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How to resource missional entrepreneurs without creating charity cases

2011-10-21T00:04:00.001-07:00

Prague. Yesterday I spoke to a group of Christian business professionals and Foundation leaders from USA about how to resource missional entrepreneurs in Europe in a sustainable way, ie, without creating eternal charity cases. These people, all of them very friendly, are part of a European tour organized by Fred Smith of TheGathering.com and Lee Behar of The Maclellan Foundation.

I talked a little about what we have been doing in the past ten years in Europe and some of the best practices we have observed from other groups that we collaborate with. I thought the presentation was a little too heavy on the strategic side and lacked some warm human stories. Oh well. After I spoke, my good friend Sasa Flek shared about the Bible21 project.

But here is my presentation. And if you happened to be in the audience, then please accept my humblest apologies.

Resourcing Missional Entrepreneurs

View more presentations from andrew jones

Egypt: Capital flight, again

2011-10-14T03:04:00.001-07:00

The Exodus provided Bob Marley with one of his greatest songs but the actual event in Egypt, which occurred around (1312 BCE), some cost the country some serious coin. When the persecuted Hebrews left Egypt, they took took gold, silver, clothes, as well as significant human resources.

And now it's happening again! Not with the Hebrews, mind you, but the Coptic Christians who are fleeing the country.

According to one source, $US500 million leaves Egypt each week, a potentially fatal siphonage that started with the Revolution earlier this year. I am curious to know how much of that money is connected to the flight of persecuted Coptic Christians.

So I asked Wally, one of my Christian friends who lives in Cairo, to give me the skinny.

------------------

TSK: Wally, I know a lot of wealthy businesspeople are leaving Egypt, and some foreign investment is drying up, but how much of that capital flight is Coptic Christians leaving Egypt to escape persecution from fundamentalists?

WALLY: My guess is much of the capital flight is in the form of Christians who are leaving Egypt at a fast rate...because they were traditionally blocked from government and the military, Egypt's believers moved into business...their strong values of honesty and the like saw them thrive and dominate the sector (such is the Christian reputation for being above corruption that believers usually have the job handling finances in government and private companies/agencies)...anyway, as they relocate they're taking their finances with them.

TSK: What's up with all this violence?

WALLY: I think you are all aware that anti-Coptic attacks have happened with increasing frequency in recent years - and things have accelerated post-revolution...with 80 dead [this year] and multiple churches attacked and destroyed in many parts of the nation (including Cairo)...a recent attack in Aswan saw the local governor side with the attackers prompting sit-ins by local Copts in Aswan demanding his removal...the protestors in Cairo were targeting the state tv offices because, in addition to the church attacks, state tv has been broadcasting anti-Coptic propaganda which the Copts say is inciting hatred against them...

TSK: I heard the Copts were armed also . .

WALLY: The official story is that some Copts were armed and shot at police, killing three and prompting the army to be called in...the armoured personnel carriers driven into the crowds were driven by people who 'stole' them and not soldiers...and no live ammo was fired at protestors...26 died (including the three military police)...

TSK: But . . .

WALLY: But . .. the truth (as confirmed by video footage, photographs of the scene, eyewitness accounts from independent Western witnesses and locals of both Coptic and Muslim stripe and physical evidence such as bullet casings) is: closer to 52 died (and likely 0 soldiers) with many bodies delivered directly to families and not taken to the Coptic hospital and some bodies apparently dumped in the Nile to hide the scale of the carnage...live ammo was fired in addition to blanks, snipers were used (given very accurate head shots in many shot dead), the APCs were driven by soldiers (don't know if it was a direct order but I suspect so) as evidenced by video footage showing soldiers looking out of the top of the APCs and one soldier whose APC stopped in its tracks trying to get out and being set upon by angry Copts (after he killed some of their number) only to be protected by a Coptic priest (in a powerful christlike act) and led to safety...also, state TV broadcast a message saying Copts were killing soldiers and loyal Muslims should come to the scene and help the troops...some responded and Copts who found themselves on the wrong side of the groupings of crowds were set upon by the Muslim civvies and taken into side alleys to be dealt with (fatally, we can presume)...

TSK: So how can we pray for you all?

WALLY: I went to a prayer meeting last night and it was good: we prayed for believers - that they would not desire revenge (before the attacks one Copt told me his people were ALREADY so angry they believed they needed to take matters into their own hands), and for the national military council running the country.

TSK: Hey Wally, I would like to talk more. And maybe some readers have questions for you also. Talk soon. Thanks for your perspective.

---------------

Related: TSK on Coptic shooting and meeting Bishop Damian and I am following Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad - he just passed day 50 of his hunger strike and his family are worried.

Choosing leaders wisely

2011-10-13T05:02:00.001-07:00

This is part of the presentation I am working on for next week in Prague. Sometimes we choose poorly based on appearance. Sometimes its the law of preferential attraction that forces our hand and we end up settling for the familiar.

It takes faith to notice Galilee over Jerusalem, David over Saul, Jacob over Esau. But choosing character over ability is essential for long term success.

Old kindles and outdated iPads

2011-10-12T07:16:00.001-07:00

Hey. If you have an old model Kindle or an outdated iPad, and you need a good reason to upgrade, here's that excuse you are looking for:

Our kids are homeschooled and lugging around paper books is sooooooo early 21st Centrury. We want to migrate to ebooks and ereaders and reduce the books in our backpacks.

Can you help us? Let me know if you want to donate one and I will give you the address to send it. Thanks.

Innovative worship

2011-10-11T22:52:00.001-07:00

"The edges and images of congregational vitality continually shifted over the last half of the twentieth century". David A. Roozen.
From "A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010" [PDF] which claims to be the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S.HT: Faith Communities Today, TJ

Goodbye Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T23:20:00.001-07:00

I can't begin to tell you how my life is different through Steve Jobs. We will miss him!

Everyone loves bubbles

2011-10-03T06:48:00.001-07:00

We are having a great time. Here's a few of today's images from around our truck at Freakstock Festival, Germany.

Related: Coolest stuff from Freakstock 2010, Freakstock 2009 and 5 Christian T-shirts you see here at Freakstock but will never see in the Bible Belt . . . including this one:

At Coptic Monastery

2011-10-03T06:46:00.001-07:00

It's been an interesting few weeks in Czech and Germany. Some moments and images below, like visiting getting a tour of a Coptic Orthodox monastery,

painting the roof of the motorhome,
and blowing bubbles at Freakstock Festival.

We are off east today, heading through Austria and Hungary to get to Romania and Bulgaria. Appreciate prayers for the journey.

Hanging out in Istanbul

2011-10-03T06:45:00.001-07:00

We are taking a week's holiday and we chose Turkey. We arrived in Istanbul yesterday. Amazing, wonderful, historical city. The people are REALLY REALLY friendly and I totally recommend all my friends to come to this country to visit and enjoy. Last night I went out with my son, Sam, who is with us for a few more days before leaving us to study filmmaking in Wellington.

Watch out, Peter Jackson!

A few days ago, Turkey announced that they are handing back to the non-Muslim minorities a billion dollars worth of buildings that were confiscated since 1936. The Christians will also be allowed to reopen their Seminary that was closed in 1985. FANTASTIC! This is a great move and one that will no doubt speed their journey into joining the EU.

I hope the churches, who have 12 months to reclaim these buildings, schools, cemeteries, etc, will use them wisely. I bet other countries will offer to help them think through what could be done to repurpose some of those buildings for ministry in the 21st century. I know I have some ideas . . . .

The Hagia Sofia, of course, will remain a musuem. It was taken a long time ago and thats all water under the bridge. Bummer!

The World's First Megachurch

2011-10-03T06:44:00.001-07:00

Istanbul: This morning I did a tour of the world's first megachurch. The Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofia in Turkish), opened in 537AD. The original name given to the first construction of this church (360 AD) was "Megalo Ecclesia". Translation: MEGA CHURCH.

Hagia Sophia is one of the Top 20 largest churches in the world if you measure the square footage but only has room for 10,000 people. Its so tall that some people say you could stand the Statue of Liberty under the dome without a problem and there would still be room for Notre Dame. It's now a museum and no longer functions as a church. In fact, when the Moslems took it over in 1453, they covered up the mosaics with plaster and paint. But as a museum the images are allowed and gradually the mosaics are coming back into public view.

Last year I took my family to a different kind of megachurch - Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Seating for 46,000 but not nearly as grand as the Hagia Sophia.

