It is wonderful to have unplanned encounters with others who are in the "different church" mission. My latest was on an airplane trip to Boston. I was reading one of the latest books by Brian McLaren--Everything Must Change. http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Must-Change-Global-Revolution/dp/0849901839/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201631945&sr=8-1 which prompted my seatmate to ask what I thought of it. I asked back if he had read it or others by McLaren and indeed he had. Turns out he was on his way to a church gathering in the Boston area as well. He was the director of a house church network, or simple church movement, within the foursquare gospel association. Within his tradition, the movement is growing quickly of sponsoring house church networks. We talked about his presentation, how so many were beginning to look for something different than a theater-based, attraction model, spectator-oriented one-hour a week mega-spiritual thing called church. I left the plane both energized by our conversation and sharing of ideas, and sighing that most all of my encounters and shared experiences along this line happen with folks in very different faith communities than mine, and that as far as I know there is so very little planned conversations and programs in our association such as the one he was facilitating. He was a paid, almost full time, staff person just to help folks launch simple churches. End.
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Speaking of Everything Must Change by McLaren and this just came in the mailbox from www.deepshift.org/site/.
We are so excited to have the opportunity to bring part of the Everything Must Change Tour LIVE to your home! Northwest Nazarene University is hosting our second site in the Boise Idaho area. They have offered to provide a FREE Webcast of the first session of the Everything Must Change Tour, "Waking Up from a Really Bad Dream-Dialogue & Worship". Join us to get a glimpse of what you would experience if you came to one of our EMC tour sites this year (see all dates at www.deepshift.org).
The site address for individuals to receive the free Webcast of Brian McLaren and the EMC Tour on Friday night February 8, 2008 is www.media.nnu.edu/live.
This address will either work when typed into your address bar in your internet browser or you will need to open up Windows Media Player and place this address in the "open a URL" line in the file menu option.
The Live Session will begin on Friday, February 8 at 7:00 pm MST (Please Note that this is 9:00 EST, 8:00 CST, and 6:00 pm PST...and you'll have to figure it out for other time zones around the world). We encourage you to "check-in" at 6:45 pm MST to make sure you are able to get all set up and so you do not miss a minute of the Webcast. Until that time, there will be nothing to see at that site. If you have difficulty that evening, contact wesleyconf@nnu.edu.
Invite your friends to join you so that you can spend time conversing about the issues Brian will present just as those at the Conference will be doing. We hope you will be inspired and want to learn more and tell your friends and colleagues to join us at one of the remaining 9 sites after the Boise Idaho stop.
John Perkins says in A Quiet Revolution, "If we as Christians can see the issues of our day--the poverty, the racism, war and injustice--and if we can use the skills and resources that we get from our training at school or on the job, and if we can really be open to being equipped by the Spirit of God, then we will be used. We must lie on our beds at night and wrestle with how we can individually and collectively bring our faith from talk to power, how we can bring our faith and works to bear on the real issues of human need.
I believe that right now we are facing a most difficult time in history. We are discovering that old strategies have failed and that the new ones, or rediscovered ones, will not let us hold onto our old lifestyles."
It is our prayer that those who join us on the EMC Tour are touched by God's Spirit and open to joining this kind of revolution...a revolution of hope, as Brian says. Let's get on the path together!
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