e~mergent kiwi

sharing the linking luv

Apparently, today is world blog day, and you are meant to link to 5 blogs you have never linked to before; to share the linking luv ... so here are 5 blogs that I have recently wished I could blog like;

Backyard missionary - good, honest Aussie battler

Laura Drane - a new blog that comes from a mind well worth listening too

Fernando Gros - self-reflective and lateral linkages being made around globalisation, film, popular culture, Christianity

Sue Wallace - creativity and spirituality plus

Andrew Picard - down to earth pastoral minister

worth watching

Think Christianity looks a webite worth watching: "A conversation and general thoughts on the Christian faith from people of all walks of life. The good, the bad and the ugly." To join the conversation, you simply send an email saying why you do or don't go to church. It becomes a blog post and the dialogue commences.

blog links

My post on 7 things I learnt from Bono about worship leading, and a follow-up post in which I outlined what this might look like in a congregation of 180 rather than a concert of 40,000 attracted quite a bit of blog comment at the time. Interesting to note that Sarah Dylan Breuer offers similar reflection here. It is far longer than my post, but reflects in a similar way on U2 as participatory and experiential worship. It is fascinating to see someone shaped by a Baptistic ethos, like myself, and someone shaped by an Episcopalian (Anglican) ethos, like Sarah, express similar views on the art of liturgy.

One of the most visited posts on this blog is a sermon I preached back in 2004 on the Prodigal Son. I just noticed a link from here and a post describing how a church group, called home, used the sermon, along with three different worship stations in response. It is quite wierd reading their post and realising that totally unbeknown to me, my words were being spoken on another continent. I bet they got the accent wrong!:)

blog worth reading

Malcolm Chamberlain (UK) has started a blog. We swapped mission notes and shared a coffee at a local beach back in 2004. Malcolm is a thinker - working toward a Masters on postmodernity and mission, and a doer - planted a faith community called Dream (who supplied an emerging church postcard 2005 here). Malcolm has even said some nice things about my out of bounds church? book here, in a blogpost reflecting on community and mission in contemporary culture.

Update: thanks to the sharp eye of Bruce, who noted that I had forgotten the blog address - http://malcolmchamberlain.blogspot.com/

podcasting Steve

The Red Herring interviewed me last month. It proved to be a fascinating conversation that is now up as a podcast; in two parts, complete with mixed in background music.

Part One: Steve outlines the links between the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He points to the role played by alternative worship communities in initiating emerging churches. We talk about globalization theory, particularly the idea of "glocal," suggested by Roland Robertson. Steve reveals the role of women played in emerging churches in New Zealand.

Part Two: Steve's one blog contains "postcards" from emerging churches around the world, including the Philippines and Japan. During Brian McLaren's recent visit to Christchurch, Steve interviewed Grace McLaren about her take on the emerging church in New Zealand. Steve reviews three movies in relation to the emerging church, and summarizes his blog about 1 Peter as a feminist tractate.

If you're bored, and want to listen, go here.

ground hog day in typepad blog world?

Quite a number of typepad blogs I visited this morning have lost posts. It's like Groundhog day, reading stuff you've read before and thinking, I'm sure this blog has posted more since then. Nada. Gone. Typepad life has all bounced back to around 12 December. It's quite hilariously funny, although probably not for those hosted by typepad.

More: Here's the typepad media release; here's the admission of a mistake and here's the promise of regular updates here.

blogging for education

This afternoon I've been working on a new block course Living the text in a postmodern context, which I am expecting to teach at Fuller in 2006.

DRAFT: This course will explore the communication of the Biblical text in a contemporary world, with particular missiological reference to the use of the Bible in the emerging church in a postmodern context. It will explore ways to maintain the integrity of the Biblical text, applying the best of academic insights around text, community and culture, to the task of communicating the Biblical text with reference to postmodernity. The course will combine both theory and practice, believing that learning often happens through seeing new models, while new practices necessitate a shift in the under girding values. As a result of the course, students will be better equipped to read and communicate the Biblical text in a postmodern context.

Previously, I have often used journals as a form of assessment. It allows me to listen and interact with students, and allows a greater flexibility of expression than traditional essays. It has worked well.

