Tall Skinny Kiwi

TallSkinnyKiwi BLOGIVERSARY, and I am taking a break.

Tallskinnykiwi is 8 Years old today. Well, it was actually June 3, 2001 when I shifted from Andrews Tea Salon (1997) to Tallskinnykiwi, but whose counting? Thanks to everyone who has been receiving my feeds and popping over occasionally to this blog to see what's going on. Normally I do something special on these blogiversarys, like hosting games or taking a retrospective look back at TSK through the years.

Today, I want to celebrate by stopping the blog for a while. A few reasons:

1. This blog has 2,777 posts and most of it is buried deep under much rubble. TSK has become too unwieldy and its probably time to wrap it up or at least sum it up. I will be doing some posts over the next month or so that add some perspective to what I have been observing over the past 8 years of TSK blogging. But what I will NOT be doing is trying to stay updated with all the current events. Plenty of other bloggers are doing that now.

2. Another reason to cool it off for a few months is because of our heavy travel schedule. We leave today, from the most western point of continental Europe (near Lisbon, Portugal) and start heading east, sweeping across most of Europe (and perhaps some of North Africa) until we reach Turkey in October. A lot of the time we will not have WIFI and we will not always have electricity. If you are interested in following our family's journey, you can watch us at a new blog that will launch in about a week called Jonesberries.com This blog will be a way for our whole family to blog about the food and countries and cultures we experience as we travel the world in a 20+ year old truck named Maggie. But it will NOT be a Christian blog about the global emerging church.

3. Many of the people we are in contact with right now are spending time in countries where it is not safe for national believers in Christ to practise their faith. I dont want my blog to endanger anyone though name-dropping or having their faces in photos. Which is why my blog has been a little less personal recently. My monthly emails, sent to those who pray for us and support us, are far more detailed. I probably need to prune my email list and rebuild it. Let me know if you want to be on it.

If you are interested in supporting our family in our missionary journeys, please send an email to tallskinnykiwi at gmail dot com and we will send you details of where to send your support. In case you were wondering, our support is less than we were expecting due to the recession and we have cut back significantly so that we can stay on target to fulfil what we believe God is asking of us. A big part of that is mapping out what God is going in the next generation around the world and helping to support and encourage those movements. If you want to partner with our family in that way, please let us know.

So, expect a few conclusive blog posts in the near future. And thanks for being a big and wonderful part of our lives.

Remembering GM

General Motor's bankruptcy is close to home for us because my father-in-law, who lives in Oregon, is retired from GM and we are not sure how this will affect his pension. Sounds like the government is stepping in to help which is good for us while we are traveling overseas.

Don Dunavant explores what the SBC can learn from the demise of GM

Best GM car was the Corvette. My favorite as a kid was the early 70's Corvette because it looked like a shark but I think they look a bit tacky now. I actually preferred both Ford and Dodge to GM. What about you?

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Twittering in Church: Is It Really New?

Time Mag has an article called Twittering in Church. The trend sounds pretty new, at least to Time and a Christianity Today writer who credits the use of twitter in church to a pastor in Michigan.

Funny. That Twitter bird doesn't look anything at all like a DOVE!

Actually, the use of participatory media in church has been around at least 20 years. When I was an associate pastor at Glenwood Community Church in Vancouver, Washington, back in 1989, one of our congregants was a Christian geek named Paul Miller who had created a Bible language software program that would work with his pocket PC. So when I and the other pastors preached, he would be tap tap tapping on his gadget to check up on us. How INTIMIDATING! But also reassuring to know that we were accountable and could have others adding their knowledge which was obviously more than our own.

Interestingly, the program Paul created was called Gramcord and it became the basis for other Bible language software programs.Well done, Paul!

