Shapevine Webcasts :: Friends blog

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/418328386/

Jan put me on to this. Couldn’t miss the opportunity.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tallskinnykiwi/~3/417812391/technora

"blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream."

Technorati, State of the Blogosphere

I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago at Blog World Expo and one of the highlights for me was the State of the Blogosphere presented by Technorati representatives. The whole session is up on their site. Totally worth reading if you are interested in the blogosphere.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tallskinnykiwi/~3/417795372/jab-upda

For those of you following our story about the coerced jabbing of our daughter with an HPV immunization shot, tomorrow in the Sunday papers around the country there will be an official apology from the health department and hopefully some practical steps to ensure our story, and those of a few other families around the UK, will not be repeated. Good!

We are hoping they will take the immunizations out of the schools - where the school authorities really don't know what the heck is going on anyway, and give the authority back to the family physicians - which is what usually happens with immunisations. We set up a small blog to track the progress - Its called the Jab Blog

More tomorrow along with links [hopefully] to the papers. We really hope everyone is fairly treated in the media. We hope that the truth emerges. And we hope that we can all be part of making healthy decisions for our children. You can help us by offering good advice and information on the HPV immunisations, by praying for good outcomes, and also by keeping our daughter's identity private - ie - don't mention her name in these posts. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: hpv

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/417620870/

“Every concept formed by the intellect in an attempt to comprehend and circumscribe the divine nature can succeed only in fashioning an idol, not in making God known.” - Gregory of Nyssa, “Life of Moses” -

Our ideas about God are only meant to direct our attention toward God, who is always greater than our ideas.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tallskinnykiwi/~3/416897401/social-m

Marcus Goodyear is taking a social media sabbatical, the Pyromaniacs are taking the month off and Darren Rowse of Problogger has just suggested in an email that we should take a RSS break:

"I'm not advocating that we all stop using RSS - but perhaps this week set aside some time to just sit with your own ideas. Get offline completely, take a paper and pen and start writing - see where your thoughts lead you!"

Related: The Spirituality of NOT blogging and blog fasting.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tallskinnykiwi/~3/416653893/blog-act

Blog Action Day is an opportunity to blog about poverty. Start thinking about what you would like to SAY and DO for October 15. HT: Devlounge

Technorati Tags: bad2008, blog action day, blog action day 2008, poverty

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tallskinnykiwi/~3/416628753/church-2

Greg Atkinson is setting up a Church 2.0 Fall Tour in preparation for a book in the near future on the subject. More on Facebook and DJ Chuang's blog.

Even though you might be getting tired of hearing about EVERYTHING 2.0, and the term is probably only continuing due to the O'Reilly conferences and their huge web presence, the concept of Church 2.0 is good and worthy of consideration. You might also want to check out my original blog post from 2005 called Church 2.0 and an article I wrote called Linking to Cyberchurch

Technorati Tags: emerging church, church 2.0

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tallskinnykiwi/~3/416174827/cleaning

Cleaning up the blog at the moment. Feels good! Actually, my bedroom is messy right now and I am compensating by de-cluttering the blog.

So I woke up to the sound of a voice singing in Swahili.... 

"Listen!  What do you make of this?  A farmer planted seed.  As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road and the birds ate it.  Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly.  Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled among the weeds and nothing came of it.  Some fell on good earth and came up with a flourish, producing a harvest exceeding his wildest dreams.  Are you listening to this?  Really listening?" (Mark 4, The Message)

As one who is attempting to plant a new faith community, I have really felt connected to this parable of Jesus'.  Conversations with strangers and friends along the path of life, seeds of grace scattered in our daily living... our bodies, minds and spirits the soil that God is at work in, some of it rocky, some full of weeds, some ready and "good earth"...

So these past few weeks have been pretty frustrating.  Not alot of growth or "fruit" to be seen of any of the "planting" that we are doing.  No sign of green even budding.  (Patience, Grasshopper.  ....stay awake.  Watch and pray).  We are into the third full month of our first "Living Room" group that meets in our house on Tuesday nights for conversation, scripture, songs, and prayer.  Its been hard to grow the group, let alone plant a second, third, or fourth group (a part of our "strategic plan".... hmmmmm....)

I was not expecting anything "new" this past Tuesday night.  But a new person came.  He was not "invited" by me and I had never met him before.  He was not even invited or expected by the person who drove him to our house.  A person in our group, Bob, had stopped by Central Seminary to pick up a student from India, Mary, who has been coming to the group.  But she could not come this week.  However, Mary had told Wilson about our group and so Wilson was waiting at the front door of the seminary for Bob, a person whe had never met, in order to come to a house of strangers.... our house.

It gets better.  Wilson is from Kenya, and came to Central Seminary in Kansas City because long ago missionaries from the States went to Kenya, and generations of faith had taken root there from seeds that were planted long ago.  Wilson gave his life to Christ as a teenager, and as he accepted a call to ministry, he learned of Central because other people from his home had recieved training there.  So he and his wife and thier child have moved from Kenya to Olathe, Kansas, so that he can go to a seminary that will equip him with training to plant a new church for African immigrants who have come to America.  And Wilson was curious about our fragile little church "plant", a fragile seed taking root on the western edge of the city.

On Tuesday night, I was weary.  I did not expect anyone new to come to our Living Room... but Wilson came.  And we were amazed at God's presence in a seed that was blooming that we did not plant, but might have an opportunity to water and help grow.  As we were closing in prayer, my new friend felt led to offer the group a blessing.   He sang a song called "Working in the Fields of the Lord" in English and in Swahili.  And a seed of grace took root in my heart.  And I could see and feel the green again...

"one day when Jesus comes again he'll find me working in the fields of the Lord"

http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2008/10/weve-only-just.h

Mark DeVine points to an excellent chapter [download PDF] he wrote for a forthcoming book called E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent.

Welcome to the Common Root that launched last week with a less confusing name.

Paul Roberts demurs regarding The Great Emergence

IMG church emerges into the Lancaster newspaper

Jake is going to reclaim Paul this month with the Emergent Village crowd

October is Convergent month for Friends and Quakers.

And finally,

Jonny Baker reports on the emerging church in France, suggesting that it has only just begun. Which brings everybody's favourite song to mind . . . Come on . . EVERYBODY!! . . . One Two Three . .

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church