I used to be quite harsh in my critiques of modern-day megachurches but have since softened and become quite ecumenical. One book that opened my eyes and made me repent of some of my biases was Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest Churches (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series).

Going again.

2011-09-29T05:24:00.001-07:00

Blogspot has come a long way so I am restarting this old blog so i can play around in the Blogger playground again. Yippeee!!!

2003-11-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: this blog has moved to Tallskinnykiwi.com

This just came in from Blogger Forum:

"You are ranked #3 at Blogger Forum's Top Ten Blog*Spot sites this week.
This is the first time you have been in the rankings.
Congrats.
www.bloggerforum.com"

Well thats great. But the thing is, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO STOP THIS BLOG and people just dont listen to me when i tell them that . . .

Tallskinnykiwi doesn't blog here anymore.

Tallskinnykiwi.com is the location now- and you will notice I have changed blogging engines over to Typepad.

Nothing against Blogger.com . I love Blogger and have appreciated the push I needed to learn some html, having a voice, being trackable for my parents, and everything else that this blog has done for me in the past 2 and a half years.
I should say also that I was quite effective as a Blogger evangelist (evangelist for Blogger) having encouraged many (probably hundreds) of people to start blogging and even made up templates that i was hacking into back in 2001.
Let me also say that many of the bloggers do a much better job than me. They are more vulnerable, more regular, more polite and many of their sites look far better than mine did on blogger.

Why have I moved?
Because I wanted my tallskinnykiwi.com domain name to point to this blog but that has been impossible for 3 months, ever since they stopped allowing upgrades to make them pointable.
Besides that, Typepad seems more powerful and i can categorize my blogs into different areas - making them ideal for content management.

And maybe i moved so that i can have the excitement of starting over, with a new program that stretches me to learn and master, and to start something new that I can water and watch it grow into something.

Come over early to my new blog.

2003-10-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

What the heck. I already have my new blog home. I just haven't moved my stuff into it yet. But why dont you come on over anyway and take a look around. The address is tallskinnykiwi.com and it will be my new blog. Please change your link from this one to the new one. See you over there.
. . . Oh yeah . . I think I will leave this old blog here as a museum piece and resource for those that want it. I may also import it into my new one. If I can figure out how (no success yet!)

2003-10-18T00:57:00.001-07:00

tallskinnykiwi.com

will be released on Dec 1.2003

I am waiting for some new software so that I can create/recreate the blog. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

2003-09-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

The new address. Eventually, the one address you will need to track me will be www.tallskinnykiwi.com. Dont go there now - I am waiting for Blogger to ALLOW me to upgrade to Blog-Plus so that my domain name tallskinnykiwi.com (which I already bought) can point to it.
The Tallskinnykiwi site will direct you to all 7 blogs that I write to.
Yes. 7!!!!

But in the meantime, Ballad of a Thin Man is the personal blog site that I am using and have been using for the past 3 days.
It is on a journey and will fill up with time. No rush. Feels good to have an empty blog again - like being born again.

2003-09-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

OK. I promised i would stop this blog and start another. i actually stopped a long time ago, as you may have noticed. I have started another blog called . I decided on the name yesterday and now here it is. Really basic. No frills. But i have made the shift to xhtml, RSS feeds, comments and am about to sign up for blog-spot plus (once i get some money in the bank).
I also get to start a new blog. This blog was fun but it has too wide an audience for me to be as personal and vulnerable as i want to be. It has executives going here to find latest news, and at the same time it gets printed off in Australia for my dear old dad to read in his nursing home. Much better to have a number of blogs for different purposes. Which I am doing and am about to release their different addresses. Give me a week or so. in the meantime, if you still want to track what God is doing through me and my family and my friends, then switch over to . This site will still be here and will be revamped as a resource /history site. It will also redirect you to where you may want to venture yet. but know this - that I will not be writing to it on a regular basis anymore. Well, not much anyway.

Oh yeah. the link is Ballad of a Thin Man

Jonny Cash in heaven

2003-09-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

Jonny Cash in heaven: "It's a sad day in Tennessee, but a great day in Heaven,'' said Merle Kilgore, best man at their wedding. ``The 'Man in Black' is now wearing white as he joins his wife June in the angel band.''

Another year later

2003-09-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

Sep 11 - Anniversary of that tragic day. Here are my blog-thoughts from last Sep 11 that I called "One Year After".
Snippet = "One year after. My writing pours out and joins a stream of words that started a year ago and today will rise to flood level. There is much to say. We can say it now. A year ago was a time for silent mourning. For reflection. Asking questions. Pointing fingers. Weeping. Feeling guilty, angry, saddened. . ."

2003-09-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

Blogger pro is finishing up - I am not sure how that will affect the new blog that I am about to release. I was thinking of a switch to Movable Type but really wanted to honor blogger for 2 and a half years of blogging pleasure with their software. Coop has some thoughts on this. In the meantime, my "blog this" bookmarklet is not working.

digital projectors

2003-09-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

The skinny on projectors: Toshiba now offers a new portable digital projectors like mine but with a detachable document camera. That means you can write on paper and have it come up on the wall, overlaid if you like it that way. I am a big fan of my projector, even though it is bulky and the lamp life is short.
If you need to buy a projector, try to get one that is 1100 - 1500 lumins, 3000 hours lamp bulb (mine is only 1000).
The new wireless projectors do not carry video as well as they should and are not worth the extra expense.
Buying used? Check out VJ Central where VJ's sell their old stuff - but watch out for heavy bulb usage - it costs $300 - $400 for a new bulb!!

www.emergent-uk.org

2003-09-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Home again in Prague. Its been a hard 3 months on the road - with the families and community - at times I felt like Abraham!!!!
But we are all back now and trying to settle in to the Giant Peach. Tell you about is soon, and my birthday which was yesterday.
Yes, i turned 40 years old - i used to feel old, and now i have the age to prove it!!!

ferry to france

2003-09-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

On a ferry to Calais, France today.

2003-08-30T03:49:00.000-07:00

I wrote a review of some new worship books that you can read at Christianity Today: Books and Culture. They asked me to review the books and I took them with me on my travels for a month - the result is the Road Test that you can read. Hope I wasn't too harsh. Just trying to be honest and real. Lets wait and see what the response is.

london

2003-08-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

In london, still. We are trying to round up all the stuff and get over to France. We picked up the Stuart's boxes yesterday that were sent from Australia. Traffic was so bad that Samuel and I got out of the gridlock and saw a movie - Whale Rider -
Andrew's take on Whale Rider - great/majestic/emotional/nostalgic movie
Samuel's take on Whale Rider - good

2003-08-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

All over now. The festival was great - got to hang with Brian MacLaren, Pete Ward, teach on a panel with Graham Cray, Jonny Baker, etc.
The kids had a good time. Debbie also but she is a little worn out. We are currently in London for a few days of getting our things together and then we take off across the continent - to France and then Czech REpublic.

2003-08-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Our campsite at Greenbelt is swelling to about 45 people. Travis from Highway Video came in last night and will be setting up one of the DIY VJ stations for our alt. worship installation this evening.
the B&B was nice last night. Debbie and I had a curry for dinner. Nice to get clean. I got up at 4am and worked on video loops for Greenbelt. Relaxing morning. But now . . . back to the jungle!

GREENBELT

2003-08-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Greenbelt Festival. Wish I had a caravan as cool as this one- but we have some cool tents instead. We are setting up our tent village at Greenbelt in anticipation of a BILLION people camping in our tents and hanging out. Some of the team are setting it up today and will work for a few days here to pay for their tickets.

Looking for me at Greenbelt??????
Look for the mini-Peach- a tall peach colored tent with kids everywhere. Or better yet, look for a tall flag with the name “Obed” on it. Obed was the son of Boaz and Ruth, and our big flag that once said “Opel” (as in Opel cars from Germany) has been deconstructed and adjusted. The flag should be supported by our big white van which will have a tent awning attached to it.
Or just listen for the noise of children and go there – you will find me in a corner with my hands over my ears, rocking gently in a fetal position and mumbling to myself, “I cant take any more noise”.

