Listening today to a CD from John Abel called More Than This. Jon was the songleader at last weekend's Summit in Tahoe. Lovely guy. Great worship leader. Christianity Today also liked him.

Technorati Tags: jon abel, music, worship

Australia

"While I find much of value in the emerging, missional and neo-monastic conversations there is much that sits uneasy with me too, given where I am and where I have come from. I am seeking an understanding of postmodernity which is less monolithic than what I find the emergent stream is offering, I am seeking an approach to contemplative disciplines which is less Euro-centric than what I find the monastic stream is offering, and I am seeking an approach to church contextualization that is less tribal and more critical of the "homogenous unit principle" than what I find the missional stream is offering."

Matt Stone, Just to Explain . . . Hopefully, Glocal Christianity

South Africa

Regarding the current conversation about the term emerging, let’s just say that I don’t think the term is dead,"

Cobus Van Wyngaard, Emerging Alternative Communities for South Africa, My Contemplations

"When the conversation exploded a couple of days ago, I found Sine's four streams to be of a lot of help as well. As we were busy trying to get some "emerging" folks from around Pretoria and Johannesburg together, I realised that what we call "emerging" encompasses all four of Sine's streams. For us it isn't a tension yet. When we say "emerging" in our context, we tend to understand what it mean."

Cobus Van Wyngaard,, in comments

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

New Zealand

"And I will look at them and part of me will want to cry. How could my efforts to be part of God's work, born for such a time as this, now be called dead. And part of me will want to hit over the head all the people who have stirred and misrepresented and fought over labels and words and used the web to spread disinformation and increase their blog ratings. And part of me will smile. What will they call the next thing, I wonder? And I will respond to the question by suggesting we turn to Acts 2 and Luke 10. I will suggest we stop worrying about what we call these "new forms of church." Instead we think about what it means for us to be obedient to the mission of God, because we are born "for such a time as this.""

Steve Taylor, Why I'm Emergentkiwi (still), EmergentKiwi

UK

"Whether you are catholic, house church, an naissant/proto emerging church, we are all the emerging church, with a deep ecumencalism, helping each other respond to similar contextual problems. Trying to form churches that see people find and grow in love and orientation around Jesus.

. . . But the emerging church can become so broad, that it loses it’s meaning. It does seem that almost anyone and anything is called emerging church these days. I’m still more comfortable with this broader and generous delineation though. But I sense many are thinking of moving beyond the emerging church, due to it’s dilution."

Jason Clark, Beyond the Emerging Church?, Deep Church

Canada

"This present “evolution” of the emerging church may not be (read: is rather known not to be) its final stage, but it does represent a form of maturation from where it was. Not a complete maturation, of course, but the maturation in a specific area. Considering that those within the movement are continuing to pursue this same course of “emerging” into a revised form of church, we may conclude that there remains some life yet in the old dog."

Brother Maynard, Emergent Terminology: It’s Not About Terminology, Subversive Influence

USA

"As for me- I don't know if I'm done with the phrase "emerging church" yet- but just about. I know that when I say it, I'm more often than not now answering a question about what we aren't than what we are about- and that saddens me."

Bob Hyatt, Look who's done with words like Emergent, bob.blog

My friend Dan Kimball changes his hair grease and gets mentioned on BoingBoing.

This month's header has a retro feel but actually I took the shot last weekend at Lake Tahoe.

Speaking of retro, Prodigal Jon thinks through the 5 stages of emailing an unintentionally funny video like this one below on the Stuff Christians Like blog. HT: Bob Carlton.

The band in question is called "Sonseed". They are a HUGE hit on YouTube with 4.5 stars and over 2300 comments. You can read the legend of the Sonseed video from Dougsploitation. Lyrics are here in case you want to sing along. Its going to be a close race for the most addictive Christian video on YouTube between this one and the Baptist preacher on "He That Pisseth Against the Wall".

UPDATE: Some people suspect the Sonseed video is probably a fake and this site reckons it fake also. What do you think?

- David Crowder plans to cover the song.

- Dougsploitation interviews original members of Sonseed.

Lovin' it? Me too. Now check out these music records I scored recently from a charity shop in Scotland. The last one is 1971 and is from a band in Ireland called The Branches.

- Bible across America started this week. Zondervan are letting people write out the Bible in their own handwriting for a special edition of the NIV. The route they are taking around USA is quite similar to what we did ten years ago in our Winnebago. Hope they do well!

- Steve Taylor (EmergentKiwi) on why he is still emergent

- Shapevine relaunches with a new look and plenty of online classes.

- Filmmaker David Di Sabatino [of Lonnie Frisbee fame] is showing a pre-screening of FALLEN ANGEL: The OUTLAW LARRY NORMAN at Wheaton College on Thursday, October 16th, 2008

- GEM hosts a virtual prayer walk for Europe on Oct 23rd.

- Impact the Nation Oct 9-11 in UK and its now FREE!

This is a screenshot from the Squat and Gobble coffee shop in the lower Haight. Just look at all those wifi signals! I remember back in 1995 when San Francisco had only 4 cyber-cafes and no Wifi at all.

Brad Sargent, while getting loopy on Frodo at our LOTR party in Silicon Valley last week, told me he was writing up a series of posts on the Lakeland Outpouring and what leadership might mean for the charismatic community after the fallout. Here is the series so far:

Kingdom Leadership After Lakeland

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Considering Various Sources (There are over 70 links in this one post.)

Part 3: Seven Lapses in Leadership and Discernment.

Part 4 and 5 are coming.

Technorati Tags: lakeland, todd bentley

We enjoyed a special screening of Call and Response on Saturday night, at our special summit in Tahoe. Filmmaker Justin Dillion was there and talked about what he was thinking when he made this BRILLIANT film that opens around the country on October 10th in a limited number of cinemas. Its a GREAT film that tackles the subject of human trafficking in USA using music, story, and the philosophy of blues. It was the blues that I especially connected with and the wisdom of Dr Cornel West on the blues concept of call and response. Also good to see some well known celebrities speak up or sing out on human trafficking. Hope it does really well. Go see it, dammit!

Call and Response on Facebook

Actually, what Justin has accomplished in bringing in so many artists around this cause reminded me of what Ry Cooder did with Buena Vista Social Club . . .but with a serious social conscience. Ok - now watch the trailer

Technorati Tags: call and response, human trafficking