Later on, it was WiFI in church that linked up the geeks on the back pew who dared to sit through church with their laptops. Praise God for the power points on the back wall! My first WIFI experience in church happened in Japan, in 2002. I later posted a blog called The Wifi Enabled Church and made 10 predictions about how an internet signal would or could change the way we do church. It was pretty controversial but well received. Actually, it has probably changed the seminary classroom more than the church experience.

Today, with phones, ipod touch and other mobile devices, and Twitter, its quite easy to be a Berean to check up to see if the preacher is correct and what other people might say about the topic. Easy, but not new.

And for some of us, church is a place to get away from technology rather than resume our addiction to it. But sometimes it is a bit of both.

Book: The Rabbit and the Elephant

Nice cover! New book called The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small is the New Big for Today's Church, by my good friends Tony and Felicity Dale of simplechurch and house2house. George Barna also throws in some thoughts and corresponding numbers to back them. The title reminds me of the Starfish and the Spider, or the Lexus and the Olive Tree. And it reminds me of my blog post on a similar subject entitled "Tiny is the New Small"

The Dales have been a part of the emerging house church movement in USA for many years and have a lot to say. I have enjoyed many conversations with them about house church at their home in Texas, which is where I blogged "Thoughts on House Church from a Spa of Ill Repute."

More Than Cake has some good thoughts on the book including a summary on why the Dales value simple church:

1. Jesus ministered in homes, and much of the Gospel narratives takes place in homes...
2. New Testament Christians primarily met in small group or home settings...
3. It is difficult to obey the commands of the New Testament in groups that are too large...
4. Jesus entrusted his ministry to ordinary untrained men...
5. Most aspects of ministry are better in a small setting...
6. Simple churches multiply more quickly...
7. Simple churches allow all the members of Jesus' body to be fully functioning.

 

Hope the book does well!! Buy it today here on Amazon and make a big splash.

Related: It was written in 2002 but my House Churches Have No Sex Appeal is still circulating.

Technorati Tags: puppy

Who loves TSK?

This months banner is a photo taken last week in Lisbon, Portugal. My kids noticed graffiti with the initials "TSK" all over Lisbon. I am not condoning graffiti, but I do appreciate the advertising for the TallSkinnyKiwi blog.

We will be in Portugal for a few more days and then start our journey north, gradually winding our way through the European countries until we get to Turkey by the end of the summer. One of our main goals is to map out what God is doing in and beyond this continent. If you know of a new Christian movement that is seeing new churches start, please send me an email and some contact details.

Portugal has been a fantastic time. We have had loads of people visit us in our campsite, including Dutchman Marc Van der Woude, Nuno and Sara Soares (below), and of course many families of missionaries living in Portugal, and we have met many who launch out from here to North African countries where life is not easy for Christians - which means that I cant say who they are or where they go, in case I jeopardize the security of national believers in these countries. I hope you will forgive me for not telling my best stories on the blog but I am sure you understand.

Nuno and Sara and their daughter are part of a house church movement in Portugal that is not always understood by the traditional church. You can pray for greater understanding for them and others who are trying to figure out the way of Jesus in today's Portugal. Nuno found a mechanic who put our windows on our motorhome. Thanks Nuno. See you at the Roundtable in Poland.

Bible study: Jesus and the Loony

This afternoon I am leading a Bible study at a house church meeting. It will be on Matthew 17:14-20. Its the story of Jesus and the loony boy. The original word means "moonstruck" or "lunatic" but its pretty obvious he had a demon and Jesus kicks it out.

Its an amazing story that seems pretty straightforward; most probably a generational demon that entered through his dad mucking around in mischief, the kind of pesky demon that needs a little more turbo power to expel than your average demon. Jesus is bigger than the boogieman and the disciples need to exercise more faith. In fact, that kind of faith, says Jesus, can move mountains.

