a kingdom space

Klar gesagt

2007-06-22T11:27:00.000Z

Some messages are simple...

needing your help

2007-06-21T18:28:00.001Z

when tragedy hits, our faith is tested and measured. when "something goes wrong" we see how our faith is embedded in our lives. how we react to tragedy is a direct measure of how secure we are in our faith. this is real personally, and this is real collectively. when tragedy hits, we can either gather in support of the injured, or we can simply ignore their hurt and say "there but for the grace of God go i" - my prayer is that we react and we support.

i received an email from keith giles [you know, "keith's voice"] and he shared with me some news i would like to share with you - and see if you can help in some way; on june 20th, "the simple way" house, community center and neighborhood were the victims of a 7 alarm fire - destroying most of what was there. thank God no one seems to have been injured, but the emotional reality of a fire and the destruction that follows can be very traumatic.

if you, your church, your community, your family can help in any way possible - that would be great. our friend tony campolo has set up a donation page for those seeking to give, and the link to that will be at the bottom of this post. also, i have included a link to the simply way's website for those interested in knowing more - and contacting them directly with help offers.

if you desire, you can send checks directly to the simple way at:

The Simple Way
PO Box 14751
Philadelphia, PA 19134.

visit the the simple way website for more info: the simpleway
tony's donation page: click here

here is a 3.25 minute video of what happened:

Cultivate: A Learning Party

2006-06-17T21:34:00.000Z

Cultivate is a learning party happening on Saturday, August 19, 2006 in Hamilton, ON. It's presented by Resonate and is intended to inspire church planting and new forms of church all across Canada. If you are in the north east part of the United States you are more than welcome to join us as well.

A learning party? What does that mean? Well, basically it's designed to be everything good about a conference without all the rigamarole... and much more fun and interactive.

Instead of charging in the hundreds of dollars for one ticket, it's only $25 and that includes a terrific lunch.
Instead of maxing out our capacity we are limiting our numbers to give everyone there the best possible environment for networking.
Instead of bringing in a mainline, American speaker to tell us what they already wrote in their latest book we are looking to local church planters and leaders to tell their stories.
Instead of you listening to message after message and being filled with information we want you to be part of a dialogue with people in similar shoes and learn and grow within that relationship.
Instead of some fancy shmancy hotel, convention centre or big church building, Cultivate is taking place at a local coffee house: www.frwy.ca

Cultivate is happening because of numerous conversations between different people, organizations, networks and churches in Canada that long to see new forms of church thrive and relational networking happen. We are tired of the same old, same old conferences and just simply want to be friends, inspire each other, and swap stories, ideas, and encouragement.

For more details or to register (there are a limited number of spots left): www.cultivategathering.com

Disaster Relief in Pakistan

2005-10-14T17:30:00.000Z

A friend of many of us, Dan Hughes sent an e-mail about the work his brother Trevor is doing with disaster relief in Pakistan. He has set up a disaster relief blog chronicling what his organization is doing as well as some other ways we can help get some relief to the people that need it. If you can pass on the word on your blogs, e-mail, or word of mouth, it increases the speed that those that are over there, can make a difference.

Steve Taylor's A to Z of the Emerging Church

2005-09-22T18:01:00.000Z

You can find the list here.

Flickr: Resonate

2005-09-17T18:10:00.000Z

I haven't talked about this in a while but the fun and loving folks that make up Resonate and others have a Flickr photo pool that is full of images suitable for worship and other media. As of today, there were 926 images online and all are free to download and use (but check out the Creative Commons license before you use them). If you are looking for digital images, you will be able to find them here.

The Resonate Journal is now online

2005-09-01T05:45:00.000Z

Resonate has launched the Resonate Journal at www.resonate.ca/journal/. It is a publication of faith, theology, and the Gospel in a postmodern Canadian culture. Check it out and pass on the word.

Fire From The North

2005-08-14T11:07:00.000Z

Shetland Islands. Fire From the North Strategic Prayer Conference, August 2005
This silent movie is Quicktime .mov
Report
Images

weblog :: jordoncooper.com: The Personal M.Div

2005-07-24T00:02:00.000Z

40 books, 20 articles. A Personal M.Div. Enter your suggestions here.

The Resonate Journal :: Coming September 1, 2005

2005-07-17T05:32:00.000Z

Along with other church leaders across Canada, we are publishing a journal of theology, spirituality, and praxis in a postmodern Canadian culture. While the publication isn't ready to launch yet (it's going live on September 1st), you can sign up for more information at www.resonate.ca/journal/

a survey worth taking :)

2005-06-13T20:42:00.000Z

i know, i am not big on surveys - but i thought this one was worth taking - and it is very short, very short.

a friend of mine at "forministry.com" is considering starting a new blog exclusively devoted to scripture engagement in a emerging/postmodern context. what i love most about this idea is that they are not saying "this is what we are going to be." here is what my friend tells me about the blog:

"I wish I could give you a compact blurb regarding what our new blog will be, but we're still trying to determine that. The best I can do is tell you that it'll be committed to the evolving dialog taking place around the Bible in the emerging postmodern context."

that is just so cool - if you can, please take the time to hit this link and take the survey - it's helping build the kingdom and getting more people involved in the conversation.

link

D A Carson and Conversant with Emergent

2005-04-17T03:01:00.000Z

Scott McKnight had the office next to DA Carson for years and has a review of Conversant with Emergent on his blog. Both entries are worth reading.

Part 1

Part 2

Spain: Contra Corriente at Art3

2005-04-15T11:06:00.000Z

The Contra Corriente Network in Spain ask for prayer tomorrow (16th) as as they take part in the Art3 Festival in Madrid.

Worship Art and Literacy Conference

2005-04-14T20:32:00.000Z

April 18-21 at Asbury Theological Seminary. Some of the main speakers include Sister Rose Pacatte, Brian McLaren, Maggi Dawn, Fr. Thomas Hopko, Robert Webber, Claude Nikondeha, and others. Looks good. Check out the website for more information.

Kubik: Emerging Church in Germany

2005-04-13T10:02:00.000Z

I preached at a great church in Germany last week called Kubik. Details here.

Pilgrimage Rest

2005-04-13T03:00:00.000Z

Bruce Anderson has a new discussion group out contemplative spirituality at Yahoo! Groups and a group blog here. Check the site out for more information.

Resonate, The Magazine

2005-03-18T02:52:00.000Z

Resonate is launching a webzine about the Gospel in a Canadian postmodern culture on June 1st, 2005. Check out this space for more details.

Soularize and Flickr

2005-03-02T21:04:00.000Z

For those of you who are heading to Soularize and even for those of you who are gathering online, make sure you upload your pictures and screenshots to Flickr and tag them with Soularize so the rest of the world will be able to see what is happening. If you do tag your images with Soularize, anyone can see them on Flickr by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/soularize.