WALES. I will be the Kiwi who went up a hill and came down a mountain. I am taking the family to Wales (right next door) for 2 days, starting today.
Wales – the land of sheep, green grass, Tom Jones, and lots of other Joneses like us. With any luck, I will find some long lost relatives on my father’side. All I have to do is ask, “Does anyone remember my great great grandfather who worked in the mines last century? His name was JOHN JONES.
I am sure there will be some who have heard of him.
I hope to meet up with Chris Jones of International Teams, who leads the European team from his base in Wales. Everybody in Wales is called Jones. The 17 people in Wales who are not called Jones are the Evans family and their relatives who did not marry Joneses.

When we get back on Thursday, we get to stay at a Bed and Breakfast. Rob and Lily Lewin have given us a gift of one night at a B&B in Cheltenham so Debbie and I can sneak off for a long hot bath, some clean sheets and ONE NAUGHTY NIGHT!

At Greenbelt, I don’t expect any WI-Fi or internet access, so I should fill you in now on what will happen.

Friday at 8pm, our team is leading an alt. Worship experience at the New Worship Venue (I think it is called that). We will be using the journey that our kids created, based on their pilgrimage, and adding video and sound to it. We may set up a DIY VJ station. Travis Read of Highway Video will be there to help us out.

I have to teach on a panel regarding the future of the church – which will be fun- but I can’t tell you where it will be or what day.

COOL EXPERIENCES AWAITING ME AT GREENBELT:
Hearing the Archbishop teach.
Throwing water balloons at the Archibishop at the “I hate Church” seminar.
Homer Simson communion with the Archibishop. (Serious)
Hanging out with the Archbishop.
Sneaking around tents at 3am, pulling out their tent pegs and removing their support ropes, with the Archibishop.

PEOPLE I HAVE NOT YET MET BUT WILL DO SO AT GREENBELT:
Rowen Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), Mike Riddell, (Kiwi who I should have met by now), Peter Ward and George Cray – teachers.

FRIENDS I WILL SEE AGAIN AT GREENBELT:
Brian MacLaren will be there and we hope to hook up.
Tom Sine is also teaching – be good to see him again.
Dr Elaine, who I met in Budapest. She rocks.
Dave Andrews from Australia – I had dinner with him and his wife 10 years ago in Brisbane, Australia, where they have a community of over 30 houses, all transforming the city in different ways. That was before he published “Christianarchy” and stirred things up so much.
Jonny Baker, of course.
John Smith, also from Australia, is a real character. I saw him last in Tennessee, about 5 years ago. My RV was parked outside his apartment.

Speaking of motor homes, and to honor those of you who are still reading this blog, we have decided to give away our Winnebago to a ministry that could use it. It is currently in Southern California. It has a new motor that cost a fortune, but it needs some work on the carb and a few small things. If you or someone you know needs it AND PREFERABLY HAVE ALREADY BEEN PRAYING FOR IT, please email me with a request and reason why your ministry would like it. We will decide on who gets it by September 7th (my birthday).

WABI SABI WRAP UP

2003-08-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

Wabi Sabi is all over. Great to be with good friends and quality people. Apparently, the two best things that happened, according to reliable sources, happened when I was not there.
1. A worship time on Saturday night, that started up as we were taking our kids home to bed (10:30pm??) and carried on to the wee hours. It was a Swiss led spontaneous worship time that involved electronic loops of “God is so good” that gradually got so fast that it became Xtreme Celtic (Bob and Mary Hopkins – consultants for the Anglicans and DAWN- described is as “an Irish jig”). Naomi from Lausanne was keeping up on guitar and Joel from Montreal switched from worship violin to crazy fiddle and people were jigging up a storm, all over the room. Pity I wasn’t there. Although the bed was sure comfortable where I was!
2. Prayer time over each other – not on the program, but a rich time of ministry to each other and sharing what God was doing. This happened after the Wabi Sabi event officially ended ( at a fantastic Sunday brunch courtesy of John and Liz Lovell, at their lovely English m,ansiony looking house) so I don’t feel guilty that some of us were watching BRUCE ALMIGHTY (again) at a local cinema.

lilly's pad

2003-08-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

Lilly has a blog now, and its called Lilly's Pad.

2003-08-18T01:37:00.000-07:00

All over now. Wabi Sabi, that is. The English managed to keep the whole thing relational, centered on people rather than serving the event, and even FREE - ie, we didnt have a BUDGET, didnt rent anything, didnt pay anyone to come. Thanks to St Thomas Crookes church for their buildings when we needed them.

2003-08-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight is a worship/arts experience put together by all the kids and based on our pilgrimages. The house is all rigged up with experiences, there are computers going, sleeping bags, a wine fountain, and much more. Tell you about it later.

pilgrim bloggers

2003-08-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

All the pilgrims are back and here in Sheffield, England for a gathering called Wabi Sabi UK.
These are the pilgrims that walked the Camino in Spain and are here right now:
Erika, Robbie and Grace, Teresa, Shannon, Jessica, Derek and Amy, and of course The Jones Family

The Stuart Family are here, after their long pilgrimage from Australia, and there are other people here, such as Stacey and Anita from the original Wabi Sabi which happened in Austin, Texas 5months ago.

As for the English bloggers who are hosting us all (and doing a great job) there are probably too many to mention but you can see most of them at Andy and Bea's blog.

I know i am forgetting some people here - Rob and Lily are turning up from their pilgrimage in UK- straight from Holy Island - and I dont have a link to them - my apologies.

Tonight we are having a pilgrims night at some houses. People will be clicking through some of these web sites to see the stories.

Wired News: Magic Touch for Electronic Music?

2003-08-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

Geek Jon Reid just told me about a Wired article about a "futuristic tool for composing live electronic music ".
Cool, but it doesnt do video yet so I will wait.
I just got bluetooth and am trying to work my bluetooth phone into using it for wireless presentations when i speak at conferences for missions execs.

2003-08-14T04:17:00.001-07:00

Thom Wolf and his wife are in Prague but we are still in England, of course, and want be able to hang with them. But the Wolfs (Wolves?) will be back next month in Prague.

As for all of us, we are well and are picking up people from airports and train stations for Wabi Sabi. Yesterday I picked up Joel from Montreal at the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool. The day before i picked up Noami from Switzerland. Today comes Mike, the Man With a 1000 Links.

Planning meeting last night - nice to see Bob and Mary Hopkins (church planting consultants/trainers for the Anglican church) there.

Things kick off tonight at a pub called The Devonshire Cat, where we can all meet each other in a safe environment. It should be a good, chillin', encouraging weekend for the 40 of us involved in Wabi Sabi UK.

www.moogaloo.com

2003-08-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

In Sheffield again, with the whole tribe. Andy Marshall's birthday tonight so we well have a small celebration.

2003-08-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

About 20 of us here in Chichester - all the pilgrims are now accounted for, friends are with us, two Australian girls from my old youth group are here. Crazy time today seeing all the relational ties that have brought us here from all over the world.

Sites Unseen - Earth's Mightiest Alternative Christian Link Portal

2003-08-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

Mike Morrell is over in England, and staying close by so I am trying to hook up with him today. Mike has been putting together a list of Jesus/ministry links that is now numbering about 1600. He is now calling it Sites Unseen - Earth's Mightiest Alternative Christian Link Portal.
Happy surfing!!!!

International Indie Allies Meetup Day -- Join other Independent Christian Thinkers near Leeds, England

2003-08-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

International Indie Allies Meetup Day is in 5 days. Theoblogians around the world will get together. I signed up for Leeds, England, but there were not enough of us to make it happen, and the computer told us it was cancelled.

CANCELLED?

What does the computer know?
I know that most of the people attending wabi sabi UK in Sheffield only 3 days after the meetup are Christian bloggers. So why dont we all meet up? I mean before wabi sabi,to be a part of this global event which will number over 900 Christian bloggers.
Shall we choose Sheffield and all sign up?

Urban Onramps

2003-08-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Some veteran Theoblogians took a break from blogging this summer- as well as me, that is. Andrew C is back and Rudy C is back home and blogging again. Welcome back!
Coop kept on blogging but then he doesn't really have a life, stuck up there at the top of the globe with the Eskimos.
Good old Rudy C is immediately back into the controversies of the Church - Episcopalians, in particular, and he raises the question of the "worldwide Anglican response".
In regards to the global Anglican scene, it is worth noting that there are about 25 million Anglicans in the UK, one million of whom attend church. In Africa, there are over 70 million Anglicans, almost all of them church attenders.
"Whose got the power?"

2003-08-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

Email today. Lots of questions and thoughts. Here are some of them.

Patric from Germany wants to know why I write “the” instead of “the”.
Well, just a bad typing habit and refusal to use a spell check.

