Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

writing it down : how two sides see homosexuality & church

update: what ended up happening is that the minority report got voted as the majority for the delegate floor. then, while rules were suspended, there was no debate and the minority report (which just became majority) went to vote and got a very slim approval, keeping, and somewhat recessing back our not-so-inclusive language. steve rankin has a nice perspective and history.

update 2: noticed that blake huggins has put together as accurate as he could the new stance on human sexuality.

  _____

currently our church is in debate over our next four years of church doctrine dealing homosexuality & the church. this is the particular petition. in there it is just remarkable to see the differences in legislative majority and minority.

the majority from legislative committee.

then there is the minority report.. see the small differences? &:~)

this will get beat up as it is currently on the floor. so it will be interesting to see how all this turns out. i pray for some idea of recognizing all people as faithful witnesses. for me, the debate of homosexuality is not so clear cut. i'm okay with claiming confusion. it's a okay place to be.

Liberia President Sirleaf addresses united methodists : general conference video

yesterday the president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is the first african woman president, who just happens to be a united methodist came all the way from africa to address the church body. what a powerful moment. i pieced together some of the snippet videos that were made available from the address. she's amazing!

in other thoughts, bill brought this up as well. we know that president Bush is also a united methodist. wonder why he can't come to his home state to talk to his church body? not that we call him a leader of the church. but it would be nice if he actually talked with his faith expression. come around to today, from what i was told, the pres sent a letter.. not the same value, but i suppose it is something.

what bugs me about this? : general conference blog reflection & challenge

so i've been doing a lot of general conference blog reading. mostly cause i have to keep up with the methoblog while jay is out of town. one blog added to the mix was/is the ird's blog for conference. they've got some folks who are teaming up to post, so ideas and topics cover a wide range. this is the most recent posting and it doesn't ring right with me.

On the Sunday before General Conference, my pastor mentioned the Conference in the morning announcements. He added his hope that the “special interests” that have besieged past General Conferences would be set aside along with divisive issues like abortion, human sexuality, the environment, and immigration. Indeed the Rev. Tom Berlin, the lead clergy delegate for Virginia, mentioned the same hope in a commentary for UM News Service. “The curtain may be rising on a new act in our story as a Christian movement—unless forces of the past conspire to jam it shut.”

Sadly, the hope expressed by my pastor and Rev. Berlin have not been exhibited at this General Conference. There is little agreement on social issues like human sexuality, abortion or the war in Iraq. Each day there are anti-war protests, pro-homosexuality demonstrations, immigration reform rallies, one anti-Bush Library protester, and over a dozen daily leaflets available from various caucus groups. 

There is little theological agreement either. On a quick walk through the official UMC bookstore, Cokesbury, one can find monographs by radical Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, Jesus Seminar author Marcus Borg, and “dissenting” United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague. One can also find a few evangelical authors like orthodox Oxford don Alistair McGrath, Jesus Seminar critic and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, and Mere Christianity’s C.S. Lewis. And there are those from the so-called “extreme center” like UM Bishop Scott Jones (who, by the way, has a curious habit of avoiding taking all leaflets offered to GC delegates and visitors each morning—as a former professor, perhaps he’s already read enough).

my thought.. "hi pot, meet kettle" is it odd that someone as a voice for the ird is calling others divisive? i'm on the mailing list, i read your newsletters and emails. their stuff is divisive. sure it covers itself in saving the conservative values of the church.. whatever that means.. does that make you more righteous? thus right? if you actually think that then you are much too proud to see your lack of humility.

also, how do so many people come  together and not have disagreement? that is unrealistic to expect that. i read borg and nt wright.. so am i in your good graces one day and not the other?

the ird folks do have a collection of some of the slamming cartoons that people have done of them. that's a pretty funny post.

other than that, i encourage all at gc get a pic of the bush library protester. we will make a full photo post of submitted pics with the lone protester at the methoblog. why? because i think that would be funny.

join us for a different general conference

revmom & myself did a little hang out and conversation while watching the general conference web stream in second life. it's def the coolest way to watch cspan for methodists. come join us. my name is gavin tellig in sl.

john wesley : speaking on war

found this little gem on jeffodist's youtube channel. apparently the methodist church of gb is putting out some material on dvd learning series. this is someone enacting some john wesley action on the topic of war. first thoughts.. gee, i'm not sure i would have stood around and listened to john, but then again, in the 1700's that might have been the best gig around.

music monday : world apart

jars of clay is probably my one sustaining contemporary christian music group. i remember getting some preview album of theirs in 95 and have appreciated their exploration since. haven't always cared for all their stuff, but most of them i do. this is one of my favs.. though, being a live version it's a bit longer than the album version. still it is excellent

what i needed : hope this doesn't happen to you

this was sent to me by one of my beloved youth ministry buddies. sad for them, but it was a pick-me-up that gave me a much needed giggle.