You don't have to do anything else and it gives everyone a glimpse into Soularize even if they were not able to attend (how cool is that?). If you don't have a Flickr account, you can get a basic on by heading to www.flickr.com and signing up. It's free for a basic account and only $30 annually for the pro version.

Soularize is a month away!

2005-02-09T17:37:00.000Z

One month till Soularize 05, in sunny Southern California, March 9-11, three full days for $99.

If in the past you have found TheOoze to be a valuable resource you will want to know you can join us face to face in one of the most alternative communities in the nation - Venice Beach, CA - for our 6th annual "Learning Party".

Always on the cutting/bleeding edge of the postmodern/ALT/emerging church, Soularize 05 is filled with innovation (free high speed wifi access, webcasting, simulations regional gatherings), grass roots leaders (voices you may already know and so many surprising friends you won't hear anywhere else), proactive daily themes (fleshing out the issues the church will be addressing in the next 5 years - Kingdom, Community, Rhythm, AIDS...), and multiple learning styles (Large gatherings, interactive labs, hands-on/in-the-field small groups, collaborative web postings and parties - 2nd annual Ooze booze cruise - celebrating what we have discovered).

Join Heather Reynolds (the woman, who introduced Oprah Winfrey to the AIDS pandemic through her South African orphanage "Gods Golden Acre"), fellow learners - Todd Hunter and Patrick Burke (living out the Gospel in Harlem), Voices of conscience - Christine Sine (Spirituality and Rhythm) and Shirin Taber (the Muslim Next Door), Now famous targets Brian McLaren and John Franke (via live Web uplinks), Bloggers (Sarah Dylan Breuer, Rudy Carrasco, Andrew Jones, Jordon Cooper, Malcolm Hawker, Chris Marrow, Jason Evans, Dwight J. Friesen, Todd Hunter and John O'Keefe) and the unconventional minds of Barry Taylor and Jerry Peloquin (a founding member of Jefferson Airplane).

Anyone who has attended a Soularize will tell you it is a one-of-a-kind event, never to be repeated, full of unexpected moments that have become legendary in the emerging church story... where you become the event and you leave with life long friendships.

Hope you can join me and let your community know about it too,
Spencer

Soularize 2005

2005-01-26T23:06:00.000Z

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience - Books & Culture

2005-01-24T18:13:00.000Z

Ron Sider asks, "Why don't Christians live what they preach?" in Christianity Today

Not surprisingly, the movement's numbers translated into political influence. And the renewal movement was so confident of its beliefs and claims that it persuaded the nation's top political leader to have the government work more closely with religious social service organizations to solve the nation's horrendous social problems. Members of the renewal movement knew that miraculous moral transformation of character frequently happened when broken persons embraced the great religion. They also lobbied politicians to strengthen the traditional definition of marriage because their ancient texts taught that a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman was at the center of the Creator's design for the family.

Then the pollsters started conducting scientific polls of the general population. In spite of the renewal movement's proud claims to miraculous transformation, the polls showed that members of the movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist than their pagan friends. The hard-core skeptics smiled in cynical amusement at this blatant hypocrisy. The general population was puzzled and disgusted. Many of the renewal movement's leaders simply stepped up the tempo of their now enormously successful, highly sophisticated promotional programs. Others wept.

This, alas, is roughly the situation of Western or at least American evangelicalism today.

Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most "Christians" regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment.

The findings in numerous national polls conducted by highly respected pollsters like The Gallup Organization and The Barna Group are simply shocking. "Gallup and Barna," laments evangelical theologian Michael Horton, "hand us survey after survey demonstrating that evangelical Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general."1 Divorce is more common among "born-again" Christians than in the general American population. Only 6 percent of evangelicals tithe. White evangelicals are the most likely people to object to neighbors of another race. Josh McDowell has pointed out that the sexual promiscuity of evangelical youth is only a little less outrageous than that of their nonevangelical peers.

from jesus to christ: jesus' many faces

2004-11-15T20:17:00.000Z

An interesting (if debatable) website from PBS. via

Resonate Photo Pool

2004-10-20T01:39:00.000Z

First of all, the Resonate Photo Pool now has over 500 pictures in it. That's very cool and thank you to everyone who contributes. You are all amazing (but you knew that already). TheOoze.com's co-founder and noted photographer Spencer Burke has recently uploaded some pictures to our group and has awaken from his long blog nap. That's cool too.

One of the questions we had was, "what kind of pictures do we post to it?". That discussion is still happening and as part of the answer, I created a place called Resonate Stories, that is a place where people can upload pictures too that are what we see God doing across Canada. A kind of visual almanac of our faith journey. If you want to post, it is easy and free to join Flickr and even easier to join our visual almanac space.

Christendom-era Church DNA flaws

2004-10-11T23:55:00.000Z

Jonny Baker points to an amazing article by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost about the church's DNA flaws.

The Christendom-era church has these three flaws in its DNA; it is attractional, dualistic and hierarchical.

By attractional, I mean the church plants itself within a particular neighbourhood and expects that people will come to it to meet God and find fellowship with others. There's nothing unbiblical about being attractive to unbelievers. There was certainly an element to which the early church was attractive to the wider community (Acts 2:47), though there is much more evidence that the church was reviled and avoided in its early days. Nonetheless, when I say it is a flaw for the church to be attractional, I'm referring more to the stance the church is taking in its community. By anticipating that if we get our internal features right, people will flock to our services, the church betrays its belief in attractionalism. It's the "If you build it, they will come" mentality. How much of the traditional church's energy goes into adjusting their programs and their public meetings to cater to an unseen constituency. The emerging missional church recognizes is compelled to move out from itself into its community as salt and light.

When I have consulted with churches that recognize the need to embrace a missionary stance in their communities, I'm amazed at the number of times, when asked to discuss specific ways they can recalibrate themselves to become missional churches, they begin talking about how to change their Sunday service. It betrays their fundamental allegiance to being attractional. The tailoring of worship services is a lot further down the priority list for missional church leaders. The Come-To-Us stance taken by the attractional church is unbiblical. It's not found in the Gospels or the epistles. Jesus, Paul, the disciples, the early church leaders had a Go-To-Them mentality.

That is just a short exerpt. The rest of the article is excellent and is a much read.

Resonate Studio

2004-09-29T23:22:00.000Z

Just a note to mention Resonate Studio, a gathering on the Canadian prairies in the middle of February (yes, apparently we are stupid) to share, learn, and dream about what God is doing in western Canada. If you are in the neighborhood...

is the emerging church racist?