Tom and Christine Sine are starting an intentionalcommuntiy on an island called The Bartimaeus Community.
I know. They have been talking about this for a decade, but now they are actually looking for people to come and live in it.

Mikee from Tomfest/Portico says today is the last day to get cheap tickets to the Festival.

A.R. wants to know the difference between 50 movements, Epicenter and Epicentre.
Epicentre is an alternative worship church in England.
Epicenter was an event that we did in 2001 in Austin.
50 Movements.com was a web site we ran for a year to serve the Epicenter event.

An email from “Weary” yesterday said this:
“We recently made the decision to stop going to Sunday morning in the church building church. It is a long story, probably similar to many you have heard, and I don't have the presence of mind to write it all out. We also unschool our kids and my husband and I are artists. I tell you all this because, we often feel like we are going against the grain in our conservative hometown. I am desperate for someone to say, hey, it's a good thing, what you are doing. So if you or your wife have time to pray for our family or offer some encouraging words feel free to e-mail back. I read your blog fairly regularly! God Bless you all,
Weary in the U.S.A.”

2003-08-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

Just thinking about Bob Hope, who died last week. Once I dressed up as Bob Hope for an Innovative Church Conference that the Young Leaders group (now known as Emergent), were teaching at.
The conference was fine but I thought it needed a bit of spicing up, and it happened to be Bob's birthday, so I put on my red tarten golf pants, carried a golf bag that i scored from a local thrift store, and came in late with shouts of "where's my golf ball?", and "its over here" etc.

Anyway, when I think of Bob Hope, I remember that conference at Glorieta, New Mexico, and the surprised look on the faces of the pastors and leaders who watched me enter as Bob and then teach on teh emerging church.

Good time indeed - Witnesses were the other guys on teh team - Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, Brad Cecil, Mark Driscoll and Ron Johnson.

I miss those times.

By the way, Emergent are having a gathering at the same conference center in New Mexico this October and I am trying really hard to be there.

Price? 0 dollars - which is a really good deal.
Same price as Wabi Sabi in England (Aug 15-17), except that Wabi Sabi is limited to about 35 people (already accounted for) and perhaps one or two more who would have to apply to Erika if they really felt like God wanted them to come. (Let me know if that is you). Dont mean to be snobby - its just that it is more of a roundtable for key people and a skill development training for those that are doing more organic church and using multimedia in ministry - which is not the majority of church folk, and keeping it intimate and small will help ensure that training will take place without overwhelming everyone.

But still, if you are in England and you are a Theoblogian/house church planter among emerging culture/multimedia artist/total Freakoid/etc then Wabi Sabi may be a place to meet like minded people.

If not, see you all at Greenbelt Festival or perhaps Emergent UK which happens November.

2003-08-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

Good news for those coming to Wabi Sabi this month in Sheffield:
The Fuse Factory creative team are coming up from Switzerland to bless us - that is, they want to spend the day helping us develop our skills with multimedia, and getting our Greenbelt presentation pulled together. And we are all looking forward to blessing them, praying forthem, and finding new ways to partner with them.

They will be playing gigs around Uk for a week and a half - 17th to the 28th of August, and they might have a few nights free if you want to book them.
They are a VJ/DJ multimedia team that can do everything and do it well.

2003-08-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

Tamara is now walking by herself - officially. A late one at 16 months. Her first steps were on the pilgrimage trail in Spain.

We are all well and enjoying the reunion of most of the team, and the Stuart family who have come down to Chichester. Stacey flies in this morning and
Jessica flies in to London's Stanstead airport late tonight- Debbie will be there to greet her and give her some pomp and ceremony - after all, she completed the whole Camino, walking 30 kms a day for a really long time, walking all teh way across teh north of Spain, and actually finished off at Santiago de Compestela! We are very proud of her and will take care of her over the next few days.

We hope to be back in Sheffield this weekend, to connect with Derek and Amy who arrived yesterday, and the Thames family from Dallas.

2003-08-04T01:41:00.000-07:00

From C.V.
Mabuhay! Sir Andrew. I'm wrting from the Philippines. I noticed you didn't have RELEVANT MAGAZINE listed among your Portals & Publications section. They focus pretty much on Postmod stuff, particulrly in the US.
Have you heard of it? Don't like it?

Me: Yes, I have heard of it. Sorry to be a snob and not list it or the many other hundreds of great mags and resources. Even worse than that is the ocean of bloggers who are not listed here, despite them having nice links to my blog. I feel bad. Maybe my new blog next month will incorporate more links (although i was trying to go minimal rather than add more links).
To Relavant and all the other ministries and bloggers who deserve to be listed and linked and hypertexted and highighted on my blog,
I say . . .

SORRY

2003-08-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

We are chillin today,and Debbie has gone to rent X-Men 2 for us all - here is Derek dressed up as Wolverine - Derek and Amy are in Prague and we miss them.

2003-08-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

Today we finally get to visit the relatives. We have been looking forward to this day for a long time - especially the kids. Here is the skinny:
Sarah is my sister and Bruce Stuart is her husband. they have 4 kids. The Stuarts have left their home in Australia to come and be a part of our ministry - they will add the pastoral care element to the new emerging churches around the world.
They have spent the past 2 months in USA, travelling in our RV and just arrived in England.
Needless to say, we are all very excited and I am hoping they will be bringing me some nice gifts.
Bruce has been pastoring a Bretheren church for teh past 7 years and Sarah has been teaching dramatic arts and creativity at Perth Bible College. They worked with us when we were pastoring a Baptist Church in Perth. they are really an amazing family and have a tremendous impact in their counseling ministry.
Today we join forces.
Today we become a much larger community.
Today is a good day.
Today is another turning point in all of our lives.
A special day.
An historic day.

Hope your day will be great also.

HULK'S DIARY

2003-08-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

THE INCREDIBLE HULK'S blog is worth reading if you are staying up after midnight.

2003-08-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

We are having an easy Friday night, eating fish and chips with Shannon, waiting for the Stuarts in Manchester to give us their new phone number in Manchester so we can call them. 07906094575 is mine (hint, hint) and Debbies is the same but with a 2 on the end. Call Debbie. Dammit! How pathetic that we are 40 minutes away from each other and have to publish this info to our blogs in order to communicate. That's wierd!

2003-08-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Metrosexual

I was reading about the tendency towards metrosexuality in a London newspaper last weekend and was wondering if Americans were thinking the same thing. I guess they are, because a quick trip to Joshua Rudd's blog (someone was asking for a good designer for a job and joshua came to mind) showed that he was asking the same question and even offers his custom spy on the word: metrosexual

www.moogaloo.com

2003-08-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

The photos from Shannon's birthday party are up (thanks andy). We all had to dress up as something starting with "S". You have to figure out what my kids were - Hannah was a sun, Samuel a skater, etc.

TheOoze - ETREK >>> leading & culture

2003-08-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

August 15th is the deadline for signing up for the Leading & Emerging Culture course with ETREK. I am one of the Guest Faculty for this course and will be on your case if you sign up for it.

2003-08-01T04:20:00.000-07:00

Italy comes online

Just a word about our pilgrimage last year to Italy. If you followed this blog, you will know that our RV broke down and died a horrible death just outside of Milan. We were bummed beyond words but there was a man in Milan named Paolo Montecchi who told us that it was part of God's plan for us to break down. He drove us to his house where we stayed for about 3 days with his family.
His mother made us some INCREDIBLE pizza - olive oil splashing all over the kitchen - it was great!!!
We also got to meet his sons and their friends, who were feeling God leading them to get a network of emerging culture ministries going in Italy. We encouraged them to get a web site up. They got some blogs going and starting thinking about a big site.
Well, a year later, they created one and now it is up and running.
Presenting . . . . from the Oikos Network in Italy . . . the 100% Giovani site, your guide to emerging culture ministries (of the protestant variety) in the country that God loves, ITALY

2003-08-01T02:25:00.000-07:00

The Giraffe and the Hippo. This is me and Wolfgang Simson last month in Germany - at a picnic with Patric and Coco. Wolfgang and his family have been watching our dog Hansel for the past month, as we walked the Camino in Spain and pilgrimaged on to England. This wonderful gesture has got him in trouble with his neighbors who dont appreciate barking during the night, and so I just want to say . . . .

