soupablog

church as art: troy bronsink

Last night I introduced you to Pam Neumann, a missional thinker committing several years of her life to a traditional overseas missions model.

Tonight I'd like to introduce you to Troy Bronsink, someone I think of as a kindred soul: He is an artist, poet, musician, singer-songwriter, he's being ordained as a Presbyterian pastor - PC(USA) and he has a heart for marginalized people in the 'abandon spaces';  and he articulates the missional facets of the intersection of art and man and God with beauty and a wisdom beyond his years. He is doing something about the post-colonial shift from word-based culture to image-based culture, as companies are "moving from organization-centered to creativity-centered approaches" -- he understands that artists and their resultant artifacts are living gospels capable of "bear[ing] witness to God's kingdom within the symbols of culture" -- essentially the missional task.

When I met him back in April at WALP, he and I had some great conversations over food with Tim Samoff and Mike Crawford and Will Samson. I was really pleased he made it out to the Gathering.

His community's rule is metaphorically artistic, and i love it.-- a community commited to (a) Being God's Artwork (b) Being God's Artists, and (c) Being Curators of God's Artwork. This is explicated at his church as art website and you kinda need to go read it yourself (here). I wish I could get Troy to come talk to our missional community, because he puts into words that which I'm unable to, about the intersections of art and prophetic calling and lament and hospitality and monastic presence and music and ... argh. I come up short. But he's truly gifted. I think he'd do our community much more good than would a guest theologian.

Not that Troy's thoughts are not deeply theological. But they are deeply artistic, natively post-modern (in the best sense of the word), If you visit his website, be sure to read his "Case for a Church in Southwest Atlanta" -- you have to read a few grafs down to get to the really prime stuff.

Pray for his intentional community in Atlanta.

Ryan Sharp update

updater:

Friday, October 28, 2005
Ryan Sharp + House Concert at the Soupiset casa
An evening of music and story and food.
127 Irvington Dr. + San Antonio TX 78209 + (210) 829-1539
Dinner 7pm; Concert 8pm;
ages 15 and over please.
$10 at the door plus a “covered dish”*

Ryan Sharp / The Cobalt Season / House Concert
We’re having them down to San Antonio for a house concert on Friday the 28th, about a week-and-a-half from today. If you're interested in supporting the thoughtful intersection of faith and the arts, and supporting a fellow sojourner, and listening to well-crafted music, then come. It'll follow typical house concert protocol: you bring ten bucks and a covered dish:

*The money goes straight to the performer; the food gets eaten by you at the house concert. You can bring whatever to eat. Water and Tea will be provided; feel free to bring beverage of your choice. Interested? Please let me know now via email.

Oh: Bring extra money for his CD; you’ll want one or two this holiday season.
http://www.myspace.com/cobaltseason

Influences       The Doves, Radiohead, Troy Bronsink, Deccatree, Mike Barnet, Damien Rice, James Taylor, The Indigo Girls, Over The Rhine, Rich Mullins, U2, Muse, Magnet, Sufjan Stevens, David Gray, Pedro The Lion, Kent, Switchfoot, Whiskeytown, Lyle Lovett, Ryan Adams, Jonatha Brooke, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Travis, Patti Griffin, Nickel Creek

Sounds Like       ...coming home...crisp, autumn air...angst and confusion...despairing hope...disillusionment with religion and politics...

missio Dei

pamela neumann has become a friend over the past few months. She's an emergent cohort friend, an articulate writer, an optimist, a chorister, and above all, has a passion about being caught up in the mission of God. so much so that under the auspices of Food for the Hungry, she will be fulfilling a vocational calling as she goes to live in Nicaragua and support the work of the Nehemiah Center for Transformational Development located in Managua, the capital city. Food for the Hungry helps the physical and spiritual needs of the poorest of the poor. [Note: find out how to support her here]

She came and spoke at Trinity House this Sunday about her forthcoming adventures (i suppose she was our first guest speaker ever. hey, someone should write that down); We're going to be able to support her a little bit, a relational tithe of sorts -- one "degree of separation" -- which is so much better than writing some check off to some missions board somewhere.. anyway, I'll let her tell you about the experience in her own well-crafted words (via)

Have you ever been in the presence of people who made you feel warm inside and deeply loved, simply by being among them? I had that kind of experience this past Sunday when I spent about 30 minutes with some friends who are starting a missional community known as Trinity House. I was there to share a little bit about the journey that had led me to commit 3 years of my life to living and serving among the poor of Nicaragua. Their community meets in an inviting, colorful space on the inner west side of San Antonio. Couches and large easy chairs form a semi circle around a coffee table adorned with a simple embroidered runner, tea light candles, and the sacramental elements of communion. As the community gathers that morning, children are playing, women are sharing stories of joy and meaning from their lives, men are playing guitar and preparing for the time of worship and learning. Truly, the presence of God is in this place. The gathering begins with a short reading for reflection and then I am invited to share. As my words tumble out, I glance around the room, seeking connection with my brothers and sisters, hoping they can see my heart. I am humbled by their nods of understanding, their affirming looks of encouragement, and their heartfelt prayers. Truly, the Trinity abides with us. Finally, I bid my friends a temporary farewell, but I know we are united in spirit, for all of our hearts are set on pilgrimage…sojourning with these kindred spirits over the last several months through common reading and discussions about faith and practice has drawn me deeper into the mystery of knowing Jesus and following Him in the world…I can think of no better fruit for a community to bear.

that's my post for tonight. tomorrow i'll tell you more about the House Concert on the 28th.

