Alan Creech's accounting of last weeks event "Search Party" in USA is worth a read.

a perspective of one

A bunch of us were at Search Party in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago. I've written an article of my thoughts on the whole thing. It's now on this month's edition of Next-Wave along with several others from some in this very company of bloggers - Andrew (both Jones and Careaga), Mike Bishop, and I'm not sure if Jason Evans is in this bunch but he has something up there on house churches as well. Have fun!

"God's throne in heaven is a sofa. How else could Jesus sit down at God's right hand?"

Small Ritual

Networking emerging prayer leaders

Just joined akingdomspace. Thanks Andrew for the invitation. I'm currently networking young prayer leaders for an event called Connect Europe. Maybe you can help:



a. who are the young leaders (under 35) in your nation who are leading a national prayer movement for their generation, or who are pro-actively rallying young people to pray for the nation?

b. who are the young leaders (under 35) in your nation that do not yet lead such a movement, but have the potential to kick-start something like that within the next two years?



Mail me their names and e-mail addresses and earn a free pint of beer (or milk when you're American) when we meet in Prague. :-)

Also added some stuff to the toolbox like the requested book list - Toolbox.

Being a Megachurch Is No Longer Enough

New York Times article (free subscription required) about how megachurches are moving into self-contained miniture cities with amusement parts, McDonalds, stores, gyms, sports leagues. A one stop religious service provider. It will be interesting to see what these things look like 20 years from now.

Like the two Andrews, I'm back from Search Party - good stuff. I won't repeat myself here, but you can see my rambling thoughts - some as they were taking place - on the vine and on my blog as well. It was great meeting some of the kingdomspacers face to face. Talk to you later.

Some prophetic thoughts about Holland

Porterville Recorder: News Column "The National Association of Evangelicals plans to close its California office and consolidate operations in its Washington office.
The Rev. Leith Anderson is now serving as interim president."

Back home and blogging again, I've posted a few thoughts about Search Party, focusing specifically on the "e-tools" forum. I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts you might have. The blog is here. Grace and peace to you! Andrew Careaga.

At Search Party now - I just wanted to post something quickly to say that things are going well. Good stuff here. Good connections with people - I met you today Andrew J. and Andrew C. I'm sure there'll be more to say later - going to bed now.

Headin' to Search Party tomorrow morning! Yeee Haw! I'll see many of you guys on this blog there - except Craig! Craig! I'll have a Newcastle and spit some up in the air for you man. I think pouring it on the ground would be slightly out of place seeing as you're still alive. I'll be checking out this Route 66 place too Andrew C. You'll be there too - maybe you can join our ever growing Guinness / microbrew outing. I am very excited about getting together with so many significant people in the Kingdom - and some kinda big shot speaker types too. Being together with people who are seeing and hearing the same things will be an amazing thing. Just maybe some of us can get online somewhere while we're there and post some reactions on the conference. We'll see. Talk to some of you guys tomorrow!

look, up in the sky..... it's a bird...... it's a plain........ no it's punk monkey - and he's wearing some stupid towel (red, with blue flowers) and a diaper. i know, it seems strange to have such an opening - punk monkey's don't wear diapers - gosh, that's rich. anyway, i got to thinking today - as i often do on off tuesdays - that we seem to put such stock in heroes of past - you know the fallen heroes, and the "perfect heroes." i remember a few months ago i wrote an article (shameless plug for ginkworld) an article saying that superman was not a hero - well, he ain't - how much of a hero do you need to be if you run into a burning building with full knowledge that nothing will hurt you? just the rambling thoughts of a punk monkey -

According to a new study about the life of churches in the USA, small churches still dominate the religious landscape. From the news report: "American worship is lopsided toward small congregations, fewer men in the pews, a once-a-week gathering and few newcomers at the service." Moreover, "'Most worshippers are not involved in small groups in their congregation,' the study said. Also, 'in an entire year, most people did not invite even one person.' ... On the bright side, the report said it dispelled several myths about congregation life, such as that most worshippers are retirees or that congregations lack forces for change." From CT's Weblog. For Newcastle Brown Ale or just about any other microbrew available in St. Louis (which is home to Anheuser-Busch, the anti-microbrew), I suggest a trip to Route 66 Brewery in St. Louis's Union Station on Market Street. Here is one review of the products available there. The food is decent, too, as are the prices.