Thanks Wolfgang

Wolfgang is the author of a revolutionary and radical book called Houses That Change the World - one of the very best books, nay, the best book indeed, about how God is using house churches right now around the world. Everybody should buy the book, but first, you can download it free as Word or PDF from the free download page of Dawn Ministries. He is more about the idea of BEING church and DOING church,than he is about whether it happens in a house or not. Church happens where the people are, he says. I love this man!

2003-08-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

Sheffield again. We had a birthday party last night for Austin's Shannon Hopkins who just turned . . . opps . . . along with Jen and Fran (pictured) and Andy and Bea, Teresa, and many others, in a pub called The Devonshire Cat.

Our family is staying at Neill Birchenall's apartment, which is located on top of a bank (thoughts of drilling into the safe from the kitchen floor have entered my mind). The dear man has wi-fi, so I can finally get back on the internet with my own computer from anywhere in the apartment AND from the coffee shop just 3 shops down from him. That means you might get some photos in the next few days. It also means i can download some programs and get organized.

Speaking of getting organized, Neill does that for a living - providing solutions for businesses, e-commerce, etc. He had a part in creating the Tribal Generation web site (which was built just up the road) along with the MAIN MAN, who we call Ant, the same Ant who worked on the Clubbers Temple site which is a link you might want to click on and take a look!

2003-07-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Rudy C
the man who blogs along with me.

We are still in London, enjoying the city and letting the kids enjoy themselves. Shannon arrives tomorrow. I walked by Holy Trinity Church today (home of Alpha) and saw the Lindisfarne Gospels at the British Library.

Jessica is still walking the Camino in Spain - go girl go!!!!

The Stuarts are finishing up in USA and will be here in a few days - our kids are really excited about seeing their cousins!

2003-07-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Had a nice chat with Brian Mills, one of my favourite Englishman, and inventor of the prayer triplet idea.

RESPONSE:
Brad "... for those of us (i.e. myself) who are curious but clueless?!
and am i the first one to ask, which means somebody held a prayer triplet
party and never told me? (whine, whine)
or is this some new, hot-off-the-press thang?'

Me: Hi Brad. I heard you are moving to Austin - great!!!
The prayer triplet idea took off in the 1970s all across England, and also Australia and NZ. Probably other places also but it wasnt as popular in the USA until churches like The Church on Brady (now called Mosaic) and other groups incorporated this strategy in the 1980's.
NAMB now recommend it, so it MUST BE GOOD!

You could order a book on it from Brian's site, Interprayer.com BUT, being a child of the internet generation, as you are, you want your information in 15 seconds or less and so you can read about it HERE from an American consultancy group called Hurston Minstries who say :

"Before Billy Graham arrived in England for his 1985 three month preaching tour, 30,000 prayer triplets were formed. Of that number, 3,500 saw one or more of those they targeted in prayer become Christians. A missions organization in India formed hundreds of prayer triplets leading to an evangelistic group termed a "discovery study." Through these triplets, they planted more than 600 churches in various areas of that country. "

Brian doesnt get a mention here, or on the NAMB site, and he would not insist on it, but people should know that Brian Mills is the man behind the plan.

Backblog - Hold the phone! I found a PDF with Brian explaining more about it - download free pdf from dswark.org

2003-07-24T02:34:00.000-07:00

London. i am at stanstead all morning, waiting for part of our team that missed their flight last night. we found a great camping space in london called lee valley leisure centre in edmonton, north east london and on the metro line. we should be here for a few days, waiting for the team to come in from spain.

2003-07-21T04:09:00.000-07:00

Huge kudos to Bill Bright who just died and left behind a great legacy of attempting and acheiving great things for God. A big thinker and visionary who inspired millions and made new things possible on a scale that none of us thought possible.
i saw him in Amsterdam at the billy graham event in 2000 - the guy was teaching on fasting and encouraging everyone to meet with God - I was impressed that such an activist could end up moving people to a reflective lifestyle.
I will remember him as the MAN behind Campus Crusade, the 4 Spiritual Laws, the Jesus Film and as one who went through a paradigm shift at the end of his ministry towards a reflective lifestyle that involved fasting.
Way to go Big Bill. See you up in heaven!.

2003-07-21T03:44:00.000-07:00

Sheffield. The city of steel and The Fully Monty. we arrived last night and are trying to make arrangements for next months event called Wabi Sabi Uk. It is planned for the 14th to the 17th and it will probably be held here in Sheffield, although it depends on if we can find accomodation for the people coming from USA and the continent.
Speaking of which, the Fuse Factory team who throw the
max life parties are coming over from Switzerland to be a part of it, and many people from the original wabi sabi people from our event in USA last march will be coming over for it.
Today we are with Andy and Bea of the moogaloo blog who were some of the English who flew over for Wabi SAbi and really really wanted to throw an English version of the party this summer.
We haven't actually told anyone about it yet, no invitations, although a few key leader know about it. Once we lock in the location then we might send out a few invites, but the whole event/roundtable/worship/training that we do will be very small and for a select few.

2003-07-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

Traveling again but if you really need to catch up with me, i have an English chip in my cell phone and my number is +44 07906094575

2003-07-18T00:46:00.000-07:00

Taking off today from Chichester to Ashburnham Place Prayer Centre for the weekend where we will meet up with Aussie friends (Cindy and Maggie).
Then its up to Sheffield to help preperations for Wabi Sabi Uk next month.

Most of the team now have tickets to get here from Spain/Berlin and we should all be in Uk by the end of the month.

Had a nice evening with Pete Grieg of 24/7 Prayer 2 nights ago. He is doing well but his wife could still use prayer for her health.

Thanks for all your emails about keeping this site and running 2 at the same time. Appreciate it.

2003-07-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

All is well. We are still in Fishbourne, south of england. Most of the team are finding flights to get over here so that we can meet up in Sheffield. Kids are having a great time with friends. I am working on my new blog site - shh shh!!
hope you are having a great summer.
Nice to have you here, even though there is not much to read right now and I still wont be able to publish daily until we get settled again and stop all the travelling.

Question?
Shall i really stop this site or should i keep blogging to it once the next season begins?

2003-07-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

We did it! Not all of it, mind you, but enough of the Camino to make us officially considered having DONE the pilgrimage.
The kids were fantastic, with their backpacks on, waking up at 5am and walking long distances. One day they walked 17 kms, most of which was up a mountain, and they did it without being helped by us. Even 5 year old Hannah walked without help. Tamara had to be carried and pushed in a special stroller/backpack, but then she is just 15 months old and cant walk yet. Although she made her first steps on this wonderful Spanish trail.
lots of memories and moments but very few pictures. I will try and get some developed soon and posted here. Thanks for your prayers and cheers. We were able to meet some great people, pray for those who requested prayer, talk to people who want to start more hostels and monastic resting places for the increasing number of pilgrims.
some of the team are still going on the trail - go Jessica! - but we are done - the kids needed a break, and i needed to get the administration going again so are family are in england, staying with friends in the south.
More soon.

2003-07-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

bruce at atableinthewilderness
is doing well on his pilgrimage

2003-07-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

We are in a small town called Viana and are settling into the pilgrims hostel for the night. the walk has been spiritual, cultural, physical and historical. There are thousands of pilgrims travelling - some say double what the number was 5 years ago, at least out here. We have been receiving hospitality from the Spanish, learning about luke 10, praying with our feet, meeting cool God-seeking people, and getting a far bit of sun.
Its about posture - soooo different from when i was a missionary - the pilgrim posture is one of receiving before giving, humility, learning. people honk their horns at us and shout ´peregrinos¨´ and stop my kids to talk to them - they love us here - amd my kids are getting famous. thanks for your prayers.

2003-07-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Finally!!!!! I finally found an internet connection. That was just my longest blogging silence ever, as well as the longest i have been away from email. sorry everyone if your email bounced back due to my account being too large.
Anyway, here is an up date.

We left the van in Pamplona, in the north of Spain, and left with a team of 16 people to start the Camino. We have been walking for over a week and still have hundreds of kms to go but hope to finish the walk in a months time.

running with the bulls is going on in pamplona this week, but we are here for more spiritual reasons, and also it is too far to go back to pamplona (but we were tempted!)

2003-06-26T00:47:00.000-07:00

We are still in Barcelona, waiting for the last person to arrive today, and hoping to meet up with the Contra corriente network people.

Big snag for the pilgrimage team in California - they need $2000 to fix the motorhome so that they can continue across the country. Know anyone with some money that could help them?