Ryan Sharp / The Cobalt Season / House Concert

You're invited to a House Concert at the Soupisets living room.

Ryan Sharp is an amazing singer-songwriter I met at the Emergent Gathering who decided, along with his wife Holly, to pack up their things and hit the road, to see America, and share their songs (under the band name The Cobalt Season) on the road. Their method of subsistence is going to be doing house concerts in homes around the country. It's sort of like putting faith in action, stepping out, and seeing how God provides.

He's coming through Austin area next week, so I'm planning on having them down to San Antonio for a house concert sometime between October 24 - 28. (I need to hear what evenings are best for you)

UPDATE:

Friday, October 28, 2005
Ryan Sharp + House Concert at the Soupiset casa
An evening of music and story and food.
127 Irvington Dr. + San Antonio TX 78209 + (210) 829-1539
Dinner 7pm; Concert 8pm; ages 15 and over please.
$10 at the door plus a “covered dish”*
email me for more info.

Here's where you come in. If you're interested in supporting the arts, and supporting a fellow sojourner, and listening to really good music, let me know ASAP. It'll follow typical house concert protocol: you bring ten bucks and a covered dish. The money goes to the performer, the food get eaten at the house concert.

Interested? Please let me know now via email.

michael toy / verse

michael has posted his "a lament of emergence."

Emergent Gathering 2005 - part two

so now on to the good stuff: people, food, conversations @ Emergent Gathering 2005.
i'm going to mention a lot of names of a lot of special people whose names probably won't mean a thing to most readers, but they're traveling partners, sojourners, and i've linked to their blogs or websites whenever i could, and the listing is mostly for my benefit, for my future recollection. but enjoy...

the high points:

+ the new monasticism / intentional community: new friend, michael james tupper is a methodist minister who has been asking a lot of the same questions our community has about the new monasticism. so much so that he's taken a twelve week sabbatical to visit the various communities mentioned in School(s) for Conversion he and another new friend, presbyterian pastor karen sloan (see more on her and Dominican experiences below) led a conversation on the above topic. it drew a really great and thought-provoking group of folks ranging from (all these are new friends too!) denizens of communality in lexington, ky, to the people of oak grove abbey in austin (more on both of these below too). additionally there was a couple involved with the order of st.anne there were a few skeptics who had grown up in intentional communities and bore some woundedness, and i'm processing their cautionary words but left with more hope than anything: all the warnings revolved around ingrown community that was existing to fortify "from" rather than to focus, missionally, out onto/with the community-at-large. i'm going to try to connect to Michael's post-sabbatical "report".

+ our wonderful housemates. great experience. we lived in and helped host one of the gathering's "houses of hospitality" -- large cabins with quarters for families and singles -- the houses had large common kitchens, dining and living rooms where other Gathering folks (the ones who either camped or stayed in the hotels or apartments) would come for shared meals.we bought groceries (my foray into santa fe to find rice for lunch and quinoa [KEEN-wa] for shelly p. was my first trip to a Trader Joe's ). I got to know and appreciate Troy Bronsink even more (friend from WALP, and a great singer-songwriter-thinker-speaker), had really great conversations with Sherry Maddock and Jennifer P from Communality; and reconnected with Baylor friend Greg Willis, and met Jolie Willis and Heather Taylor all from Oak Grove Abbey (see link, above) ...got to know and listen to Ryan and Holly Sharp (more on a possible house concert in support of their excellent CD very soon), have great conversation with Tim Conder, met and instantly clicked with Glen Barbier from Austin, listened to great stories from Lisa Scandrette, who, although wasn't an official housemate, had taken shelter there to knit along with Laci Scott who I kept mildly amused with a running soundtrack. Lance White (aka HumanFuel) was on-hand to serve as a counter-point to our conversations, and Tim and Saranell Hartmann with baby Simeon were a great encouragement and a lot of fun to chat with... Jen, Damien O'Farrell (we found this wounded puppy... that's another story) and I know I'm missing folks (sorry)

+ we fell in love with the joneses. debbie and andrew jones have some amazing kids. five to be exact. we basically adopted the wonderfully effervescent hanna jones who stayed in our bedroom most of the nights, and jordan lived at the jones' cabin for 2 days, hanging out with sam. I got to hear elizabeth jones' camino de santiago pilgrimage story ... and hear firsthand the beautiful, poetic story of debbie's dreadlocks -- a talei had heard a while back... i didn't get to really talk to andrew at all -- he was surrounded by people the whole time wanting a bit of his time. their nonchalant hospitality is my new benchmark. would that God let me be that carefree, flexible, and genuinely free to love.