We did the 30 hour famine over the weekend and went on a can food drive through a neighborhood near the church.  We were gone for about 2 hours gathering food.  We drove our old church van and we were having trouble keeping it running while we were in the neighborhood.  We got going and started back to the church and it died on top of a hill at a dangerous curve on Arno Road.  It wouldn't start and it started to smoke, I looked under the hood and more smoke started coming out, black smoke.  We got the kids out of the van and away from it and the smoke increased, it started to flame up and within minutes, it was fully in flames.  It looked like a marshmallow that had been set on fire and then blow out.  After getting the kids out of the van, I called 911 and the fire truck came but by the time they had gotten there, the van was completely destroyed.  We were able to get the kids back to the church before it really started to burn and of course they were upset that they were not allowed to stay to see it burn.

So needless to say, it was quite an exciting lock in and famine. All of the can food was destroyed in the fire, we could hear cans exploding, the van never exploded like you see on TV, but the windows blew out and the tires blew out. 

I told some people at church that God had told us to go to the top of the hill and offer a burnt offering, after we discerned that He didn't mean a junior high boy, we realized He meant the van.  We are fortunate that nobody was hurt and that the trees around it didn't catch on fire either.  There is a black stain on the road and I think some metal that melted from the van on the road also.

The kids were somewhat scared but more mad about the can food that was destroyed that they collected while fasting, I asked the church today to consider bringing in food to replace what was lost. 

See you in a couple of weeks, anybody else need to sacrifice a van?

our boys are growing so fast!

last night was the hhs prom.

hhs is where many of our youth community comes out of. the biggest group is our junior group of guys. when we got to the church they were the biggest group of youth and the primary leadership. they still are, and they are growing fast. life with them has been a real ride.

it was good to see a good number of them and get to take prom pictures of them like we are family.

thrown up some pics onto facebook cause i know a few of them will be checking as soon as they get up from sleeping in.

jim wallis took notice : how cool

jim wallis in his gods politics blog took notice of friend cameron's simple posting on wallis's visit to belmont area of nashville on thursday night. pretty cool

world malaria day : save a child today

today is world malaria day. i highlight a video from the nothing but nets initiative. take time to educate yourself and give to save a life today. our family has

update: rev j has some fun new videos on nothing but nets.

evening prayer : Israel-Palestine

for prayers today, one of the scripture readings is Luke 24: 44-53. i am sharing some thoughts on what is bugging me. it is not to be a theological discourse in any matter. but a thought...

45. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46. He told them, "This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

what i am thinking of.. if we, as disciples, have our minds open. why are we not looking towards beginning the Kingdom in Jerusalem? now, there might not be much you or i can do actively, but how much do we know about or care of the conflict that continues on in Israel-Palestine? it just bothers me. many of us are so up our own church asses that we rarely listen to any concern for the actual spaces that our faith stories erupt from. why?..

the united methodist women have put together a very comprehensive study to understand all the dynamics involved in Israel-Palestine for those who are convicted to know more.

nt wright & bart ehrman theo-celebrity death match

shamefully, i had more fun and spent more time making this graphic than any time i'm giving to the content of the post, but oh well.

jake highlighted that bart ehrman and nt wright are in 'theo-celebrity death match' ... or "debate" over at blogalogue on beliefnet.

topic of conversation? "is our pain God's problem?"

an evening with bishop nt wright : round up & audio

last night erin & i headed down to west end, along with quite a few hundred cross cultural types to hear from n.t. wright, the bishop of durham. he's on a book tour for "surprised by hope" which i am to read sometime this year. i was stoked to hear of his coming and by the turnout last night, quite a few others were as well. it was a nice evening out catching up with many friends. even erin had fun meeting up with the various friendships through blogging. being at the methodist church it was nice to see some metho-types in the audience as well. after-wards we went out for drinks at the broadway brewhouse, with the joneses for a new draft beer to town. the new beer, boulevard brew, out of kansas city. it is quite good, though it probably won't take over from my early 20's drink of choice back in nj.

back to last night. i am still processing. i don't know if i have knowledge and language command to navigate what i heard in teaching and not making it sound like some purgatory realm. one thing erin & i liked was nt's distinction that we are not building the kingdom but building for the kingdom. his analogy was a rock sculpture shape a rock, and that is what they do, but it is the architect who puts into its place where the true beauty shows.

