putting wheels on Grenz’ theology of community
Felt this was worth posting on both sites;

Click here for full article: A chat with Frank Viola on church planting.

Came across an interview that Mike Morrell did recently with Frank Viola; in it he covers some really current issues that relate to the emerging church. He comments on Dallas Willard, Organic church - church as a living embodiment of Christ - an outflow of the triune community of the Godhead;

An organic church is simply a church that is left on its own after it is properly planted to develop by its own life. This is in stark contrast to a clergy-led, institution-driven church.

Stanley Grenz,

Someone once said that John Wimber put wheels on theologian George E. Ladd’s theology of the Kingdom. I have been similarly “accused” of putting wheels on Grenz’ theology of community. If that is true in any sense, I certainly am not the only one. But it is true that this work is rare today.

The Emerging Church,

By my lights, the key that will determine the future of the emerging church and its relationship to church planting hangs on whether or not the leaders in the conversation are willing to work together.

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congress date


The dates for the church planting congress have been confirmed now as the 8-10 March next year.

(From the above web site)

The Group for Evangelisation and Together in Mission are combining to hold a major church planting conference March 8-10 2006 at the Philadelphia Campus in Sheffield.

The vision is to encourage churches to be church planting and the focus will be at denominational, regional and local level.

The first day will look at a Vision for the Nation, and the values arising from research commissioned for the conference. The Archbishop of Canterbury has been invited to be one of four key speakers. The second day will be on Living out the Values, with interactive workshops, regional networking and other ways of sharing information and a celebration in the evening. The third day will be on The Way Ahead focusing on good practice, sharing resources and planning for the future.

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A weekend with Tony & Felicity Dale
Just a quick reminder for those interested in planting home churches, check out this weekend in Shropshire with Tony & Felicity Dale from House2House. There are still some spaces left and children can be part of the whole thing.

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house2house updated web site

Great to see that someone has put some funding up for the House2House site. It's looking good.

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lambeth palace
Lots to report from the last few days. Firstly Together in Mission relaunched themselves last Monday at a gathering of key church leaders at Lambeth Palace. As well as covering the extensive activities it is involved with it was also an opportunity to set the scene for the forthcoming National Church Planting Congress Mission 21 next March.

Bishop Graham Cray introduced the day with a look back at the Mission Shaped Church report which he chaired, Steve Croft then picked up the story with Fresh Expressions, then TiM director Martin Robinson gave a little history before setting the current scene.

He spoke about this 'imbetween the paradigms' moment we are currently in and that the Congress would be an opportunity to feel our way forward towards the new.

Joel Edwards then gave us some up to date info on the Forum for Change a joint initiative between EA, TiM and various other national organisations.

After lunch I then gave a report on the Research project in order to inform people what it was all about and ask for their help. Feed back was generally positive with some constructive criticism too. Any further thoughts from those who were there would also be helpful (use the comments button below or email me).

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planting reproducible simple churches, Bath July 23-24
An informal weekend with Tony & Felicity Dale for those involved with planting organic/simple/home churches.


Tony & Felicity Dale, two English doctors now based in Austin, Texas have over the last few years seen many people getting saved from unchurched backgrounds, and have planted a network of churches which meet in homes. They have written about some of this experience in a book entitled 'Simply Church' and following demands to make their church planting training more widely available have published 'Getting Started', a manual based on their highly successful Luke 10 training course.

Through their involvement with several other networks of home churches they began publishing a magazine called House2House which together with their web site www.simplechurch.com and training conferences serve as key tools in their goal to help saturate and transform communities with radical, home-based church planting movements.

In July (23-24) Tony & Felicity will be spending a weekend with some of us in Bath. We have a few spare places (though limited) and would like to invite anyone who may be interested to join us.

There will be no upfront cost but there will be an opportunity to contribute towards the costs of the weekend. Food will be provided (further details for those coming).

The plan is to have a relaxed and informal time learning from Tony & Felicity by hearing some of their story and participating in the conversation which follows.

To grab one of the last places drop me an email admin@simplechurch.co.uk or give me a call 0845 166 1073.

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launch of a "mega book"


The language of this book and its accompanying web site are unashamedly 'american' (sorry guys!) and maybe somewhat overstated (that's a British understatement!), but you've got to give them 10 out of 10 for passion and enthusiasm. That aside there are some fascinating things in this book, which I haven't read yet but hope to! Jim Rutz the author, heads up Open Church Ministries committed to an open form of worship and ministry modelled on the first church.