+ hope and encouragement for emergent cohorts. cliff and i have been leading this emergent learning community in san antonio for about a year now; at the Gathering, some of us were able to share learning community stories...  tim hartmann (baltimore md cohort) and i facilitated a discussion with other cohort leaders and curious parties. one notable outcome, i think, will be that we decentralize the cohort responsibilities a bit so that tim conder doesn't shoulder all the burden. also, if glen and others step up to the plate, you can expect to see an Austin cohort by year's end.

+ practiced liturgy of the hours and had a great discussion - the aforementioned karen sloan is a self-described "young evangelical Presbyterian pastor [who] ended up spending quite a bit of time around communities of men in the Order of Preachers, or as they are commonly known, Dominicans." Each night she led evening prayers in a simple liturgy modeled after the Dominicans' liturgy of the hours; she is writing a book about the story of the journey of her last year and IVP will be publishing it in the winter of 2006 i believe. I'd love to have her down to Viva Books for a book signing.

+ more? grace mclaren is great. doug pagitt's new book is great, too, from the excerpts i've heard. It was great to finally hear CIVA mentioned in an Emergent circle. Got to meet Cincinnati Heidi, got to talk a couple of times with the instantly-likable Randy Buist (met him at WALP).. good conversations with Nate from Houston cohort; Michael Toy rocks. Will Samson, as always, encourages me and spurs me  on. Amy really connected with Jen and Sherry and Jolie and Heather; we're considering field trips to their communities.Rick Bennett gave me two cigars, one of which I'll pass on to Cliff. the 'garden party' was a truly memorable time of worship and sharing. i didn't get to actually go into santa fe, save that trip to the grocery store and back. note to self: next time, wake up earlier to experience breakfast at harry's. the guys and gals at Trinity House reealllly would benefit from coming next year. got to met rusty interning in roswell.

+ processing it all. i'm decompressing, processing, and will go a little more in-depth on a few of the topics soon.

Emergent Gathering 2005 - part one

Three days and twenty-two hours, round-trip, door-to-door. Ninety hours, give or take; it doesn't sound like much. But what a journey. The Soupiset fam -- all six of us -- loaded ourselves into the minivan to motor west and made a pilgrimage to the Sangre de Cristo mountains near Santa Fe for the 2005 Emergent Gathering. About a hundred and sixty people, each with a beautiful commitment to God, living life in the way of Jesus, came together for three and a half days of conversation, relaxation, shared meals, encouragement, catching-up, and hospitality. This much of the blog post I probably could've written before I left for the trip, site-unseen. Over the next few days, however, I'll try and post thoughts and pictures from my point of view, maybe have my family guest-author a post or two, and try and unpack some of my experiences.

Right now, I'm tired from travel. We made the outbound trip to Glorieta Conference Center in a single 12-hour push. The original plan was to return via a stay with friends Kelly and Steve in Lubbock, TX, but about mid-afternoon yesterday, we decided to make a reciprocal 12-hour push back to San Antonio, landing us home at about 2 a.m. This gives us an extra 'day' to unload and clean the Honda, catch up on email, finish planning Sunday's worship gathering, and chill. But the last four days -- 24 hours of driving combined with baby Emma being under-the-weather the whole time, combined with leaving the sedentary desk and hoofing it around in higher altitudes, has left me and the fam a little groggy.

So with that, I'll say goodbye for a few hours, go unpack the minivan, make pancakes for the kids, and think about what stories I'll share first. More later including photos.. actually the photos will have to wait, probably, until Saturday or Monday..

A quick word of HELLO to all our new and existing friends from the Gathering. You are all loved, and we already miss you. Leaving was hard to do. Your encouragement about our local community, cohort, etc., was good fuel that'll last a long time.

EmergentLatino.com

Link: EmergentLatino.com.

FYI. (y bienvenidos)

weekend update

i need to go to bed because i'm waking  up early for a client meeting so maybe if i do one long run-on sentence it'll go down quicker paul thought and wrote like caddy compson's benjy moments in long streams, long streams to catch you up starting with  friday perhaps yes friday night where my parents kept the kids and amy and i had a much-needed date night and had a great time and made a pilgrimage to the apple store in san antonio's latest temple to consumerism: the shops at la cantera and then was saturday when hurricane rita came and we moved furniture most of the day and soccer games were canceled and sunday came and our missional community went to san pedro manor and spoke and learned and loved and remembered and grew and welcomed mark and rachel with open arms and jordan made me proud and devin made us all proud and my six-and-a-half-month-old baby stole the show and the beautiful and wise and weathered nursing home residences drank in emma's soft, round baby skin cheeks and fair smile and i watched and met betty who came from new orleans and hadn't found her hurricane-scattered children and she had been in the superdome and had heard the worst and then mark amazed me the way he could embrace strangers so easily y se puede hablar en espanol con las abuelitas y yo sitting there in contrast, forgetting mis palabras y no puedo recuerdo mucho and grace, and love, and later selfless susan serving spaghetti, starbucks, and birthday cliff and birthday ginger and casey started his blog and hannah and kate had laughing moments and amy made that chocolate cake and love and lethargy mixed and kids played pool just like river-city, and mike was there and i was there and we were late for soccer practice and i waited with jordan instead of going to mosaic roadtrip but that was okay, and i got to talk to george and that was good and then mark came by for some furniture and i made grilled cheese for jordan and i had a really good talk about our missional community and church and how important he is and watched grey's anatomy on abc tv and read two blog posts from cliff and they got my mind wheels rotating and a typed in a long comment and asked myself some questions and isn't it warm for september and my wasn't our electric bill high and isn't the wild goose fluid and good and beautiful and isn't she worth following?