Today I wondered about inviting students to journal, not with pen and paper, but on-line. Students could very easily be given their own course blog-site, organized by lecturer beforehand. Students would be asked to journal regularly at their own course blog-site, with a suggested number of entries (and word length suggested). Students would be assessed with particular reference to the course learning outcomes. Students could be made aware of each others "course blogs" and be encouraged to read and interact with each other’s journals, using comment functions.

I wonder if this would greatly increase the level of community learning and interaction. Any thoughts?

random links

Last year I wrote a slightly tongue in cheek A-Z of the emerging church. It has leapt back into blog circulation thanks to tallskimpykiwi [sic] and I like how it is (sort of) being "open-sourced" ie added to here.

One of my local cafes - jack flash - is offering $2 coffees in the morning.

Some blogs I have been meaning to mention for a while;
a whole rash of people at Opawa have started blogging. They are on my side-bar blog roll but for the record; feel free to meet Andrew; Paul; Amy; Jo; Ann.

and two Kiwi exports - Mark Pierson and Duncan MacLeod.

another local blogger

Good to see Andrew, an Opawa-ite blogging away at what the flock. Good stuff.

Update: Paul was blogging before Opawa and has also now joined the Opawa blogger list.

Other Opawa bloggers:
me
Lynne
Paul

Why I am Southern Baptist, bible believing and into the emerging church

(Or a Biblical word of encouragement to tallskinnykiwi and a Biblical word of admonition to the notion that the Emerging Church is a threat to the gospel).

OK, I pastor a Baptist church and I live in in Southern Hemisphere. This clearly makes me a Southern Baptist and able to enter the debates here and here. I note the following Biblical texts, that have converted me to being a Southern Baptist emerging church disciple.

Firstly, (we are post-Easter after all), take Luke 24 and the Emmaus Road story. Jesus preaches, and the disciples don't get revelation. Jesus preaches the Prophets and the Law. I mean, that is one BIG expository sermon. And still the disciples don't get it. It is not until they are in community with Jesus, eating supper, that Revelation occurs.This Biblical text calls for repentance from expository preaching and a commitment to finding God in community. (Don't get me started on Biblical scholarship that suggests the two disciples were husband and wife and thus woman were equal participants at the table of Jesus.)

Secondly, take Colossians 1:15. Christ is the Image of God. Move over word-bound, propositional theologies. Christ can also be revealed in images. This Biblical text calls for repentance from solely word-bound, propositional theologies and a commitment to image-based, multi-media worship.

These Biblical texts have converted me to being a Southern Baptist emerging church disciple. I have repented of my expository preaching. I am seeking a Bible based ministry of multi-media worship, sharing food among a community of friends.

worship leader blog list

A US magazine (I've never heard of) called Worship Leader has a feature of emerging church, and the little wee emergentkiwi blog gets a mention. So there we are. Maybe its time for me to release my worship DVD!! Tee he. Or is it that they think I can sing!

(thanks Will for the heads up - I wondered why there was traffic from your site to mine!)

bloggers in the flesh

the great unveiling will occur.

Bob the Corner Carlton is organising that moment, when bloggers will step,
from behind their screens,
and become en-fleshed

this naked ritual will occur at the emergent convention bloggers' forum - lunchtime Thursday (2/3).

drop a comment to Bob at http://thecorner.typepad.com/bc/ if you are personally willing to participate,
to appear un-virtually-veiled,
en~flesh~ed.

enjoying having phil and dan, signpost bloggers with us. we flew them over from melbourne to help us as opawa church leadership process some issues around change and multiplicity in mission.

please read the white space

The most fundamental fact of human existence is that because people are embodied they are always 'somewhere.' Philip Sheldrake

I reckon that the internet rips away our margins and our contexts. All we see is text or image on a page. We forget the white space, that words and images emerge from somewhere. When those words are somewhere else, they are best understood from somewhere else rather than from your screen. Tricky aye.

We slam people, we get angry, we expect all the world to be like us. It ain't. Sorry.

This is not a bad thing though. This offers us the gift of 'somewhere', the chance to move beyond our place to another place.

Next time you want to flame someone, practise the discipline of white space. Read the words again from somewhere else.

blogging and theology again or here we go round the blogberry bush

Just when a conversation seems to have exceeded the blog span of attention (2 weeks) Stephen has another go at the relationship between blogs and theology.