many friends have already started to throw down their thoughts. so i give you a round-up of those conversations

• jared wilson - a long write up, but worth the time (i wanted to meet jared, but with the amount of folks random meeting just wasn't in the cards)
• thomas mckenzie - if you can impress thomas, then you have done something
• cameron conant - reflection from one of the more self-reflective people i know
• phil wilson - who has a mix of emotions, as his grandmother passed away last night as well
• fellow um'er gary - he found the article quote that nt used in highlighting the 'western' misunderstanding of heaven, brilliant
• sally chambers - in her poetic self
• pete wilson - via jared wilson
• matthew paul turner
• george stull
• stephen : rebelling
• the tennessean forums topic on this

another fun thing. i received an email from a older gentleman asking my response to his comments on the tennessean article i was quoted in. for the record, my church is "first" united methodist, not "faith" united methodist. common mistake.. not really, but oh well.

some of my conversations in the being interviewed were that. 1. this isn't such a hard concept to grasp as we have always had a teaching of holiness movement and means of grace that is intended to be kingdom building 2. it isn't so hard to imagine methodist's interested in anglican folks as we are only 300 years removed from those anglican traditions of church. not to mention, we are a revival movement from that church body, so any revival in that church is probably something we are going to be interested in. but as with any of my "news" spots, my one liners are lame or total bs.

i do take down some audio of the bishop's talk. the sound system was not in fine form. john, who was operating the system and a old family friend told me after-wards someone came in and messed it all up after he had it perfect. he was so mad. so the audio isn't the best volume quality, but if you can plug into some speakers you can hear just fine.

• N.T. Wright - Surprised By Hope Talk (around 50 mins, in m4a format, play in itunes, 25mgs)
• N.T. Wright - Surprised By Hope Talk (around 50 mins, in mp3 format, 60mgs)
• N.T. Wright - Surprised By Hope Q&A (around 25 mins, in m4a format, play in itunes, 12mgs)
• N.T. Wright - Surprised By Hope Q&A (around 25 mins, in mp3 format, 28mgs)

free ministry marketing ebooks

i'm flipping/clicking through the "ministry marketing coach's" new ebook facebook for pastors. it looks pretty comprehensive that i'm expecting to learn one or two new things. this is the 2nd of a free ebooks, the other one is 25 marketing tips, which are generally good practice for communicating about your ministry.

• download facebook-for-pastors-by-chris-forbes.pdf
• download 25FreeMarketingToolsEBook.pdf

carry on singing

okay, so i didn't think i needed a tear jerker today but i keep watching and weeping. in spite of our troubles may we all, "carry on singing." thanks patti

what is always fun is to look at the comments. this one had me cracking up.

great blessed angel, to all the small little devils out there bulling an angel, like this, up yours!

nt wright tonight and friends afterwards

tonight erin & i are heading over to west end to hear from nt wright. afterwards we are going to hang with thunder & emily jones. if anyone wants to join or friendly conversations afterwards make plans and look for us & join in. i got a really short hair cut last week, so look for the guy with short curly hair. not the usually long nappy look.

road trip with the new christians

this is a really cool video of tony jones spending time with trucker frank. checking out the changing landscape from seeing town dynamics, talking community, and the message.. a lot is packed in here

tuesday randomness : just about everything under the sun

todays links come via.. well, everywhere and cover just about everything

• the various corporate type blogs via mitch or other general type blogs via church 2.0
• fundamentalism & culture tip tony
• mark driscoll tolerance rant
• take notice of twitter earth
• be a ruthless blogger! argh!
• emerging church survey, take it now!
• church video ideas has a lot of free ideas for you and me
• speaking of mark driscoll, a Jesus for real men
• introducing, the failblog, quite funny
• speaking of faith video; claiborne & colson
• end the war, against the lost generation in the church.. or out of the church
• when your youth leaders start an affair
• the indispensable church
• did i miss something? i think i did
• a bishop's top 10 for transformation as outcomes from our general conference
• save the date: south by deep southeast conference thingy
• with your cell phone try playing with: poll everywhere & utterz

more cell phone a special link from one of my 7th grade girls. check out phonezoo.com for free ringtones and other soundbytes. set up an account and it gets sent to your phone. best part, "free"

after the party : shift conference

fancy that. the folks at willow creek have added two of my photos to the frontpage of the shift conference website. i knew they liked my photos, they asked if they could use them and i sent them a dvd of them. i didn't realize they were throwing them up on the site. cool. the two they are using are not my favorites (here & here), but they are more willow than many of the others. the others being of charlie hall or the various speakers, so maybe that has something to do with that.

if you hadn't seen the rest of them. check out the flickr conference set.

monday music : chief too

so why not have a second music posting. it's good for the soul, especially patty griffin.

general conference : open letter

ken carter has a very well said open letter to general conference. there is much about it am behind as we try and engage in holy conferencing.