cliff k is blogging

My pastor, friend, kindred-spirit, partner-in-crime, missional-community-co-planter, confessor, sounding board, lunch-buddy and theological sparring partner, Cliff Knighten now [finally!] has a blog.

Expect good things.

lunch with mike

had a good lunch with mike ray today at Blue Star Brew Pub, where I noticed this scrawled on the chalkboard:

Tell me and I might forget.
Show me and I might remember.
Brainwash me and I will understand.

Beyond Foundationalism a'comin

Virusdoc wanted a layman's synopsis of Beyond Foundationalism. --Erik, you said you had "long been committed to the defunct-ness of foundationalist epistemologies," but couldn't determine "what to put in their place that allows any semblance of civil discourse between competing worldviews." I'm gonna try and formulate some thoughts over the next coupla days....

Upon finishing "Beyond Foundationalism"

1. it took a month of sporadic reading, but i finally finished "Beyond Foundationalism".
2. my brain is full, and i need time to process.
3. generally: a really, really good treatment, good collaboration.
4. i commend this book to you.
5. i'm already thinking of the implications in my own sphere.

thanks, stan & john.

beChurch.org

you may remember that one of our learning community members, john, said he registered a website, beChurch.org, and I had never visited it until tonight. what i liked most about the site (other than having another frequent emergent blogger in town), is the resources john shares regarding local ministries, including a 'charity locator', an 'urban ministries' link, as well as a 'homeless ministries' link. thanks for the resourcing, john.

file under hands and feet of jesus.


peace.

we are all fragile and frail

+we are all fragile and frail.
+we all project our hopes, our dreams, our fears onto God.
+i now know how to change out a busted toilet seat.
+this week i stripped old sealant off some saltillo tile.
+having a pastor is a good thing.
+having a pastor explore the road ahead is a good thing.
+no pastor has it all together.
+shrimp tacos ought to have lots of shrimp in them.
+we're helping birth a new ecclesia.
+some won't like that.
+i am learning how to sell unneeded possessions on eBay.
+that feels good.
+i miss my wife and kids who are out of town.
+the Jesus Prayer is like an onion.
+the red oak tree in my front yard was thirsty.
+i worry too much. the indigo girls were right.
+Paste Music distributes defective DVDs.
+but their content is great. when they work.
+I used an R.E.M. tune during worship this morning. [endgame]
+we are all enslaved.
+Beyond Foundationalism is slow reading.
+I miss Stan Grenz.
+it's time for bed. kyrie elison.

Câmpulung

my buddy dan is a missionary to romania. he's stateside on a break. missionaries call that 'furlough' -- a word usually reserved for prisoners or those fighting in a war. anyway. his playground, his corner of the globe, features a lot of romanian orthodox christians as well as some evangelical and mainline christians.
in theory, he's encouraged by similarities and room for interfaith dialogue. yet in the crucible of working shoulder-to-shoulder, (dan, i hope i'm representing your thoughts correctly), doctrinal issues keep preventing colaboration. next he mentioned this west coast orthodox friend of his, and when they bring up the eastern church, it feels to dan like they're describing altogether different traditions: one replete with beauty and mystery and majesty, and the other hamstrung by power games and by odd regional traditions (mandatory meals for the dead and things stranger to western ears) that priests tack on to requirements-for-salvation. which reminds me we should not romanticize any one tradition, nor should we vilify any tradition. just a quick note. that's all. dan, have a great trip back to Câmpulung.

prince of peace, iPod, doodle

+ in the experimental worship leading i've been doing at my old church, i led a song that they were all familiar with, but i didn't let them proceed with the usual rendering of the lyrics, which to me always smacked of self-congratulations and a sort of worship metonymy wherein the professed zeal of the lyric-writer is sung corporately and then assumed to be true among the singers. So instead of the lyric "I will" (as in "I will praise you" or "I will bow down before you" or "I will give my life for you" or "I will love you all of my days") I substituted "Will I ?" and reframed the lyric as a question, with the intention of provoking soul-searching. Of course I warned them to be expecting this before starting the song. As my friend Travis said, we do a lot of singing that sounds like "God is holy and I'm right up there with him". So: reframing and subtly shifting existing lyrics may be a great way to address Brian McLaren's Open Letter to Songwriters and the astute John Mortensen Unauthorized Postscript to Songwriters.  (in which John penned this memorable line: "can we agree to a ten-year ban on rhyming “adore you” with “before you”? ")

