Tall Skinny Kiwi

The Message of Prince Caspian

Bob Beltz is a Narnia Geek. This is the back of car - the wheel cover was custom made for him.
Bob is also a pastor of a church and, like many pastors and ministers, sees spiritual truths in terms of potential messages.
After previewing Prince Caspian (see below) Bob comes up with 4 messages:
Message One: The return to faith.
Message Two: We walk by faith, not by sight.
Message Three: Three kinds of "people."
Message Four: Fight the good fight.
Read his blog post to see the details. Just don't forget to give Bob credit if you steal his message this Sunday.

ORIGINAL POST:
Thats what the guest pass looked like for the preview of Prince Caspian. Obviously . . . you and I did not receive one. My friends Bob and Allison Beltz did, and Bob has posted the world's first blog review. He also challenges the churches to get creative and figure out how to use it. In his words . . . .
"The release of Prince Caspian provides another opportunity for churches and ministries to utilize a resource that cost nearly $200 million dollars to produce. The awareness of the general public about the film is at the 95% level, which means almost anyone you talk to knows about the film. Go use it for the kingdom!"

Related: IMDB, trailer, Wikipedia, NarniaWeb

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Church Basement Road Show: A Rollin' Gospel Revival

I dont know these guys . . . REALLY!!!

"Taking a page out of the Billy Sunday playbook, the authors will spread the emergent message of a generous, hope-filled Christian faith in the style and cadence of the tent revival preachers of a hundred years ago. They plan to have fun with it, wearing frock suits and selling “healing balm,” but the goal is, as in the revivals of yore, to preach the good news.
. . . The tour featuring Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt and Mark Scandrette will hit thirty-two cities across the U.S., with a message that combines old time revival flair with a 21st century gospel. They’ll preach, sing and sell healing balm in church basements from San Diego to New York."

Its corny and stupid and its also brilliant. I cant believe they are doing this without me! Just because I am out of the country . . . Anyway, make sure you see these three crazy friends of mine when they come through your town on The Church Basement Roadshow: A Rollin' Gospel Revival.

Speaking of corny and stupid . . . without being brilliant . . . check out Our Tribal Piercing Ceremony where Doug Pagitt and Mark Scandrette come to Orkney to visit me, along with uberGeek Michael Toy, and we attempt to pierce our ears against the standing stones of the ancient Ring of Brogar.

Church of Scotland and Emerging Ministries Fund

"The Emerging Ministries Fund will be supporting projects that engage with people outside inherited formal structures and at grassroots. In many cases this may mean less of a dependence on buildings and getting people to 'come to church' and a greater emphasis on taking church to the people." Source: Ekklesia

Well done Church of Scotland! News released today that they will give £1.5 million to launch an Emerging Ministries Funds that will start in 2009. Emerging church entrepreneurs will be encouraged to raise matching funds from other sources.

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

A Century of Missional Thinking in the West

Mission used to be something our Western Christian countries did for the non-Western "heathen" lands that we called the Third World. Talking like that now will get your email boxed flamed. Times have changed. Now the global south and east has more Christians than we do. They even send their missionaries to our countries. Our own Western lands have become mission fields in themselves. Missions is now multi-directional and, like a donut, lacks a definite centre.

There has been a lot of talk in the past few decades about what mission to our post-Christian Western world might look like, especially since the 1970's when Bishop Lesslie Newbigin came home from India to a post-Christian Britain. But the idea that we need to be missionaries in our own western countries has been discussed for a century. Wilbert Shenk tells of the Canon Rev. Walter Hobhouse, who spoke some prophetic words during the Brampton Lectures in 1909.

“ . . . the church of the future is destined more and more to return to a condition of things somewhat like that which prevailed in the Ante-Nicene church: that is to say, instead of pretending to be co-extensive with the World, it will confess itself the Church of a minority, will accept a position involving a more conscious antagonism with the World, and will, in return, regain in some measure its former coherence.”

The Church, argued Hobhouse, in an era no longer defined by the Constantinian era, should recognize more and more that "she is in reality a missionary church, not only in heathen lands and among races which we are pleased to call ‘inferior’ but in every country, and there is much in which she might learn from the methods of the Mission Field”

Now, almost century on, Hobhouse’s words ring true and aptly describe the new emerging missional communities that are starting, growing and multiplying in the post-modern post-Christian West.

Related: The Missional Church: Reformed Heritage?

