Last night was a scream! Fantastic. Thanks to those of you who came to the Boaz Lounge. I think i will open it up again tomorrow (Friday) during our pizza party (7pm to 10pm GMT) for those of you who want a chat.
But there is another room i want to mention. . .
I’ve been busy this morning. I done went and fixed up a Seminary classroom. Wanna come?
After having so much fun last night in the Boaz Lounge, I went ahead and made up a classroom setting to beta test as a virtual learning environment. The room holds 25 people, and if need be, I have a cool transporter (in the shape of a Narnia wardrobe) to shoot people over to Boaz Lounge. There may only be a few of us the first time, Would you like to join me for a seminary class experience? Letting me know beforehand would be helpful.
Suddenly Seminary, in moving over to a virtual space, will continue to be as unorganized and fun as always, and will maintain a commitment to equip people to seed new communities in the emerging culture. Conversation will probably revolve around the themes of spirituality, ecclesiology, new media, and postmodernity. But that will be up to you.
I was thinking next Tuesday night, at a time that is convenient for you. I am in London. Between 6pm and 9pm my time should be late enough for the Americans. Is it too late for those downunder? Let me know, and if you are in London, bring your computer over to my house – get a wireless card to pick up my WiFi signal, and come and join us in person.
The room is called Suddenly Seminary, a guest room of Habbo Hotel. You can find it by typing “Suddenly Seminary” in the search engine under Guest Rooms, or you can take the Narnia Wardrobe transporter from the Boaz Lounge. I may password protect it the room,but if i do, i will tell you the password on this blog site on Tuesday.
History of Suddenly Seminary:
1997 – “The Lab” was a Tuesday night training that we held in a coffee shop on Haight Street, San Francisco. Famous guest teachers included Gary Chapman (5 love languages) and Thom Wolf. This is why i want to hold it on a Tuesday.
2002 – Suddenly Seminary opened during Epicentrum Event in Europe. Weekend learning parties at our large house called The Giant Peach. Famous teachers included Wolfgang Simson (Houses That Change the World) and Brian McLaren. The idea of the name “Suddenly” was that of immediate access to resources, a seminary that popped up wherever it needed to, and the crazy feeling of rocking up inside such an environment and saying “Dang, I’m in Seminary!”
Questions I have for you:
1. What topics would you find most helpful in equipping to start movements for God in the emerging culture?
2. What other teachers/mentors would you like me to invite to join us?
Wow, this is incredible. I’m not a computer guy -coming to this site and a minimal amount of email and web surfing is about all I do. But I am amazed at what is possible. In your last post, when you said that you had just put the furniture in, I was thinking how easy it was to furnish an office in the virtural world. But then, I started wondering if eventually you would have to purchase furniture, and if materialism and status and name brands would start to play a role, like it does in the real world. Even in a virtual seminary, I am wondering how we will manage to bring over all of our “stuff” from the “real” world into the virtual world. Somehow, historically, our technology never really changes who we are, it just speeds up the process that we go through and the experiences we have. The day is probably already here, when some people live their lives, work, and play virtually, and never leave their computer. The Matrix has arrived. Thanks for helping us think through what it all means and how to navigate it.
I will see you at your home tomorrow night – looking forward to it.
ah . . that . . (Number 2 voice from Austin Powers) . . . has already happened.
you do have to purchase furniture for your room already. My two rooms have cost me almost 7 pounds. Although the cost of setting up a real seminary is significantly higher (add 6 zeros).
And people do go in and out of each others rooms asking for deals on the furniture or for gifts.
You know whats funny/
In the blog world, bloggers go on to blogs and talk about their blogs and their tools.
In the virtual room world, people go into other peoples rooms and talk about their new rooms and the furniture.
Same old thing, but its fun! Show you tomorrow.
um, right. And for my next great idea, I was thinking of threatening to blow up the world unless I was given ONE MILLION dollars. Thanks for orienting those of us who are steadily threatening to technologically enter the 1990’s!
Suddenly Seminary
What do you get when you cross a virtual hotel web site with a visionary leader in the emerging Church? The rebirth of “Suddenly Seminary.” According to Andrew Jones, the self-described “tall skinny kiwi” behind the blog of the same…
sounds great
just what we were looking for
will see you there
will come with wifi equipped ibook
and an ‘apple’ for the teacher
*smirk*
duo
Andrew: This is great. I think a great topic would be leading people to a properly formed eschatology. As far as teachers/mentors, Tony Jones and Stan Grenz would both be fantastic, and are the kinds of people who might be up for this kind of experience.
If this takes off (or even if it doesn’t) you’ll have to do sessions at different times — my calculations put your 6-9 pm smack dab in the middle of my workday . . .
You sound like a little kid with a new toy 😛
I’m +10 on GMT… so *does sums* 5am through to 8am here…
Ive played with Habbo before, actually some young people who worked with me (I didnt work with them) showed me the toy.
I might join you if I am stupid enough to stay up, which is a giant possability because I’m training myself to throw away my body clock to go to the church of fools on sundays 🙂
Wow! Instant messaging on a Clue board. Now I can hang out with my freinds and stay at home all at once!
Seriously, suddenly seminar sounds like an amazing experience that I’d love to sit in on. Something that I would love to probe in a group is how to make the church into a movement or how to de-institutionalize the church. Perhaps the best people to speak in this topic would be leaders from current movements- environmentalists, animal rights, boy scouts? I think that they may have some interesting insight into movements.
Sounds like gteat fun. I’m only GMT+3 so I’ll plan on being there.
Sounds like great fun. I’m only GMT+3 so I’ll plan on being there.
cheers for the space tonight andrew… regarding times we’re GMT+10 so 7pm here would be 9am there…
similarly 10pm there would be 8am here, 12pm there would be 10pm here…
Possible Topics:
*Cross-cultural ministry in the Developing World
*Support-raising or how to financially swing being a missionary
*Plato’s dialogues (i.e., how to think)
Suddenly Seminary
What do you get when you cross a virtual hotel web site with a visionary leader in the emerging Church? The rebirth of “Suddenly Seminary.” According to Andrew Jones, the self-described “tall skinny kiwi” behind the blog of the same…