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Jordon Cooper recommends...
Posted by CRW---8/5/03, 8:00 PM
Notes on the 8.03 issue...
I was sicker than a dog yesterday and
didn't know if I could get the August issue of Next-Wave published this
weekend. However, with a self-imposed one-day fast, I managed to pull
together some interesting submissions for this month's edition...Bob Hyatt's
article, Profoundly Disturbed on the
Fourth of July explores patriotism and our role as citizens of another
kingdom; Rudy Carrasco describes his
24-7 role as an urban minister in Southern California; Andrew Hamilton
describes a visit to his parent's
church and how it encouraged his "missional" calling;
The Soliton Sessions will happen
September 4-6 in Ventura, CA. with Erwin McManus, Dan Kimball, David Ruis
and others; Dr. Marc Newman elaborates on the
story-telling possibilities in film;
Dave Ferguson writes about the vision thing,
does it really come first?; baruch takes us on a stroll through church
history and explores the problems with
Western Christianity; and Spencer Burke announces some opportunties to
join a learning journey with ETREK. Once
again, some outstanding contributions that will cause you to think about the
issues surrounding ministry in the 21st century. Enjoy....
Posted by CRW---8/3/03, 4:30 PM
Email publishing tools
If you have a congregation or a community that you communicate with by
email, consider Pizzazz email
for your publishing needs. Jon
Bogart, the man behind Pizzazz, will be happy to explain how his tools
and solutions can assist you in managing this important means of talking to
your sphere of influence.
Posted by CRW---7/28/03, 10:18 PM
National House Church Conference
The National House Church
Conference, sponsored by House2House,
will be held Labor Day 2003 in Irving, Texas. Neil Cole of
Church
Multiplication Associates will be the main speaker. Others presenting
are David Walters, John White and Tony Dale.
Posted by CRW---7/27/03, 6:15 PM
Soliton gathering September 4-6 in Ventura, CA.
Jordon Cooper
reports: Jared Williams from the Bridge Communities and the
Solition Network gave me a heads
up about Soliton Sessions, a very interactive few days of dialogue
facilitated by Erwin McManus,
Dan Kimball, David Ruis, Jeremy
and Jamie Wells and several others.
Posted by CRW---7/26/03, 10:16 PM
Indie
Allies Meetup
Jordon Cooper reports:
find out more at
indieallies.meetup.com
"As you may have heard, a lot of people from all over the world met last
night and had a great time talking, meeting, and getting together for the
first time. It was very cool. You can check out
here for
some photos.
Today, Meetup.com featured IndieAllies in their newsletter and we hope
that the momentum will keep growing as more and more people sign up. We do
need your help to keep spreading the word. The best way to do this is to
head to
http://indieallies.meetup.com/tellfriends/ and friends know or add a
link to your website, blog, or mailing list. Any help you can offer is
appreciated. If you haven't signed up yet, head on over to
IndieAllies and sign up for
the next Meetup in 34 days time. See you there!"
CRW writes: The internet continues to change social paradigms. For
example, couples meet and
even explore
compatability on the internet. Folks interested in the emerging church
meet all over the world...I wonder what is next.
| Spencer Burke (l.) and the other
"members" of the Orange County IndieAllies meetup below. |
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Posted by CRW---7/13/03, 5:12 PM
Mars Hills Church in
No. Virginia seeks pastor
Pastor Opening at Mars Hill Church in
Northern VA:
Mars Hill Church (located outside of
Washington, DC in Northern VA) has an opening for a full-time pastor. Mars
Hill Church is a non-denominational Christian church plant that began
public services in September of 2001. Mars Hill meets at Jammin Java (a
coffee shop) in Vienna, VA and currently runs between 30-40 people
(including children) for Sunday worship. We're interested in finding a
pastor or church planter who has a familiarity with postmodern ministry
and who desires to incorporate both ancient and modern elements into
weekly worship. We do Communion weekly and incorporate the Creed,
corporate prayers, Scripture reading, liturgy, and a corporate confession
into our worship service. Our music is contemporary, and we place a high
value on mystery, symbol, and the arts. We often use discussions, drama,
art, poetry, silence, or other innovative and creative approaches to
worship in our Sunday services. We follow a “team-based” rather than
hierarchical approach to church leadership, and encourage the church body
to be actively involved in determining what our services look like, what
types of activities we pursue, and how to build community and care for one
another. We are seeking to be an outwardly focused church and have regular
kindness outreaches in the community. (Check out our website at
www.marshillchurch.com) If interested, please e-mail
pastor-search@marshillchurch.com or call 703-304-1161. If you know someone
who may be interested, please pass on the message!
