Rethinking Perspective

I have been reading a bit lately about how the kingdom could be/already is structured in such a way that we begin to rethink some of our previous conceptions about how who/where the church is, and what is the role of the Sprit of God. So I am starting a series of posts to try and work through some of my thoughts and impulses on what the future/current kingdom looks like through my lens of perception.

God Spoke:
Over the past year several people in my community of faith have had direct visions of what the kingdom of God may have for us as we journey further down the path. First, Jon has a series of posts about a three-point structure PEZ. Liz has also created an image and many pages of notes in her book about how many different communities of faith need to be linked together. Also, during this year through large group prayer God had directly articulated his vision. Now we must start to figure out how to put some more of this vision into practice.

Needs and Next steps:
We need enhanced community. We need an environment that encourages deep exploration into the word of God, and into the sprit of God so that we can gain better understandings about our place in God’s story than we currently have. We need unification. We need different organizational structures. We must be willing to part with our old practices and views despite the difficulty and begin to embrace what God wants to do with us next. We must look for better questions and not better answers.

Changing Landscape:
The landscape of our culture is changing. Many have looked at the recent societal changes that have taking place in the web with the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies and the way they have changed the way we think about our relationships and social structures and noticed ties to the way the kingdom is becoming more fully realized at this point in history.

“Emerging Church 2.0 might be those emerging churches that are shaped by new media values rather than old media. They write blog posts rather than articles, PDFs rather than books, start churches without buildings, and lack a vertically hierarchical leadership structure. Hierarchy is modular and dynamic, rather than vertical and static. I am not talking about cyberchurches that migrate to the web. I am talking about alternative faith communities that emerge online and then seek physical meetings, new aggregations of believers that connect with each other and the world through the complex networks that make up their World 2.0”
-Andrew Jones

Question and Pray
What do some of these structures that we have created tell us about how we work as a community? How does this change the way we need to organize ourselves? What does this mean about the way we think? How does this change they way God will interact with us? I hope this series of posts will help to bring a more fully articulated picture of what God wants to do with us. Please, pray, consider, and comment. If this vision is going to start to cluster it needs many voices.

So this is one of those times that I think to myself. What the heck is wrong with me. Almost a week ago today I said to my wife. “Sure wife I will train for a 10k race with you.” I was thinking I can take it… right? Now that I am older, uglier and fatter than I have ever been I thought, hey what a great time to train for a really long race.

So here it goes. Most every day from now until July 23rd the wife and I will hitting the trail and moving as fast as we can. So if you see us running the next few months try not to laugh to hard. And yes we know there are no rabid animals chasing us but we are running anyway. If anyone thinks they are up for the challenge come join us. Go sign up for the wharf to wharf race in Santa Cruz.

Soliton Sessions.
It is a strange thing to try to explain. I asked Jon what this was all about last year and he said that he couldn’t really tell me. He sent me some links to pictures and off I went on an unknown journey. It is different every year he said. I don’t know what will happen.

Here is some more information for you so that you are not as confused as I was at this time last year.

Pics of the 03 event
Pics of the 04 event
Pics of the 05 event

Here are links some of the people from all over the would that will be guiding our conversations while we are there:
Doug and Shelley Pagitt (Minneapolis, MN) many books
Kester Brewin (Manchester England)
Kendall Payne (Los Angeles California US)
Si Johnston (Coleraine, N. IRE)
Gareth Higgins (Belfast, N. IRE) his book
Greg Russinger (Ventura, US) his book
Shane Claiboune (Philidelphia PA) his book and writings

After being there I am still not sure I can explain what happened there. All I know is that it changed my life and perspectives forever. Jon tried to put words aournd this for an article he wrote for the Next-Wave Ezine last year.

See what people are saying about the Soliton Sessions

If you want to get on the train let us know as soon as possible so we can start to get a head count

Today we had a teacher appreciation Lunch. At the Lunch I was given a book written by a classroom of first graders where I spend at least an hour every day. So at the end of the school year this is what I am know for according to 20 first graders.

- Wrestling another teacher in an inflatable sumo suit during an assembly
- Playing the Guitar
- pushing high on the swing
- helping an autistic child
- being funny, nice smart and fun

I guess that is not so bad for a school year. Here I come summer time.