2004-09-06T23:26:00.000Z

thats a question i have been pondering for awhile and for that matter is christianity in north america racist? it seems every event/gathering i attend is overwhelmingly populated by white males, most affluent. rarely does a women speak in a roll of authority, rarely, no never have i heard a person of color speak, well i did attend a workshop at the 2001 soularize lead by karen ward. anyway why is it that the emerging church is so white and so male. is there an undercurrent of domination that needs to be dealt with? why aren't there more people of color involved in this new "church" is it a matter of style? or is it truly deeper than that. if we are racist do we have the courage to confront it? i was trained to be racist as i grew up, no one sat me down and layed it out but it was clear, i was better than others. it wasnt until i became a follower of the triune God and meet a man from south africa, read james cone, and finished our first adoption, who was biracial that God destroyed my ideas of being better, it was painful and gut wrenching and at times i ran and hid but God prevailed and i can now say i am a recovering racist. the seeds will always be there sown years ago but i have a greater power now to overcome it. my prayer is that instead of all this rhetoric about what/how church is we would start a dialogue that is open and honest about the sins of our past and the hope of creating a new world together because thats what it needs to be a new world not a remodeled version of our old world, but a new dwelling built together with all God's people planning and building. then we may begin to heal and embrace each other again.can we truly have community without diversity, (racial and economic), please lets begin this discussion before we build another system that seperates and destroys.

What African Theologians Can Teach the Emerging Church

2004-09-04T03:38:00.000Z

Full article over at emergingchurch.info

Emerging Montreal

2004-08-30T04:59:00.000Z

This was posted on the e-mail discussion list for Resonate by David Brazzeal. It made my heart sing a bit and I thought I would post it here. Montreal is one of the least reached areas in North America but there are some really cool things emerging out in Montreal.

For those who are interested, there ARE several emerging things happening in Québec and Montréal in specific.

1) Nick Brotherwood started a new Anglican church (English) for young adults called Emerge about 18 months ago. Their website is http://www.emergemontreal.com

2) Chantal Vallée, a women's basketball coach at Vanier College, started a new churched called Agapé (français) about a year ago. Chantal also has hosted for 2 years now an excellent summer project for students who want spend about 5 weeks in the postmodern waters of Montreal. Besides a giving lot of insight into Québec culture, Chantal encourages students to find their niche in the city and simply ask God to make things happen.

3) Guy Rocheleau, former director of Le Roc, started a church called l'Eglise Urbaine (français) which meets at UQUM (University de Québec à Montréal). Guy should have a website up in a few days.

4) Dave and Heidi Gray are starting a new church called Journey Fellowship of Montreal (English) www.journeymontreal.ca

5) Pierre LeBel, the Montreal director of YWAM is also very much a part of the conversation. His French Bible study for intellectuals will be starting again in the fall.

6) Christian Direction, www.direction.ca plays a role in this emerging conversation in Montreal, especially through their arts ministry called Innovation
http://www.direction.ca
http://www.direction.ca/EN/innovation.htm (there's more info and pictures on the French version.

7) River's Edge Church (English) http://www.riversedgeonline.ca lead by Lorenzo della Foresta in another new church in Montreal.

8) Ron Melanson has been a pastor to street people in downtown Montreal for about 12 years now. He's one of my heroes of the faith because in many ways Ron was on the streets doing "postmodern" ministry before it became cool.

9) Then there is Curieux, I'm the leader of this experimental community of faith that has been meeting for about 2 years now. Our site is www.curieux.ca

10) Also there is a once a month meeting called La Cohorte / The Cohort. It is for leaders who are trying to navigate these postmodern waters. We meet in a coffee shop on a certain Wednesday morning of each month.

11) Oh, and don't forget Québec City. There are indications that the conversation is beginning to surface up there as well. Richard Klopp and Jean-Yves Cossette among others are very interested in the emerging church.

If you would like more information about any of the above people or groups, I would be glad to give you their "coordonnés"

Keep praying for Québec. Personally one of the things that really excites me about this emerging conversation, is that it fits Québec much better that other models and religious systems that have been thrust upon it in the past. I could go into details but I've already written too much.

How cool is that? I get excited everytime I read it.

Resonate is now online.

2004-08-24T07:26:00.000Z

Resonate.ca, a new conversation about the Gospel and culture in a Canadian context is now online. Even if you are not a Canuck, we do have something that some of you may want to be a part of. It is a worship and media sharing site at Flickr. A space where you can download for free, pictures and visual media for your own use and also upload some of your best stuff. It's all free. Details here.

Now ad-free

2004-08-19T03:18:00.000Z

Blogspot is now ad-free. There is that little Blogger-bar up there but no more offers to date attractive Baptists in your area!

the lesson?

2004-06-24T01:25:00.000Z

one day jesus took his disciples up the mountain and gathered them around him. as they gathered he looked at each and everyone of them with a smile on his face. he then turned to them and started to teach them by saying:

"blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are the meek. blessed are those who mourn. blessed are the merciful. blessed are those who thirst for justice. blessed are you when you are persecuted. blessed are you when you suffer. be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven."

as jesus was speaking the disciples started to talk among themselves;
peter looked around and asked, "are we supposed to know this?"
andrew, looking puzzled, said, "do we have to write this down?"
james, franticly looking for something to write with whined, "will we have this on a test?"
philip, pushing james aside said, "i have no paper."
bartholomew, with a tear in his eye said, "do we have to turn this in?"
while john complained, "the other disciples didn't have to learn this."
matthew, looking up at jesus said, "could you go over this again?
judas, shaking his head said, "what does this have to do with real life?"

just then one of the local pharisees asked to see jesus' lesson plan. he wanted to know the scripture used, and quoted and he also desired to know the hermeneutics used to structure the lesson. he inquired of Jesus, "where is your anticipatory set and your objectives in the cognitive domain?"

Then, Jesus wept.

Random Blogger Strikes Again!

2004-06-06T09:48:00.000Z

I checked out my other neglected blog, and decided to change my template. After doing that I started checking out the other blogs that I have been neglecting to look at for quite some time. Lo and behold, I check out a kingdom space and what do I see? It is the exact same template that I picked for my blog. Well, to save embarrassment, I quickly changed my template. I was looking at the pink one with the Barbie head, but thought different when I thought of explaining the whole story to my kids. (Just doing this is wearing me out. I'm weak....)

I have been making failed attempts to get into blogging on a regular basis. My last post anywhere was in March! Before that it has been touch and go.

I am at a transition in my life. My father passed away in November, I have been feeling the push of God to move into pastoral counseling (the call that I have been ignoring until recently) and find myself reevaluating my priorities. I am sure of one thing..God has yet again picked a fool to do something. I would like to sit back and watch it unfold, but He won't let me.