But then Jesus goes and ruins a perfectly straightforward miracle and its subsequent lesson by quoting some texts from the Old Testament and then all of a sudden, the story takes a new turn. The stories Jesus weaves into the present encounter are from Deuteronomy 32 (You unbelieving and perverse generation") and Numbers 14 ("How long will I put up with you"). They are stories that, very much like the Transfiguration account that couches this story of the loony, have connections with clouds, mountains, rocks, tents, and even Joshua who turns up in both stories. Interesting, knowing that Jesus name is actually "Joshua"

Anyway, the story moves like a Dan Brown novel from this point and creates all kinds of questions about what mountain, if any, Jesus is referring to that needs moving. And is there a relation between the loony boy and the nation of Israel. And what exactly is Jesus adding to the interpretation of this account that we should know.

So, if you are coming along this evening to the house church meeting, you have a few clues as to where the study will lead. Take a look also at the mountain in Daniel 2, the mountain in Matthew 21:21 which I see as referring to Israel, and read the same account of the Transfiguration and the loony boy in all the Synoptics - where you will notice exactly the same sequence of events. All very interesting. See you tonight. Dont forget to bring your Bible

Pentecost Festival

Pentecost Festival has started in London. Hope it goes well. Wish I was there. Or Amsterdam, where something smaller but similar is going on called Serve the City.

Rock Harbor an Emerging Church?

Its an interesting conversation for some. Rock Harbor Church is an item in the blogs right now after Lighthouse Trails gave them a hard time for being an "emerging church" and Rock Harbor has responded with a video. Phoenix Preacher has the skinny and is following the conversation. I wrote my thoughts a few years ago on Rock Harbor, which I did not consider an emerging church, as if that really matters to anyone or not. All quite silly, actually. Not quite sure why I am blogging this.

Remembering Ralph Winter (Missiologist), 1924 - 2009

The famous missiologist Ralph Winter passed away on May 20, at the age of 84. He was one of the most intelligent Christian men I have ever met. He was a genius. He was a mission geek in the truest sense - a man with a gigantic mind like a computer that continually processed everything, looking for patterns, for answers, for new discoveries. Having said that, his huge brain dominated his personality and I don't remember him as someone who gave as much attention to the other areas of life as he did to that of academics and strategy. Quite common for intellectuals of his era.

I worked part time for 6 months at the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, which was founded by Ralph and Roberta Winter, helping in the development of the Christian Foundations program. This was back in 1993-4 when we parked our old campervan at the USCWM and lived in it while I studied at Fuller SWM. Ralph's office was next to ours and I saw him most days when I worked there but actually, we didn't have many great conversations or moments together. At least not back then.

My most memorable time with him was a 90 minute phone call about Celtic Christianity that happened a few years later. He was intrigued that so many young people were tapping into the memory of the Celtic church and were structuring in a decentralized way ["sodal"] like the Celtic monastic orders. He spent most of his time on the phone talking and I hardly got a word in. His wife, who passed away in 2001, had just contracted cancer and he was on a mission to figure out the spiritual nature of diseases and perhaps find an answer. He loved to talk and teach and pass on knowledge and it was just great to have this legendary genius talk on and on about whatever came to his legendary mind.

I remember him as the man who put "unreached peoples" in our dictionary, who contributed great and unique ideas about the history and strategy of Christian mission, as one of the prime movers behind Perspectives of the World Christian Movement [which has a chapter of mine in the new version] and the guy who brought to our attention the two distinct structures of God's mission [download PDF] that we sometimes refer to as modality and sodality.

For a taste of Ralph Winter at his best, I recommend reading his essay "The Kingdom Strikes Back: Ten Epochs of Redemptive History." Read it on Google Books or buy the Perspectives manual to see it in context. And check out John Piper's Tribute as well.

Technorati Tags: mission, ralph winter

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter, in celebration of the ascension of Jesus Christ. NT Wright has been publishing and preaching on Ascension in recent years and its importance in our theology. Check out one of his Ascension messages here.