+ i was charging my son's iPod shuffle this morning when I happened to look over at the Playcount column in iTunes. It was a window into my son's listening habits. Before I thought twice about privacy, etc., I saw that his most-played songs -- the tunes he's hit 'repeat' for and not shuffled past -- mirrored my own tastes. Which made me initially happy -- although his playlist is esentially culled from my larger playlist anyway, the types of tunes he lingers over are they same ones I do: The Jayhawks, Coldplay, Josh Rouse, Something Like Silas, Moby, Innocence Mission, Tim Booth, Dar Williams, etc. Then it got me wondering: is this just a parroting or is this cultivated? Is this similar to a child echoing his parents' taste in music faith, for example? Will he venture out and find his own aural turf?

+ friday nite i art directed a :30 TV commercial for a local restaurant. my first broadcast attempt beyond directing and filming a music video for the fabled and now-extinct band love coma in the mid 1990s. i'll stick with print and web for now.

+ picked up the kids from camp on saturday. they had a good time; man i missed them.

+ my friend, illustrator Von Glitschka, has a new site you should visit if you doodle often: http:doodlearchive.com -- request a doodle card and get those doodles published!

silent retreat

been meaning to carve away some solitude?

For Emergent SA this past Saturday, i modified a silent retreat handout from last year (virusdoc, this will look really familiar to you) and thought i'd list it here as well.

The assignment, if you missed the meeting but want to still benefit was, after reading the silence and solitude chapter of The Sacred Way (3, I think), to actually carve away some time, an afternoon, or at least an hour, and practice hesychia, attentive silence before God.

Download this PDF from your friends at EmergentSA as your guide.
(NOTE: PDF is 444KB)

emergent San Antonio cohort, etc.

yesterday six of us from the cohort met in a little art gallery  within viva bookstore in san antonio. we met travis, who is new to our group (that's encouraging: almost every week there's someone new; now if we could only build some continuity); what's funny is we talked for a long time about silence. [easier to pull of than being silent about talking.] about the practice of silence and solitude. we're going through tony jones' the sacred way, and it was my week to facilitate the discussion.

here are some quotes i had come across, regarding silence, solitude, hesychasm, etc.:

"Silence is not simply the absence of noise or the shutdown of communication with the outside world, but rather a process of coming  to stillness. Silent solitude forges true speech. I’m not speaking of physical isolation; solitude here means being alone with the Alone, experiencing the transcendent Other, and growing in awareness of one’s identity as the beloved. It is impossible to know another person intimately without spending time together, Silence makes this solitude a reality. It has been said, ‘Silence is solitude practiced in action.’” — Brennan Manning, quoted in Worship without Words, Patricia S. Klein

“In this silence, unbearable to the “outer” man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose…” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992

“True solitude is the home of the person, false solitude the refuge of the individualist … without a certain element of solitude there can be no compassion because when a man is lost in the wheels of a social machine he is no longer aware of human needs … One can escape from men by plunging into the midst of a crowd! Go into the desert not to escape other men but in order to find them in God.” — Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (chapter 11 of this book is excellent)

Regarding physical position and controlling one’s breathing, etc., “[a]ll these things have but a very secondary importance. The only question is whether they may prove helpful and facilitate what is essential.” — Anon., Orthodox Spirituality

“‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves … to a solitary place.” —Mark 6:31,32

ecclesioweltenshaung-a-rific

what is your theological worldview?
take this quiz and find out.
then let me know your answers, por favor.

San Antonio Emergent Cohort

okay. i'm excited about the cohort. it's going well. we had a great little gathering last wednesday (read duane's take on it here), and we will be meeting again on saturday...

Saturday May 14, 2005
10:30 AM to 12 noon
Barnes & Noble Café (San Pedro/Isom Rd. @ Loop 410)

Grab a coffee and join us for our monthly Emergent Cohort meeting. Come casual and ready to listen, chill, or discuss.

+ Paul Soupiset will discuss his reflections on the recent Emergent WALP (Worship+Art+Liturgy+Preaching) Conference
+ Cliff will talk about Cohort plans for the future (see below for the scoop)
+ We’ll discuss some upcoming national/international opportunities
+ We might have our first praxis/laboratory outing lined up to plan (some urban ministry opportunities)
+ and whatever else you want to get off your chest.
+ If we have time, Paul wants to pull some of you aside to get some quick soundbites for a video blog he’s going to put on the emegent SA site.

