i’ve decided to go back to blogger

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments. I’m going back to http://faithmaps.blogspot.com though the name will still be “faithmaps blog.” I won’t be going back to using “emergesque.”

I’m going back because I was forever wishing to add some kind of code to my template (twitter, shelfari, etc) that the free wordpress.com just wouldn’t allow. And blogger will now allow individuals to opt in to receiving further comments to a post sent to them via email, a feature I like quite a bit.

My apologies to moving you back again after only 9 mos.

Pls correct your RSS feeds, if necessary.

the buzz begins?

Andrew Jones tantalizingly twitters:

“ working on the largest gathering of emerging church leaders in 2008 – country to be announced soon ”

Interesting!

NT Wright and Bart Ehrman are Debating the Problem of Pain

Justin Taylor provides us a helpful metapost to the BeliefNet exchange:

• Bart Ehrman: How the Problem of Pain Ruined My Faith
• N.T. Wright: God’s Plan to Rescue Us
• Bart Ehrman: What About the Actual Suffering?
• N.T. Wright: What it Looks Like When God Runs the World
• Bart Ehrman: God’s Kingdom Has Not Come
• N.T. Wright: The Bible Does Answer the Problem–Here’s How

JI Packer Leaves the Anglican Church of Canada

“However, with deep reluctance and regret we have concluded that we cannot continue the Anglican ministry to which we were ordained under your jurisdiction. The Diocese, under your leadership, has departed from historic, orthodox Anglican teaching and practice. It has departed from what the Primates have unanimously recognized as the standard of teaching of the Anglican Communion. The Diocese is in a state of broken or impaired communion with the majority of Anglicans worldwide. Sadly, it appears the Anglican Church of Canada has now similarly departed from Anglican teaching and practice.”

Justin Taylor does a roundup here.

On the Post-Congregationals

“Stephen,

You know I love ya, but … 😉 I feel like I have to confess … that I am a post-congregational Christian. And I think your overview makes a mistake in mixing post-church (or, I prefer the term post-congregational) Christians with those who are de-churched non-Christians (those who have grown up in Christianity but have rejected it later in life for whatever reason).

Although your overview here (which I just found ironically by doing a Google search on “post-congregational”) makes it sound as if all post-congregational Christians are “lost souls,” I am finding that the opposite is in fact true. Those I know who are choosing the route of post-congregationalism (if that’s even a word) are doing so out of a missional motivation to intentionally be the Church outside of traditional church structures in order to be salt and light amongst a largely de-churched world.”

Steve Knight, a Post-Congregational himself, has begun a dialog with me in comments to a post I made on that topic on Leadership Network’s Digital Blog.  See his entire comment and my response here.

Of Relatively Inconsequential Significance

Nevertheless, this makes me very happy:

Sarah Connor Chronicles Avoids Termination

LarryNorman.com

Our Metapost on Larry Norman, his life, passing and funeral has gotten a lot of hits.  I noticed yesterday that the LarryNorman.com has been significantly redesigned and it looks great.

A Public Service Announcement

I read once that there are two types of people:

Those who one day lose everything on their hard drive

and

those who one day lose everything on their hard drive.

😉

This weekend I fit both groups.

I was hooking up a 7 Port Hub and when I plugged my laptop back up, it threw a circuit breaker in my house.  When I switched the circuit back on and turned on the laptop, I had no hard drive!

I lost all the work I did on Saturday for a forthcoming Leadership Network Missional Renaissance article.

But it could have been much, much worse.  I did not lose the vast majority of 22 years of personal computing because I backup my data every evening losing the inexpensive and easy-to-use Second Copy utility.  I backup my USA TODAY laptop every morning and my personal laptop late every evening automatically using this tool.  And I always extend the warranty on my computers when I purchase them so I should have a brand new hard drive in a few days.

So if you don’t back up your data on a regular basis, please start!

Big Changes at Willow Creek

““Anonymity is not the driving value for seeker services anymore,” says Hawkins. “We’ve taken anonymity and shot it in the head. It’s dead. Gone.” In the past Willow believed that seekers didn’t want large doses of the Bible or deep worship music. They didn’t want to be challenged. Now their seeker-sensitive services are loaded with worship music, prayer, Scripture readings, and more challenging teaching from the Bible.”

– See the whole Christianity Today article

Request for Emerging Church Study

Please help my friend Will Samson study the Emerging Church!  This is for his Ph.D. work and could be helpful to the conversation.

He writes:

“If you consider yourself part of the conversation/phenomenon that is the Emergent/Emerging Church, I would appreciate ten minutes of your time.

I am collecting preliminary data for a more detailed social network survey in the fall. The survey involves the Emerging / Emergent Church, and the people who tend to be connected to that conversation. If you would be willing to help out, Click here to take survey

This is a convenience sample, and is not meant to be scientific. However, if you would be willing to help out, it should take less than ten minutes to answer just a few short questions, and I would really appreciate it.”