Posted by CRW---7/6/03, 6:55 PM
Jason Evans alerts net to
IndieAllies
Jason Evans
writes:
"independent alliance...
Charlie
already spilled the beans about this so I guess it's okay to talk about it
:). Spencer, Charlie,
Jordon,
Riddle, myself and a few
others have been talking on and off again about how to help the "emerging"
conversation online actually make a difference offline.
Spencer took a big step a few weeks back and is starting an organization
called, Independent Alliance. It will be the non-profit end of all of his
efforts and it's goal will be to encourage, nurture, support, empower,
authorize and administer the planting, sustaining and reproduction of
environments that will further the good news of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom
of God on the earth. Pretty cool.
He's started a MeetUp to find out how
many of the web surfers, bloggers and message board addicts will actually
get out from behind their monitors, come out into the sunlight and get
together in person around the country to put some reality into the
discussion. Go sign up for an
IndieAllies MeetUp in your neck of the woods. This could be a good
thing."
Posted by CRW---6/30/03, 9:31 AM
Notes on 6-7.03 issue
This usually happens about
once a year...because of the press of life, we combine two issues of
Next-Wave. Last year it was May-June, and this year it is June-July. So
depending on how you look at it, either we are really late for June, or we
are really early for July. I've left two articles from the 5.03 edition on
the front page for June and July, the
short interview with Dan Kimball
and Chapter 7 from Dan's book, The
Emerging Church. And while we are reprinting chapters, see
Making Digital Music by Len Wilson and
Jason Moore from
The Digital Storytellers. Andrew Careaga
logs on with some reflections on the recent film,
Bruce Almighty. Nathan Waddell, ultraman
at The Ooze,
retells the gospel with the Story of Three
Trees. Neil Tibbott and
Andrew Hamilton weigh in with articles
on the missional church planting front and baruch shares
lessons he has learned from the birth of
his son. Also, flash back to Jason Evans' article from a year ago about the
church at Matthew's house.Some good
mid-summer (or mid-winter depending on which part of the world you hail
from) content for your reading enjoyment. Feel free to discuss the articles
at the Next-Wave discussion
board.
Posted by CRW---6/29/03, 10:24 AM
Internships in Cincinnati
Posted by CRW---6/24/03, 8:09 PM
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Matthews House to host
church planting weekend
Jason Evans emails:
Hi,
On September 26-28 we're having our first church
planting weekend conversation and we'd like you to join us. Church planters
(and others who are interested) from around the west coast and south west
will be joining us in Vista, CA (San Diego) for a relationally based
gathering organized to encourage and equip each of us. Our desire is to
allow everyone to participate in this gathering so we will have to close
registration after a certain amount.
We also want "tent makers," those of us with little budget for conferences
and couples to feel welcome. Because of that we are holding this gathering
over a weekend. We have also done our best to cut your expenses to a
minimum. The cost is only $20 per person and host housing will be available
to almost everyone (first come, first serve). Your registration fee will be
collected at the event. And, of course, we gladly welcome church planters
and their spouses to join the conversation.
The event will be hosted by the people of
Matthew's House (www.matthewshouse.com) and will be held at Jason and Brooke
Evans' home.