I know its more about the resurrection than the ascension, but Si Smith, illustrator and creator of the 40 series, is working on something new for 2010. An image from this new collection on the resurrection was just released on Church Times. Nice one Si!
HT: Dave Walker who says "This image, depicts John 21:9-13, with the Sea of Galilee appearing in the guise of Roundhay Park's boating lake."

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Scholarships for the 2009 Global Roundtable

The 2009 Global Roundtable for Emerging and Underground Ministries will be called "Kalejdoskop" and it will be held in Poland, July 8-11. There are a number of ministry leaders who cant afford the airfare and need scholarships. In particular, leaders from these countries:

India, Brazil, Venezuela, Macedonia, Equador, Chile, Portugal, Albania and Turkey.

We are all camping in tents around the Abbey that is used for the event, which will be held at SLOT Art Festival in Poland, and so it will not cost very much at all. But we still need about $6000 for these scholarships that will enable about 14 leaders to attend. Let me know if you can help, or if you want more information.

Oh - we just heard that we have use of this Baroque ballroom for our Friday night party. Cool.

Also, SLOT Festival needs about 900 volunteers so if you are looking for a summer opportunity to serve God in a really needy and spiritually exciting environment, sign up and come over to Poland.

Baptists and the Emerging Church

Hi everyone from yesterday's Baptist meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. Thanks for coming to the meeting and for such an inspiring and encouraging afternoon. REALLY REALLY GREAT to be with you.

Here are some links related to our talk yesterday about emerging church, church planting, etc.

"The Emergent/Emerging Church: A Missiological Perspective" Dr. Ed Stetzer, Fall 2008, Vol. 5. No. 2. The Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, The Baptist Center of Theology & Ministry: A Research Institute of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. You can download the PDF here. On the same document is a great response to Stetzer by Dr Jack Allen Jnr - its hilarious and clever and thoughtful. You will LOVE it!

Also:

- You will find information and thoughts on the Fourth Sector and mission here on my blog.
- Video of Dr. Francis Dubose who brought the "missional" term back into use in 1984.
- My thoughts on "missional"
- Tribute to Bro Thom Wolf

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Social Web Stuff

Wordpress theme developed for churches called The Church Grid Theme, for a discounted price. Thanks Cynthia. Any others worth mentioning? Any of them free? [Tim Bednar offers Ashford free]

Cynthia also has thoughts on the future of the social web, which I stumbled on last week but forgot to blog it. More here.

Monday Morning and I need some PMS Coffee

PMS Coffee is about ten minutes from our campsite here in Lisbon. Its a great name but I don't think the Portuguese speaking owners see the humor [PMS, for non-native English speakers, stands for Premenstrual Syndrome].

Any ideas for a possible tagline? How about . . .

PMS Coffee: When you need a coffee RIGHT FLIPPIN' NOW!!!!
PMS Coffee: Where everyone is employee of the month.
PMS Coffee: The best damn coffee in the world! Period.

Anyone???????

Technorati Tags: coffee

Money for Missions: The Big and the Small of it

This week I was on the phone with an Executive Director of a Foundation that gives millions of dollars to missions. Things are tight right now for them, as they are for many other faith-based Foundations, but they are doing their best to keep commitments to missionaries. Not easy during this recession when the returns on investments dont bring the kind of returns they had hoped for. Missionaries who depend on these kinds of gifts are struggling this year.

Immediately after hanging up the phone with this Foundation, I went out to dinner with a Portuguese house church pastor. His tiny church had put together a HUGE love package for our missionary family including 5 bottles of wine and all kinds of food. There was even an envelope with money as a thank you gift for our ministry in Portugal five years ago.One of the families who gave included a not-so-wealthy family with two children. One of the children, on hearing of our family's mission, donated the entire contents of his piggy bank to help the gift go further. This church leader wept when he received the gift and was really emotional when he told me the story.