Search Party

You are becoming my favorite people I've never met (ok, I spoke to Karen for about 3 minutes at Soularize last year).

Karen, Alan, and whoever else is up for it, tip a pint for me in St. Louis. Track down a Newcastle Brown Ale - my favorite - if you can. Have a blast. Tell me all about it when you get back.

See you in Minneapolis. Anybody have the skinny on Soularize? Haven't heard much from Spencer and Matt recently.

grow your own! (church planting network)

this is karen ward (in the pacific nortwest region of north america).

my latest project might have been motivated by jealousy, but god can use even that, to plant seeds for the kingdom.
on some post (on the blog of alan creech), i found out about an organic church planters group that was started in the heartland of the united states called the "midwest greenhouse."


immediately, i sent alan an e-mail saying "can i come out and play?" then, i realized that in order to play, you had to be in proximity to the playground... and i was 2000 miles (3218 kilometers) away. oh lord, what to do... well, maybe we'll build our own swing-set here in "cascadia" (our own little neighborhood of washington, oregon and british columbia).

knowing that each context is different, we will not ask alan to export to us a ready-made, "add water and stir," carbon copy of the playground kit they are using in the midwest. what god wants, i think, is for us to share the same spirit, yet grow our own local expression and network. ironically, "growing your own" is what people out here are known for. our region is a haven for free spirits and "do it yourselfers," and our pioneer spirit is evident in everything from our local microbrewed coffees, to our kickin' microbrewed beers.

today, i'm meeting with two other seattle church planters, eugene cho of quest and dwight friesen of another quest, to talk about what kind of swing-set we can build in our soon to be formed "northwest hothouse,"
a place to disciple one another, to re-create, to share, to discern, to grow in the knowledge and fear of god, and to otherwise play in the fields of the lord in the pac northwest (so stay tuned...)

it's happening everywhere

have just returned from toronto doing a week's training at wycliffe which is an anglican college. surprise surprise they were facing the same issues as the rest of us - struggling church, old forms of church no longer connecting, and were hungry for ideas and connections with new things that might work.... we did our best to spark their imaginations and creativity. but it's clear that the shift we all bang on about is happening all over - up the revolution....

urban, suburban, rural, does it matter???

I was ranting on my blog on Saturday about the fact that I - yes I - live in the suburbs. Oh my Gaaawwwwdd!!! I won't go on and on about it here again. I probably did too much there. The question that arises out of my thoughts and talking to other friends is this: Where are we? Where are we who are (what are we anyway?) - who are trying to do this "nuevo church" thing - to reinvent how the community of Christ is lived out on the planet??? Are we all in the inner city? Are we all doing exactly the same things in the same ways? I think the obvious answer is no -> I point to my brother's reference to "liking rainbows" below. Some of us live in the suburbs. Some of us like it and not because we are greedy, self-absorbed, isolationist Christians. Most of the people in my neighborhood are around my age actually. I think we just live where we live. As I said the other day, we who are in the Kingdom need to be anywhere there are those outside the Kingdom - we need to infect every neighborhood and village."

I'm excited about meeting a bunch of wild people in St. Louis at Search Party in a few days. Just being together with people who are as weird as I am for a little while will be a good thing. See you there!

there are three kinds of modern people in this world - those who like red, those who like blue and those who like green. those who like red will not be seen with those who like blue or green; those who like blue will not be seen with those who like rd or green; those who like green will not be seen with thos who like red or blue. there is one kind of postmodern in this world - those who like rainbows; and we wonder why moderns and postmoderns don't mix? - punk monkey (ginkworld.net)

Christianity is growing robustly, according to historian Philip Jenkins, who says the quintessential Christian of the future will not be a white male surbanite but a poor brown-skinned woman from a huge city in the Third World.

Fall and rise of ChristianityIn his latest book, "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity," Jenkins says that the center of Christianity has moved southward and the typical Christian in the world today is a Latin American or African woman.
Currently, Europeans make up about 28 percent of the world's Christian population, down from 70 percent in 1900, said Dana Robert, a theology professor at Boston University who has written extensively on global Christianity.
By the year 2050, six nations will each have over 100 million Christians, Jenkins projects. Only one, the United States, represents the "advanced industrialized world." The other countries are Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire).
Jenkins notes that "traditional heartlands of Christianity" such as Britain, France and Italy are absent from the list.

the vine

I just created a new community blog for our - well, for our community. I know it's a ch, chu, "church" but I try not to use that word as much as possible if not only to get away from my own baggage. It's called "the vine". I was obviously inspired by this thing. We're a small bunch and this blog has just gotten started but I hope it will be a very cool way for others to look into what we're doing in a real way - oh, and Kevin Rains is very jealous that I have done this - so I told him I would help them set one up as well - the revolution has begun!

