Friday, October 10, 2008
out of bounds church book review (2)
OK, while I am busy congratulating myself, here is another positive review from Tom Sine’s new book, The New Conspirators. Under the heading; “A few writings about all things emerging” he notes that “one of the characteristics of the emerging stream is strength of imagination with a very high level of risk-taking and initiative … I think Steve Taylor’s book The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
out of bounds church book review
Just noted a new (4 star) review of my Out of Bounds church? book up at amazon.
REFLECTION: I read this book three times, and each time gleaned a little more encouragement and discovered new potential areas of personal ministry ….The nine “postcards” present snapshots … in aggregate they create an image of the emerging church as highly varied, rapidly changing, iconoclastic, community oriented and passionate about embodying the Gospel in culturally relevant ways … The wide variety also suggests that there are many more as yet undiscovered ways to “do” emerging churches.
Thanks R. Briggs!
sabbatical update 5
Monday morning update (on a Wednesday)
the weekend that was: It was a long weekend, so a 3 day trip to Kangaroo Island with sister-in-law and family beckoned. Fascinating part of Australia.
where i am at the moment: Just exiting Najjars cafe, North Adelaide. I have been speaking to about 35 people at a leaders breakfast. I was introduced just as all the breakfasts arrived, making connections and momentum difficult. Grand timing!
on my to-do list this week: Tidy office – there’s been a lot of speaking in the last few weeks, and that means notes everywhere.
reading: Rublevs Icon by Benge. Beautiful book, fascinating exploration of relationship between art and theology over time.
how i’m feeling about this week: relieved. These last 2 weeks have been my “speaking phase”, moving between a wide range of settings and groups. I have enjoyed it and had good feedback ..
“participants appreciated the significant biblical/theological underpinning of mission which you conveyed, with emphasis on the relevance of the Luke 10 sending stories in our own context, and the way in which you told stories of your own faith community’s application of these missional principles in very practical and “do-able” ways. Thanks again Steve.”
But have also realised that I do feel very awkward creating connections in new groups, with a varied audience, when I do not have time to build a conversational rapport. I suspect at the moment that in term of my skill set I am a better teacher than one-off speaker.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
highly commended
I write regular monthly film reviews for Touchstone, the Methodist denominational magazine. My February 2007 review of the New Zealand film, ‘Out of the Blue’ – was recently Highly Commended in the ARPA (Australasian Religious Press Association) awards. Here is the judge’s comments:
I thought this piece brought out all the lovely elements of New Zealand it was quite beautiful! I would have liked to have seen less questions and more answers though. And also more Christian input throughout the piece, instead of only at the end.
Read my review, which is included below, then let me know what you think. Do you agree? Should I have provided more answers? And should (and how) could the Christian input be woven in through out?
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