In Fort Worth we will accomplish important business. We will affirm our core mission-to make disciples, for the transformation of the world. And yet one of the most profound ways we will do this is by the way we live with one another, and by the way we love one another.

i turned the letter into a pdf to download if you like conference2008openletter.pdf.

in more highthearted general conference news, stephen taylor has prognostications.

monday music : some talking head

i love the talking heads.

my beautiful idol : reviewing

here are some excerpts from "my beautiful idol" by pete gall. i'm reviewing it, along with other bloggers, as part of the ooze's select bloggers reading list/group. so far, when i've had a chance to sit and read i've rolled through pages. these are some spots that i marked for further thought & sharing.

.. if i do my job well [advertising agent], I'll help derail the lives of kids who are no match for the power of my message and my thinly veiled invitation to foolish, sinful choices. Not everyone is offered such a clear-cut opportunity to choose the right path, and the clarity of it makes me think about the second half of my prayer that day on my way back to my dorm room after the accounting test - the part about "then you can have me." I know, deep down, that the truth of my success is that God let me walk with my idol until I could see it well enough to put it down and head the other direction.
...
.. I can see people watching TV at the corner bar noticing the news article about that one. They'd have to admit that for whatever else a person may say about the people of God, Christians do make a difference and do display acts of loving generosity. That's a "brand" people would join, would want to be associated with, would use to tell themselves and others the story of who they are. That would be a need worth creating, worth pointing out, worth creating a hunger for.

so far when i sit down to read i'm rolling through pages. much like a donald miller or shane claiborne writing of life experiences, the deep meaning is more hidden into story. which i can respect, it reaches different people in different ways. i am quite over some of the guy girl relationship stuff. i think what i like most so far.. the chapters are short. i like that a lot.

virtual church planters : conversation of friends

had a random meet up with revmom & rabbit john in our 'second life.' it was some really great conversation time. we are continuing these talks of doing a virtual church plant. i made a visit over to lifechurc.tv's church plant in second life. even in cyberspace, it is a seeker sensitive looking space.

it was nice to pray for my friends and be prayed for. that was encouraging. so interesting is this connection.

i zipped over to my basecamp the koinonia church. there i found some other folks checking out a brian mclaren video. but real world calls, i'm off to do those things. i only wish i could fly in first world, it would be sooo much cooler!

if you are there and want to catch up with me when i am actually on i am "gavin tellig."

new podcast : youth worker movement episode 4

after a long hiatus of wondering. i've released episode four of the youthworker movement podcast. this was one that we cut back in november while mike and i were at nywc. this one covers some budget talk and other ideas.

i will be releasing some of the interview podcasts from that convention in the coming days. i will also be hanging out with some musicians for gma week next week. apparently the idea is to have some podcasts come from those hang-outs, so you want to check back into these things.

click here to subscribe via itunes or join into the youthworkermovement.org network.

mourning : loss in the methoblogosphere

my heart has dropped in sadness. cub, our only prolific blogging dog has passed on today. i feel like i've lost my own four legged family member. my heart goes out to the "thumb havers"  "alpha" and "the boy." cub, i'm sure you are in a great place, advantage, no more trips to that needle person. you are going to be missed.

memories : 10 years after two devastating tornados

today will be known more prominently for another tragedy. but i am strolling down memory lane of another tragedy of a different sort. today is the 10 year anniversary of downtown nashville tornado. the sister got me thinking.

the weeks surrounding that day are very surreal. i remember being woken up at 5 or 6am by my older sisters phone call. i was still at ua then, and apparently an f5 tornado touched down on the east side of tuscaloosa and went almost clear across the state. i had slept through it all. she was seeing the first light pictures of that devastation on the national news. eventually, a crew of friends came down to nashville and we did some relief work for the red cross that weekend. we managed to work small town area around hueytown. it was the first time i had seen total devastation like that. only till katrina have i seen it since then.

our group liked doing the work we organized to go to nashville for a habitat build the next weekend.

well, a tornado came through downtown nashville the next week. we headed up to nashville (with tornado storms all the way up). we didn't really expect to have the habitat build like originally planned. we didn't have a plan at all. what ended up happening is that we went to lowes bought ourselves some chainsaws, axes, mules and sledge hammers and spent the weekend in some backyards in east nashville. the trees were sooo big and heavy. after we put the last cut log onto the street corner i can only remember feeling like i couldn't lift one more thing. i think i even made my brother drive us home.