Technorati Tags: emerging church, missio dei, mission

Iraqi Christians

From the good people at DeMossNewsPond: Approximately 400,000 of Iraqi Christians have fled the country since 2003. Most of those who remain in Iraq are internally displaced. Check out Help Iraqi Christians and find out what to do.

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Post Charismatic?

"Many are Post-Charismatic. . . after 20 years, they would rather shoot themselves than sing another chorus."
Stuart Murray-Williams talking with us in Paris, 2003.

Just picking up on yesterday's post on The New Charismatics that Steve K started and trying to land it. If you watched the video on Steve's site, you know what i am talkin' bout. Robby Mac has some good well balanced advice [quite funny as well] as does Bro Maynard and Grace and Ed. Robby [Rob McAlpine] is the author of a new book called Post Charismatic.

Apparently Bill Kinnon approves.

I first heard Gerald Coates talking about being "post-charismatic" at the Emerge event in Frankfurt, 2001. Since then, I have used "post-charismatic" to refer to the kind of worshippers who are freed from the addiction to novelty, newness and freshness, open to older, non-spontaneous, pre-used liturgical prayers, and who no longer believe that every service must be commenced by 45 minutes of singing. Of course its a lot more than that and its a lot more than just trading purple banners for purple candles.

And the post in 'post-charismatic' means "after' rather than "anti". A lot of people were greatly helped by the charismatic movement and they [we] are grateful. But as Stuart Murray Williams once said, " . . . after 20 years, they would rather shoot themselves than sing another chorus."

If you liked this post, please stand up, turn to the person on your left and gently hold their hand. Now shout in their ear . . . "PRAAAAISE-ALLULAH!!!" Dont forget to squeeze their hand right before you let go.

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Zilok launches today - Rent anything

Gary Cage from Zilok just let me know that their big project in UK launches today. Its a peer-to-peer renting site. Reminds me of a church in Australia that had a rental ministry - members could donate lawn-mowers and trailers and whatever into a pool and the community could borrow them and return them. This sounds like the same thing only much bigger and all done online. Hope they do well.

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Pentecost Festival London

Things went really well last weekend in London for Pentecost Festival. They have some internships available for next year - you get free accommodation in London. Think about it!
Pentecost in the news.

Bible App - A Bible Quiz

Bible App is a Bible verse quiz and its pretty good. But its really lonely here at the top. Anyone want to challenge me?

UPDATE: Actually - its too easy. I am giving up because its nearly midnight and i am getting delirious.

Technorati Tags: bible study tools

China Earthquake

Earthquake in China. I am been shooting up some prayers but thought a blog post would be in order. I found out about the earthquake through Twitter. So did a lot of other people. One blog reports that Twitter has now come of age.

Once again, if you know worthy groups to donate to, or local communities who can help, please leave a comment or link.

Technorati Tags: china

Steve Knight on The New Charismatics

While the post-charismatic movement gathers steam, its interesting to see hyper-charismatic movements still popping up.

HT: Steve Knight who is also a little befuddled by "The New Charismatics" and their spirit-drunken, moon-howling, slosh-till-u-drop “postmodern prophetic ministry". Its not exactly Steve's cup of tea either but he does point to some good outreach efforts by this group.

New words for your vocabularly, courtesy of John Crowder, author of The New Mystics:
- "Tokin’ the Ghost,”
- "Smokin' the “Jehovah-juana"
- "Sloshed" [in the Spirit]
- "Wasted on Jesus"

What-the-Heck Would Adrian Do?

Missional Church: Where is the fruit?

The theme this week is missional church. I am kicking it off by pointing to a hot blog post from last week. David Fitch hosts a very important conversation, having picked up from Bro. Maynard. I wish it wasn't so personal - ie - Mark Driscoll and mega church attractional model vs. emerging/missional/monastic/house-church model ala Allelon (USA) and Forge (Australia) but at the heart of the conversation is a few key questions:

Obviously the cost factor ratio favors emerging/missional startups (inherited churches cost between 100k and 1 million to start) but how do these new organic communities sustain themselves financially?
How do we measure their success without resorting to the old systems of measurement (bigger is always better)?
How long do they need to start bearing fruit? And what does that fruit look like?
Do mega-churches attract primarily de-churched people?

Have a read and join the comments over there. If you are new to the conversation, remember the emerging church world is now a vast world with models still very traditional in structure (paid professionals, buildings, attractional-based sunday service) and much of it very organic, centrifugual, embedded, and missional.