In addition to our monthly conversation gatherings, we've decided to offer the following three tracks to our learning community. Choose one or as many as you'd can fit into your already-busy schedule. Times are TBD, but hopefully on Saturday’s meeting, we’ll figure out frequency and target times. The plan is to start these groups within the month.

the first track is an emerging church discussion group [onramp discussion]. book discussion format -- we think it's going to be an excellent starting point if you're either new to the emerging church conversation or new to the current book/author we're covering. we'll also provide a bibliography of related reading as well. We will probably start off by going through A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. For perspective, we'll kick off the first meeting by listening to audio from McLaren's talk he gave at "Out of the Christian Ghetto" conference, almost six years ago (but the thoughts are still very poignant and current). Paul Soupiset will be moderating this group. We will also discuss the values and practices proffered at emergentvillage.com

the second track is centered on spiritual formation. Cliff Knighten will be moderating this group interested in individual and corporate spiritual formation. I believe the primary text will be A Thomas Merton Reader, Edited by Thomas P. McDonnell.

the third track will grapple with the idea of forming a missional ecclesiology in a San Antonio context, or, "what does the emerging church look like in our own back yard?" this will be a mix of discussion group, real-world praxis laboratory, field-tripping, probably with a little worship thrown in. Our text will be Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, (edited by Guder from gocn) which builds on seminal works by Newbigin and others. Cliff, Paul and Casey will most probably serve as your tour guides on this track.

All the books are available at Amazon.com

our daily blog

a few random thoughts for monday.

+ my friend danny in Kansas owns this cool painting to the left. His drawing instructor, josh cross, did the piece. note to self: buy more cool art. i have a great waddy armstrong painting on my living room wall, but it belongs to a friend's collection. it's on loan.

+ i think i'm going to buy a penny whistle.

+ an old college friend emailed me today. She's living in Tegucigalpa (which, of course, is fun to say). She's getting ready to move to Madrid (not as much fun to say, but easier). Jenn, thanks for writing. And yes, your son is right: you should blog :)

+ both of the above mentioned people are reading Blue Like Jazz currently. It's on my list of books to complete. I love the opening. need to make time to read it now that:

+ I'm getting ready to start a book discussion group on Guder's Missional Church.

+ My friend Waldemar gave me Repenting of Religion. (Boyd?) Anyone read it? I think it's from Baker. I'm going to go thru it. He deals with some Bonhoeffer themes.

+ today was Random Music Day for me. in some ways, every day is, but this seemed especially random. been listening to dixie chicks, thompson twins, energy orchard, astrud gilberto and then a whole bunch of shuffled songs on iTunes.

Emergent Gathering - save the date

My family of six is trying to make plans to attend the Emergent Gathering October 10-13, 2005. It's much, much more simple, more organic, and smaller (read: intimate) than the national conference/conventions (of which the Emergent/YS variety are coming to an end anyway, at least in that incarnation).

It's in Glorietta NM, yes, the Baptist ski facility, and I'm asking you now to consider stepping out of your comfort zone and at least Save The Date.  [Read more about it here ]

It would be really great to get together with other cohorts, compare notes, etc.

The cost for the Gathering? $0.

(Yes, you have to get yourself there and handle lodging, but there's no convention fees since there's no speakers to pay.)

just a bug.

WALP interview

dj chuang and will sampson recorded the following conversation. if you didn't make it to WALP, it's worth watching.

my first vlog doesn't feature me.

okay will, aaron, stephen.

my first vlog. poor audio quality and all. (all apologies)

it's footage of kevin rolly's 15th station of the cross. yes. fifteenth. [the empty tomb.] here goes nothing.

N-joy:

watch vlog042305.mov (3409.5K)

 

WALP, upon leaving Asbury

still tired some twelve hours since my last post :)
but my heart is filled to overflowing. what a rich time; what faithful followers in the way of Christ. what artistry, what engaged giftedness, what boldness, what questions! what truth-in-love.
coming back to my methodist roots (the gathering was held at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY.) was a great backdrop for the rich ecumenicism I found this week. We got to sit at the feet of holy women and men from myriad traditions: Mennonite, Eastern Orthodox, Baptist, Anabaptist, evangelical, Anglican, Charismatic-turned-Presbyterian, house-churched, Roman Catholic, ancient AND future, young AND old, plain AND beautiful, quiet AND loud, male AND female, African AND Irish (and Norwegian, and Australian/Kiwi, and American, and Asian, English, etc.,)

"happy and sad together"

this morning we heard from Joe Meyers (the Lewins were singing his praises yesterday, so I chose to listen in to his "Creating Sacred Spaces" dialogue. He offered more of a schema and metaphor for dealing with thoughts surrounding sacred space. I'm sure there were many in the room wanting something he wasn't about to give: prescriptive (perhaps universal) worship plans yielding success of some sort. Instead (thank you Joe!) he offered the model of an Organic Order, wherein project-centric, life-measured, collaborative actions replace (usurp?) representative, bottom-line-oriented, cooperative efforts. The latter model was tagged 'master plan' (think Monsanto), the former 'organic order' (think grassroots one-acre-at-a-time organic farming). a nice chart came out of the talk, one which i think i'll reprint for you once i get back to my (real) Mac.

then it was off to global multi-ethnic praise led by Corey Nelson; and Claude Nikondeha giving an inspiring talk on Justice and Worship. Lily pointed out, and I agree, that it should have led off the week, instead of staging it on the very last session when so many were already hitting the proverbial road.it spoke to themes of global south, post-colonialism, justice-in-practice, and more.