This book appears to combine what is happening in terms of church reformation with a significant increase in demonstrations of Gods power through 'ordinary' believers, witnessed through a growing number of recorded resurrections.

Here's a taster:

“EMPOWERMENT of what used to be called ‘the laity’ is the greatest paradigm-shattering event since the rise of the priesthood class in the 2nd century. What we are seeing today is the biggest shift in the history of the church: a transfer of momentum from the steady hands of the leaders to the fleet feet of the followers.”

“Miracles are happening like popcorn starting to pop. That is amazing enough, but they are also attracting numbers of people globally that no movement in history has seen before.”

“The Holy Spirit is rapidly revising Christianity. He is putting at the core of His new church small groups that are interactive, informal, exciting, and geared to rapid multiplication.”

“The revolution now upon us is a complete paradigm shift, taking us back to the time of Christ. It is going to be a lot bigger than the Reformation.”

posted by alexander @ 8:24 AM    1 comments

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AMEN!

By  Anonymous, at 6:10 AM  

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another boring apology
Second apology in 5 minutes!!
A kind reader has just flagged up that the comment button was not functioning, thanks Richard. Seems someone has been hacking into and changing some of my settings.

Should be working now. Comment away!

posted by alexander @ 1:26 PM    1 comments

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here's a test comment just to show it does work again!

By  alexander, at 1:30 PM  

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wondering where some pics went?
Just discovered today that those of you viewing this site on Internet Explorer have been missing out on some of the pics I have posted. Apologies, I have now worked out what the problem was!

For your interest I now use a browser called

Firefox. I have been using it for about a year and find it far superior to IE. It is easy to download and it automatically pulls across your favourites etc from IE.

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reaching the unchurched


Had a great meeting with Chris Stoddard from the Reaching the Unchurched Network today. As the name suggests RUN aims to...

* Envision other churches and their leadership with the glorious possibilities and hard realities of what “reaching the unchurched” could mean.
* Resource churches so that their ministry is attractive to seekers and sceptics.
* Network churches and ministries who want to prioritise winning the unchurched to Christ.

They have done some great work providing resources and networking opportunities amongst those churches committed to reaching out. They have over 700 members from 33 denominations and not just in the UK.

Together with Care for the Family they are preparing a DVD which will tell stories about churches which are managing to win 'Prodigals' back successfully. They are planning a conference on this theme early next year to encourage existing churches to become more 'prodigal-friendly'.

My thoughts on that; I think it was Bob Hopkins (ACPI) who said "We must stop starting with the church". What he was meaning by that was that in a missional context we have to start by going to the people, where they are, then allow church to be shaped from that encounter. Perhaps starting with church as it is and expecting a new coat of paint to suddenly make it more attractive to the de-churched is wishful thinking? Maybe I'm underestimating the scope of the forth coming conference. I'll leave Chris to be the judge of that (if he reads this!).

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day for church planters

The guys from Re:source are holding a day in Birmingham next month for anyone involved in church planting in the emerging culture. Here's the deal:

Re:source - Creating Church in the Emerging Culture

Date: Saturday July 2

Venue: Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham (directions on www.custardfactory.com)

Cost: £10 (lunch not included)

Time: 10:30am - 4pm

Fresh expressions | Emerging church | Missional church | New Mission Movements... whatever you want to call them something's happening. God is beckoning the church into the future and maybe just maybe she is responding. A day of training, encouragement, inspiration and meeting others to include...

* Pall Singh - a visual meditative feast as East meets West, Asian meets alt worship
* Stories/postcards from the edges of what God is doing in a variety of emerging churches
* Andrew Jones (aka TallSkinnyKiwi) will present emergAnt - teaching on emergence and growth in new church movements; and Connectivity and Fuel - practical advice for ongoing mission - how to avoid drying up and getting isolated
* Jonny Baker and Andrew Grinnell - fresh worship, ritual, visuals and tunes

Who's the day for?
Anyone currently involved or wanting to get involved in fresh expressions of church, mission in the emerging culture, or church planting who wants to meet some others who share the same passion, and get a bit of encouragement and input.

Download details & booking form here. (pdf)

posted by alexander @ 7:11 AM    1 comments

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Sounds good. Shame I can't make it as I'll be in Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History festival. Hope it goes well.

By  Keith, at 12:42 PM  

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