I leave with 2 things.
1. Check out my blog...(please)Leave comments/criticisms etc..
2. As the "emerging" church are we becoming more missional? And if we are, do we then become submergent?
Chuck

an event of theological proportions

2004-06-01T20:02:00.000Z

New look

2004-06-01T14:50:00.000Z

I am having a shot at redesigning this blog site using the existing templates and hacking into them as little as i can. expect a little mess while i do this, but when i am finished, i will have another custom template available to whoever wants it.

Back??

2004-06-01T13:03:00.000Z

Are we back? I hope so. It has been ages since I've been around to this neck of the woods. It's good to be back. I agree with the monkey...I promise to be active and all that other jazz he had to say.

back - so are we :)

2004-05-13T16:53:00.000Z

andrew - it's good to see posting :) i have tried over the past, but life seems to be getting in the way - but i am back - as you are back - as we are all back :) (just could not do a "you and me" thing - needed to bring the whole community in) - i will, as i have promised on other blogs, to be active - proactive and not reactive :)

i think it would be a great idea to expand the global voice to others - i love hearing the voices of people all over the place - i have been feeling a touch in my heart to head overseas - just trying to figure out where God is telling me to head - ireland? england? australia? only God knows, and right now it's a secret :)

pax

nice to be back

2004-05-13T12:12:00.000Z

wow - its been ages since i came here, but blogger has changed its interface so i thought i would try a new posting.
also, a kingdom space blog turned 2 year old in april. we have suggested closing down this blog but for some reason we never seem to. i am kinda hoping that people from africa and asia would join us herer for some good conversation - which was on of the original goals.
what do you think?
be nice to keep this going in blogger as a free site.

Tiny Loans Have Big Impact on Poor

2004-04-24T20:35:00.000Z

From the New York Times

Microfinance is a long way from the world of venture capital where Mr. Khosla, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, a venture capital business, and a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has earned a formidable reputation as the man with the Midas touch. But in February he said he would start working part time at his company to spend more time with his family and on his passion: supporting microcredit initiatives for impoverished regions.
The Share program, or Society for Helping and Awakening Rural Poor Through Education, was founded in 1991 by M. Udaia Kumar, who had been involved in providing training programs to poor rural entrepreneurs. The program has reached 300,000 needy families with loans totaling $75 million.

It goes on with this

An estimated 3,000 microfinance initiatives serve the world's poor but a scarcity of money has limited their expansion. More than 70 percent of them serve fewer than 2,500 borrowers each.
Only 30 microfinance initiatives have grown to serve more than 100,000 poor borrowers. One of them, the pioneering Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, reaches more than three million borrowers. A total of $4 billion has been disbursed since Grameen started making loans in 1976 with seed loans starting as small as $35.
The majority of the microfinance initiatives struggle to find grant financing and to stay in business. The money they do receive is often in small grants of $5,000 to $50,000. The ventures are typically viewed as risky propositions for loans from commercial banks.
But advocates hope Mr. Khosla's evangelism for the initiatives will help them increase support from mainstream institutions.
Some microfinance projects are tapping into commercial financial institutions. In India, the Grameen Foundation is starting a company called Grameen Capital India in partnership with Citigroup and India's leading ICICI Bank to help microfinance initiatives get guarantees for financing.
And business leaders and entrepreneurs are increasingly seeking to support microfinance organizations because of their financial soundness and broad social impact, said Julie Stahl, program officer of the Grameen Foundation USA.
"We are seeing a groundswell of support coming from leaders in the high-tech and venture capital worlds," Ms. Stahl said. Bob Gay, managing director of Bain Capital; Mike Murray, a former vice president at Microsoft; Rob Glaser, founder of RealNetworks; and Craig McCaw, a pioneer in the wireless industry, for example, have all been involved with microfinance projects.
It was heartening, Mr. Khosla said, to see that the entrepreneurial principles of Silicon Valley applied just as well in rural India and Bangladesh. "Granted, they are not as profitable as Google, but they have the same level of social impact."

Islam 'will be dominant UK religion'

2004-03-10T03:11:00.000Z

via Religion News Blog

Islam will be the most widely practised religion in the UK by 2020, according to British and Muslim magazine editor Sarah Joseph.
She says mosque attendance is expected to outstrip church attendance over the next 16 years.
Estimates suggest that anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 people a year convert to Islam in the UK, which is currently home to approximately 1.8 million Muslims.
"We are the second largest faith in Britain and will be the largest practising faith in Britain by 2020 if you use church and mosque attendance as a measure," she told the GDN.

Sarah Joseph does have a stake in saying such things but it is an interesting comment. Islam is growing very fast in the west and will continue to have more and more of an influence.

Everythings a'changing

2004-03-04T12:27:00.000Z

Hi everyone, this is Andrew. I want to thank everyone for contributing to this discussion over the past (almost) two years. This blog will be winding down and will pop up on another blog system (Typepad) that will enable us to do some new things and do all things better.
The theme will continue to be what God is doing around the world. I will try to get more non-Western bloggers to be involved this time- something that I had tried to do but never succeeded.
The conversation level will also be upgraded to an in-depth discussion of missiology in the global emerging culture. I will be sending out invitations shortly, and if you would like to be one of the bloggers who contributes to this conversation, then please email me tallskinnykiwi at hotmail.com
The name may stay the same (or you could suggest a new name) but the address will change - i will put a link here when we have it.
Sometime this month.
Thanks everyone.

Andrew Jones

Can you help me get rid of a nuisance ?!

2004-02-02T18:54:00.000Z

Some unfriendly people in Germany have written some very unfriendly stuff about me. That´s okay. People are free to say what they want. The problem is, that that their homepage is quite popular, so it is high up in Google. Whenever someone types in my name at google their bad stuff about me turns up on page one of the search. So anyone looking for me first gets to read that junk about me! YIKES.

Can you help me kick them out?

The best way would be to ask all your friends to make a link on their homepages to one of my homepages. That should get my own pages higher in Google and should be enough to kick them out of the first page of the google search! (providing you really have a number of nice friends...)

The Link could be to any (or even better all !!!) of my pages:
http://kerstinpur.blogspot.com [my German personal blog]
http://berlinrocks.blogspot.com [Stories about God and Berlin and both]
http://www.downtoearth.de [My internet shop for stuff on transformation of cities and people]

THANK YOU (and your friends!) A LOT!

Mayhem notes

2004-01-12T21:08:00.000Z

Jeremiah Smith has some excellent notes from Mayhem posted on his blog.

Study cuts Kenya HIV estimates

2004-01-10T23:22:00.000Z

From the BBC

A survey in Kenya has found fewer people may be infected with HIV than previously thought.
The study, carried out by the Kenyan government, suggests 6.7% of people have the disease.
Previous estimates had put the figure as high as 15% or 4.8m people.
Experts said the figures based on a sample of 8,561 households across the country are the most comprehensive to date.
The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey is carried out every five years and is used by ministers to plan health and social policies.

