by Gabi Nagy (Budapest) on prayer walking, and the pitfalls of fresh expressions of emerging church that we should watch out for and my concluding thougths. Mike is hilarious at the end. This is probably the best one to listen to.

Lausanne Fringe event final audio

Related: Social media talk at Lausanne World Congress. And check out Mike Frost this week in Prague at the Upstream Collective. Frosty's talks will be uploaded during the week and I will be adding my own thoughts also, at the invitation of the events organizers. [Thanks Caleb]

Audio: Michael Frost at Lausanne Fringe

I am editing parts of the Lausanne Fringe session from Cape Town last September. Its a great audio but the original is really long and a very large file, thanks to my long-winded introduction.

For those of you who are ADD/ADHD/CAFFEINE-INDUCED or just want to get to the good stuff, here's a bite-sized audio of Michael Frost on missional church.

Michael frost on mission church

 The original unedited file is available, thanks to Christ Church Kenilworth who hosted the evening. I will post more chunks soon.

My mum thinks I am special

My mother was right - I AM special! And life really IS like a box of chocolates . .  you just dont know what your'e gonna get.

 

My mum got me.God bless her!

Tomorrow we are having a 70th birthday celebration for my Mum, who lives in Perth, West Australia. All the rellies are coming over. Should be a good time.

While I am over here, I am doing a few meetings in Australia. First one is a social media training for pastors and ministry leaders hosted by Scripture Union. It's next weekend. Tell you more soon but some details are here.

My old Sunday School

My old Sunday School - the place where I first heard the story of Jesus and where my spiritual pilgrimage started.

I was about 5 years old. Mrs Fitzgerald who lived on Martin Cresent took me every Sunday to the Presbyterian church in Northcote, in the northern suburbs of Auckland. On the wall was a verse from the Bible:

"God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever belives in Him should not perish but but have eternal life." John 3:16

That passage stuck in my mind. I think it was the first thing I ever memorized. It struck a spiritual chord in me and I was fascinated by the passage and its impact on me. Later on, I would believe.

So this month's banner is a revisiting of my early spiritual life, spurred on by a visit to New Zealand. Same old fence, I suppose.