If you would like to attend please send an e-mail
to thelivinghome[at]hotmail[dot]com and let us know
if you will need housing for the event and include the following
information: name, address (include
city, state and zip), phone (w/ area code),
e-mail address and the community or church you are a part of.
If you are in the North County area of San Diego and would like to host our
guests please reply to this e-mail or call the number below.
In the following weeks we will be sending out another e-mail with more
details about our gathering including a website to refer to with other
information about the area, schedules and other gatherings we hope to
sponsor in the coming year.
So, by now you're probably asking, "Who's putting
this together?" We're just a relational network of church planters and
missional/organic/house church
leaders on the west coast and in the south west that want to serve our
brothers and sisters who desire to incarnate the Gospel of the Kingdom in
their own communities. Simply put, we're your friends. If you have any other
questions please feel free to e-mail us or call Jason at 760.715.7177.
We look forward to having you here!
- Jason (for all of us)
P.S.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone you feel would genuinely benefit from
this.
Okay, it sounds
interesting doesn't it? Jason is one of the emerging leaders who are
birthing what God is doing right now in the USA.
Posted by CRW---6/14/03, 4:29 PM
An historic moment?
Last night I got to meet with two of my favorite
people, Jordon Cooper and Spencer Burke. Jordon is the Canadian blogmaster
of Jordoncooper.com. A pastor, teacher, philosopher, writer and web site
creator, he is currently excited about his work at
Prairie Fusion, his
participation in the Worship Freehouse, and his ministry at Spiritwood.
Spencer is the "chief enthooziast" of The Ooze, the travel agent for
Etrek,
and the host of Soularize. We met on the terrace of a Huntington Beach pub
to talk about how we can work together.
|
In this digital photo, a bemused Spencer signs
the organizational papers for IndieAllies.net formed to
encourage, nurture,
support, empower, authorize and administer the planting, sustaining
and reproduction of environments that will further the good news of
Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God in the earth. |
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More to come on
IndieAllies in the near future.
Posted by CRW---6/6/03, 6:23 AM
Notes on 5.03 issue....
Ten, count them, ten articles for the May issue
of Next-Wave...or is it nearly June? And the content continues to be
excellent. My thanks to Dan Kimball, pastor, church planter and author for
his willingness to share a chapter from his new book, The Emerging Church. I
don't know what his obsession is with bowling (see the graphics I lifted
from his new web sites contained in the Short Interview), but his book does
a great job building bridges of understanding between the modern-thinking
church and the emerging church. Mike McNichols creatively tackles a
practical ministry issue in Stumbling toward a theology of Marriage and Len
Hjalmarson continues his comments on the intangibles of Community and the
Kingdom. In Clique Maintenance 2, Rob McAlpine delves into the barriers that
prevent meaningful dialogue. Fred Peatross examines God's willingness to
forgive crooks, creeps, lovers and liars and Dave Heiserman writes that
Morality Happens, it is not the goal of the Christian Life.
I hate spam....
Spam is very irritating, don't you agree? I mean
aside from annoying advertisements, there are always announcements for porn
sites. Some of those sites have hijacked the next-wave domain name and are
sending out spam with phony email senders. I suppose that would be okay,
except the emails that fail are all ending up back in my inbox. Over the
last two days I have received about 3000 such emails. Boy, is that annoying.
Hopefully, some laws will be passed to protect consumers from all of this
unwanted stuff. And for those of you who get an email from someone at
next-wave inviting you to xxx sites, well, Next-Wave is not to blame,
really....
Posted by CRW---5/18/03, 8:14 PM
On leading and some other stuff....
One of the blogs I like to visit often is Todd
Hunter's. Todd is writing a lot about leadership struggles and ideas.