Government Computer News (GCN) daily news -- federal, state and local government technology; IRS awards $3 million contract for 508 work

2004-01-06T14:50:00.000Z

IRS awards $3 million contract for 508 work

Indie Allies Meetup

2003-12-27T20:07:00.000Z

find out more at indieallies.meetup.com

Indie Allies Meetup is coming again soon on January 13, 2004. As you can see, there is over 1800 people signed up worldwide and we are looking for more. If you have signed up, go an vote. If you haven't, it is FREE to join, and takes about 30 seconds to join. It is a monthly gathering of people who are exploring new ideas in Christian thought and expression and want to see what God is doing in their communities. If you haven't signed up, you are missing out on a great time. There is no central agenda, just a meeting over coffee and a beverage to see what's up in your part of the world.

2003-12-10T23:39:00.000Z

I just got home from a cool lunch meeting. It was with Dan - my local denom guy - and Paul Kaak of CMA. We were talking about the possibility of doing a CMA Greenhouse in SoCal some time next year. I know it's been done before in our area, but we may make another run at it. I've known about Paul through Jason, Kevin, and some others. Cool dude with some good insights about the Kingdom. I really like the way he has a passion for an organic expression of the Kingdom of God, but isn't antagonistic toward the traditional/institutional approach to church. He's well balanced and has a good heart. He clearly cares about following Jesus with integrity and encouraging others to do the same.

After lunch, I had coffee with Dan and talked about some stuff in our local association of churches. In particular, he told me about some possibilities that are only just dreams at this point, but if they were to develop . . . spine tingling ministry stuff could happen. I almost don't even want to think about it because there's so much potential there, and yet so much potential for it to get really screwed up. I need to breathe a little before I think about it any more.

Brian McLaren's new website

2003-12-01T22:32:00.000Z

anewkindofchristian.com

Soularize Photos

2003-10-18T19:59:00.000Z

I am uploading the pictures that Jeb and I took while in Boston at Soularize. I have some Tuesday and Wednesday pictures posted online and will posting more during the day. Not only that but some other people have been uploading some pictures as well.

The Soularize Fotoblog

Tuesday pictures from Boston
Wednesday pictures from Soularize, TheOoze Booze Cruise, and the Boston Bruins/New Jersey Devils game from the Fleet Center
John Wilford's pictures
Greg Mulkey's pictures

More to come later today.

Connect Europe

2003-10-14T12:59:00.000Z

If you wanna see what God is doing in the area of youth and prayer in Europe have a look at Connect Europe. [Stolen from Marc van der Woude...who is one of the key energizers behind it.]

2003-10-07T18:12:00.000Z

Prophetic flashmobs and other stuff

Last week I joined a prayer event in Llanelli that could best be described as 'prophetic flashmobbing'. Flashmobs are sudden gatherings of people at a predetermined location at a predetermined time, who basically do something wild and creative together, and then continue their journey. A sort of postmodern version of a Blitzkrieg. Heidi Plympton from England took the initiative - she sensed God was saying to her to do a prophetic prayer and worship tour on three 'hights': Llanelli in Wales, and Glastonbury and Salesbury in England. A small core group prayed into this and gave a 'trumpet call' in their network. Whoever felt led to come, joined in and brought whatever God told them to bring. Some fifty people showed up. It was an experiment with a refreshing freedom in the Holy Spirit in which a special prophetic-creative synergy developed. Not something to talk about, but something to experience.

More about my trip to Wales at Marc's Messages.

new site...

2003-09-30T20:26:00.000Z

emergingchurch.info is a new emerging church web site. it's a place for stories of what is happening, reflections on what is emerging, discussion on anything and everything related to emerging church on the sites discussion boards, a selection of blogs and the obligatory links. i am excited about the site - do visit, join in the discussion, bookmark it, tell others, blog about it, and if you are involved in something that might fall under the loose label 'emerging church' then please add your story to the site....

rss xhtml?

2003-09-30T08:34:00.000Z

have just checked kingdom space blog for the first time in ages and fixed a broken link from my blog to it.... i'll be honest - i haven't got a clue about RSS and XHTML - life is too short to keep up with these things!!! any suggestions for a novice wondering what on earth it is all about and why is hould bother to switch?....

Changes to this blog

2003-09-16T10:08:00.000Z

Hi everyone. Hope your summer was great. We are changing a lot of things on this site at the moment. We are switching to xhtml, adding RSS, and trying to find some non-Western bloggers who can keep us in tune with what God is doing in their countries. Let me know if you have any suggestions. And if you like the way this new blog looks, then you are welcome to use the template for your own blog.

When do we have understanding?

2003-09-16T00:37:00.000Z

Check out, More about being embarrassed about not knowing more.... .

A great story about what it really means to understand something, and how the interchangeable notion of weakness and strength is a truth which is not contained within the walls of the church.

Short words work well

2003-09-13T18:43:00.000Z

I just read a very interesting techincal paper. It was about extending the Java programming language, and as a way of making his point, the author of the paper decided to only use words of one syllable, and then to allow himself to define words of more than one syllable in the course of the paper.

If you have PDF reader, and you can deal with a technical discussion of programming languages, you can read the paper, but for this blog, the thing which was so interesting to me was the last part, where the author reflects on the process of writing the paper.

...

I would like to tell you what I have learned from the task of designing this talk. In choosing to give up the many long words that I have come to know since I was a child, words that have many fine shades of meaning, I made this task much harder than it needed to be. I hope that you have not found it too hard on your ears. But I found that sticking to this rule made me think. I had to take time to think through how to phrase each thought. And there was this choice for each new word: is it worth the work to define it, or should I just stick with the words I have? Should I do the work of defining a new word such as mirror, or should I just say “looking glass” each time I want to speak of one? (As an example, I was tempted more than once to state the “ly” rule for making new words that change what verbs mean, but in the end I chose to cast all such words to one side and make do. And I came that close to defining the word without, but each time, for better or for worse, I found some other way to phrase my thought.)

I learned in my youth, from the books of such great teachers of writing as Strunk and White, that it is better to choose short words when I can. I should not choose long, hard words just to make other persons think that I know a lot. I should try to make my thoughts clear; if they are clear and right, then other persons can judge my work as it ought to be judged.

From the work of planning this talk, in which I have tried to go with this rule much more far than in the past, I found that for the most part they were right. Short words work well, if I choose them well.

Thus I think that programming languages need to be more like the languages we speak—but it might be good, too, if we were to use the languages we speak more in the way that we now use programming languages. All in all, I think it might be a good thing if those who rule our lives—those in high places who do the work of state, those who judge what we do, and most of all those who make the laws—were made to define their terms and to say all else that they say in words of one syllable. For I have found that this mode of speech makes it hard to hedge. It takes work, and great care, and some skill, to find just the right way to say what you want to say, but in the end you seem to have no choice but to talk straight. If you do not veer wide of the truth, you are forced to hit it dead on.