The big and the small. Both important to God. Its weird being in the middle of these two disparate groups; Foundation leaders with large investments and little boys with piggy banks. The Kingdom of God moves forward on the resources of both groups. A verse leapt to mind that I should share. It speaks of contentment and the pleasantness of God's gifts, whether big or small. Psalm 16:5-6

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Related: Christianity Today have a great article this month on how the church will probably give more this year, even though philanthropy in general has dropped during this recession. Check out Church Giving Outlook: You've Got Some Time. and there is lots more to read in their economic crisis section.

More on Tallskinnykiwi: Christian Conferences: The Carnival is Over
Top 5 Ways for Ministries to Get Over the Recession
Larry's Recession and the Debt Dependent Church

Technorati Tags: larry burkett, mission, missional, recession

ColdPlay - Left Right Left Right Left

Coldplay's new album is a free download. Lots of great songs, most of them you would have heard before, but this time recorded live from their concerts. The crowd participation makes Left Right Left Right Left a charming and endearing album and a great introduction to one of Brittain's best bands ever. I just managed to download it - I think yesterday was too busy. Thanks John.

Previously on Tallskinnykiwi: Discussing the theological shades of meaning in the lyrics of Coldplay's Viva La Vida.

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Twitter and Yahoo Meme

Meme looks like Yahoo's answer to Twitter, or at least to Orkut which is the social networking platform of choice for a lot of my Brazilian friends, and NOT a goat-sacrificing satanic cult, as I said back in 2004.

Yahoo's Meme is only in Portuguese at the moment which is funny because I am currently in Portugal, where the language is spoken PROPERLY, and my Portuguese lesson was administered by my 7 year old daughter just a few seconds ago. I will probably join Meme today to practice my almost non-existent Portuguese skills. And also because I have an addiction to joining these things when they are new.

More info about Meme on David Ruiz's blog and Techcrunch.

Technorati Tags: meme, social media, social web, twitter

Winkie: He is NOT a Gay Teletubbie!

I went out with Denny last night to hear the teacher Winkie Pratney, who was very quick to say that he was not a gay teletubbie. He was named after his father, William who was a famous New Zealand cyclist, occasionally getting up at 4am to do a 100 mile cycle before breakfast.

Anyway, Wee "Willy" Winkie Pratney, wrote what was probably the first Christian book I had ever seen. "Doorways to Discipleship" was presented to me as a teenager at my baptism. I never met the man but have always wanted to. And since he was in Lisbon, Portugal, and so was I, it worked out to see him last night. The man is a LEGEND.

He is a really funny guy and a great storyteller. A little longwinded when translation is added to the equation, he managed to speak for just over 90 minutes but held our attention the whole time. He had some good words to say about finances and God's provision. In particular, as illustrated by the two accounts of Jesus feeding the crowds and how much was left over, those with less can end up with more. Soooo glad we finally met. I have preached in many of the same churches as Winkie but somehow we have missed each other . . . until now.

Oh yeah. We parked next door to the church building in a parking area that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the church and subsequently, our car got locked up for the night behind the gate. Thanks to Reuben and the CCC worship team for giving us a lift home in the early hours of the morning. You guys rock!

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Christian Surfers Tonight

I am speaking at the Christian Surfers International meeting tonight here in Portugal. Thanks to Buck Waters for the invitation. There is quite a group here of surfers from all over. Lots of Californians also. I have been hanging out a little with Scott Last and Marty Uhler (pictured) who are both with Christian Associates and both doing a lot with the surfing community.

I talked to Scot a while ago about the reason for the success of the gospel in the surfing community over the past few decades. Scott, who btw, was part of Calvary Chapel in the 1970-74 period when it meet in the tiny chapel, was quick to bring up the connection with creation and the Creator God. I added my observation that the Christian role-models have always had a healthy contextual attitude to the surfing culture that has allowed young surfers to follow Jesus without changing their clothes or language, but has also brought a challenge towards a transformational life-style. Its similar to the Christian movements in the snowboarding and skating communities. Another good reason for a healthy contextualization of the gospel.

