Emergent Kiwi (Steve) says the Dranes are blogging. Fantastic. I saw John a few months ago at the Aberdeen airport. Their blog is called 2ChuchMice. How nice for them to blog together.

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I cant remember if we have been to Rhode Island or not. About 4 years ago, our family were passing by the top of USA again and wondered if we should finally go over to North and South Dakota since we had missed them when we went through in 1998-1999 in our Winnebago. We decided . . . NAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Maybe next time.

visited 45 states (90%)

Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project

Dan Wallace has written some great thoughts about Dr Joe Aldrich who has Parkinson's Disease and is "slipping fast". Joe was the President of Multnomah when i was a student there. Once he pulled alongside me in his car as i walked back from chapel and asked me if i wanted a ride. I was really impressed that he was not above hanging out with students. We chatted for about 3 minutes and then we were back at the College. I thanked him for his great book "Life Style Evangelism" and encouraged him on his upcoming book that would later be called "Gentle Persuasion". At the time, I thought the second book was a little wimpy and should have been tougher. But I had just come from 2 years of intensive overseas work with Operation Mobilization, and had been a street preacher for 3 years before that so I leaned towards the more confrontational side of things.

Looking back, Joe was right and his book was a fantastic gift to the church. - It really is about relationships, loving people, eating meals and spending time and being there to make the good news known when the time is right.

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If you had a million dollars (and only a million), what would you do to help alleviate the pain of the current economic crisis?

Paul Watson asked this question on his blog a week ago. This his how I answered it.

I would "probably find a way to help the churches and mission organizations retool with an eye towards microbusiness and social enterprise in order to emerge from the recession equipped for long term sustainability. What about a million for 100 10k micro-loans for that purpose? Track all 100 of them and create a community blog so everyone can cheer them on and learn from them.

The need for churches and mission organizations to move from dependence to sustainability was one of my teaching themes in 2008 (Australia, Netherlands, USA, UK). Some of my thoughts can be found here. Cooperatives, Mission and the Fourth Sector, On Going Fourth. I don't think my sustainability message was taken very seriously during year, before the economic downturn, but am hoping that the new circumstances will create more openness to think again about how we do mission.

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Talk about David and the Web Goliaths. Look at me on the New York Times!

When I first discovered the internet in the mid 90's, the New York Times was my website of choice. Reading it for free, from my little cyber cafe in San Francisco, was an absolute blast. When I went on the web today, I found my blog headline on their paper [thanks to Blogrunner] and a stream of NYT readers coming over to my humble TallSkinnyKiwi blog. Gotta love it! God bless those NYT editors for their impeccable taste and faultless wisdom. God blessem, every one!

What post did they pick? They chose the post called Without God - which was a short Facebook message Alana Hurst from Portugal sent me today and asked me to pass it on.

PASS IT ON? HAH! I can do better than that . . .

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Thanks everyone for last week's discussion. I have collated the best ideas below on how to get over the recession and added, as I usually do, my own thoughts.

- Seek God. (Mike Lane) Maybe this recession is an opportunity for a midcourse correction, a time to reconnect with God, retool and get ready for the next season.

- Restructure training and gathering events to make them accessible and sustainable (Becky Garrison, Charlie Boyd) Give preference to local leadership for teaching over long-distance celebrity speakers (Rob Karch) In your thinking, think about houses instead of hotels, kitchens instead of restaurants, festivals instead of conferences, joining something larger rather than starting your own.

- Start micro-businesses (Zack Newsome, Bill, Mike, Bill Cummings). Start something. Start a few things. Its a great way of becoming financially sustainable and it also opens new doors into the community. Social enterprise and micro-business has been a normal activity for overseas mission for many centuries.

- Move in together. (Mike Todd, Andrew Jackson) Intentional Community is a wonderful way for a small community young people to mature together. Its ridiculous that we all need big empty houses for one or two people. Fill up those empty bedrooms. Maximize what you already have, or think about downsizing. And no . . . I am not suggesting you move in with your girlfriend.

- Live frugally - (Jordon Cooper). Beware of credit. Learn from the monks who took vows of frugality and poverty. Borrow stuff instead of buying it (Luke 10). Learn to cook. Learn how to do all kinds of stuff you don't know how to do. Walk instead of drive.

OK - heres the next question. How would you invest a million dollars to help the church get over the recession? Its not rhetorical - there are people out there who have a million dollars to invest and a little bit of crowd wisdom would go a long way. Start here.

Without GOD, our week would be: Sinday, Mournday, Tearsday, Wasteday, Thirstday, Fightday & Shatterday.

Sent by Alana Hurst on Facebook

Sorry if the previous post on exorbitant Christian conferences in a time of crippling recession was a little gray (sorry David). But I do want to ask the question:

Where we gonna find the eyes to see a brighter day?

Where we gonna get the wisdom to find a more sustainable way?

Where we gonna invest our time, talent and money in the Great Commission so that it will . . . pay?

