sustain:if:able kiwi

mobile theology

In my out of bounds church? book, I argue that a church committed to Incarnational mission will take seriously Incarnation within a globalised, roaming culture. I ask the question; What will it look like to fund a spirituality in a world gone 24/7? It’s a part of the book that applies Incarnation not to subcultures, but to global culture and I offer a number of suggestions including cybermonks, spiritual takeaways and postcards.

If I was writing the book now, and not 18 months ago, I pick up on a fine selection of posts at planet telex. The image of mobile phone is used to illustrate perfectly this global, roaming, 24/7 world that we live in. There is an introduction to what I would call spiriutal tourism, but what planet telex calls mobile theology here. There is a plea for interactivity here (which engages directly with material from my book).

Here’s an idea…
Send people out from your community with the task of sending you via email or via picture messaging 3 images that speak to them of God during the week. Upload each image to the website as the week progresses, use the images during worship on Sunday, swap the images as free wallpapers for people’s phones. The next week ask them to do the same thing, but with a different theme, what makes them happy, images that make them sad, images of friends, images of meals eaten…

Then there is a suggestion of mobile worship, which offers a subversive set of spiritual practices.

It’s an excellent set of resources that offers in the mobile phone a very concrete metaphor and takes seriously the questions of postcard 5; both for everyday spirituality and for worship.

Repeat of a blog post from the blog about the out of bounds church? book.

some good news

For those who don’t read the out of bounds church? book blog, I’ve been smiling for the last few days because a complimentary copy of my out of bounds church? book arrived on Monday, with the news that my publishers have commissioned a second print run. So I am quietly thanking all those who have brought copies and made this possible.

Note: (I set up the out of bounds church? book blog to offer various extras in relation to the book – like the original postcards in colour, like sections cut in the editing process, like my responses to questions emailed to me by book readers and also to collect all the reviews and blog comment/ary on the book.)

len sweet encouragement

For those of you who don’t follow the out of bounds church? book blog, I was blown away by the following email from Len Sweet.

Steve:

I assigned your book to my doctoral students, and they loved it … I thought the book was dynamite . . . and glad it exploded in the hearts of my students as well

selling out

So I’ve got this new book – out of bounds church? – that got released in February.

And in April my local Christian bookshop – yah for Manna Christchurch – throw a book launch. And they are going to sell out of my book, so I give them the 6 remaining copies I have left.

So they owe me books. Last week they ring. New stocks of my book are in and I can come and pick up the 6 copies they owe me. So last night we cruise in there. I double park and Lynne rushes in.

And returns empty-handed. They’ve sold out. Again. Twice. Either they are only getting in little handfuls of my book, OR Christchurch is buying!

Update (17 June 2005): Susan from Colorado writes: When I bought your book about a month ago (either in Borders or Barnes & Noble in Colorado – can’t remember) I got the last copy. Hope they restocked. Great job on the book ! We’re using it for ideas on our own unusual culture at Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, Colorado. Selling out again!

out of bounds in melbourne

I’m in Melbourne this week; Wednesday evening there is an out of bounds book launch, 7.30pm, 81 High St, Preston. I am doing 5 short bursts around 5 different missional metaphors.

Thanks to Phil’s energy and Forge’s enthusiasm.

Thursday I meet with Forge interns for breakfast. Later that day, and into Friday, I am at Unfreeze 2; working with Churches of Christ denomination, doing some tag team stuff with Al Roxburgh and a seminar titled “Trips to the Edge of the Ecclesiological Envelope. Stories of planting and transforming conversations.”

I fly back Saturday, in time for the Pentecost NorWest Festival.

its my book launch

Today, Friday 22nd, 7:30 pm,
Manna Christian Stores, 103 Manchester St.

I’d love to knock off work at 12:30, and spend the afternoon in the sun, relaxing, preparing …
but it’s been a hell week and the weekend is packed.

Update: The launch was neat. Nice mix of people from many of my walks of life. Amy and Kaleb played some live music, including some Jack Johnson requests. Oh yes, the juice ran dry and the books sold out. Now I’m trying to get Manna Christchurch to tell Manna Auckland and ….

View image: trying to spell my name: 74K

View image: live local talent: 70K

View image: the duel of the cameras

(thanx Jas for the pics)

“I highly recommend The Out of Bounds Church. It is creative, fun, different, challenging, and disruptive! What more do you want? It would be so sweet if Youth Specialties could put a copy in the hands of every senior pastor in America and the world”.

For more highlights go here or the full review here.

the blog about the out of bounds church book

When you release a book, people start to review it and interact with it. Which has left me with the dilemna – What to do with such stuff? It sort of seemed a slight sideline to the point of this blog (which doesn’t really have a point, but nevertheless still felt off the point) and I don’t want this blog filled up with various book bites.

So I’ve built a new website/blog: the blog about the out of bounds book.

It includes
: reviews and web interactions
: the Original postcards
: some humour
: directors cut – various bits that hit the editing floor
: mistakes
: my responses to “author emails.”

Head on over. Check it out. Give me your feedback (here please). Link to it, so that it steadily moves up the old google rankings.

(PS I’d love to include some sort of discussion forum for each chapter. But I lack the technical expertise. So if any kind reader could help me set up some sort of forum, I’d be stoked.)

the author is frozen

I have just met my twin brother, who due to publisher deadlines, stopped growing in May 2003. That was the month my book went to the publisher/editor. While my ideas became frozen in print, I kept growing. Tweaking, changing, adapting.

Now I get emails from people, with questions and comments about my book. Which is like way cool, but that was May 2003 and have you heard about “postcard 10″ (my book has 9 “postcards” on contemporary mission)?

I had a constant debate over 3 years at seminary with my Old Testament Lecturer. Deeply infested by contemporary reader response theory, he used to maintain “the author is dead.” It was a slogan designed to rial my desire for some level of authorial intent, as one strategy for allowing coherence between original text and context.

Is an author dead? Or is an author frozen, a virtual twin, a camera snapshot of a brain stranded in time?

Christchurch book launch

Just confirmed a date for my Christchurch book launch;
Friday, April 22, from 7:30 pm
Manna Books, Manchester Street
drinks, nibble and live music (hopefully)
all welcome

a wierd joy

Just got my first email from someone;
who I have never met,
who has brought my book,
who found it helpful,
and who was asking me mission questions – how to connect with their poorer, multi-ethnic community.

It is such a joy for me to know that the result of reading my book was thinking about mission and finding God in spaces new and other. Yeeha!

Original Out of Bounds church

Surrounded by a 10ft chain fence, a locked gate and “out of bounds” notices the church opens for just one service a year. The vicar is fed up with the time it involves and the local parishes want rid of the burden of maintaining it.

The Church of St. Giles is the parish church for the ghost town of Imber, an isolated village on Salisbury plain was requisitioned by the War Office a week before Christmas 1943, and the area made permanently out of bounds to the public.

For more

The unveiling of a new book

(My book, the out of bounds church? learning to create communities of faith in a culture of change goes from the printer to Zondervan HQ for the start of distribution today.)

Today feels like the first time I was naked with my wife; very exciting, but a high level of performance anxiety.

free downloads of out of bounds book

The internet rumours are true. Due to an administrative error, the entire text of my book was available as a free download on the internet over last weekend. Frantic emailing state-side and the error was corrected.

Which, when I paused for breath, left me pondering the question – if a person was to download it, would they still buy a hard copy?

OK, let me make that personal. If you downloaded a book, would you still want to read/own/possess the hard copy?

Is free downloads good marketing, or bad selling?