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I got TAGGED on a Facebook Photo

Uno Photo: Crazy Tom Seward from the Canadian side of the Arctic Circle [far right] posted a Facebook photo that was 23 years old and guess what? Not only was yours truly in the photo [good looking skinny guy with glasses] but that Californian babe on the far left, formerly known as Debbie Cosper, played such a wicked game of Punk Uno that day that I married her.

The photo was probably from 1986, on the mission ship MV Logos, somewhere in either Central or South America. Thanks Tom.

OM still operate their mission ships. The original Logos that we were on went down in 1988 but the new Logos Hope has an official launch in London June 26-28 - Dont miss it. You can buy fuel for the ships here.

Christian Web Conference and The Great Debate

I have been invited to speak this year at the Christian Web Conference in Los Angeles, September 11-12. The Christian Web Conference was previously GodBlogCon, which I have been cheering on since its existence and even participated in last year in Las Vegas. It will be moving back to Biola University this year under its new name.

The Great Debate will be a spirited conversation between myself and Matthew Anderson on online communities. I will be arguing in favor and Matthew will be highlighting the negative.

There is talk of a panel discussion with a few of us bloggers but nothing cemented yet. I will keep you updated.

Criticism of Virtual Community and Cyber churches

Is the cyber-church a REAL church?

I was studying and writing last weekend on virtual communities for a number of articles and also for speaking in Las Angeles next September at the Christian Web Conference.

There are lots of arguments against virtual communities being "real" but there one quote that is probably the most comprehensive one I have come across. The author hits about 7 criticisms on cyber church. I have some answers to this but I want to throw it out to you guys to get you thinking on how you would respond.

Read on for the quote.

May: Banner from Heathrow Terminal 5

My banner for May is from a picture I took of the new Heathrow Terminal 5 which really is an architectural wonder. I picked my Aunty Olwen up at Heathrow Terminal 3 last weekend and we decided to have breakfast the next day at Terminal 5. She had flown in from Australia but still had lots of steam. She looks pretty good for 120. Hi Olwen! Hope you enjoy Wales.

Back in Portugal

After a quick trip to Scotland and England, I am back in Portugal. The weather is perfect and we are quite close to the beach in Quincho (near Cascais), where I took this photo of a street lamp.

Swine flu and a calm, reasonable, rational Church

Swine Flu? I was at London's Heathrow airport yesterday and a lady walked off a plane with a face mask. I was tempted to take her picture but it occurred to me that only one person out of thousands and thousands had a mask and my photo of a single individual would create a distorted view of how people are reacting to this swine flu situation. I dont think its nearly as bad as the WHO and the media is saying. Really.

While I am sympathetic to those who have lost loved ones, I am of the opinion that this swine flu from Mexico has been overexposed out of proportion and has created unnecessary fear. It is, as Simon Jenkins has judged, a "panic stoked in order to posture and spend". And the church should not be part of the media push that will help fund pharmaceutical companies like GSK that have already starting working on it under a "sleeper" contract.

Hey preachers! Don't be conformed by the world's media voices. The church overreacted to the Y2K crisis at the turn of the new century, which was hardly a crisis at all. I had a friend who even wrote a book on it and published it around the time of the millennium, which, on looking back with a cringing face, is now just an embarrassing entry on his resume and a reminder that the church is to be a voice of reason and rationality in a world going crazy with fear.

Regarding pigs and intensive farming, [not saying there is a direct connection with pigs and the H1N1 virus but there MIGHT be], I feel that the church should lead the way in healthier industrial practices that may prevent weird strains of viruses in the future. Our family leans towards a cruelty-free meat diet and away from intensive farming techniques that are cruel to animals and unhealthy for everyone.

What do to? Pray for the families that have suffered lost. Pray for those with the swine flu to recover quickly. Keep yourself healthy and eat well. Don't sneeze on people but carry a hanky. And be of good cheer.

Technorati Tags: church, mexico, swine flu