We are back in USAwhich we refer to as homewhere most of our family was bornwhere we come back to after our travels to recalibrate. Except it feels less like home than the countries we just came from. We are global nomads.We went on walkabout but we are still walking. We started as backpackers but…
Read MorePamela Hartigan wants to dump the word ‘social entrepreneur’
Pamela Hartigan on the subject of social entrepreneurship from "Why you dont have to be a social entrepreneur to make change." “The old guard – people, say, my age – would say, 'I'm going to go out and make a bucket of money and then I'm going to give it away when I'm 50 or…
Read MorePizza in Maryland with Tony Sheng
Tony Sheng is sourcing the pizza tonight and a few friends are coming over to his house in Maryland where we are staying. Nice family. Last night I talked to a few high schoolers who are part of his Ember Cast global student leadership tribe. Hi Donna!! Ha ha I found your blog. Does Emily…
Read MoreSocial media, philanthropy and more
– New Yorker [yes, the New Yorker – who knew?] on Twitter, Facebook and Social Activism. Includes story on Moldova. HT: Andrew Jones Daily – Gawker Founder says the “future of online media is video” but personally, I dont think this will happen until video becomes findable through word or image recognition software. Scrolling through…
Read MoreOutreach Magazine and Lausanne
Outreach Magazine will be covering the Lausanne World Congress in Capetown next month and they have asked me to be their blogger. FANTASTIC! They are setting up a dedicated page on their site when I can stream my media-rich responses to this historic event. Tell you more when I know. Related: When I return from…
Read MoreFarewell to FuturistGuy blog
Once I called him the smartest guy in the emerging church. Today, Brad Sargent is still just as smart and just as generous, even though he doesn’t use the “emerging church” label anymore. And even though his health just got downgraded, again. So, lacking the energy to keep up his writing, Brad is stopping his…
Read MoreGlobal Faith Forum
As you know, we are trying to avoid the Christian conference circuit during our Coast to Coast tour of USA, driving past the Speaker-Fests and Preach-A-Thons and endless parades of good-looking-30something-men-on-a-stage-with-microphones and we are attempting instead to focus on innovative grassroots movements under the radar that are making a difference without book contracts. But WE…
Read MoreLove INC and the La Borde family
We are in Poughkeepsie, New York this morning, staying with the La Borde family. They are part of an exciting new movement that brings churches together to meet the needs of the poor in their local districts around USA. Its called Love in the Name of Christ, or Love INC. And its on Facebook. BBC…
Read More98 Top Christian Blogs + 2 more
Another list of the 98 Top Christian Blogs. HT: ChurchCrunch. I know there are many variables that go into these lists and one should take them with a pinch of salt. But they are also a good introduction to what’s out there. This one seems to be a list of Protestant Christian blogs which again…
Read MoreThe Motorbike in the Middle of our Kitchen
Tomorrow in New York our family is telling a short story about our travels. Lots of weird and interesting things have happened to us in the 25 countries we have lived in over the past 18 months. Sometimes these serendipitous and random situations seem quite normal when they happen but then there are times when…
Read MoreWild Goose Festival Cometh – June 2011
For those of you wishing that Greenbelt Festival in UK would somehow come over to USA, it will . . next year. The Wild Goose Festival will be about spirituality, creativity and justice. June 23-26, 2011 in North Carolina.I remember the first conference call a few years ago to discuss the possibility of this festival.…
Read MoreNew York: At Radical Living this Saturday
This Saturday night our family will be having dinner with Radical Living, a 'Christ-centered cohousing community' in Brooklyn, New York. You might have read about them in the New York Times in "Sharing the Faith, Splitting the Rent". They have invited us to tell our story "The Motorbike in the Middle of our Kitchen", something…
Read MoreRandom thoughts and links on living with Muslims
– When we lived in Portland, OR, we had Muslim students live with us. Ahmed from Yemen stayed for two years and his brother Ali stayed one year. We watched the Gulf War on CNN from the same couch but were cheering for different sides – that didn’t matter. We loved those guys and they…
Read MoreHas God left Europe for Good? [Time]
“Many people may be rediscovering spirituality, but they’re not necessarily returning to the church or sticking to its tenets.” O Father Where Art Thou?, Time Mag, Sep 17
Read MoreEntrepreneurs or Leaders?
The USA is lagging behind in social innovation and social enterprise rather than leading, suggests a well-researched post released in June by Timothy Ogden. Almost all of the world-changing innovations from from the developing world and very few from USA, despite the money poured into them. Reasons for this, Ogden suggests, have to do with…
Read MoreWhatever
“Meg Duerksen is a mom of five, photographer and an awesome TypePad blogger” says the email from Typepad who are showcasing Meg’s blog “Whatever.” I dont think I have seen a religious blog recommended by them before. Its a a great blog with lots of fun and color. And its not lacking in spiritual content…
Read MoreLausanne 3: Its gonna be BIG!
Are you coming to Cape Town for Lausanne 3 next month? Let me know, and leave a link below to your blog and connect with me on the Lausanne conversation site. Maybe we could get together in Cape Town. There is already a lot of buzz about Lausanne 3 and I think its going to…
Read MoreEchoing Green looking for social entrepreneurs
Echoing Green is looking for their next crop of early-stage emerging social entrepreneurs. Are you thinking of starting a new project? They offer a helpful grant and plenty of support. Check out your eligibility. They do not support faith based initiatives but your social enterprise can have a spiritual base. I had the privilege of…
Read MoreIs there any future for the institutional church?
More scandalous news from Belgium this morning. Jonny Baker asks the question: In the light of the scandals surrounding the Catholic church, and the decline in church attendance over the past decades, has the classic model of the institution had its day? Is institutional Christianity an outmoded organisational technology slow, heavy-weight and rigid and are…
Read MoreChurch Day. Dresden. June 1-5, 2011
I want to give you some warning on this one so you can tell your boss you are taking holidays on the first week of June and flying over to Dresden, Germany. When she asks “Why?” you will tell her that you want to be part of a BIG CHURCH DAY with over 100,000 people…
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