2003-06-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

hey - we made it to spain!!!!!. we have absolutely no money but are waiting on God. We are also waiting on a few more people to fly in to barcelona - we were are - to join the team before we take off.

we are currently about 15 people and we are having a good time ..thanks for prayers

2003-06-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

In Switzerland at Reinholds house. The 3 girls turned up from Itlay this morning. We are all well. Thanks for your prayers.

Germany

2003-06-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

We are in Germany. Things are well. Hanging out with wolfgang Simson, Marc Van Der Woude, Patric, and tonight we meet an African guy named John Mulinde.
More soon.

2003-06-12T00:51:00.000-07:00

Taking off today! Our pilgrimage has started. The van is packed and we are towing a small tent trailer. We go to Germany today and I have some meetings in Zurich this weekend.
What about the Boaz team?
Jessica and Erika and Linnea are in Italy. Derek and Amy Chapman are in France. Some of us will meet up in Lausanne on the 21st June, again in Barcelona and then on the Spanish pilgrimage trail. Bruce and Sarah Stuart and family are leaving Perth, Australia this weekend for LA, where they will pick up the Winnebago and pilgrimage from coast to coast (have you invited them onto your front lawn yet?).
Dont forget other pilgrimagers this summer - Rob and Lily doing the Celtic trails in Scotland, Marc Van Der Woude on his bike, and more.

2003-06-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend was "Childrens Day" which is a big and typical Christian ministry event - the kind where the churches and ministries get together and rent a ridiculously large stadium as an exercise in faith that God will bring the multitudes.
But He often doesn't (He is not as impressed with crowds as we are) and so the organizers end up with more space and less people than they anticipated and people come and say "where is everyone", and "what a pity such a small number came" and "This is really LAME!" and other comments - I am sure you have heard them also.
Personally, I much prefer the "crowded room" concept, where you have more people than space and you have to remove tables and chairs to make room, and have to open us new spaces, and people are being lifted down from the ceiling cause there is no room . . . no . . .wait a minute . . .that was one of Jesus's parties, not mine.
But anyway, some people did come, enough to keep God happy. And there was lots of activities for the kids. The speaker for the event had flown all the way from USA - Susan Milner - she did a great job sharing the gospel of Jesus through 5 colors - we loved her so much that we decided to bring her home with us.
Which we did.
Really.
She is living downstairs in our basement.
She was living there before the event also, BTW, having arrived in Prague 2 weeks ago. But Susan really is living with us and will be the official Giant Peach hostess for the summer - being there to welcome the pilgirms, host really important people, nag us like a mother, cover our backs during our pilgrimages, and make sure that someone mows the lawn.
We thank God for her, and we thank her husband who let her come for the summer. We expect to see him sometime soon also.
Of course we had to get her set up with a blog site and hers is now 1 day old. It is called Misfit Mom.

2003-06-07T02:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, thanks to all of you for you nice emails about my blog site. Yes, this site will stay here, but it will be more of a museum piece than a news service. I am doing some diagnosis on it right now. I just added a site meter (the first time) so I can see who you all are, and figure out how best I can serve you over the summer (when I will be walking a pilgrimage and will not be able to blog daily) and beyond as I adapt and start up new ones.

Technorati: Top 50 Interesting Newcomers, with context

2003-06-07T01:43:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Theoblogian Joshua Claybourn for making it to Technorati's Top 50 Interesting Newcomers.

About Us | Creative Commons

2003-06-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

I am reading about copyright issues on the web and am really impressed with the Creative Commons site and the idea of allowing free usage and re-usage of web-published material, which people tend to do with my stuff anyway.

'Bruce Almighty'

2003-06-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

Star Tribune: Bruce Almighty "The idea of portraying God as Everyman is nothing new. . . In 1977, George Burns donned a fishing cap and red plaid shirt to play the folksy divine hero of "Oh, God!" More recently, the Almighty appeared as Canadian pop singer Alanis Morissette in "Dogma" (1999)."
For a bloggers point of view on Bruce Almighty, visit Andrew Careaga.

Sozo

2003-06-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

"Sozo Rocks Our Kitchen" QT (34 secs)

The SOZO FESTIVAL guys just took off for Poland to promote their festival - WHAT A HUGE IMPRESSION THEY LEFT BEHIND!!!! We are all missing them already. We also wish we were in Hungary in July to attend Sozo. We sang until really late last night. HEY. We made a little QT movie of these guys.

2003-06-06T02:50:00.000-07:00

The Emerging Chruch Roundtable went really well. We had 60 people turn up, which was more than expected. I drove to Paris with Samuel (my 12 year old son) and Linnea(visual artist) and Kim (dancer and official driver - she drove us all the way home at 170kmh. - well done!)

Matt Glock of International Teams did a great job of pulling the event together, and DAWN Ministries, of which I am an associate, gave the necessary funds to make it happen. Johnathon Finlay, who studied at Fuller Seminary the same time I did, opened up The OIKOS House community to let us chill and hang and talk and WiFi on Wednesday. He has some good photos at his blog site and is a Mac man like myself.

Temoins is a ministry that has been doing great stuff since the 1970's, with both Catholic, Evangelical and Reformed. Jean (pictured), who is 71 years old, spoke to us about their ministry and vision. This guy is totally cool and totally gets it. Their publication has just stopped and they will be switching to a web presence and in multiple languages.They have asked us to help link them in with the global movement and help with resources for their new website which should go up in a few weeks.
Les PassagersThis couple were also great. They lead a surfing ministry, a band, and are making a new way for church in France, which is not an easy task. Another group, Mission Radicale, is a youth ministry that does camps and training. They will be starting a new web site soon called PHROG. Look out for them.
Other ministries were represented, including Chris from Skatechurch in Santa Cruz and the ministries in England, connected to Jonny Baker, which shall not be mentioned here.

We witnessed a passionate discussion on Taize, which is still a little controversial for some of the French.
Pray for France, that the new innovations will receive favor and not condemnation, and that there will be unity for the French church to move forward and offer its gift to the nations.
A much better report than mine, and with more photos and links is from Al Feria and check out the photos from Jonathon.

2003-06-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

Help us!! We have been invaded by a group of musicians from some hick town called Nashville, and they just will not stop singing. They are in Europe to run the SOZO ARTS FESTIVAL
in Hungary on July 23-27. But at the moment, they are drinking my tea and singing up a storm and annoying the neighbors. One noisy Giant Peach!

2003-06-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Tallskinnykiwi Blog- 2 years old today!

Yes, two years have passed by since I started up Tallskinnykiwi using the blogger engine. Before blogger, I had a website called Andrew's Tea Salon, which was a page on the My Phather's House web site (no longer online). Andrew's Tea Salon was basically a blog site, but without the name or the engine to run it. I manually entered the date and place where I was posting - the old fashioned way. This was 1997, and I had to use internet cafes (quite rare) to upload since I didnt have a computer. My wife did all the graphics and even used animation on the site, using free animation software. Those were the good old days.
In 2001, CNN did something on blogging and I started up tallskinnykiwi on June 4th using Blogger. I was the only Jesus Follower that I knew of who was blogging. A few months later, Jordon Cooper had seen my site and started a blog site. Rudy Carrasco also like my site and started one. Both of these guys are very outspoken and within a few months, there were a dozen or so Christian bloggers. Another 6 months, and there were too many to count.
Tall Skinny Kiwi has always been a simple site. I have never used flash and have tried to blog in a way that was reproducable - making it easy for others to start their own.
I have never used comments - although I probably should.
I write for myself. I have never used a counter to see how many people are visiting, but when I mentioned somebody on my blog, their number of visitors spikes up to all time highs and from all over the world.
I suppose it scares me to realize how many people come here daily. I really just wanted a journal where I could jot my thoughts down and links to other sites without losing them. I also have a desire to publish the good things that God is doing in my life ("Praise") and this gives me the means to do it.
Unfortunately, I cant always say what I really want to. My little blog has become an institution.
So, where to from here?
Firstly, I plan to stop this blog.
Why?
Because if I update it as much as I want to, then it will erase all the formatting of how it looks now, and I would rather preserve it as it is, and as it was.
I will start other blogs. In fact, I already have. I am not really happy with any of them at the moment, but I expect that a few of them will work.
I also want to use my mms phone more but am still waiting for the right software to get developed.
I would like to have a blog with more rules and more consistency. Blogging is new and there are few rules. But as it matures, more guidlines and standards will be set in place (like consistant size of images and postings). I would like to be a part of that movement. My blog is messy and has no consistency. I cant go back and change it.I dont really want to.
Instead, I will just stop it and start some new ones. Blogs with my family, with my community, with my friends.
So, the time is not right to shut this one down just now, so you will still be hearing from me here until I tell you where I am moving next.