At the risk of repeating myself:
the blogging medium allow a conversation,
which is potentially more egalitarian (although don't most blog conversations essentially occur under a US domain name?)
but provides no guarantee of a conversation either meaningful or worth listening to
and would suggest that the human propensity to insularity might well haunt future conversations as much as it has past conversations.

the blogging medium allows a community approach to theology,
which returns theology to its roots - the essence of the practise of a community of faith
yet I often see little middle ground between flaming and the fawning "best post ever"
and would suggest that future communities will need better manners and better technologies.

the blogging medium is best done in short bursts,
which limits the pursuit of complicated and nuanced arguments, developed over time

the blogging medium allows instant responses to contemporary theological issues
but in so doing, could well become a conversation that ignores those who had the historically misfortune to write in a pre-blog era/error.

the blogging medium allows a "cross-disciplinary/ethnic/cultural synergy"
but having just returned from one such conference, such revolutionary polemic seems oddly ho-humm

internet joy#2

I've received over 300 spam through my blog comments in the last 24 hours. No sooner do I clean it up and block the url, than some more appears. So I've finally closed comments on all but recent posts.

internet joy

This morning I woke up to 150 emails. 145 were comments to the website, 145 were all the same spam. Wish I'd had this earlier. (thanks coops)

Fight Spam! Click Here!

will bloggers be worse theologians

Further to the good comments by maggi and others here:

I think there's a category of faith seeking understanding that is not explicitly aware of theological tools and theological history. This is a blog that describes themselves as a "postmodern pilgrim"; and they write Christianly about community or leadership or whatever.

They might not be a professional theologian like maggi dawn or steve garner, but they are wrestling with their pain (experience) or some Scripture or some culture or some bad tradition. This is still faith seeking understanding. This is still theology.

How do we couple the riches of the professional theologian and the depth of the tradition and the awareness that we are not the first kids on the block/blog to wrestle with community or leadership or whatever, with such widespread blogging reflection?

Blogs democratise knowledge. I am not convinced that democratisation will enhance theology, not because their is anything elite in theology, but because blogging can be a surface, skimming occupation that leaves less time to think and reflect.

So could blogs actually make poorer thinkers? Could they mean people skim and link more, yet know less? What does the democratisation of blogging mean for "professional theology"?

the sifting of the sands of idealism

the next generation of theologians will start as bloggers, according to Dan Hughes.

permit me a moment to ask why? and if they start as bloggers, where will they end?

By definition, theology is faith seeking understanding. It is not an elitism occupation but is the output of any and all. We are all theologians. Some of it is good, some of it is bad. So definitionally, the statement is accurate.

But if the statement is to input some magical status to theoblogians, I will need more convincing. As an inhabiter of both clasroom and blogoshere, the debate in the blogosphere is no deeper or more incisive than the debate in a theological classroom. In fact, often the debate in the blogosophere is less incisive. At least in the classroom there are things called assignments that encourage reading.

I love the idealism of the statement; "an explosion of nuanced thinking around the myriad details of existence ... a million empowered perspectives ... from the interconnected lives and words of the normal women and men of Santiago, Montreal, Mozambique and Bangalore ... justice and mercy transforming the small spaces that hold the secrets of the worlds yet to come."

Yet I note that when Maggi introduces to the blogosphere some inherited and introductory classroom theology , the bloggers swoon here and here.

And so they should.

Will the future learn from the nuanced thinking of the past, theological linking disciplined by critical review of class and peer and editor, thinking weighed with time, so that the dross of a hundred quick thoughts is filtered to leave some real insite around justice and mercy?

Or, will the blogosphere be a pooling of ignorance (no, of course I am not talking about your blog, so don’t get offended), in which, to rephrase Tim Bednar, bloggers become more arrogant than there pastors, and remain so emmeshed in the interlinked present that they gloss over any inherited wisdom?

a moment of cyncism

donut blogs = a blog in which the outside looks much more better than the reality. this need not be deliberate.

raising my google ranking = elevating crap

RSS feeds = a commitment to letting headlines shape one's priorities

is this fair?

