Random thoughts and questions

These are thoughts that are rattling around in my brain this morning:

– I may not be rich, but I am laughing all the way to the banquet

– Emergent leadership is not about removing the leaders, but empowering and elevating the laity into leadership.

– Did the shift from ministry in the medieval world to the modern world have the same kind of resistance from the church? I heard that mathematical numbers were called “The Devil’s language” by church leaders. Would it be worth reading books from that period to find parallels?

– To be judged by our critics is compliment. To be defined by our critics is death.

– The soccer position i played when i was 12 (lhalf-back) is the same position i am playing in the mission of God. I am a half-back – involved in the forward advance when the moment calls for it, by passing the ball to those in position. But i am also assisting the defense so that we don’t lose our winning edge. I like to be in the middle, a bridge between both, involved in all areas and close enough to get anywhere i need to.

– After a good soaking of Kingdom thinking, when you pull out your head, and wipe your eyes, you dont see churches, you see the Church. Only one. And you don’t see mission as a yes or no button in front of you, but rather a river coming somewhere behind you, sweeping you along into somewhere exciting.

– Could we understand Hebrews 11 as a model of pilgrimage, in which the pilgrims of faith never arrived at their destination or never received what they longed for in this lifetime. This is similar to the Celtic model of journey as pilgrimage rather than the Catholic pilgrimage which involved reaching a location or receiving.

– The shift from reading my Bible as a book to reading it on the computer screen seems like something new. But when Jesus went to the Temple to read the Scriptures, he picked up a scroll – a long piece of parchment that could be “scrolled” up and down like a web page or PDF file.

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

12 Comments

  • Pete says:

    Thanks for this – especially the last paragraph, fits in well with some stuff I’ve been hearing/thinking about recently.

  • leadership thoughts. If we use use the term Leadership can we empower the laity into leadership as a leader has ascribed power so you will be perpetuating the cycle (i would suggest ascribed power is a hard notion to break). Therefore rather than empowering laity towards leadership do we need a new language that enbales a balance of power and is leadership an unhelpful term?

  • Boltono says:

    “Leaders” don’t organise…especially not other “leaders”.
    They serve, often behind the outer scenes.
    There are no “titles”. No more religious gubbins!
    It’s a spiritual emergence not a visual one in this world /cosmos/ scheme of things…not yet!

  • Josue says:

    “The shift from reading my Bible as a book to reading it on the computer screen […] a web page or PDF file.”
    It’s been a few years since I read the Bible on my Palm, and I even preach from my Palm notes, instead of from a paper 🙂
    Youth find it cool, adults find it weird (some even disrespectful). I just find it very practical–I can have different Bible versions, concordances and a bunch of tools in my pocket!

  • Sivin says:

    thanks for the “critic” quote.

  • matt b says:

    Concerning paradigm shifts and church resistance…
    I have a brief review and study of the book Pia Desideria (Pietist Desire) written by Spener in 1675. It is a review and comparison study of the early pietist movement with “post-modern/emergent church.” It was interesting to see some similar aspects.
    This one has a critical bent on the “post-modern/Emergent Church” movement:
    http://www.graf-fiti.com/PietistAndEmergentChurch.html
    Pia Desideria is worth a read though.

  • Just Josue says:

    eBible

    It’s been a few years since I read the Bible on my Palm, and I even preach from my Palm notes, instead of from a paper 🙂 Youth find it cool, adults find it weird (some even disrespectful). I

  • Ryan Bolger says:

    Andrew,
    Did the medieval church have as much difficulty with the new expression on the horizon? Yes, it was called the Reformation…
    The Reformation was very much (and continues to be) an expression of church within print culture — A contextualized gospel for the modern world, if you will. Western culture ceased to form its world around print beginning with the photograph in the mid-nineteenth century, but the print-culture church has a hard time making the transition…
    Ryan
    PS Great to hang with you in LA…

  • Matt says:

    Your “random thought” on “Kingdom thinking” got me thinking… in a way too long for comments. But it’s at
    http://www.msquaredt.com/blog/2005/05/18/kingdom-and-mission/
    if you’re interested.

  • Ryan Bolger says:

    Oops, listed the wrong web page for myself — cheers…Ryan

  • Dan says:

    I would recommend anyone who wants to think about the medievals and their problems to read C.S. Lewis ‘The Discarded Image : An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature’. This book has so many parrelels to the shift we are going through today. Brilliant!!

  • mark cross says:

    Your Hebrews 11 model of pilgrimage, journey as pilgrimage, really struck a cord with me. I’ve been thinking along these same lines of late myself.
    I’ve been following a conversation along these lines at another site between some emergent pastors & some modern pastors. The EP’s are trying to explain journey as pilgrimage as opposed to journey to destination. It’s a healthy discussion, populated by open minds on both sides, but it is funny to watch the thinking process of these modern pastors as they try to wrap their brain around NOT having a clear, stated destination in mind.

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