Related: Andrew Hamilton (Forge National Director) on Incarnational vs Attractional

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

Pentecost Poem: The Sound of Dust

Note: I updated this poem from when I wrote it in 2005 with a few changes and greater commitment to the rhythm and meter. I am writing it from the point of view of some older Jewish men sitting in a courtyard in Jerusalem that Pentecost morning, watching and listening to the chaotic events around them, asking themselves what it all means. The theme of judgement through the tongues of foreigners (Dt. 28 and Isaiah 28) runs behind my thoughts. I will be reading this as part of my message at Stromness Baptist Church this Pentecost morning.

The Sound of Dust
by Andrew Jones

what does it mean?
this howling wind?
this sound of dust?
this courtyard scene of rushing men?
this rude awakening from rest
and memories of God?

what does it mean?
these laughing men
with shining face
and weakened knee?

will they tell our stories now?
will they don the robes of priests?
will they tell our stories now
from the lips of foreigners?

what does it mean?
this language game?
this teenage stunt?
this sound of blowing
life and death?

how dare they tell our stories well?
how dare they speak our language well?
how can they speak our language well?
how dare they tell our stories as theirs?

Something has ended and begun
and the dust will not settle today.

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Whitsunday and Pentecost

"This day is called Wytsonday because the Holy Ghost brought wytte and wisdom into Christis disciples … and filled them full of ghostly wytte." — In die Pentecostis

Happy Whitsunday! In the UK, Pentecost is often referred to as Whitsunday which is a reference to the wisdom given to us by the Holy Spirit. I like the word "wit" - it speaks to me of a smart quick wisdom with an edge of humor. Some countries call it White Sunday (like Iceland) but since red was the traditional ecclesiastic colour for the Holy Spirit, I dont think the argument that the believers wore white is a strong one in determining the origin of "Whitsunday". Wisdom makes more sense to me.

This morning I am speaking at Stromness Baptist Church. My Pentecostal message will look at what Pentecost meant to Israel and the church that was born that day - themes of judgement, companionship, community, ecumencism (the whole earth as the scope of God's love and mission) and of course, wisdom and wit.

Interesting to note that the Italians sometimes sprinkle red rose petals to symbolize the tongues of fire, thus calling this day Pasqua rosatum.

I am wearing my red Copyleft t-shirt to church. It symbolizes not only the gift economy of the internet but on this occasion, the giving freely of the Holy Spirit despite the desire of the religious leaders to keep God for themselves.

Technorati Tags: pentecost, whitsunday

1608 - Evangelical Union

This year marks 400 years since the Evangelical Union (also called the "Protestant Union") was formed in Germany in 1608. It listed among its goals that "the council would be ecumenical and universal". The council would have the task of determining which articles were fundamental and the test would be the Word of God.
These quotes are from David Pareus (1548 - 1622) "Irenicum, sive de unione et synodo evangelicorum concilianda", Heidelberg, 1614, found in A History of the Ecumenical Movement, by Neill and Rouse.

Lee Behar and Fundraising

Conversations on the finer points of theology and emerging forms of church come and go . .. . but the subject of how to raise money for your ministry is a perennial issue.

I didn't mention my good friend Lee Behar last week in my series on philanthropy, even though he was at PIGS, an informal gathering of faith-based Foundations. But I am linking to him now. Why? Because he mentioned yours truly today and my uber-bulging blogger's EGO cannot resist a back-link to those who acknowledge my contribution to the cyber-knowledge that is beginning to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea . . . AND . . . [just joking] . . . because last weeks posts would not be complete without Lee Behar, an evangelical ambassador of qualm, a Blogger and a Twitterer on the inside of the philanthropic world who is committed to the Great Commission and to help emerging-missional projects be equipped with every good thing. Check it out. It's got the skinny on fundraising for American based [501c-3] Christian ministries and its called Taking It For Granted: Thoughts on grantmaking and giving.

Now please do me a favor and don't hound Lee. I mean like dont camp out on his front lawn . . and don't send him emails asking for money. He doesn't have any [you can tell by the way he dresses]. Rather, he works for The Maclellan Foundation that has been supporting Christian ministries for about . . oh . . 6 decades . . and have an online grant appication system and that is what Lee will point you to. But before you start the online application process, check out what Lee has to say and check out my previous post called How To Ask Foundations for Money (Lee makes an appearance in this post).

Micro-Philanthropy

- Peter Dietz has some good reflections on the Philanthropy 2.0 session (didn't someone want to drop that buzz word this year?) at Council of Foundations this week. Good links and a video
Related: TSK on Philanthropy, and Emerging Philanthropy

Technorati Tags: COF2008, philanthropy, social enterprise

GodTube raises $30 million

From a $300 script to $30 million raised in a short time, Mashable tells the GodTube story.

