God is not a Republican or a Democrat

Just found out that Brian McLaren helped to draft this statement.

enter emergentrification

paul soupiset slays me.

the "emerging church" meme

stephen said has an interesting post on "emerging church". also see the comments.

Brian McLaren's Church

DJ Chuang alerts us to a ChurchExecutive article on Cedar Ridge Community Church.

a blast of wisdom

I tend to not be drawn to Proverbs 1-9 because in the past it's seemed to me that it had one primary message that I thought I understood: Get wisdom. I often skip right to cp 10.

Lately I've not been feeling terribly wise so a couple of days ago I began at the beginning of this ancient collection. And this morning I realized I'm really missing out by avoiding this portion. e.g.:

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs 3:3-8 (ESV)

NT Wright: Summary of Christian Origins and the People of God series

OpenSourceTheology is offering everyone a 44 page summary of NT Wright's books in this series.

jason clark - first reflections on alan hirsch and michael frost

jason posts his first set of thoughts on the recent hirsch/frost gathering.

A person’s experience should always be greater that their education.

Todd Hunter provides us with very helpful thoughts on a balanced approach to learning.

he moves on

the father of blogger moves on. thanks ev.

thanks to dan for the heads up.

the post-emerging church

The new issue of next-wave picked up one of my blarticles on the post-emerging church.

the internet turns 35

Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way for exchanging data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress.

link

We have yet to see what's possible for Christ's church.

Sarah McLachlan

I loved Fumbling Toward Ecstasy be4 Sarah hit huge. Now she's gone transpo.

thanks jordon.

tony jones is now blogging

NT Wright Page

Looks like it's been redesigned. A fine resource on all things Wrightesque.

the millennium matrix blog

Rex Miller - author of The Millennium Matrix - began blogging yesterday.

New Directions in the Pomo Matrix

A lot of folks have been blogging ab Phil DePedal's new pomoChristian tome. I first heard DePedal at one of the New Mexico breakouts a couple of years ago (the one where Brian McLaren and Todd Hunter did the plenaries).

Though emerging folks don't invoke postmodernism as much as they did, say, 3 years ago, DePedal is nevertheless a genius at teasing out the implications of how the modern, tepid, two-dimensional, hyperstructuralized - even Cartesian - approach to service prolegomena is wholly inadequate in the emerging context. Though his words border at times - at least to the sensitive reader - on the bitter as he explores how "the lineguards" impose a nearly Foucaultesque oppression on those who enter their sphere (and DePedal's extended metaphor must be followed carefully to understand his real meaning), the diligent (and - at times - thick-skinned) reader will find her spade work well worth the effort.

The final chapter borders on the poetic as DePedal paints a compelling and beautiful picture of Rortian unity as "seekers of space" team and partner in ever emerging interdependencies to determine what he calls "randomly optimal configurations."

James Doyle's wide reading in this thoughtspace and his obvious intimate knowledge of DePedal's entire corpus distinquish him as an enthusiastic aficionado and incisive commentator. His latest thoughts on DePedal's latest work are well worth careful consideration.

DA Carson: Becoming Conversant with Emergent

I think the title is unfortunate. I'm pretty sure Dr. Carson doesn't mean to limit his comments to Emergent specifically, but I'm thinking he's intending to reference the entire Emerging Church phenomenon and found a piquant rhyme.

Brian McLaren was asked ab the book on his site and responded,

"I haven’t read a manuscript of the book, but a lot of people have heard lectures that will probably be reflected in the book, and they have told me to brace myself for some pretty strong critique. I haven’t heard the lectures myself, so I really can’t offer any specifics. I’ve read a number of Dr. Carson’s books, and I think our perspectives are quite different; he’s certainly an articulate writer, so I imagine he’ll make those differences quite clear. Anyway, may God bless Dr. Carson, and I hope I will benefit from his critique."

In February of this year, Carson had given a series of three lectures on the emerging church in the Staley Lecture Series at Cedarville University. (They are available for download or hard media purchase starting at $4.50 here.)

Andrew Jones was deeply disturbed by Carson's comments and posted a couple of times on the subject. A number of folks posted comments in response to Andrew and he also highlights Dr David M. Mills' paper The Emergent Church - Another Perspective: A Critical Response to DA Carson's Staley Lectures.

the problem with mud


great quote on Too Much to See found by jonny baker 

reference: information-guide

Someone surfed into emergesque from an article on emerging church from explanation-guide, which seems to be a wikipedia type online reference.

The With-God Life

Todd Hunter is letting his friends know that he'll be presenting at a Renovare conference called The With-God Life: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of the World with Richard Foster and Todd Proctor at the Newport Vineyard in Costa Mesa, CA on Oct. 15th and 16th, 2004.