Ok - that last one was a little forced. I'm a blogger, not a songwriter. But if you have a good idea on how we can respond to this global financial crisis, leave a comment below. Maybe we should compile a top ten list or something . . . .?

Technorati Tags: puppy, recession

Really helpful discussion in the comments of the previous post [Recession: How bad is it?] about the recession and how its affecting our non-profits and ministries. I want to continue it here by picking up on some of the comments and questions that have emerged.

Its obvious that the recession is having a huge impact on all of us. On the negative side, budgets are cut, events are cancelled, and job security is soooooo 2007. On the positive side, organizations are forced to reexamine strategy, expenditure, and use this current recession as an opportunity to retool where necessary.

"This is helping us clarify what we are really all about and how to spend not only our money, but time, energy, prayer, and talent." Michael Kaspr

One of the culprits, as Becky pointed out, are these extravagant Christian conferences (PreacherFests) where participants are asked to pay an exorbitant admission price to go and hear their favorite speaker. Add to that a flight, meals, and a hotel room and there's not much change from A THOUSAND from which to buy the speaker's book to support this weird cottage industry.

Thats a heckofalot! Its also out of reach for many young struggling missional entrepreneurs and it sets an unsustainable example for the rest of the world who try to mimic the West.

The unsustainable lifestyle of some [a small minority] of professional Christian circuit riders is also on the chopping block. I heard about a well known Christian speaker that was invited to fly overseas to share at at an emerging church event in a particular country [not USA]. They managed to appease his life-style choices by putting him in a four-star hotel but he checked himself out and into a five-star hotel down the road . . . at their expense. I wont repeat the word they called him [rhymes with "banker"] but I will say that in today's climate, God's five star conference speakers will either have to suffer some two or three star inconveniences or struggle to find gigs at all.

Even better if we totally rethink this conference thang.

Our conferences? Over the past ten years, all of the events we (Boaz Project) have hosted have been free of charge. The only was to do this was to have teachers who could speak with little or no honorarium, invite participants from a smaller geographical location, parasite ourselves inside existing festivals, ask local churches for buildings and personnel, have zero promotional budget and request funding from foundations. Once or twice we partnered with another organization or seminary and there was a minimal charge. And quite often we have hosted roundtables inside existing festivals and the cost of that festival is usually (but not always) met by the participant.

In 2009, I expect to host events [and partner with others to host events] in at least a dozen countries. I am hoping the recession will have less impact than other more high-profile, high-budget events than depend on a high price of admission. Our events are usually smaller, more local, more invisible, especially if they are embedded inside other bigger festivals [like SXSW, Freakstock, etc]. As a rule, I like festivals more than conferences, as I said in a recent post called Festivals as a Way Forward, because they are much cheaper, leave a smaller carbon footprint and are not dependent on one or two Superstar Christian Celebrities who insist on fancy hotels and a hefty honorarium at the end - thus raising the price of admission and reducing accessibility to the people who really need to be there.

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I try not to give preference to conferences that reimburse my travel and offer an honorarium over the more organic "emerging" events where there is no budget or funds. At least I don't think I don't. And when I am asked to speak, I accept whatever accommodation I am offered. Either sleeping on a couch, some tent space, or sometimes a hotel room when offered. Again, I accept the offer of hospitality and don't ask for an upgrade. Luke 10 comes to mind.

As a missionary, I occasionally have enough funds to help me travel and teach. Most of it has to be raised from others so I can do my job. So please don't take this as an insult to those who teach at conferences as a career. But be encouraged when I say that God is faithful - and some of the best opportunities are sometimes the scariest. You might not get home as soon as you want, and sometimes you might not get home at all, but its always worth it.

Sometimes I have been invited to speak at a conference where the admission cost is high and inaccessible to everyone except church and mission executives, but I have gone along anyway. Other times, I have turned down the offer because the conference is so expensive, inaccessible and unsustainable as a model. I figure that most missional entrepreneurs can't afford to be there anyway and the only people who will attend have an institutional/corporate budget behind them.

Honorariums? I have been speaking in Christian conferences for over 20 years. Probably hundreds of them. I have never once asked to be paid. I have never requested an honorarium. I have never suggested a fee. Highly unusual . . I know . . and maybe a little anal . . but I have felt led by God to do it this way. Yes, I happily receive gifts and voluntary honorariums but I don't request them nor do I have a "suggested honorarium" figure. In my reading of the New Testament, the financial responsibility lies more on the apostle/teacher than on the students.

Many of you reading this post have invited me to speak at your events and you know that what I am saying is true.

But enough of my whinging and whining about conferences . . . .

- What else can we do to enable training and teaching and gathering during this recession without resorting to unsustainable models?

- What else about the way we do church and mission can we change to be more sustainable and emerge from this recession in better shape?

- Where should we be funneling resources during these lean times in order to keep obeying the Great Commission?