Does this mean that blogsphere promotes only a faux-friendliness that hides a real individualism? asks Tim, wondering why so few people responded to my kiwi~mission~diet:
Steve's recent appeal for volunteers to adopt a cheaper diet for a week, and donate the difference to mission, did not fall on deaf ears. COMMENTS and Maggi's extensive musings demonstrate that we read his post. Yet as I write, I'm away from Internet access on a three day writing retreat, no one has volunteered to join Steve. (Still haven't publicly as far as I can see!)

Like others I was stirred by Steve's appeal, so why did we not act?

PS I am not looking for strokes, nor am I in the least grumpy at folks. I am just dropping Tim's comment into the consumption around the dinner table discussion.

via interflora

nice bouquet from stateside
the one that seems to be farthest ahead and most on the edge (imho) is down under. my favorite is kiwi steve his ideas, thoughts and ability to distill and illustrate a concept is a gift i fear not many have. his blogroll will link you to many other like minded.

signs of hope

New blog; Emerging Women Leaders that might clear some space to move some conversations forward. Good stuff, especially if they can embrace some women bloggers from outside the US ...

question re pxt

Is the term - pxt - pictures on cellphone - just a New Zealand term, or is it appearing in other places in the world?

unsettling the crevices

In reponse to here and the question; "Now is the world any different?" This is not a question of flushing away attempts at defecation. This is not a dismissal of child play, the elegant caress of a goodnight kiss. This is not an assertion of superiority around gradients of success. This is not a rhetorical ruse to dismiss the ontotheologic of the magna carta, the butterfly flap of the opaque obscurity of a verbal email exchange, as an irrelevant game of words.

It is a simple reflection on justice and a personal reminder in the everdayness of my life, that, in the deconstructive words of Caputo; a “Settling into the crevices and interstices of the present ... the provocation of what is to come … with bearing an ethico-political witness to justice.”

wedding sermon with thanx

here is someone's personal spirituality in response to the wedding semon , read below.

"who did not accept false oneness". Why, oh why have I spent so much of my life trying to convince God that I am worthy of his acceptance? Why have I spent over 15 years avoiding Jesus because I can't live up to His ideal and am too proud to want his help? I don't want his help. I want to be accepted and adored for who I actually am; proud, quirky, hurting, succeeding, gifted, broken, whole and fragmented.

It cracked me open this morning to see in black and white the wholeness, the holiness, of being exactly who you are. Limited. Real. And that the brokeness is a much stronger building block than perfection or good intentions could ever be. I felt hope inside. It bubbled. That sense of 'maybe' got in a bit deeper, moving a bit of the performance aside. Maybe Jesus does accept me and won't force his change upon me. Maybe my limitations are the attractive part about me. Maybe, in my limitations and reality, the foundations stones of true building are laid down. In moving away from falsity, embracing my limitations, my disappointments, my reality, space is made for ME. I can move away from pursing false one-ness with Jesus and maybe just be. Be acceptable and accepted.

for more go here at Get Yer Goat

i present you mr and mrs woodley

up to auckland to preach at a friend's wedding: the instructions are:
10 minutes will be fab
sweet as to mix U2 and Trinity
just don't forget to mention the g[od] or j[esus] words
speak to both us and the audience please
just make it gracewayesque or is that opawaesque?

sick

this is abusive behaviour. this is not an individual problem but a societal issue. the internet needs to grow up and find ways to redeem such behaviours.

Update: If this was happening in a real world, a restraining order could be enacted. The internet doesn't really have this facility. Hence my assertion that this is a societal issue that the internet community as a whole has to work at.

a toast to the depths of opaquacity

i like dan hughes. he is so opaque that he must be deep. he draws the very best of opaqueness out of me. he liked my email. i liked his response.

for the record, our mutual email love session goes like this,
>>the opaque dan: ...theologies and ecclesiologies that have come to dominate the memory of the man Jesus. We envision a direct, participatory spirituality
>
>the opaque steve: All theologies start with the dream of direct, participatory spirituality.

the opaque dan: Oh, yes. Hegemony is self-subversive, indeed.

A toast to opaquacity. Now is the world any different?

linked

one of my posts (an idea of an alternative way of being church) made it onto the Presbyterian Church of Aoteroa New Zealand newsletter here.

welcome to any presbyterian sojourners who might have clicked my way.

questions that need answering

1. why would lawrence lessing release his book for free on the www?

2. why would lawrence lessing's publishers release his book on the www?

