gavoweb

spiritual | cultural | technological life

Theology

an evening with bishop nt wright : round up & audio

By

Ntwright2

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

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.

general conference : open letter

By

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.

shift conference : kara powell & dan kimball

By

_dsc3767
_dsc3781

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