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Hey Everybody,

For those of you in Portland, come join us as we’ll be serving at 5 schools on August 23rd from 8-Noon. You’ll find all the details about this on www.loveportland.org under the SERVE:Schools tab! This is a great opportunity to serve our city alongside one another while experiencing the blessing of giving yourself away.

Thanks for all the comments regarding what you’re reading this Summer and why.  I thought I should share as well:

The book of Proverbs by Bruce Waltke
Justice Right and Wrongs  by Nicholas Wolterstorff
Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block
The End of Memory by Miroslav Volf
The Essential Writing of Emerson

Please continue to send me your lists, it’s been great to see what God’s been putting on your hearts.

As I mentioned in my “great wisdom” post, my good friend Connie was just featured on the Georgene Rice show from KPDQ a few nights ago - within the next week she’ll be sharing her story again in a concert/storytelling format here in Portland at a few locations - it’s definitely a worthy story to check out! Here are the details::

The first one is Saturday July 12th at 7pm held at the Portland Fellowship House 1831 SE Madison,Portland with desserts and coffee, space is limited so please RSVP by July 9 at 503 235-6364.

The second will be Sunday July 13th at 7pm. Cedar Mill Bible Church 12208 NW Cornell Rd, Portland

Finally after months of waiting, Portland has some legitimately hot weather and the new Coldplay album drops - a nice combination for sure.

For you avid book readers, although this may sound really stupid, you need to get Delicious Monster (http://www.delicious-monster.com/). It’s this amazing program for organizing your entire library - which, for me, has transformed a “mildly alphabetic system” to nothing less than a machine. I know it sounds funny to have someone promote a library program - but of all the Mac-only literary organizational systems on the market - this one has my vote for ‘08.  On the literary note… My fellow Portland neighbor, Dan Merchant, has a book that should hit the summer reading list for sure:: Lord, Save Us From Your Followers (it was also a tight film). Dan’s entire project has been great at igniting a conversation needed within the church.

I would love to hear from you - other than Dan’s - leave a comment on what books are making your Summer reading list.

peace

r

Attention Portland: July 7th from 4:30-6:00pm on 93.3 FM.

Recently Georgene Rice from KPDQ interviewed my friend Connie and the station has decided to rebroadcast the program on July 7th. Connie shares her journey of faith through the death of her husband, Scott. He was a great friend of mine, and a huge influence in my life. It was a tragic loss, but God is continually revealing his redemption through it all. It’s a story you shouldn’t miss.

One of our Imago Dei church plants called Adullam has shared their story in a great book called The Tangible Kingdom. This book will not only help encourage the church’s missional call, but will specifically help you in your understanding of the power of incarnational community in the world. Visit their website www.tangiblekingdom.com for more details or find their book on Amazon.

Just wanted to let you all know I’ll be down in Pasadena next week for Mosaic’s Awaken 2008. Billed as an unleashing of Imagination and Possibilities - this is a great 3 day event focused on showcasing Experience, Experiments, and Experts. This looks like it will be a great opportunity for those of you that plan on attending. For more information or to register at the last minute, here is the link -

http://awaken2008.com/

Hey, I wanted to let you all know about a book that just came out this winter by Paul Metzger. The book is called Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church. It’s a great book that I highly recommend to you all. Paul is a good friend, a respected professor at Multnomah Biblical Seminary, as well as a member of Imago Dei Community. You need to read this one.

Been catching up on life after a crazy fall.  Amazing stuff happening with the Advent Conspiracy we are over 1000 churches on board in some capacity  including the world relief partnership. We take our Advent offering next week at Imago and in January we hope to tell the story of what happened when all those churches worshiped Christ more in 07.  Pretty killer since last year it was just five churches and this year is pretty much went viral.   We are praying that we will have an amazing story to tell of how the church told their amazing story.  Not too late to jump in.

Lots of crazy connections taking place along with it. Morgan Spurlock form Super Size Me e mailed me while he was in town and invited my family and I out to see the premier of What Would Jesus Buy?  Great movie, if it is playing in your town you need to check it out. He was kind enough to come by for one of our services and let me interview him.  You can see it all at Advent Conspiracy site.
My post on the emerging church generated a lot of comments and many of you put forth some deep thinking and time in sharing your appreciation and concerns both of the movement and/or what I had to say. I hope to write more on that in the coming weeks since it seems to be something that many people are wondering, curious, confused, or frustrated by.  The interesting thing that I am learning is that even in the blogoshpere or perhaps especially in the blogosphere we read everything through our own set of lenses or assumptions. Some of you assumed by my use of “orthodoxy” I meant only my own and linked me up with people I know putting me in the same theological camp with them, regardless of knowing if that was true. Other’s of you assumed that the only “orthodoxy” that mattered was the one you held to and everyone else is pretty much out.  It think it would be wise for us to assume less and beleive it or not it is a very cultural thing for us in America to jump to judgment based on sound bites. We are quick to speak slow to listen and we really need to work this out and I am including myself in this one. I get humbled when I hang out with my friends from Africa or the UK even and they are not like that. They wait longer, listen more, and don’t rush to label quite so fast.  Culture … can’t seem to shake it.

I look forward to more dialogue and I would love to start off the conversation on the issue of “Orthodoxy” What historically has made someone “orthodox” and what historically has made someone a “heretic” ?  Do those definitions still apply particularly in regards to the emerging church? What do you do if someone is deemed a heretic?  What does church history tell us, what does scripture say?   I think these questions may help us bring some definition to the “whose in” and “whose out” debate, or perhaps it may muddy the water a bit more.

Just found this link to a great message on the EC by Scot McKnight speaking at Westminster, from Gideon, that I got off of Andrews Jones sight. I talked with Andrew recently it had been some time since we had connected. I still believe he is one of the best thinkers out there and quite unassuming. He has a much more global read on the emerging church conversation and I really respect his life.

This message from Scot McKnight is a strong one. For those of you who have been following our conversation you will benefit from his analysis, which came about from first hand interviews and really brilliant. He captures the guts and values of this thing brings back the missional aspect of what really drove the whole thing in the first place. It is also a movement that God is building, it is growing through small groups of people that are multiplying all over the world. No one should just dismiss it and as you try to get your mind around it this will be a very helpful take on it from an American. The audio is not great but you can hear it fine.

keep looking »