3. who feeds lawrence lessing's children?

the publishing week that was

Friday 5 March 3 pm :: I blog some brief thoughts about art and Mel.

Saturday and Sunday :: I work on an article on creativity and spirituality for Reality magazine. This is unpaid. This diverts time from my book. But I have been asked to do it and I am passionate about the topic. I send the article to reality late Sunday evening.

Tuesday 9 March 1:30 pm :: I got to see Mel’s passion.

Tuesday 9 March 2:00 pm :: Reality ring to discuss the creativity and spirituality article with Lynne. Lynne mentions I am at the Passion and Reality ask what I think.

Tuesday 9 March 5:00 pm :: I suggest Reality should do a feature edition on the movie.

Tuesday 9 March 10:00 pm :: I draft an initial 500 word letter to Mel. This is for my own benefit, as it helps me process my thoughts and extends my blog thinking.

Wednesday 10 March 1 pm :: Reality ring and ask for a 2000 word article on Mel. (This means they will shunt the article I have spent all weekend writing, to a June edition). I have been deeply disturbed by the Mel movie. I am aware that my feelings are out of step with much evangelical fervour surrounding the movie. I am concerned about how my thoughts might be perceived. Do I want to be cast as grumpy? Reality promise to edit me carefully. On this basis I say that if an article emerges, I will submit it.

Wednesday 10 March 5 pm :: The keyboard taps and I have some coherent thoughts. I am still very concerned about my thoughts. I am not sure I want to publish. I put my thoughts up on the blog, asking for feedback. In my mind this is a draft piece and I am, as my blog says “a work in process”.

Thursday 11 March 5 pm :: I have had 4 appreciative comments. Encouraged by this, I decide to submit the piece. I make some changes. I send the piece to Reality. Reality is primarily a print based medium, but they also publish work on their website. If Reality accept the piece, then I can take the draft piece down. I have a church AGM to run that evening, so I leave the office in a hurry.

Friday 12 March 9 am :: It has been a big Thursday evening and another night away from my family, so I drink a slow morning coffee with Lynne and Kayli.

Friday 12 March 11 am :: I arrive at the office to find messages on my home phone, work phone, cell phone and email from Reality.

By the time Reality have cleared their email, and received my piece, that Friday morning, they have already received two copies of my draft post, emailed to them, cut and pasted from my website. I am totally unaware of this. No one has told me they are cutting and pasting from my website and sending it on to other people. This is a draft piece of work. I am angry.

Technically my creative common license makes this OK, although it does cut across my statement on the blog that this was a piece in process, and my request for feedback.

Reality say they like the article and want to print it. They are, quite rightly, concerned that by the time their print based medium has printed my article, lots of people in New Zealand, might have read by piece by email. So I can either publish (unpaid) with them, or publish (unpaid) on my blog. However, since they will put my piece on their website, I can get the best of both worlds, just at a slower pace. I pull the draft piece of my blog.

Friday 12 March 3:00 pm :: I am now under internet pressure to put the piece back up on my blog.

I (think) I have learnt
1. The internet moves VERY fast.
2. Print based medium is under huge pressure from internet media.
3. That I cannot trust the internet, including other Christians. Anything I put up on my blog, can and will be, cut and pasted and sent without my knowledge.
4. That unless something changes in either writing medium or the way people use the internet, that my print writing and internet writing career are incompatible. I can no longer use my blog as a place to process work.
5. That this is sad, and I would love to find another way forward.

whats the internet point 3

I continue to ponder the ethics of the internet and the personal implications for me as a thinker and writer. I have been informed that my Open Letter to Mel was cut and pasted from this website and emailed to people around New Zealand, without my knowledge.

I struggle with this. I put the letter up. I asked for feedback. There were 2 comments and 2 emails, yet I find out via a friend that via email it is flying around the internet.

I think aloud. The blog is great for that. I want to be read. I am honoured that people would cut and paste it. But why, oh why, couldn't you pay me the courtesy of telling me. I feel quite exploited on this one.

Perhaps I am just too naive for this internet game.

Newsflash

The Taylor household is in uproar. The dog is dancing on the table. The guinea pig has just had kittens.

Drum roll ... I have been mentioned FOUR yes, FOUR, times on Jordon Coopers blog. Jordon is a wonderful man who could now an internet friend for life. Off to change my blogroll!