i've often wondered where exactly we were that weekend. now that i know the city so much more. one thing i do know. i won't forget those days anytime soon.

they like jesus but not the church : some poison

so all this various things have been swirling around me more the last few weeks about those who are without church. or as i know church to be, that of a spiritual community. why folks walk away and never come back. plus, hanging with dan kimball last weekend didn't help either. as i pondered i realized this isn't such a new thing.. i remembered this gem from my boy brett.

sounds of a meeting : audio of tennessee conference listening session

last monday night (the 7th) we had our first and probably largest listening session in response to the decisions of our conference leadership to terminate current program positions for children and youth at the conference level to live out a new 'vision.'

i recorded the session, as it was an open to everyone, with my little notation recorder. for a cheap little thing, it does a pretty good job of recording, but the clarity has some to be desired. there is a big chunk of the meeting missing. at some point the recorder got full, so when i realized that i deleted something (hope i don't need that later) and started up again. so between recording 1 and 2 there is 30 to 40 minutes possibly missing. i'm not exactly sure, but that is my guess. you can get enough of a concept by listening to what is available here. the files are in m4a format, for file size & download sake. they can be played through itunes, if you want in mp3 then just have your itunes player convert to mp3.

• Listening Session 1 (26 mgs, 58 minutes) this contains. an opening prayer, some ground rules by tom laney (the moderator), listing of concerns, an opening statement by bishop wills, and opening statement by conference director loyd. it cuts off sometime during that statement.
• Listening Session 2 (30 mgs, 1hr 5 minutes) this starts back into the dialog of question and answer. voices you generally hear are people collected between loyd and tom.
• Listening Session 3 (7.5 mgs, 16 minutes) at the beginning of this section conversation on "next steps" begins. it closes with a large group prayer led by pastor michael williams.

sorry in advance for the audio quality, but something is better than nothing right..?

tuesday randomness : mass of linkage

just some random links of my interest.

• sam & cool people care are moving into the land of business plan
• figuring out plugrug.com, a "digg" for the christian?
• free christian graphics and photos
• when a girl has to go, the girl has to go.
• hopes and fears of general conference
• my generation hopes and fears
• rabbi shmuley debating dawkins via bw3
• long portrait video
• the loss of church as public from jason clark
• cutting, emo, hope & God
• some folks not happy about the various peeps at the conference i was at last week
• don't mix magic and evangelism tip to my friend jeremy
• traditional versus contemporary?
• erin made her first blog friend, and he happens to be a youth pastor
• methodism's approval rating.. not bad
• churchy phrases that make kat crazy!
• powerful image from chris
• ariah's always good tuesday youtube collection
• internetmonk's school of blogging faculty, i think i am the janitor

internet is our parish : christian educators fellowship conference

so i will be presenting at the christian educators fellowship conference in october. i needed to send in my workshop titles and stuff. i don't know if i am in love with these, but i like them enough that they will do.

The Internet is Our Parish : Building Online Communities & Websites

Wondering how to get into blogging? Need a cooler church website? Want to podcast for your congregation? No money? Need help getting your message out? This workshop can help you. In what will be somewhat structured as Q&A of steps and tricks to putting the message of the church onto the internet for a global audience. If you have ever thought or said "How can we do that?" "I wish we had a better.." etc. Then this workshop is for you.

The Internet is Our Parish : Ministry & Community is a Global Cyber Community

From Second Life, Myspace, Facebook, Ning, MyYearBook, YouTube, GodTube, MyChurch, Flickr, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Xanga, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, Habbo, Zoomer, TakeItGlobal, etc. we know the numbers of people interacting on the internet is staggering. You are probably finding out about this workshop via the internet. When John Wesley said  "the world is my parish" he didn't imagine a cyber world, but what does it mean to live out that calling in a growing cyber world? We will look at and discuss the places that are interacted with, "the next great thing," drawbacks of online social interactions, and the many opportunities for us to be the church for people via the internet.

