I am just back from a wonderful week in Minneapolis so sorry for the lack of posts. Have been working on some interesting ideas so will get posting again soon… though have to get Greenbelt over first (a highlight of my year). Here is what I am involved in for GB in case you can join me,

Friday 7:30pm – What Kind of Church is Emerging (a panel exploring the current state of Emerging Church)

Friday 9.30pm – Lessons in Evandalism (Ikon workshop)

Saturday 1.15pm – Ikon: Inquisition (Q&A with others from Ikon)

Saturday 4:00pm – Possibility of the impossible (a discussion on the instillation/gathering set up and run by the guys from ‘The Garden’, a group who are doing very exciting and innovative work)

Saturday 9.30pm – For the Bible tells me so (a panel discussion on inclusion and exclusion in the Bible)

Monday 12.30pm – Changing something so that everything remains the same (a talk exploring how faith collectives can instigate real change rather than merely rearranging chairs on the Titanic)

Monday 5.00pm – Beyond the Spectacular: exploring the miracle of Christianity (a talk attempting to unearth what the word ‘miracle’ really refers to in Christianity. Here I hope to expose the problem with the signs and wonders phenomenon)

On a different note. If you would like to find out about the conference that we just ran in Minneapolis check out Adam Moore’s reflections here

Below are a few photos,

The conference involved a mix of talks, facilitated discussions and workshops culminating in the creation and execution of a service (called ‘away’). The great thing about this approach is that, unlike merely giving a talk that people forget in a few days, this multifaceted approach can encourage long term change. The result is that people leave not just with head knowledge but equipped with a whole new range of skills that can help them either transform their current context or instigate a new one.

This is the second time that Ikon has run something like this and while it involves a lot of work the results are worth the effort. So we are keen to explore doing more of these type of events in 2009. If you are interested in booking us drop me an email here.

Myself and three others from ikon (Jonny McEwen, Kelly Turtle and Sarah Williamson) are gearing up to go to Minneapolis in a couple of weeks. There we will be offering a rich mix of talks, facilitated discussions and workshops to those who are interested in pioneering creative, radical new faith collectives. This will be an intimate, focused conference dedicated to working at a serious level with those who wish to explore a post-secular theory and practice that has the potential to reconfigure the religious landscape and blur the lines between sacred/secular, religious/irreligious, church/world. For more details contact Chris Enstad.

Here are the details,

Cost is $100 and includes four meals and materials.

Send check plus name, address, phone and email to:
ikon event
6100 Normandale Road
Edina, MN 55436

Location:
Solomon’s Porch
100 W. 46th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55419

Sponsored by: Normandale Lutheran Church and Solomon’s Porch

Over the next few weeks I am going to offer a series of short commentaries on parts of the new book. If you have a section you would like me to expand on let me know the page number etc. and I will try to include it. Anyway, to start I thought I would simply offer this quotation from chapter 1, a quotation which sets out the central thrust of the book,

“There are countless people who betray Christianity, individuals who turn their backs on its message because they no longer believe in it or because it asks too much of them. But there are a few who betray Christianity, not because they no longer believe in it, but because they believe in it so deeply, because they understand that unless the seed of our Christianity falls to the ground and dies it will remain a single seed, but if it is allowed to die it will produce many seeds…

The cost of Christianity, for so many, is thought to lie in the demand that we die to ourselves for the sake of our Christianity. The cross we are called to carry is thus one upon which we are to be put to death. But what if this cross we bear had another meaning? What if the cross that we are called to carry is not for us at all but rather, like the cross that Simon of Cyrene labored beneath, is really for another—a cross for us to crucify what we love? Is it possible that the cross we labor beneath must be used to crucify our Christianity? How many of us can truly understand this question? How many of us can really know what it is like to destroy what we love for the sake of what we love—to be the most faithful of betrayers? Yet perhaps it is precisely this that we are being called to: engaging in that most difficult task of putting our religion to death so that a religion without religion can spring forth”