:: M squared T ::

:: Saturday, August 28, 2004 ::

Emerging Reading List
Book 1: The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations
Post 2: Gatherings

In the second section of his book, Kimball focuses on "vintage worship gatherings." Once again, Kimball does well for his audience by letting them in on the thought and practice of the emerging church.

During seminary I wrote a paper on the use of visible symbol in worship (one of Kimball's main ideas). Dr. Bob Webber (i.e., Dr. Robert E. Webber, author of Ancient-Future Faith, The Younger Evangelicals, etc.) recommended to me that I investigate it from a historical perspective. It seems that in the reformation we all began to perceive that any visible symbol - artistry, architecture, movement, etc. - was idolatrous. We ended up substituting an artistic visual symbol for the visual symbol of the blank wall.

This, of course, has never been all that appealing to me. I love to create space - usually just my room, or a living room - space for worship that invokes the beautiful, historical depth of the faith.

When we began our morning prayer gatherings in January, we started with the Book of Common Prayer. We engaged our living room as our worship space and it sanctified that space for the rest of the time when we were not worshipping.

Just a thought...


:: Matt 8/28/2004 12:47:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Grrr... Dialup...

No more broadband until I get a job...


:: Matt 8/18/2004 08:26:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Emerging Reading List
Book 1: The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations
Post 1: Listening Skills

I've been reading a lot of people (books, blogs, etc.) on the subject of the emerging church, so what Dan Kimball says does repeat a lot of what I've heard already. Dan joins the ever-growing chorus of voices that say, "Hey folks! People's assumptions are changing! You can't just do it the same way anymore!"

One of the most valuable aspects of the whole Emerging Church discussion is that it has forced us [i.e., Christians] to listen to everyone else again. It's not enough, any more, to get our understanding of our culture in digest. We cannot, for instance, depend primarily on books people have published on "how to do ministry" because people just think differently than they did even a few years ago. Moreover, our culture has become so diverse that it's hard to predict what someone is actually going to believe about something in particular - beyond the pluralism that is basic to the scene.

Instead, we must listen to people. We must seek out people who are unaffiliated with church and find out what they really think. And to do so, we actually have to get to know them - so many of us are so sick of surveys and people prying into our "personally identifiable information" that we won't share what we really feel and who we really are unless we can establish trust.

Thus, what was once "good practice" in ministry - listening to others, learning about them personally, and relating the good news of Jesus Christ to them personally - has become ministry's sine qua non: the thing without which it doesn't work, neither does it exist.


:: Matt 8/15/2004 08:03:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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New Reading List

I just picked up three books through Amazon that I hope to interact with here on this website. They are:

The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball
Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for Emerging Generations by Dan Kimball
The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian D. McLaren

I hope to engage you in the continuing Emergent conversation.


:: Matt 8/10/2004 04:03:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Congrats Greg!

Maddux wins his 300th against the Giants!


:: Matt 8/07/2004 08:37:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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