 

music monday : u2 babies

today's video comes via my older brother david's blog. he rooted out a bunch of old classic u2 videos. this isn't the best quality video, but it sure if funny to see the guys so very

the richard dawkins rap : dicky d has a science degree

couldn't help but share this one. tip to resonate media radar

shift conference : kara powell & dan kimball

these are my notes. make a comment if you have a question. pictures from this pilgrim

kara powell : deep ministry

• we have so many resources and are so professional that we have lost our entrepreneurial spirit
• this kids i walked through life with i watched graduate on june 16th "i didn't even think of what was happening on july 16th."
• 80% of kids that graduate and drift away had no intention of drifting away.
• the real test of youth ministry is where are they 5 or 10 years, or even 12 months after they graduate
• shared a video from liveabove.com (kinda dramatic
• what is it about the youth ministries that prepare students for things to come
• dallas Willard, but now let us try a subversive thought. suppose our failures occur, not in spite of what we are ...
• deep ministry means we ask then act...
• "the red bull rip off.." people love it because it gets them through that meeting then they have a post meeting collapse. our youth have a post youth group collapse, partly because they are so lonely.
• the youth group kid who didn't drink has the greatest increase of alcohol use when they get to college
• we can't continue to give mindless gospel, empty calories
• dallas willard, "the gospel of sin management"
• shouting about guilt wouldn't work, so we whispered about grace.. we were going to heaven but we were not taking anyone with us.
• our lives should be one of gratitude, our lives are great big thank you card to God
• good, guilt, grace, gratitude. ask then act.. what gospel am i feeding kids?
• when you think of God looking at you, what is the expression on God's face?
• ask then act.. are students welcome at our table??
• the kids' table catastrophe. there is the same meal, but two very different versions.
• one eared mickey mouse. the kids who do more with intergenerational and interracial worship do better when they graduate.
• how can our kids take their place at God's divers kingdom table?
• a new ratio of 5 adults per 1 youth
• at our churches today we have done a good job of doing something we learned from culture, we outsource
• how can we train students to feed themselves?
• recovery, find a church/group, time & $, help come up with a plan for the first two weeks
• they need help knowing how to recover when they fall.
• if Jesus isn't able to forgive a little partying then i need a new religion

dan kimball : they like Jesus but don't like the church

• scan the landscape, what do people think of Jesus?
• the good news: there is a growing interest in Jesus in our emerging culture
• prayer: "lord would you be offended by a bobble head Jesus?"
• madonna "it is my plea that the audience to encourage mankind to help one another" "if Jesus were here today he would be doing the same thing."
• people equate Jesus more like MLK and Gandhi, they don't equate the resurrection. but the good news is that they already have an interest in him. Jesus is something people enjoy talking about
• the bad news: there is a growing disinterest in "Christianity" and "church"
• dan throws out a list of views of Christians.. some are spot on for what i am seeing and hearing here
• Gandhi "i like your Christ, i do not like your Christians"
• "pastors are creepy"
• as we move into what i more of a post-Christian culture..
• "my prayer is not that you take them out the world, but that you protect them from the evil one." -john17:15
• the youth that i had that i can think of that are still in the faith were a part of the world, not in isolation
• instead of being out in the world we conform this Christian subculture bubble
• ..so all that people experience are usually the most aggressive and loudest Christian voices
• dan tells some great stories of hanging with non-Christians
• we as leaders will create these cultures to be the church, but be the church in the world
• my subtle fear is that we swing the kingdom of heaven so far that we forget that there is a life after death
• the good news: most churches and Christians are not what the perceptions are.
• for our youth are we shaping an inward culture? or a missional culture?
• maybe in the future when asked people of what they think of Christians they will say things like kind, loving and gentle

shift conference twit

this post will stick to the top of my header while i am at this shift conference. look below for some more rounded postings. also, out of ur blog will be doing some live blogging as well.
shalom, -gav

where is the twit?

follow me on Twitter

shift conference blogger list

there seem to be quite a few bloggers and a good amount of twitter peeps. he is my compiled list. feel free to drop a comment to get added in.

• jake bouma & twittering
• tim lemons & twittering
• jason sansbury & twittering  
• jonathan brink  
• andrew means
• phil lowen & twittering
• jon from chicagoland
• the folks at out of ur (who probably should compile this list)
• jason raitz  
• wes wilson
• andy jack, whom i had a run in with
• aaron alexander
• john mulholland & twittering
• echo blog
• noochymama
• josh barton
• kurt johnston
• sam burke
• matt mckee
• emergent journey (aka thomas mulhern)
• matt paxson
• pastor heath
• brendan yost
• chad nygren
• chadwick anderson
• mark eades
• josh whitler

jake set up a hashtags thing for twittering people. what you need to do is follow hashtags and then end your twitter stuff with #shift08

taking on the hauerwaus mafia

tony jones has put out a cut chapter from his book the new christians. he is taking on the "hauerwas mafia" which was a topic of our conversation at the cohort last time tony was in town. i like hauerwas, but we all agreed that there are some contradictions with him saying anti system yet being cradled by one.. mostly through trouble with pacifism, especially for matt who ministers to a large, very active, military community. the title of the chapter is "chaplain to the culture."

i like tony for his very honest unabashed style. i know where he stands. i've seen him attacked and be gracious and be very annoyed, guess that depends on you. most of all, he's been very kind and gracious to me. the picture he's saying "blog this gavin" and i think he was trying to do a "pound it." he didn't do it very well.

bo boshers : cultivating healthy family & ministry

these are my notes. make a comment if you have a question. i've thrown in my participation thoughts into the mix. download breakout document boshers.pdf. pictures from this pilgrim experience.

bo boshers
home field advantage

Ecclesiastes 3
have you ever had a clear discussion about the season's or changes in ministry? you need too if you haven't.