The eucharist was shared. It was a very strong time of unity among the group. I want to get my hands on some of the resources from the week, and plan to. more on that later.

Corey said something to the effect of: "you may be asking why this table cloth is too big for this table; perhaps instead we should ask ourselves if our table is too small."

walp, third evening

so it's 3:00 AM on day four. Michael and i are still up talking (this time about all sorts of stuff). what can i report today?

• the cohort breakfast thing never really materialized; neither did the blogger lunch; but i got to talk to lots of these people nonetheless... more on that soon.
• fr. thomas hopko provided counterpoint to maggi d; both were excellent and are needed voices. i've been fighting technology all week long, a mess of cables, battery-life-monitoring, deadweightinmymessengerbag kind of thing... this should be two bullet points, i now see.
• i'm tired because it's late.
• please take a moment to check out my 2005 WALP photo gallery, in progress..
• had a great lunch (again, i'm talking about the people, the conversation, not the food being great, per se. i ramble.), at the whistle stop in willmore. all these folks i've emailed and who've emailed me: the lewins: hudson, lily, rob; jason clark, michael howes, maggi dawn, spencer burke, doug pagitt, Michael Combs (who was keeping the other end of the table in stitches) um, I know I'm forgetting some. sorry. did i mention it was late? enough namedropping. or whatever.
• spent the afternoon at an impromtu drum circle. played some guitar (and djembe, sort of), and watched all these new friends as we made some amazing music together. re-met shannon h. from irving, tx (i just googled her name: did u know she has a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance! cool). John Mortensen, what a talented guy.
• geoff holsclaw and a whole raft of us ate chinese food in lexington for dinner. or supper, or whatever you call it in kentucky. lemon chicken. steamed rice. so we got to really talk about church plants, cohorts, dreams of the future for both of us, and the at-times underwhelming present. an instantly likable guy,.. met yet another michael and friend dan from decatur, GA. I need to start capturing last names. the ride back to WALP was a trip.
• got back for an amazing, amazing creation-centric worship experience by heidi m yoder & crew. my camera was out by this time, so no photos. then got to hear robert e webber again. never tire of that. he was one of my on-ramp guides to this conversation years ago. jason clark has notes posted here.
• then a group of us went back to the Waffle House and stayed up too late and laughed and talked and Michael prayed a beautiful prayer and we all learned about tatoos and then before you know it 'friends new and friends old' were disappearing back into the night via rides arranged and the Hampton Inn South denizens hoofed across the parking lot and here I am typing at 3:47 am. Luckily I fly tomorrow and can possibly sleep on the plane. Who knows.
• I realize I'm just typing ephemera, but not a lot of meat. I really want to write about spiritual formation a la McLaren, intentional community a la Willzhead, some creative colaborations that may be in the works with Mike Crawford, a new and fresh vision for being the hands and feet of Jesus out in the abandoned places; and then thinking about art and aesthetics and 'thin places' and much more. but, it is almost 4 now, and i must wake up at 7:15.
• I'll try and sort out more over the next few days or weeks, and post them here.
• i've never taken the time to say this, but thanks for taking the time to read soupablog.

WALP, second evening

what a full day. No time to 'splain: let me sum up.

• breakfast at hampton inn south. ride to WALP with padgitt and will samson; got to overhear their stimulating conversation about venture capital versus philanthropic capital and that the latter model might be the best-suited for EC funding rounds for project-based works. cool stuff. nicely over my head since it deals with the business world, that magical realm into which i cannot enter.
• brian mclaren talked on worship as spiritual formation, and listed ten practices of public worship: Ritual, Inconvenience, Association, Speed, Hospitality, Attentiveness, Generosity, Modeling, Justice & Mercy, Catholicity.
• Tribe led worship.
• Saw Michael Howes give an engaging and well-paced discussion on excercising creative patience when attempting to affect worship change in a church you didn't plant.
• ate lunch by myself and fell into AllergyLand™ whereupon I needed large amounts of Claritin® and Advil® washed down by A&W® Vanilla Cream Soda™.
• Watched Lily Lewin bring us up to speed on Celtic Spirituality. Dispelled some myths, Broadened our scope and appreciation, and through it got to know Lily better.
• Saw Kevin Rolly self-curate his Stations of the Cross and then did a one-man performance/painting where he revealed a 15th 'station' - the resurrection.
• had a great conversation and laughs with Michael Crawford, Tim Samoff Will S, Laci, and some other new friends, Troy and Mike talked music. Will and Mike and I discussed the phenomenon of our wives not always being on the same page within the conversation. And how difficult that can be on a marriage.
• We got turned around on the ride back into Willmore
• ALmost missed part of Maggi Dawn. But didn't caught it all.
• tried to set up a Cohort breakfast tonorrow morning early with Geoff H. But my chances of getting a ride that early are slim. I might hang around in the lobby in the AM and see if anyone's heading that way.
• the laptop isn't being nice, and i'm tired, so i''ll post more p=hotos tomorrow. - paul