Thanks Blogger for making it simple.
And thanks to you for coming here, and encouraging me on email, and giving me good advice on living and being. Thanks for being an important part of my life and allowing me to be a part of your life.
Lets keep journeying together!

jonathan

2003-06-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I am still in Paris, getting ready to leave. The first two nights we stayed on a church floor but last night we stayed with blogger Jonathan Finley, fellow Mac user, Wifi Warrior, and leader of the OIKOS community in Paris.
Our Roundatble went well. 60 people turned up (more than we thought). Thanks to DAWN Ministries for their support of this event.
Photos coming, and some links to French ministries.

2003-05-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

Blogging Holiday for 4 days while I am in Paris. Go look at someone else's blog!

GB03: Diving For Pearls

2003-05-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to hang with Jonny Baker in Paris. Jonny helps organize the worship at Greenbelt Festival, which, BTW, is on August 22-25 and they are giving us one hour in the program for the Wabi SABI thing that we do. Whatever that will be. Should be good.

Matt Glock - en direct

2003-05-31T02:36:00.000-07:00

Emerging Church Roundtable - Paris

We are all getting ready for the drive to Paris. It will take us about 12 hours to get there and we are figuring out who is going and in which car.

There are a few groups from France that I have not yet met. One of them is mentioned on Matt Glock's blog

"On Monday there will be an Emerging Church Roundtable. One of the groups participating is "Temoins". Jean Hassendforder and the folks he works with have become invaluable friends in the preparation and planning of the consultation.
I'm reading the history of their group. At the start of the movement in 1972 Pascal Colin and his friend were inspired by the simple idea that "authority comes from the Scriptures and that' s the only source of authority [...] authority does not come from Church nor from the clergy. It comes from an individuals reflection and seeking, a free and personal examination.
30 years later the values that were espoused by this group are a part of what is now called the emerging church. Pretty cool."

Yes, Matt. Pretty cool. Looking forward to seeing all the groups.

JESUS

2003-05-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

Check out JESUS and 30 other images of Jesus. (thanks Kerstin)

Berlin Rocks

2003-05-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

Berlin

News: Berlin (ENI). Tens of thousands of Christians from Germany and
beyond are gathering in Berlin for what organizers believe may be
the biggest ecumenical gathering to have taken place in Europe.
About 200 000 people are expected for the five-day event, called
the Ecumenical Kirchentag, or church congress, sponsored by
Germany's Protestant and Roman Catholic denominations, which
claim the loyalty of roughly 26 million members each. [462 words,
ENI-03-0240]
If anything substantial happens, Kerstin Hack who blogs at Berlin Rocks will tell you about it.

2003-05-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Word of the Day . . . . . IGNITE

Jared Williams [The Searching]: It seems to me that your phrase "ignition of
movement" better positions us toward those relationships, whereas "church
planting" seems to suggest establishing an official identity through regular
gatherings intended to reflect those relationships.

Dan Farrell : Hey Andrew, I'm a church planter in Towson, MD, USA and I read your blog. Very cool stuff. Anyways, I wanted to comment on the church planter name, and the ignite suggestion. My thought this morning on my way to work was "I ignite an area. I set an area on fire with a passion for God. I'm a firestarter!"
Then thoughts of the Prodigy song came in to my head... thought you might get a kick out of this.

Scott and Heather: Andrew, we were inspired, by the ignite and firestarter analogies, to rewrite the song.
FIRESTARTER :.Heather and Scott's version [of Prodigy's firestarter]

I'm the tribal starter, growth instigator.
I'm Spirit addicted, Kingdom illustrated.
I'm a firestarter, faithful firestarter.
You're the firestarter, faithful firestarter.
I'm a firestarter, faithful firestarter.

I'm just faith ignited, Christ infatuated.
Yeah
He's the love you tasted, well intoxicated.
I'm a firestarter, faithful firestarter.
You're the firestarter, faithful firestarter.

I'm the love inflicted, passion detonator.
Yeah
I'm one regenerated, faithful animator.
I'm a firestarter, faithful firestarter.
You're the firestarter, faithful firestarter.
I'm a firestarter, faithful firestarter
... starter... starter... starter...

Rebecca: Andrew, Hi. Ugh. All of these metaphors are so male. Planting -- inserting something other into the virgin earth. Ignite -- burning up all combustible material. They are like the term "winning lost souls," which makes me cringe. It's that territorial, colonizing mind-set illustrated by the medieval crusades. What about reconciliation? What about a metaphor that
doesn't talk about taking over, burning up, or digging in? What about a metaphor that truly gets at the root of the matter? People don't need to be colonized or gardened. You see, they keep receiving notices marked
insufficient funds. How will they be reconciled?
I enjoy your blog. Rebecca

Andrew: Hey Rebecca - thanks - a great book is "The Nations Called" Pieter Bos in which he does away with the military terminology and brings out God's romantic desire to be in covenant with the nations he loves.You would like it.

Rob Lewin: AJ, I must weigh in on the current blog discussion on "Church Planting."
1. Trying to name this at all creates conflict in the new "post-whatever" wineskin. The community of believers who gather, no matter how small, rarely require their communal action to have a name. The group will name itself, but the beginning, generating action -they won't care about. They just love people and like being together with people of Jesus.
Leaders with one foot in the old wineskin, on the other hand, they need it.

"I must name my activity. Am I a firestarter, igniter, an ember gatherer, or a flying monkey (see Dorothy)?"

The reason we feel so compelled to name it is that in the old world; naming=marketing=selling=success=money.
If, however, I don't take money from this enterprise, don't need it to "succeed", and am not looking for anything "bigger or better," and won't need to use this on my resume, then why name my action. I can be comfortable with serving others in Jesus name.

2. Naming the action in the old wineskin was also the career description a lone, strong, square-jawed, cowboy-esque, male leader bringing his "vision" for a new church to an unsuspecting population. And while passionate individuals are always needed to "genesis" new groups; those groups in the new world won't endure being one individual's success story. Gone are the days of "my church" and welcome to the days of "our church." And gone are the days when men are the only "igniters." See Patrick in Ireland

3. Ember Gatherer. Jesus has already been at work developing embers in everyone. For a very long time. Gathering what God has already begun is the "church planter job." This role of gathering, in the old wineskin, is the opposite of what we were taught. You must Hunt! Men hunt, women gather. Hunting also allows me to perceive of myself in a semi-executive role ministering to a nation, region or whatever. Note growth of arrogance. Sorry.
Standing like Moses over the Red Sea and commanding "Come, people, through all my strategic thinking, marketing, and planning to the Lord your God" died at least 10 years ago. Leading has been serving for 2003 years minimum, and won't change anytime soon. Often, naming my job is a trick of avoidance to keep from doing the serving, caring, gathering; the real work and life of the Kingdom. Only problem is that serving is where you see all the cool stuff.
I pray God blesses your hands as you gather, and experience the cool stuff. Luv Ya, Rob

2003-05-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

The daily arrival of woman on mission this week:
Monday - Susan, North Carolina, prayer leader, Jewish, little in stature. Airport pick up.
Tuesday - Linnea, Madison, WI, artist, friend of Amy's, from Joseph Steinke's church. Airport pick up.
Wednesday - Erika (pictured), Houston, from Harbor Church, hairdresser, first-strike warrior, singer. Airport pick up.
Thursday - Kim, Ohio, back from Estonia and Berlin, dancer. Train station - she can find her own way here.
My question stands:
Wheeeeeeeeeeere are the men?

Avant-Garde

2003-05-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Avant-Garde Update

Avant-Garde will happen next week in Paris, despite the strikes. I will be teaching with Jonny Baker. Stuart Murray-Williams will not be able to come. Bryce Wager and his DJ/VJ crew from MaxLife Party (Lausanne) will be there. Jonny is bringing a dozen English. The Foundary group of artists from France will also be there. A bunch of us from Prague are coming over.
Should be a good time!!!!!

2003-05-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation . . " Luke 10

U2 Sermons Blog

2003-05-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

New Blogs

U2 Sermons Blog Neg- Awful pink background would make Bono embarrassed. Worse in fact, than my html mistake earlier this month.
Pos+ Good links, well written in an honest, blog-like manner, and a great topic.