I urge you, too, to give it a try.

From "Growing a Language", by Guy L. Steele Jr.

I think it would be a good thing to add "those who love God and want to do what He says" to that list. We should give it a try.

Ranchero Software: NetNewsWire

2003-09-12T08:37:00.000Z

Thanks Mike on the tip re: Ranchero Software: NetNewsWire. I am redoing my site with RSS feeds in XHTML. Any more tips?

Plea for RSS

2003-08-28T22:43:00.000Z

As I expand the list of blogs I try to keep up with, the need to automate the process of "which blogs have changed since the last time I read them" has become greater and greatter.

The solution for this is something called RSS, which is a way for content providers to provide an index to their content.

I run a program which scans the RSS feeds for all the blogs I have subscribed to, and I get a list of the posts which are new since the last time I looked. Right now, 5 out of the 21 blogs I follow have RSS feeds.

Calling all bloggers, please please please check with your blog software to figure out how to generate an RSS feed. I am currently using TypePad for my faith-rambling blog, which is a subscription service and it provides an RSS feed for everyone. I understand that currently blogger/blogspot only provide RSS feeds for the "Pro" level blogs. I don't know about any other blog services.

For Mac users, the software I am using to both read AND post to all my blogs is NetNewsWire. Sorry, don't know what PC users are doing.

NPR : New Direction for Christian Science?

2003-07-24T16:06:00.000Z

Len Sweet comments on christian science on NPR : New Direction for Christian Science?

Click the "Listen to All Things Considered Audio" link, his segment starts at about 13:45 of the 15:10 audio clip.

Heretics?!

2003-07-03T08:18:00.000Z

Discovered a books whose title caught me:
Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today's Evangelical Church in the Light of Early Christianityby David W. Bercot
Haven´t read it. But sounds cool! I think we must think and rethink Christianity ...in the light of (present and past) culture, history and what the early church was really like. Guess some interessting discoveries await us.

2003-07-02T18:16:00.000Z

Ecclesia Network is now online.

Community House - Residential Training

2003-06-29T07:33:00.000Z

These people are my friends. God has connected us in a great way in the last couple of years. If you feel like some time in a situation like this would help you down the path to find the next step - I would highly recommend checking this deal out. Pax vobiscum.

IndieAllies

2003-06-25T02:03:00.000Z

find out more at indieallies.meetup.comNext-Wave, TheOOZE.com and a couple of other sites and networks have come together to form an independent alliance of people working together. One of the first things we are trying to do globally is to create a place where people can meet face to face in their communities. The first initiative of the IndieAllies is at http://indieallies.meetup.com. Meetup.com organizes face to face meetings in small groups of like minded people. If you are interested, sign up, and Meetup.com will take care of the rest of the details.

2003-06-16T14:57:00.000Z

You can read the TIME article on Christianity in Europe online

Seeking our brothers...book recommendation

2003-06-14T06:40:00.000Z

Thought a lot about the whole issue of church and social action recently.
And discovered a great book (a friend sent it to me as a gift - friends are great) and read it in one go.
Bart Pierce: Seeking your brother. Restoring compassionate Christiantiy to the church.

A fascinating book, describing how one church is aiming to reach out to their community. "If you will take care of the ones nobody wants, I will give you the ones everybody is after" was a word God spoke to the pastor Bart Pierce, himself a drug addict.
And he acted on it.
He describes not only the various way the church is reaching out to the poor, destitute and needy in Baltimore where they are located and gives practical advice on how to go about. But he also shows that passion for god and compassion for men are just the two sides of the coins of love. Their church is an example of both: They experience long, deep intimate times of sensing the presence of God and being close to Him. And they reach out in compassion to their city in a meaningful practical way: Serving single moms, streetsleepers, hungy people and changing whole blocks - one at a time.
The church has often split the two aspects of serving Jesus. Some churches focus on the "Martha" aspect of caring for
the "human" Jesus by caring for people. Other focus on the "Mary" aspect of ministering to the "divine" Jesus by ministering to him in worship, adoration and contemplation.
However we need both "Mary and Martha" for the church to be a place where Jesus and people are welcome.
The book is encouraging, practical and most needed in this time of increasing spiritual and practical need. I highly recommed it to anyone hungry for wholesome Christianity.

2003-06-11T14:18:00.000Z

Some spotlights from the Gathering of the Lutheran and Catholic Churches in Germany:
- One newspaper headline about the Kirchentag (Church gathering) read: "Germans want one [unified] church." We also wanted one unified nations - but now 10 years after the wall came down are still in the process of learning to accept, understand and love the members of the "other" Germany....that had been separated from one another for 40 years. How can unity and understanding work in the "nation of the church" after 500 years of separation?

- I asked a pastor what characterized the spiritual power of the Waldense Christians that survived persecution, inquisition and all the rest of it. He simply said: "Their live. They took the sermon of the mount litearal!"

- Talked with one member of the Normal Generation band a christian band popular in Germany, about Christians and artists. He said that most christian (music) artist find it hard to see that anything that is not explicitly worship music can be art, too. We spoke about the fact How God enjoys to be worshipped by beauty and general expression of mankind even if it does not have an explicit christian label on it. He recommende I read Imagine. A vision for Christians in the Art, in his opinion the one book he would give to every Christian artist in Germany if he had money....
.

2003-06-10T17:16:00.000Z

When I talked to people about the Transformation Videos which are a documentation of how God is changing whole communities through a praying, unified and responsible church, people asked me again and again: "Who is the preacher on the video?" It made me sad to realize how often we have exchanged the dynamics of the kingdom of God, transforming societies, people groups and nation (the salt of the earth) to mere preaching. What a pity. For all of those who are sitting through thousands of boring sermons through their lifetimes and missing the experience of God working through them to transform their world. And a pity for all of those who never get a chance to see the kingdom of God first hand because the christians are busy listening to sermons. What a pity!!!

Nullsoft's "Waste"

2003-06-05T00:02:00.000Z

Most of you probably read about Nullsoft's Waste that was online just a couple of hours and then pulled. It is a p2p file sharing product that is for a closed network. I don't know if any of you got it but it would be an amazing tool to share worship media and resources with over a closed group of people (Waste limited itself to 50 users). Just an idea.

2003-05-27T18:51:00.000Z

Look at Jesus and find an interessting collection of what people think Jesus might look like!