Living Springs

Hi. I edit a quarterly dealy-bob called Living Springs. Here's a link to the lastest issue, focused on peacebuilding. Email me at eggbert and let me know what you think.

Punks Turned Monks

Punks Turned Monks. I heard great things about this group.

The latest issue of the Internet for Christians newsletter has a nice plug for my newsletter on Internet evangelism. For some reason, though, there's a broken image that should link to e-vangelism.com. Not sure what happened there. Oh well. At any rate, it's quite an honor to be listed in the newsletter. Thanks, Peggie!

Andrew J., thank you for pointing us to so many terrific resources and for bringing us together at A Kingdom Space. Thanks for writing "The Time of the Turtles." I wonder if that turtle on the 24-7 Prayer site has "fallen under the power" and is "laughing in the Spirit" or carrying on in some similar manner. :-) Thanks also for referring readers of TallSkinnyKiwi to G-Force, which I spent much of the weekend trying to learn. I'm thrilled to find an alternative to PowerPointless. If you have any G-Force tips for me, please send 'em my way. Thanks. -- Andrew C. P.S. -- I noticed at the end of the FAQ for G-Force, Andy O'Meara, who created the software, wrote: "G-Force is dedicated to God and His uncanny patience. 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free' (Jesus, John 8:31-32)." Pretty cool stuff.

DallasNews "If you speak bad of Billy Graham," said his son, "it's like speaking bad of Santa Claus."

24-7 Prayer Home Page has one of my articles (look for the turtle) as well as a lot of info on operation world for young people.

"God's secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ--everything in heaven and on earth.” - Eph. 1:9,10



Jesus is the Center. Our group keeps coming back to this amazing reality. It's very easy in this new time to get caught up in "what works" or what will work in our churches and miss the simple, glorious power of Jesus being the foundation of everything we do.



I heard Gordon Cosby tell a story one time about a seminar he did for a group of megachurch pastors. The seminar was called, "Vision, the Destroyer of Essence." It's easy to see how "seeker-targeted" groups can make the mistake of missing Jesus along the way, but what about us? Are we putting our trust in a new form of church (or worship or mission or community) that will take the world by storm? Or, are we willing to follow "God's secret plan" that was sculpted millennia ago, that He will bring everything under Christ's authority?



Let God build his church.

a "new" way of evangelism

I am, we are, I think alot of people are - wrestling with a new way to do evangelism. It's new for what many of us have been trained to do anyway - probably not "new" as a whole. I mean I seem not to be the only one who's trying to look past that cold-call, bring people to a crisis decision quickly, kind of thing - on to a much slower, relational connection, walking with people on a long journey inward kind of thing. I hope that makes sense.

Not feeling like you haven't done successful evangelism because you don't have a list of 20 people who've been "saved" in the last 6 months. Maybe you've built some beginning relationships with 3 new people who are outside the Kingdom in that time, and you have begun to "be Jesus" to them over the long haul. Then at some point perhaps it becomes more "official" and they enter a period of cathechesis, of teaching and pre-formation, pre-belonging to the community of faith, and then they are a full member of Christ and the community. See what I mean?

I think the Catholics and Anglicans among us may have a little greater understanding of this. Looks like we all need to learn from each other - that God works and speaks everywhere and we need not to block Him off at the pass.

Lessons on livin' large?

The latest issue of Hippocampus Extensions explores one of the big questions all of us in the so-called Western world need to be thinking and talking about: How to live in a rich country. I've just started reading the introductory article, but this issue looks promising. P.S. to Craig and other Matrix fans. You might find this interesting: The Matrix and Postmodernism.

I am morpheus

I'm feeling a lot like Morpheus these days. I just saw The Matrix for the first time a few weeks ago, so bear with me. If you haven't seen it this post will baffle you. I feel drawn to plant a church, to bring people out of the Matrix and into something real. But I'm not sure I'm the one. Neo is coming along somewhere. I feel like I'm heralding this new thing in my denomination, bringing people on board, like Trinity and Neo. But at least at the moment, I'm not the one in the trenches. This is one weird post. I'll try to get out more.