• know your boundaries
• accept reality
• have a plan

establish family values

Luke 10:41-42

• values guide decisions. what values do you want to have? what do you have now?
• values need to be modeled rather than taught. have energy for your family when you get home. value, every time someone comes in the home they are acknowledged. what values do you have in your home? i wish i had put more value about reading God's word, in our home.
• values help establish security and a safe place for your family. rituals or traditions that bind and connect family & others.

what four values do i want to establish with my family? (i actually put in things we are talking about)

1. sustainability
2. counter progress movement
3. vacation/sabbath
4. healthy living

spiritual disciplines
  there is a difference between "check-box" living and freedom

• disciplines get you from desires to experience
• avoid the check box living. disciplines are markers that help you train to be more like Christ
• have fun, be creative & make it practical. family nights, prayer walks, memorizing scripture

what spiritual disciplines do you need to implement to help you, your spouse and your family train to be more like Christ? (stuff we've tried and are trying)

1. compline
2. better neighbors
3. open theological dialogue
4. participation in christian community

ask good questions, and be a good listener : James 1:19

how often do you ask good questions and listen before giving advice?
never, sometimes, all the time?

what would help you create an environment of patience and understanding?

create an atmosphere of encouragement : 1 Thessalonians 4:18

• make encouragement a habit - become a good-finder every day
• don't lose your home field advantage
• how would i evaluate the temperature in my family? cold, medium, hot
• what action steps can i take to increase the encouragement atmosphere in my family?

bo is ending with a pep talk football style. it reminds me of this video.

darren whitehead : youth ministry 2.0

these are my notes. make a comment if you have a question. i've thrown in a few thoughts into the mix. not to mention i wrote an article titled youth ministry 2.0 a few years back. pictures from this pilgrim experience.

darren whitehead
youth ministry 2.0 : how culture has changed what we do

the gospel message is timeless, but our strategies and methods need to change.

Acts 17: 22-28 (TNIV)

Not just Biblical Exegesis but also cultural Exegesis

• we need to analyze how the culture thinks. we are also not just talking about youth culture. there is not just a generational shift, but a cultural shift.
• the web has changed the world. we don't have to tell stories anymore, we can just click and experience it together.
• the largest consumer of porn on the internet is 12-17 year olds.
• should we be talking to youth not just about two lives, but three now? there is your self, church self, internet self.
• web 2.0 is a revolution. we are now living in the world 2.0. we cannot afford to be doing youth ministry 1.0.
• the people formerly known as consumers are content providers.

Five Shifts in the way we do Youth Ministry

1. from Passive to Interactive : user generated content rules now. why would they want to come in and sit passively. how do we get our students out of their seats (metaphorically) and into the content role. ownership. our students are no longer attending our ministry, they ARE our ministry. i remember doug fields talking about this kind of youth inclusion 6 or 7 years ago. our united methodist youth handbook talks of similar youth leadership
   
2. from Resolved to Unresolved : did a topical series on war, homosexuality, myspace, and other hot topics. but didn't tell them how to think or what to think. be committed to not giving neat little trite answers to complicated issues. there is room for discussion and you need to allow it.. we are going to be co-journers on your walk. we need to be prepared to not just be travel agents, but tour guides reminds me of derek webb's song "a new law"
3. from Immitation to Imagination : for too long we have promoted the four spiritual laws and quiet time as clones for spiritual people. we want to cultivate imagination. we teach youth to be dependent on us for spiritual nourishment. teaching people to feed on the scriptures themselves. create environments where they can interact with the scriptures themselves.
4. from Informational to Experiential : trying to come up with new ways to engage in visual and kinistetic ways to teach. using cell phones & txting to do interaction. prayer stations. stations of the cross, blindfold with sound effects, the theater of the mind to experience. i know a great prayer station resource. &:~D
   
5. from Confession to Compassion : students are not longer satisfied with what they believe they want to demonstrate and live out the gospel. moves of not just compassion, but also social justice.

scot mcknight : missional Jesus

these are my notes. a lot was said and very fast. make a comment if you have a question. maybe we can get scot to jump into the conversion. pictures from this pilgrim experience. jake & aaron attended the same meeting & will most likely have some good notes.