2003-05-22T08:05:00.000Z

Hi everyone. We just moved this site back to its original address. The conversation we had last year was a great one. Then it stopped. We need to start another- I am open to suggestions.
How do we want to use this site?
At present, it is the largest, longest running international Christian blog site. But still, if we all dont need it, I would be happy to kill it and start something else.
I was hoping that more developing countries would be involved but that has not happened. Lets see if we can extend the technology to them as well as an invitation.
In the meantime, this is your site.What do you want to do with it?
oh yeah - I put a comments link on the site.

What's up in Europe?

2003-05-20T20:44:00.000Z

Hey guys, things are moving in Europe. Check out some developments at Marc's Messages. Topics: raising up apostolic leaders (with unexpected lessons from the Church in China), Lighthouses take off in Norway, influencing our culture, multi-media worship, Pim Fortuyn remembered, seven reasons why I blog, a report from E:merge, thoughts about church planting in youth/student culture, no more tithing, Pete Greig's gripes about the pomo-pogo arty crowd, and more...

2003-05-18T01:44:00.000Z

My new Blog. Check it our FutureMargins.com

2003-05-06T10:40:00.000Z

"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic."
Anonymous

2003-04-25T04:47:00.000Z

A big global confab on Islam starts up at Oxford in a few days.

2003-04-25T01:14:00.000Z

Conflicting Leadership Styles
Consider this paradox...Faith communities lead by ministers who are "pastoral types" generally don't grow, but you can't grow unless you care for people. (Crop rotation doesn't count as growth)
If a community becomes a spiritual hospital, focused primarily on bandaging wounds--it tends not to develop the muscular faith necessary to engage the postmodern world. I wonder--are pastoral care and visionary leadership incompatible?

Comment & Question: I authored a blog titled "GraceAwakening" I discontiunued that blog at the end of 2002. I am ready to begin blogging again...but I need someone to help me design a cool looking blog...anyone have a contact for me?

2003-04-20T12:35:00.000Z

"As Christians we tend to put the Great Commission [to preach the Gospel to all mankind] before the great commandement [to love God and to love men]...Quote found in Jack Frost Experiencing the fathers Embrace (cool book for those who find it hard to love - themselves, God or others...).

Happy Easter to Everybody...Everybody...and every member of the body, too!

2003-04-15T08:04:00.000Z

Marc, the nice guy from Joel News wrote about what is happening in Berlin:

JN438-2. PRAYER FOCUS: 50 days of prayer for Berlin

From Easter to Pentecost the Berlin city network 'Together for Berlin' is calling the church to prayer for their city. A booklet has been produced in German and English to provide specific prayer information.

Let's pray that the '50 days' will fan the spirit of prayer in Berlin and elsewhere, that people will be ignited with new love for their city, and that churches of all sorts would be motivated to join in.

Coordinator Kerstin Hack writes: "In German there is a saying 'Not allowing anybody to steal the butter from your slice of bread' - meaning 'Not allowing anybody to take from you what is rightfully yours'. More and more Christians in Berlin are fed up with the enemy having stolen so much 'butter' right from under our eyes and we are more and more motivated to start a godly revolution against this. We are grateful for all the support we get in this endeavour from other cities and places. Thanks for joining hands with us!"

Get the booklet and join in. The English version is for free (download).
English version for Download

If you want the German verison in Print mail to shop@down-to-earth.de (it costs 3 Euro + postage) and is really nice (if you understand German).

Here in Berlin we are really excited about all the encouragement we get from outside of Berlin (Germany and the World!) - joining hands and prayers with us to make Berlin a God place.

alt.worship.saskatoon

2003-04-14T01:14:00.000Z

We are getting ready to launch an alternative worship group in our city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada called the Worship Freehouse on April 27th in a dank Jazz Club in the downtown core. We covet your prayers as we get ready to launch. The lead up has been amazing and painful at the same time but we are looking forward to seeing what God has called us all to.

Evangelical Views of Islam -- Beliefnet.com

2003-04-09T21:05:00.000Z

Evangelical Views of Islampoll results are in.

2003-04-07T07:07:00.000Z

To understand the present it is good to look at history. Right now I am reading The secret of their strength - which can be downloaded. A book about a movement of people during the time of the reformation who lived as communities of believers, shared their lives, faith and possession, took the words of Jesus seriously, believed in the Holy Spirit to dwell in them and guide them. A movement that grew like wildfire with thousands of people deciding to follow Christ in the course of a few months and years.
For the crime of following Christ, but not accepting the established church as "supreme authority" they were killed by the sword, fire (burning them on a stack), drowned, shot, driven into houses that were then set aflame....thousands of our brothers and sisters. I did not know this. History told me that "some bad catholics" persecuted the "good protestants", but no one told me that "the good protestants" also turned around and killed their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Apart from some gruelsome details (have your tissues or vomiting bags close at hand) it is fascinating reading how they lived and built their communities, followed Christ in their daily lives, understood the Bible (they dared to try to follow the commands of Jesus)...they were true revolutionaries. Men and women to be admired - and followed.

2003-03-25T07:47:00.000Z

"Turn around, for the Kingdom is about to come". Everywhere - in micro- and macrocosm - the Kingdom calls and motivates us to turn around; to think differently, to accept paradigm shifts. Most people like to think what the masses and media are telling them to think. Turning around is a daily routine - Martin Luther said: "I convert daily".

live from baghdad

2003-03-25T02:03:00.000Z

live from baghdad its salam pax get a first account of the war from a guy who lives in baghdad

2003-03-23T08:49:00.000Z

Added
I've uploaded the Graceway outdoor peace service if anyone wants to do a similar thing in their neighbourhood.

2003-03-20T21:06:00.000Z

Prayer
Bombs started landing on Bagdad about 2:30 pm New Zealand time yesterday. A quick ring around and a group of us gathered publically in the local village square after work (7 pm). We had pre-prepared a short service. We laid out some candles and used chalk to write on the pavement an explanation of what we were doing. We read Scripture, thought about children, lit candles, prayed the Lords Prayer.

It was nice to be public with our faith. A number of bystanders joined us, thanked us or lit candles and moved on. It was beautifully peaceful, with the fountain splashing and candles glowing.

We'll do the same again tonight.

Update from Europe

2003-03-06T10:28:00.000Z

Time for an update from my side of the world...

David Sörensen, a young Belgian designer, developed several excellent websites for spiritual seekers in cyberspace: Real Life, Heavenisopen.com and Moreofgod.com. Check out the God Tour.

Redesigned the Joel News website. Check out what God is doing worldwide.

On my blogsite Marc's Messages I wrote some interesting stuff on 'Jesus groups' and other expressions of organic church. Also available is a report of the DAWN Europe consultation on churchplanting in Europe.

I worked on an overview of what's happening in the youth prayer scene in Europe, as a preparation for our Connect Europe team meeting in The Hague last weekend. Over the weekend we prayed and talked about the emerging youth prayer movements in Europe. How can we bless what God is doing? For your information: of the 47 nations in Europe 7 have a national youth prayer movement, 27 have local/regional youth prayer initiatives and 13 have no youth prayer initiative at all. A lot of prayer stuff is happening, like young Catholics in the Netherlands who set apart a whole year to pray for the Holy Spirit.

