“Practice” is all the rage in my field, practical theology, these days. There are books and books about it (hell, I’ve even written books and books about it), and there’s a powerful group of practical theologians who gather regularly under the auspices of the Lilly Endowment to talk about. Craig Dykstra, VP for Religion at Lilly, is the convener of said group, and he’s written about his angle on practices, which is roughly in line with Alaisdair MacIntyre‘s recover of... Read more
There’s a great new blog that you should add to your reader. It’s called the Burner Blog, and it’s put out by Fuller Seminary’s Center for Lifelong Learning (for whom, I’m happy to report, I will soon be teaching. Watch here for details.) I am a proud alumnus of Fuller and happy to be joining the faculty as an adjunct professor. Honestly, it’s unlike any seminary I know of because of its size and its wildly diverse faculty. While yes,... Read more
Here it is so far. You can tell how far I’ve gotten when the chapter subheads start to drop off… CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS TABLES ABBREVIATIONS PREFACE COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER ONE: THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT AND THE PROJECT OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGY Introduction The “Emerging Church Movement” – A Working Definition Literature Review The Emerging Church Movement as a New Social Movement An Osmerian Approach to Practical Theology The Promise of Transversal Rationality for the ECM CHAPTER TWO: AN INSIDE LOOK AT... Read more
So, I took a crack at building a mallard house over the weekend. It’s a poor man’s mallard house, to be sure, but I wanted to build it exclusively with items we had around the garage at the cabin. So here’s what I did: 1) I took about 6 feet of chicken wire and laid it out. 2) I built a platform using scrap lumber. 3) I “borrowed” two of the floating noodles from the kids. I secured them to... Read more
Earlier this week I asked what you, dear reader, considered to be the charism of the emerging church movement. Only a couple of you took the time to respond, so maybe the bulk of you don’t think that the ECM really has offered anything. Regardless, I think that TransFORM: East, which launches today, is a great occasion to think a bit about what the ECM has offered, and has to offer. First, the past. (more…) Read more
One of the great joys of the last year of my life has been forging a wonderful friendship with Philip Clayton. When we were at Columbia Seminary in January, we were invited by Jeff Straka to talk to the robust Atlanta Cohort of the emergence movement. Dan Ra video recorded it, and the Nick & Josh Podcast is releasing it bit-by-bit. Here’s part one: (more…) Read more
Yesterday, I took one of the most anticipated drives of the young year, to open our family lake cabin for the season. Being that this has been an abnormally mild Spring, we’re opening the cabin earlier than anyone can remember. (You can get a taste for the environment of the cabin by taking in the beautiful Courtney Perry triptych banner at the top of this blog.) I drove up with my brother, Ted, and my new yellow lab, Albert. And... Read more
Yesterday, I posted about the Lifecycle(s) of Emergence(s), on the same day that two important items were posted online: The full roster of speakers at TransFORM East (which looks absolutely amazing and makes me wish I could attend), and The announcement that Gareth Higgins has been appointed the director of the Wild Goose Festival, slated for June, 2011 (which I will be attending). Let those serve as Exhibits T & U in the emergent-is-not-dead trial. That being said, let’s start... Read more
Thanks to Bob Carlton, peruser of all things wonderful on the Interwebs, this fantastic piece on the Lifecycle of Emergence by Dave Pollard has come to my attention. Arguing that the traditional models of hype and adoption don’t reflect reality well, Pollard refers to Margaret Wheatley and Debbie Frieze’s model of emergence, depicted thusly by Chris Corrigan: Pollard writes, Emergence is an inherently complex-system construct. Rather than trying to “create” communities, what this model does is acknowledge pioneering efforts, then... Read more
I arrived in Nashville on Thursday evening, just in time to take in the closing movie of the Nashville Film Festival, Cyrus, with the incomparable Gareth Higgins. My tripartite review: John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei can act more with their faces than most actors can with their whole bodies. Jonah Hill is uncomfortably huge (by that I mean he’s so overweight that it’s uncomfortable to watch. It’s billed as a comedy, but it’s rarely laugh-out-loud funny. It’s much more... Read more
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