Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference

Peter Rollins told stories, pushed the envelope, and dialogued with John Franke. Here's a few highlights:

• subjective violence vs. objective violence
• retroactive need
• refusal to do pastoral care
• theology as the architecture we build in the aftermath of God
• we always get God wrong when we speak, but we are impelled to keep on talking
• interdependent particularity

And two questions it stimulated for me:

• If we tend to be attentive to subjective violence (the crime-fighting of Batman) while objective violence (the poverty-creation of Wayne Industries) is sublimated, might rejection of success (or criteria for success) enact a Girardian unveiling for churches or other bodies?
  
• Might a focus on embodied existence in general (and Gen 1:26 and Matt 25:40 in particular) provide a path beyond a framework in which finitude and fallenness form an impenetrable barrier to Truth?

Ecclesiological Desire and the Empire We Find Ourselves In

Evangelicals and Empire Discussion
New York Theological Seminary

Listen

Citizens for Global Solutions is holding its 4th Annual Multimedia contest

Citizens for Global Solutions is holding its 4th Annual Multimedia contest for artists, designers, poets, activists and just about anyone interested in thinking about global issues and making some cool art. The top contenders will be published on our website.

They're looking for short multimedia pieces (flash animation, spoken word, digital video) that can inspire, amuse and activate people out there who believe that a better world is possible. You are welcome to work alone, in a team, or as part of a classroom project (but the cash prizes remain the same).

In 2003 the world awakened to the terrible tragedy unfolding in Darfur, Sudan. Five years into the armed conflict, the situation remains dire for civilians. The conflict has claimed over a million lives, and the people there are still living in abject poverty. This year Citizens for Global Solutions would like to re-focus attention upon this crisis to remind the world that we still have a duty to help the Sudanese people. The Sudanese government continues to disregard its international humanitarian law obligations and flout UN Security Council resolutions, including the ban on offensive military over-flights, the disarming of the Janjaweed militia, and cooperation with the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

This contest is all about communicating your thoughts and ideas on the conflict:

* Feel free to focus on one specific aspect of the Darfurian case that interests you, since this will give you the most creative space to work in.

* You can also choose to expand the theme to include the larger issues of war and genocide. Remember, this theme is there mainly as a guidance tool; you have complete leeway in deciding which direction you will take when planning for this contest.

* As with all previous Flash and Multimedia contests, the yearly theme is considered elective. You can choose to tackle world hunger and poverty, environmental issues, nuclear weapons & the arms trade, or a different global issue of your choice. Simply choose a GLOBAL ISSUE that you care about, and give us your SOLUTION(s)!

Missional Christianity... Church Beyond Boundaries

A conference addressing theological and practical challenges
for the future of the missional church

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Friday, October 10, 2008

SCHEDULE
Noon - Registration
1:00 - 1:50 p.m. - Plenary session
Scot McKnight - "The Bible and Missional Listening"
2:00 - 2:45 p.m. - Parallel sessions
Michael Noel – Coaching Established Churches for Missional Change
Todd Hiestand – Missional in Suburbia? Are you Kidding?
J.H. Kim – The Art of Worship: Practical ways to empower and engage the creative arts in your community
Eric Mason – Missional church planting in an urban setting
Steve Kriss & pastors – Missionality & Multiculturalism
2:45 - 3:15 p.m. - Snack break
3:15 - 4:00 p.m. - Parallel sessions
Repeat first session
4:10 - 5:00 p.m. - Plenary session
Tim Keel - "Leadership, the Local Church, and the Crisis of Imagination"

5:00 - 6:30 p.m. - Reception with refreshments

6:30 - 9:00 p.m. - Speakers & Formal Installation Ceremony
David Dunbar - Welcome
Darrell Guder - "The Promise and Threat of Missional Theology"
Brian McLaren - "An Epistemology of Love"
John Franke - Chair Acknowledgment

photo credit: untitled by inocuo 2007-08-30 flickr

Echos Commission Meeting in Bangalore

Next week, a group of 25 young leaders from churches across the globe will meet in Bangalore to work on issues of mission and overcoming violence. I count it a privilege to be joining them.

You can find more information here.

EcuMap beta launch!

There are a number of good archives for ecumenical documents, but for those who are just beginning to learn about church unity the sheer volume of texts can be overwhelming. The EcuMap project is my attempt to create a visual, interactive means to explore the complicated relationships that have developed between various communions over the last century as they pursue the unity for which Christ prayed. At long last, it's finally ready for some beta testing. If you find it helpful or have some suggestions to improve it, drop me an email.

Managing a Busy Schedule

As another semester begins, I am posting a few organizational tips that I find useful in keeping track of my own busy schedule. I am including strategies for both those who love computers and those who hate them. The basic idea is to develop a system that works for you to organize and simplify your life (for reflection on the spiritual dimensions of simplicity, see Richard Foster).

Lo-Tech

1. Go through your syllabi and write down every assignment and when it is due in one place.
2. Write out a regular schedule for yourself that includes your other commitments and designates extra study time for completing major assignments.
   
3. Make a to do list and look at it every day.
   
4. Once a week, review the things you accomplished last week (congratulations!), remind yourself to finish things you left incomplete (oops!), and add new things you need to do during the next seven days (you can do it!).
   
5. Evaluate whether your system is working and make changes that fit your schedule, personality, etc. (you can find additional ideas and tips at 43 Folders or Lifehack)
   

Hi-Tech

1. CALENDAR: Sign up for a free Google account and set up a calendar that you enter all your deadlines (you can even tell it to send you email reminders a week, day, or minutes(!) before they are due).*
2. TO DO LIST: Sign up for a free Remember The Milk account and use that to manage a system for "getting things done" that works for you. (43 Folders and Lifehack are very useful for this stage)
3. INTEGRATION: Download Firefox and get the Remember the Milk addon for Google Calendar (and Gmail too, if you use that). This will enable you to add tasks to RTM from your Google Calendar.
   
4. MAKE IT EASY: Create a bookmark in your browser's toolbar (or make it your "homepage") so you can get to your to do list/schedule easily and use it daily.
5. CUSTOMIZE: Review your system to evaluate what is helpful and what is not. If you waste a lot of time maintaining your system, figure out ways to streamline the process.
   

*my courses all have a link to a iCal formatted version of the syllabus that you can import into Google Calendar - professors who wish to use my EditGrid template can find it here.