Ronald van der Molen decided to close his weblog Dutch Traveller. Too bad! At least there's one person mourning...

lentblog

2003-03-05T07:56:00.000Z

the season of lent begins today - ash wednesday. it's a time of repentance, a time of focusing afresh on god and a time of preparation for easter. neglected in some parts of the church, but in others one of the most important times in the church calendar. at grace we are running a lentblog. someone from the community will be posting food for thought/prayer/reflection for the forty days of lent. do join with us.....

Struggling with God

2003-03-04T07:30:00.000Z

Who could ever have this stupid idea that God is a man-made reflection of our desires and ideas? Feuerbach did not know the living God who is ever so often different from what you want him to be... An excellent article in German "Do not let God go", based on Jacob´s struggle with the Almighty (ending up in a painful injury) by my old friend Jens Kaldewey spoke to me directly. Right now, it´s not so much the success stories that mean something to me but the struggle of the great Saints with their God; like Theresa of Avila who said "God, if that is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few". Undoubtedly, the mistake is always on our side. But God is not an easy partner. No wonder - He is God! Maybe there are some of you out there reading this blogspot who are secretly dissapointed by God or by what they thought was God. Tell him your pain, struggle with him - but stick to him!

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

2003-02-27T05:55:00.000Z

Reuters acknowledges Blogs4God, a "semi-definitive list of Christian Blogs" (http://blogs4god.com). Thanks Coop.

24-7 Prayer

2003-02-26T14:57:00.000Z

24-7 Prayer update - Last week every minute of every day was filled with intercession in 23 Prayer Rooms around the world.

CERGE-EI

2003-02-24T11:21:00.000Z

Dr. Jan Sokol, a committed believer, is the candidate for this Friday's election of a new President of the Czech Republic. God's man for the right time? Some of us believe so - pray for sucess this Friday.

2003-02-22T19:42:00.000Z

Last thursday evening we had our second Sapphire Training. This is a practical training for people who want to plant Jesus-groups (housechurches, simple churches and organic churches). We were with eight people, which is a nice group. After the meal we had some time to get to know eachother. This is what we did:

We took some chocolate (from Côte d’Or) with questions in the wrapping about friendship. Then we chose someone to share the chocolate with and told that person one thing we were celebrating. We listened to eachothers stories and ate the chocolate together. After everybody had shared something with another person, we gathered again as a group and said the prayer of community:

Lord, we come before you not alone,
But in the company of one another
We share our happiness with each other,
And it becomes greater
We share our troubles with each other,
And they become smaller
May we never be too mean to give,
Nor too proud to receive
For in giving and receiving, We learn to be loved
We encounter the meaning of life, And discover You.

(From: Be our Freedom, by: Terry Falla)

This is a really nice practise to make friends or to celebrate excisting friendships. Feel free to try it yourself. You can let me know what happened here.

2003-02-20T13:27:00.000Z

I just ordered Jonny's book.

Phuture Update

2003-02-20T10:01:00.000Z

Two new articles have been posted to phuture . One is from Dave Fagg entitled Prayer, Movements and Belief II and another by Darren Altclass entitled Doing it. Darrens article takes a look at Mission and challenges us to stop just thinking about it and start doing it.

There's also a new discussion forum asking why Phuture articles on worship and forms of Church are so popular and yet articles written on the topic of Mission have largely gone unnoticed?

2003-02-18T23:49:00.000Z

hope you don't mind the plug but wanted to share the joy and relief at finally getting the book and cd rom alternative worship out. along with doug gay and jenny brown i have been working on it for a loooong time. i have blogged about it here. for those of you familiar with the 'prodigal project' it's kind of a follow on to that....

.: Tall Skinny Kiwi :.

2003-02-18T00:26:00.000Z

Tall Skinny Kiwi has some good thoughts on putting the SERVICE back into 'worship service'.

2003-02-16T19:05:00.000Z

Gordon MacDonald made an interessting remark. He said that in Germany in the 1930s many pious, bible believing Christians trusted Hitler because they had heard the rumor that he - like them - was reading the moravian paroles (a kind of daily scripture reading very popular to this day). When he started doing things that were not in line with scripture they did not dare to critzize him ("He must be a pious man if he reads the paroles") but said: "Well probably he has access to information that is not available for us therefore he is doing things we simply cannot understand). MacDonalds conclusion: "NO political leader - no matter how much we may sympathize with him must be permitted to do whatever he wants, without us questioning him, simpy because he seems to be inclined towards our beliefs."

2003-02-16T06:47:00.000Z

i was just putting aubrey to bed and got a glimpse of the fathers love. at one month (and a couple of days) she is tiny, only vaguely aware of what is going on around her and i only really hear from her when she's dirty, hungry, bored or needs someting. every now and then she'll smile or act like she knows who i am or something.

that's kind of how i am with god. the only time i really talk to him is if i have made a mess or need something. sometimes, if things are really good i'll give him a nod.

but i found myself whispering in aubreys ear "I love you soooo much" and knowing that is what the heavenly father is saying to me. "Jason, I love you sooo muuch."

no strings attatched.

i wish i heard from you more but i'll take every second i can get and my heart will swell when i do hear from you.

welcome to www.culturalshift.net

2003-02-15T10:37:00.000Z

culturalshift is on today in England. Pray that it goes well. I am not there this year, but i made it to the last two of them.

the axxess community

2003-02-15T10:06:00.000Z

Brad Cecil of Axxess, Emergentand creator of the Ministry Transition Timeline [take a look] has a birthday today - have a good one, Brad!

Los Angeles youth group to hold (prayer) vigil for Michael Jackson

2003-02-12T03:16:00.000Z

According to this Yahoo news report, a group of LA youth known as Right Way Youth Activities will hold a prayer vigil at the Hollywood Walk of Fame because they believe Michael Jackson might commit suicide.

This article is inspiring for the innovative efforts of the youth. According to one of their leaders, they want to inspire a worldwide movement of prayer for Jackson, who is under renewed scrutiny after further allegations of illicit behavior with children.

Let's pray for Jackson - he's done some wrong and hurtful things, but he is also a child of God.

Main Feature

2003-02-09T14:11:00.000Z

The Gospel According to Homer Simpson " . . . Cal State San Bernardino found religious content in 70 percent of "The Simpsons" episodes. Even the Christian monthly PRISM, which is published by Evangelicals for Social Action, called the series "the most pro-family, God-preoccupied, home-based program on television. Statistically speaking, there is more prayer on 'The Simpsons' than on any other sitcom in broadcast history."