Egypt: 33 bodies in the main Cairo morgue right now. Might be more in Alexandria and other cities. 1700 injured, many blinded by rubber bullets. Last month’s violence against Coptic Christians, which resulted in 23+ deaths, was the bloodiest sectarian violence in Egypt in 60 years. This week, things got even worse. Its a mixed…
Read MoreLargest Christian Gathering in Egypt in a Thousand Years
A thousand years is a long time. As far as we can tell, the prayer meeting last night that I attended in the cave church of St Simon, which they said had 70,000 [update: official count was 71,000] by the time I was leaving, was by far the largest Christian gathering in Egypt in over…
Read MoreLargest capital flight since the Exodus?
The Exodus provided Bob Marley with one of his greatest songs but the actual event in Egypt, which occurred around (1312 BCE), some cost the country some serious coin. When the persecuted Hebrews left Egypt, they took took gold, silver, clothes, as well as significant human resources. And now it’s happening again! Not with the Hebrews,…
Read MoreInnovative worship shift
“The edges and images of congregational vitality continually shifted over the last half of the twentieth century“. David A. Roozen. From “A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010” [PDF] which claims to be the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S. HT: Faith Communities Today, TJ
Read MoreEpoch2011 giving away $50,000
Big event tonight in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre. I received an invitation to be a part of Epoch 2011 but unfortunately, I am in the wrong part of the world tonight. From what I can see, the event is a celebration of Christian ministry and creativity. I like the idea of making the selection and…
Read MoreEuropean Church Planting Survey
Hey. If you are starting churches in Europe then we need your input. There is still time to get your information into a survey hosted by some friends of mine. Go here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/eurochurch IT’S ONLY 5 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME. COME ON!!! I noticed that most of the groups represented are European or American mission…
Read MoreHow does your church rank on the Informality Scale?
How much does your church resemble the community around it? Contextuality is a hot issue. Pyromaniacs have posted a lot on engaging the culture over the past year. Emerging church folk have popped up on the other side to defend it. Even I had some response to John McArthur’s “Contextualization is a curse” rant. More importantly, there…
Read MoreThe Emerging Church: Movement or Conversation?
It’s great to see so much conversation on the emerging church. Roger Olsen is pumping out some provocative content. His post yesterday is on the topic of emerging church as a movement [or not]. It’s a movement, dammit! 6 years ago, I was helping 2 other guys to write the Wikipedia stub on “emerging church”…
Read MorePerriman on Emerging Church
The evangelical mind has become a closed loop. It has evolved into a ‘Second Life’, a vivid, exotic alternative reality, with its own intrinsic plausibility and coherence but only an approximate and in many respects spurious relationship to the real world. The emerging church, therefore, stands for a deconstruction of this alternative virtual reality and…
Read MoreJohn Stott. Gone for now.
He was one of the most important evangelical leaders of last century. John Stott passed away yesterday at age 90. I will remember him mostly as the guy behind the Lausanne Covenant – his story and influence was all over the Lausanne Congress I attended last year in Capetown – but I will also remember…
Read MorePhilanthropists and the Reformation
This week we visited Bethleham Chapel in Prague, where Jan Hus pastored and preached. Sasa Flek gave us a great historical overview of the Reformation from the Czech perspective. Normally, when theologians tell the story, they focus on the doctrinal changes of the Reformation and honor the theologians like Wyclif, Hus, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc. But…
Read MoreEmergent Blogging Nomadic Couch Surfing Apostles
I told you I was speaking at Cornerstone this year. Check out the name Cornerstone Festival has given for my 3 seminar sessions. Here’s how it looks on their website: ———————————————- Emergent Blogging Nomadic Couch Surfing Apostles Andrew Jones (3 Sessions) The Tall Skinny Kiwi offers a travelogue of places and people on the road…
Read MoreSpecial needs children in church
If Elevation Church can't handle a special needs child in their distraction-free seeker sensitve service, then how the heck will they put up with my Pentecostal friends from Brazil??? Now that's some yellin' and whoopin'. I tell ya! I dont mean to make light of the situation. Its an emotional issue on the blogs right…
Read More3 things that have helped me be a better bridge builder.
I am speaking in a few hours on a panel that deals with Ecumenicism. 2. ECUMENISM. Friday, 3pm to 6pm Centre for Encounter: Central and Eastern Europe Ecumenism – That’s my story too. Experiences which give us courage. Story telling salon. Andrew Jones, global networker, New Zealand, Andrzej Korus, Wroclaw, Poland, Prof. Dr. Konrad Raiser,…
Read MoreWhat would you do with the Crystal Cathedral?
The Crystal Cathedral is up for sale and I just heard that someone bought it for $46 million. Dang! Maybe some emerging church out there should have bought the 40 acre campus and recycled it into something useful. Although if Randall Balmer is correct in saying that passing on a huge unsustainable megachurch is a…
Read MoreI need books on emerging blogging nomadic couch surfing apostles
I need you to recommend some books for me. The creative people at Cornerstone Festival have taken my three seminars and given them a single title. THANKS! I have asked them to change the “emergent” word, which I try to avoid, but that’s fine if they want to use it. Here’s how the seminar looks on their website: Emergent…
Read MoreFaith 2.0: Religion on the Internet
Yesterday I listened to the podcasts from Faith 2.0 Religion on the Internet, a conference last week in England about religion on the internet. Jointly sponsored by Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Durham University. The best talk in my opinion is the keynote speech [download here] by Catherine Wybourne, the "invisible nun" from Holy Trinity…
Read MoreMission in Digital Frontiers: Learning Day in Adelaide
Next week I am doing a learning day at Uniting College, Adelaide, South Australia. Thanks to Dr Steve Taylor, Director of Missiology, for inviting me over. You might remember Steve for his EmergentKiwi blog or his excellent book The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change.…
Read MoreUpstream Collective in Prague: Try the cheese!
The Upstream Collective arrives in Perth for a missions/history experience that is designed to have an impact far beyond the lucky people who are on location. Welcome to Prague, everyone. My question for you to consider: As the Middle East currently goes through a political transition that mirrors Eastern/Central Europe 20 years ago, what can…
Read MoreTop 200 Church Blogs. Do reformed nerds really rule?
Church blog rankings have one purpose and one purpose only: To allow the reformed bloggers to ridicule the emerging church bloggers. If there was another purpose, it would be for all of us church bloggers to stroke our tender blog-egos. Kent Shafer just released his Top 200 church blogs and it seems the Reformed bloggers…
Read More