Future Margins by Fred Peatross
Neg- lacks a sick humor and self-depreciatating bio
Pos+ best dang coverage of Len Sweet i have seen

More of them that I need to take a look at and then review:

noisy ragamuffin by Scotty Miller
radiant love by Whitney
Ogblog by Hadge

2003-05-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am sending out 33 emails as I write this.
- I feel good. . . nah nah nah nah nah! (James Brown quick footed maneuvre leading to rapid halfturn from the waist and finishing with a full-toothed smile of satisfaction)
That will keep some of you happy. I try to reply to everyone who emails me. sometimes I like to think about my answers and then I lose track. The best way to make sure I reply is to email directly to Jessica Stricker who is my PA, and tell her to get on my case. Her email is at jessstricker at aol.com (antispam type).
Jessica will be attempting the full Camino de Santiago pilgrimage (all 500 miles/ 800 kms) from France to Spain (as opposed to our family who will attempt a good chunk of it, since we have young kids, a baby to carry, and a puppy). She may not be able to get back to you real quick over the summer.

2003-05-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

Email re:Skinny on Church Planting

Jared Williams: I've used the phrase "church planting" for several years now to denote my life-long passion to offer my gifts to shape and form messy little communities of faith . . .
Everytime i find myself using that phrase, i feel like i need to escape it, like i''m referencing some contrived connotation. It's really the word "planting" that i'm struggling with. When i think of/talk about church planting, i kind of grimace, hating to admit that the natural missionality of my life and those around me has an agenda to it. Especially one that presumes to occupy a space that the 'church' doesn't already exist in. But i know that the concept of "church planting" DOES hold water at some level! I guess the question is, should we have a word or phrase denoting the act of "church planting"? If so, what would it be? What do you use right now? How exactly does one "plant" something? Is that notion even too contrived or ambitious?

Me

Andrew: Hi Jared
I think I know the tension. "Planting" is an organic gardening word, which makes it sound better than "Implementing" or "Establishing" which sound more instititutional. But it is bittersweet.
Some years ago, the focus of church ministry moved from evangelism to discipleship and then from discipleship to church planting. It was further strengthened by C. Peter Wagner's famous sentence:
"Church Planting is the most effective form of evangelism under heaven".
Wagner's phrase was so profound that the American church was stunned into a dumbfounded silence. Angels in heaven starting bickering over why they did not think it up before humans. The living creatures stopped saying "Halellujah" and instead began chanting Wagner's mantra.
And a new term was accepted among men.

Still, when people today hear "planting", they often see it in insitutional terms. ie., "Theres a problem, lets PLANT an institution to deal with it"
It can also be a step away from holistic ministry that deals with the whole person towards a numbers oriented, strategy based, merciless missions strategy that says "new churches planted at any cost". Some mission organizations have recently been criticized for telling their medical doctors to start planting churches or return home.
There is also the temptation of ecclesiocentrism, which reduces the goal of mission and its measurement of success purely on the number of new churches planted, without recourse to whether those churches are life-giving or impacting the wider arena of the city and its structures.
Anyway, there may be other reasons why you respond negatively to the "planting" term.
Maybe you are just a lousy garderner???
You will be happy to know that Spencer Burkes new book ("Making Sense of Church", will be released this September) will have a chapter on moving from the warrior metaphor to that of the gardener.
What do I use right now? In missions circles, I still use "plant" or "start" but I try to move the focus from individual churches to movements ("ignite" is a cool word) and from institution-starting to the holistic impact that comes when the Kingdom of God is downloaded (reloaded?) into a space.

Response

BeyondPostHuman
"Brad: okay, a rant. here comes: i think c. peter wagner's famous statement is not so true as american christians would like to think. i think a better phrase these days would be "discipleship is the most effective method for evangelism under heaven." church planting and the growing of capable leaders are both a byproduct of discipleship, so why don't we start with the "real" thing, which is discipleship? i hear a lotta people out there complaining about the lack of leadership in their (traditional and/or transition) churches, but then, it doesn't look like they have holistic discipleship either. so why should they expect they'd have any leaders raised up from within? they're performing and creating spectators still."

2003-05-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

bought a van - show you soon! yippee

2003-05-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

Skinny on media

(Keyboard image was taken by my wife last month).
Mean Dean of Heal your Web Site says in a recent Niphal interview that church websites are often ineffective and blogs are too limited for churches, but he recommends some good websites and offers assistance and links regarding RSS, which all of us Theoblogians should take a shot at figuring out.
Media Strategy is offering a FREE book (download) on web ministry. I just downloaded it and will try and read it soon. Let me know if you have a review of the book.
Thanks James Bruce for the info.
UPDATE: I scanned the book - and I feel . . . well . . . .dirty. Lots of talk about globalization, marketing, genXconsumers, how to target unreached people and media blitz the whole world. However, there were some good parts, especially a piece on a redemptive non-linear painting from Thailand. Nothing on the impact of new media on the way we think. Big focus on how to reach the BIG CROWD for God (minister to more asses for less money). I sound cruel, even more than MeanDean below. Maybe I should read the rest of the book?

2003-05-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Fran and Jen on their engagement - wedding planned for October probably near Sheffield, England. Jen has been a regular at our events and roundtables and is a very good friend.We are all happy for you!

2003-05-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

Images taken at St Vit Cathedral, Prague. May 25, 2003

2003-05-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

We walked all over town yesterday. Good practise for the pilgrimage. We were hoping to get into the big church on the hill overlooking Prague but they opened too late for our KIN from USA.
Lots of people arriving this week. Susan comes tonight from North Carolina. Linnea Spransy from Ohio comes the next night. Erica from Houston comes the next night. All women on a mission for God. Reminds me of the time not too long ago when women missionaries outnumbered men by 7 to 1.
Where are the men? Where are the men who will risk everything for God and take a leap of faith? Handcuffed to their careers, perhaps?
Anyway, we look forward to meeting all these people this week.

BLOGGER

2003-05-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hey bloggers - has your template disappeared? BLOGGER is changing things over to the new system so the road will be bumpy for a while.

2003-05-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

Tongue Splitting: Your Youth Pastor's worst nightmare? 2000 people have done it worldwide but probably none of your youth group. (Yet)
Why would anyone split his or her tongue? :
* The shock value is enormous.
* Some actually find the experience spiritual.
* They just like the way it looks and feels.
(Associated Press")

ME? I dont like it. Leave your tongue alone!
(This blog was re-posted from last week because NOBODY emailed me about it. Am I losing my ability to offend people? Am I getting old?)

TallSkinnyKiwi on Blogger

How to resource missional entrepreneurs without creating charity cases

Egypt: Capital flight, again

Choosing leaders wisely

Old kindles and outdated iPads

Innovative worship

"The edges and images of congregational vitality continually shifted over the last half of the twentieth century". David A. Roozen.

From "A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010" [PDF] which claims to be the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S.HT: Faith Communities Today, TJ

Goodbye Steve Jobs

Everyone loves bubbles

At Coptic Monastery

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The World's First Megachurch

Going again.

Tallskinnykiwi doesn't blog here anymore.

Come over early to my new blog.

tallskinnykiwi.com

Jonny Cash in heaven

Another year later

digital projectors

www.emergent-uk.org

ferry to france

london

GREENBELT

WABI SABI WRAP UP

lilly's pad

pilgrim bloggers

Wired News: Magic Touch for Electronic Music?

www.moogaloo.com

Sites Unseen - Earth's Mightiest Alternative Christian Link Portal

International Indie Allies Meetup Day -- Join other Independent Christian Thinkers near Leeds, England

CANCELLED?

Urban Onramps

SORRY

HULK'S DIARY

Metrosexual

www.moogaloo.com

TheOoze - ETREK >>> leading & culture

Italy comes online

Thanks Wolfgang

Germany

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Sozo

"Sozo Rocks Our Kitchen" QT (34 secs)

Happy Birthday Tallskinnykiwi Blog- 2 years old today!

jonathan

Blogging Holiday for 4 days while I am in Paris. Go look at someone else's blog!

GB03: Diving For Pearls

Matt Glock - en direct

Emerging Church Roundtable - Paris

JESUS

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Berlin

Word of the Day . . . . . IGNITE

Avant-Garde

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Email re:Skinny on Church Planting

Me

Response

Skinny on media

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