One of the struggles is the tension CEO types have with learning to be more
participative and less manipulative in leadership. I know I like it better
when people take my advice and change their lives immediately into the mold
that I think they should be in! [see me nearly falling out of my chair
laughing] My pastoral/leadership experience was more like this: Whatever I
advised, the advisee did the opposite....The more I preached on evangelism,
the more hyperspiritual and weird people became. The more I preached on
morality, the more immorality abounded!. Hey, maybe I was just a lousy
preacher! I hadn't thought of that one...Anyway, here's a missional church
conundrum. Let's say a group is doing everything they think God has called
them to do, and are apparently being fruitful. But things start to go wrong
and look bad...people begin to question where God is in the midst of the
struggle...This is the dilemma faced by my friends in the skate ministry at
the Ranch in Southern Califoria. I submitted my response to the City's
proposed order which would shut down the ministry....Soon a judge will
decide. If he decides to shut the ministry down, is that God's will? I am
interested in your thoughts....drop me an
email.
Posted by CRW---5/13/03, 7:59 PM
The Introduction to
Dan Kimball's book is intriguing....
I just started reading Dan Kimball's
book,
The Emerging Church, and I like it. He writes about the
"post-seeker-sensitive" church and I think I agree with his
observations...I'll post more as I read more....
Posted by CRW---5/7//03, 8:05 PM
I only received one email today about Dr.
Bailey's article....
however, it went something like this:
"The Eutychus report is offensive. I support President Bush. Please remove
me from your email list." I understand. However, I guess I would like to
respond by saying, I support the President, too. I even pray for him once in
a while. I prayed for Bill Clinton once in a while also. I believe that
Christians should support their leaders. Another surprise, for some readers,
perhaps, I don't always agree with everything that I publish on Next-Wave.
Even though I don't agree with everything I publish, I believe that
controversial opinions lead to lively discussions! I am hoping that the
Eutychus report will do the same. Rather than signing off, I wish that the
reader had clicked onto the discussion board and taken on Eutychus'
opinions, point by point. This would have been interesting. Some other
reader may do so.
In regard to war, in general, let me say
this. I am glad I never had to fight in one. When the Viet Nam conflict was
in full bloom I was a 19 yr. old college student, a conscientous objector
because of my religious affiliation and a 19 in the draft lottery. Sure
enough, I was drafted. Through a series of circumstances I did not have to
serve a tour of duty in Viet Nam in 1969 as a noncombatant medic. On my
conservative Christian campus I sang folk songs at antiwar protests. But as
a young man, I don't think I had a clue about what I was allegedly against.
Years later, down on my financial luck, I
considered enlisting in the Army under a special program. Once again, having
passed the Army physical and one step away from being sworn in, I didn't
enlist. I have a great deal of respect for the men and women who have served
and continue to serve in our military. And I honor those who have fought,
who have been wounded, and who have died, defending our nation.
In regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom, I am
very thankful that the conflict is nearly over. I never did form an opinion
as to whether the American cause was just, or not. I am glad, however, that
a brutal dictator has been removed from power and thankful that I did not
have to make the decisions that sent men and women into harm's way. Many
folks that I respect were against moving forward with armed conflict. They
offered pacifistic views supported by their Christian viewpoint.
I am not so sure that God is a pacifist. I
remain unsure about what the "Christian" opinion should be. There are some
things that will only make sense when we have the perspective of eternity,
and I look forward to the rightness that I expect to find in the cosmic scheme
of God's plan to save mankind.
Posted by CRW---4/21/03, 7:40 PM
Notes on the 4.03
issue....
As the war in Iraq winds down
contemplation of the ongoing effects of the conflict seem in order. Writing
from the future, Dr. Eutychus Bailey comments on those effects in his
timeline. Steve Bazemore, sends his meditations in the pre-war days. On
another level, Stephen Shields interview Kevin Miller in the aftermath of
his attendance at the Emergent 2003 convention. Len Hjalmarson goes deep in
his discussion of authority, community and truth and Micah Knapp chases a
rant. Bill Carroll follows up, nearly two years later with his thoughts on
"experiential worship." On this Easter Sunday, 20 April 2003, I reflect on
how God is continuing to revive and resurrect our lives and our churches,
Blessings....
Posted by CRW---4/20/03, 6:17 PM
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