Scot McKnight
Missional Jesus

missional is today's buzzword. buzzwords are good and sometimes they are bad. in the past discipleship became the buzzword. in the 80's became 'spiritual disciplines' because of richard foster. then dallas willard shaped into 'spiritual formation' . people are nervous about evangelism that they use the word missional. evangelism has morphed into missional and is not as clear as evangelism so it is murky.

theology of the word missional

• missional comes from mission literature, missiological studies. Missio Dei. there is a conviction that we have to discover what God's mission in the world, and our responsibility is to participate in that mission. (acts1:8, talks of missional) what does God want us to do in this world versus what is our local church trying to accomplish
• the church doesn't do mission. the church is the mission. when the church isn't missional it isn't church. for a lot of people church is about sunday morning worship and a sermon. the mission of the church is to do what God's mission in the world as God's instrument
• by talking about missional, we avoid simplistic evangelism. if you start talking of the mission of God as kingdom then evangelism is a lot more about what you do when you accept Jesus. it affirms holistic evangelism. it allows for justice and justice ministries. it requires ecumenical corroboration. increasingly denominations don't matter and it is more about what God is doing in the local community. asserts the primacy of the kingdom of God.

Reading the bible:
What is God doing in this world in this text

Luke 1: 46-55 "Mary's Song" (view on mary, we don't have a good view on mary, just an anti-roman catholic view of mary) if you just had this text, what would you think Mary's idea of what her son was going to do in this world. it is a mosaic of old testament hopes. you can see justice in here. do you see anything about going to heaven? Mary's vision is that when the messiah came it would be the way God wanted it to be.
Luke 1: 67- "Zechariah's Song" (is his view of his son john role similar?) "salvation from our enemies" who are the enemies? rome.. only after the end of all this does he turn to his son john the baptist. the vision is there is going to a society where there is going to justice and liberation. where they can worship God is holiness and righteousness.
Luke 3. looking at John the Baptist as he begins preaching. John gets to announce the coming of Jesus. verse 10, 'anyone who has two shirts should share with the one that has none'.. a little like Mary. John's first idea is about economic distribution. economic justice. verse 14, 'don't extort money and be content with your pay'. John is thinking of really concrete deeds.

if we just have Mary, Zechariah & John, what is the mission of God?

Society

• Justice
• Reformation
• economic Justice
• Revolution
• Forgiveness
• Liberation

Luke 4:14- Jesus Rejected at Nazareth, Jesus puts into claim these same things. he makes it really personal with saying "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears." (i learned it from my mother & uncle)

in the Beatitudes. he turns the knife on Herod. "whoa to you who are rich, you have already received your comfort." whoa.. whoa... check 'em out. it is almost exactly like Mary's magnificat.

the mission according to these texts. Is to create a society of Justice.

Luke 7 : "are you the one that is supposed to come" the person from Malachi 3 & 4. Jesus say, "go tell him what you have seen and heard..."

What did Jesus expect? he had the same expectations.

Mary still had to learn this. in Mark she tries to rescue Jesus from himself. they call him to come home to mother and brothers and sisters.. and Jesus responds "who is my mother, who are my brothers and sisters?" ..

John 19 : Mary saw it coming. Jesus on the cross. he says, "take care of my mother. she has some dreams that have yet to come true."
Acts 1:14 : there is Mary with all the disciples, the brothers and sisters of Jesus. she is right there. then the Holy Spirit came and Mary was there.

all this. and Mary was right in the middle of it saying "this is what the magnificat is all about. the local church breaking bread together" imagine a society of Justice. a society of forgiveness, liberation, economic justice, reformation, and revolution.

the mission of Jesus, we are talking about the church as an alternative to culture and an embodiment of magnificat in place. it begins with you and me living it out daily. not by a mission statement. instead we have to live it out.

where the church went off-board

• platonic dualism influenced the church
• personal salvation, less on the church
• slick marketing evangelism
• i think Jesus used the language Kingdom for what God was doing in the world and Paul preached an aspect of the Kingdom..

four points on the missional community

1. the mission of Jesus is to create the missional society, the missional community. it is a Jesus community Mark 3:31-35 it is the community of Jesus
2. it is an alternative community. Jesus makes statements that are really un-believeable Matthew 17:24-27
3. prophetic community, it speaks too and against the rest of society. Jesus had words for ceaser and herod and empire. he warned them and that things were not right.
4. a moral community, the sermon on the mount is a moral map for the people who follow Jesus