WALP, first evening

here back in the hotel rm after the first evening. i need to be disciplined about this blogging-frequently-thing or i'll slack on posting completely. Let's see: i hung around hampton inn south most of the 5 o'clock hour, getting the wi-fi set up on rob's loaner G4 laptop (thanks, rob) ... michael came up shortly thereafter (via louisville); he found us our first ride: and it was none other than will samson (willzhead)... so on the ride out of town to asbury, we got to enjoy a bit of will's insights. and some amazing rolling hills.and got to listen a little to michael on cedar ridge, and  will on his new venture -- he's moving to none other than lexington, ky. i'm sure a trip to his blog will fill in more.

i sat next to and befriended tonight's speaker. Sister Rose Pacatte is charming and spot-on when it comes to a working praxis of intergration of media and faith. i came out of my shell a little when she asked me to be her score-keeper for the contest she was holding. She asked a question tonight that I believe goes deeper if one allows some time to soak it in: "What’s the personal dynamic between God and us when we’re watching media?"

Sr. Rose took the group through a number of film clips, some provocative, some moving. And we looked for God therein. I took some notes which I'll clean up and post soon.

Worship was led by Yesha Praise! (the exclamation mark is part of their name); it's always fun watching a room full of predominately white folk try to get the twos - and - fours of backbeat gospel clapping started.

I was really happy to run into Michael Crawford (Jacob's Well, the Spin, Builder, Flat Earth Records, et al), but bummed to find out he's staying at the 'other' hotel. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up this week. TIm Keel, it turns out, is not here this week after all.

What else? Ran into and finally met in person Geoff Holsclaw (Chicago up:rooted) Michael and another Michael (Combs, who went to Baylor Truett and went to high school at Alamo Heights, the selfsame school district in which I currently reside) went to El Chico. I won't rant on Mexican food in Kentucky, but needless to say, I wasn't in San Antonio any more. Now Michael's up working on his tomorrow presentation, and I'm trying to fulfull my blog role to anyone who isn't at WALP but wishes they were.

WALP or BUST

well, i'm on my way to WALP: WORSHIP, ART, LITURGY & PREACHING in the Emerging Culture.
I've been waiting for a year for this. I'll get there on Monday afternoon. I'll be blogging remotely, God-willing. But first I gotta go to a campout at Canyon Lake where I'm organizing a sort of Amazing Race parody for a bunch of 8 year olds and their dads. THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to my trip. You know who you are. peaceout

walp ulp

through a whole lotta grace from spiky-haired betsy and a whole lotta generosity from now-goateed michael [both worship denizens of cedar ridge CC], it looks like i have a place to stay at WALP. i'll be mike's roomie!

which brings up the whole mike howes thing. it turns out WALP presenter michael howes is the selfsame mike howes that i went to baylor with.  i just ended a sentence with a preposition; if you can handle that, I'll continue. we were at baylor in the dark ages, when books and pens were made out of rocks. mike hails from louisiana, makes a mean gumbo and has an artistic symmetry to his gestures.

it's a smallworldafterall. or, serendipity doo dah.

are you wealthy? bored? do you wanna donate $100 to my WALP flight fund? or my WALP registration fund? email me for my paypal account.

Tony Jones has a way with words

....Emergent's role is likely a temporary one: to carve out a space in the institutional Christian church for artists, lovers, and mystics to take it the next step. We're using words, publishing, and logical arguments; they'll use dreams, art, and beauty....

walp

WALP deadline is coming up. I was eating lunch with Cliff yesterday and found myself saying that if my housing and travel didn't line up I might not go. That was the first time I had really allowed that possibility. I need to go look into cheaper travel and lodging options. Cause I relly think i should be there. I'll let you know.

WALP - Roomie Needed

i either need to find a roommate for the worship + art + liturgy & preaching conference, or else i ned to rent a minivan and camp there the whole time. anyone going wanna talk about affordable housing options?

Sandy Eggo California

Sad because you're not at Emergent 05 in San Diego?
Like last year, DesertPastor is blogging and giving the rest of us a remote feed

McLaren on Larry King

thanks to stephen shields for the link:
Brian McLaren on Larry King  The transcript has been placed on CNN.
 

emerging church

brian mclaren makes Time Magazine's
list of 25 most influential evangelicals


DANUTA OTFINOWSKI FOR TIME 

Emergent San Antonio Cohort

¡ese!

emergent | sa
cohort meets for the first time on saturday. at the patio of la fogata.
paint me heartened...
we already have a nicely diverse group coming to the kickoff.

it's been six months in the making, with helpful cues from geoff holsclaw of uprooted, as well as reading up on the Central Jersey Emergent Cohort (much thanks to cleave and theoblogy.)

we're gonna start quiet and simple, Godwilling.

np: trouble / coldplay

the emerching church

after everyone cashes in on their emergent book deals and the dust settles, what'll be left?

late great mullins

“Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.... I think I would rather live on the verge of falling and let my security be in the all-sufficiency of the grace of God than to live in some pietistic illusion of moral excellence....”

Rich Mullins