got back last night knackered after travelling round with alan hirsch and michael frost. it’s been a great week in lots of ways. i hardly managed to catch internet on the way but realise that the blogosphere has been pulsing with conversation about it and them. a lot of the point was to get mission on the agenda and in the conversation so that seems a pretty good thing! conversation i have spotted going on at
smallritual | sudslaw | bigbulkyanglican | maggi | si | neurotribe | jason clark | gareth powell | ian mobsby | urbanarmy | john davies | alexander campbell | nouslife | simon fogg | pete phillips…
i’m sure there are others – put a comment at the bottom and i’ll add them to the list. i have plenty of thoughts myself. i need to defend myself against accusations flying about me it seems! the one thing i’ll say now is that i was with alan and mike and we did quickly drop in and look at the blogs – they took it on the chin and were highly amused in particular by the banter in the comments on steve’s. i was very impressed by them in that way. but i felt for them – don’t know what you can do about it – it creates dialogue and it’s out there to debate but it may help to imagine the human beings present who we are talking about and say what we would say in the way we’d say it if they were present? i know i have ranted in the past about things and am no shining example in this regard. the one thing i think is completely out of order is steve posting an e-mail exchange in public between him and mike – e-mail is private – comments and blogs are public. if we start hanging out e-mail conversations in public i for one won’t be e-mailing anyone ever again with anythng personal. if you ask first that’s a different thing. anyway i’ll be back with thoughts and reflections i’m sure. cheers for the reactions/conversation/people who attended the blah events.
Glad you got back OK. Wise words.
cheers for getting these two guys over jonny. It certainly got the debate going – moot for one is seriously considering doing some missional activity in public spaces. The number one consideration being the two hostels for refugess across the street from us.
thanks for these words, jonny. by coordinating events like this you serve the whole church and help us avoid just getting caught up in our own world of ideas. you certainly succeeded in directing the conversation toward the missio dei.
peace and grace.
Thank for setting all this up Jonny, it was great to meet them, and their openess to dialogue is refreshing.
Cheers, Jason
i take your point about e-mail conversations. in my defence i’d say:
this particular one preceded blogs;
it wasn’t what i’d call a ‘personal’ email exchange – they were interviewing me about alt worship while on their research tour. i was quite prepared for anything i said to end up verbatim in a book! and the stuff in Mike’s email about “if you’re not a worship designer how do you become a member?” was talked about by them at zoo. i get interviewed this way by email all the time – my branding stuff on emerginchurch.info is an email conversation. so for me the boundary between public and private messages doesn’t lie there, but in the content.
no need to defend yourself jonny! you’re doing a fine job. We all risk attracting a bit of sniping when we dare to disagree with seomone else’s idea – I’ve had my share of that, but I think it’s an occupational hazard if you risk going public with your opinions! But the interesting voices in these conversations are people who are only interested in getting the corners knocked off our own ideas so that we end up with something refined and worth living by.
hope you get some rest now you’re back
Yo!
Glad you and collins are friends!
Keep it up!
Rob
Sounds like a fun and stimulating week – looking forward to hearing how it went when the boys get back to Aus and have enjoyed the online interactions around the topic.
moe comment at
http://nouslife.blogspot.com/2004/10/hirsch-and-frost-at-london-zoo_04.html
to take you up on the offer!
Here’s my ha’penny worth plus I have linked (on left) to my full notes if of interest to anyone.
http://alexandercampbell.blogspot.com/2004/10/they-didnt-make-me-angry.html
The Shape of things to Come…more thoughts!
…accuses them of having a simplistic assessment. Accuses them of no real contact. “oi Aussie emergers with your shoe shop churches take that!”. A bit harsh. Perhaps lost in the engaging stories. Perhaps lost in the evangelistic speel – but there a …
jonny
good post. i knew the conversation was going on, but i thought it needed to ripen before i brought attention to it – few more days, few more posts, bit more truth emerging . . .
but re: email going public in our comment sections – i actually enjoy this. its a way to open up a previously private world, when its appropriate, and let others in as a 3rd party. Much of the New Testament was written this way. We are still reading Paul’s letter to Timothy, for example.
Sometimes i respond privately, when necessary. But other times i say something publically to one person and it gets milage when others want to read it.
Why do they want to read it? Now thats another issue. . .
it’s a good point andrew but my point is that you should ask permission first… that’s all