Know How 2 Go - The Commercials

Remember those commercials that my daughter Abigail went to Prague to shoot? They are about to hit American TV and the website is already up. KnowHow2Go.com/tough has the little videos with Abigail in it. [Mum] Watch out for the redhead and the little voice on the main commercial saying "Sign me up!" The larger website has helpful information on how to stay in school and get to College - which is the point of this pro-bono commercial.

Abigail in the "Biology" video.

My brother-in-law Eric Cosper has just turned up here in Orkney with his lovely wife Jenny. All the way from New York. Eric wrote this commercial which is one of the reasons why Abigail was invited to audition. Eric has been doing ads for American TV for a decade. Check out his recent stuff here. And he has just started a blog. He asked what he could do to help while here - ie, painting the Sorting Room . . and we suggested he helps us out in the creative area . . . like . . . make something up . .. DUDE!

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PIGS: The Other Foundations Conference

"Our philanthropy must be self-sacrificial, other-centred, and generously cooperative in contributing to a society in need . . . It’s all about giving it away to remind our society of the love the Father has for our world."
Mark Petersen, Bridgeway Foundation (Canada), blogging from PIGS.

Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy has asked me for a blog post on the Professionals in Grantmaking Society event in Florida. Sounds good to me. I am not at the PIGS meeting [I am not in DC either] but a good number of my friends are there in Florida right now.

There are actually two important philanthropic meetings going on simultaneously in USA and I would not be a conscientous blogger if I did not mention the OTHER one. You know about the Council of Foundations because its a GINORMOUS TEEMING MASS of 3000 participants and because it is being well blogged, thanks to Sean and his team of philanthropists with keyboards. Thanks goodness. Some of us are out of the country and need to hear what's going on.

But the other gathering is in Florida, a smaller, more intimate event, where a number of faith-based Foundation leaders have gathered for their annual Professionals In Grantmaking Sociey (PIGS) event.

Bridgeway's Mark Petersen is blogging from the PIGS event at Open Hands and just posted his throughts on "Slow Cooker Philanthropy". His Foundation recently helped an Emerging worship course launch in New Brunswick.

Philanthropist and blogger Mark Priddy is there but he is not talking. Yet.

{update} My good friend Lee Behar has updated his blog with his thoughts on the PIGS event.

Related:
TSK: Emerging Philanthropy and more Emerging Philanthropy, and How to Ask Foundations for Money

Technorati Tags: COF2008, philanthropy

Pray for Burma

USA Today says death toll rising above 22,000 after Cyclone Nargis. A million homeless. 41,000 missing. Its a massive tragedy! God help them and show us what to do.
- Pray for Burma

Which organizations do you recommend to give your donations?

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Tim Keller Speaks at Google

Tim Keller speaks about his book "The Reasons for God" at Google HQ. Worth watching and waiting for the Q and A at the end.

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Council on Foundations: Tuesday

"Together, we can create a model that is simple, sustainable, and successful. We call it "The Power of Us" and there's room, reason, and benefits, for everyone."
The End of Philanthropy, by Marc Benioff of the Huffington Post

- Diane Sieger is not coming and she tells us why.
- Carla Javits estimates 3500 participants at the Council on Foundations. Thats a lot of people! She has a good post thats worth a read.

Technorati Tags: cof2008

Disturbing news from Google about my blog

Its really sad. According to Google Webmaster Tools, these are the top results of people reaching my site through the Google search engine and then clicking through (%) to my site. I was hoping for something a bit more uplifting. A bit more . . . well . . you know. . . less disturbing.

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Council on Foundations: Monday

"Use social networks to tell people what organizations your foundation is funding, and why. This will permit you to serve as a scout for citizen philanthropists looking to make informed decisions about where they can direct their philanthropic dollars."
Number 4 of Seven Tips for Foundations Looking to “Push the Envelope” of Philanthropy (Instead of Papers)

Here are some more of the best posts from the Council on Foundations Event.
- Impact and Future of Venture Capital
- Mission Related/Socially Responsible Investing
- Next Gen

Related: Philanthropy at COF: blogs, buzzwords and books.
The Skinny on PIGS: The Other Foundations Conference
Emerging Philanthropy and more Emerging Philanthropy
Emerging Philanthropy Spotlight No. 1: The Indian Taxi Fund
How to Ask Foundations for Money

Technorati Tags: cof2008, philanthropy