Barker: Chapter 11
The first time I heard about a Church in "second life" I was pretty chocked. How can a community be online?...how can we live fellowship through a keyboard and a screen? Even if I still don't get it all, I understand the important place of cyber media in our western culture, and I think the church, in stead of rejecting it should be willing to use it in an intelligent way. Thinks like blogs, wikis...offer an opportunity to connect with people in a unique way and to share idea and information that would stay isolated otherwise.
The first time I heard about a Church in "second life" I was pretty chocked. How can a community be online?...how can we live fellowship through a keyboard and a screen? Even if I still don't get it all, I understand the important place of cyber media in our western culture, and I think the church, in stead of rejecting it should be willing to use it in an intelligent way. Thinks like blogs, wikis...offer an opportunity to connect with people in a unique way and to share idea and information that would stay isolated otherwise.
Barker: Chapter 12
It is important for a church who want to have an effective impact, to be able to read the city or neighboorhood it is located in. The analysis of the social spaces, the power at work, the movements of people etc are keypoint to a good ministry in the core of a city. For example, in Europe, one would want to know were the social life happens, where the part of the population the ministry is aimed at gather (bars, cultural centers, sport club, etc...
Smith: Chapter 4.
Our evangelical background has put aside all kind of spiritual formation/discipline, excusing it by the fact that "faith is a personal matter". But as Smith analyses it, spiritual practices are found in our culture and has an effect on us, wether we want it or not. The goal of the church should then be to bring counter-discipline, counter spiritual formation. I think that we have a whole lot to learn from the fathers of the church and the monastic tradition, and I feel that more and more peoples of my generation feel like returning to those traditions.
Gibbs/Bolger: Chapter 2.
The question of denomination and labels is an important one in the US, a less important one in Europe I think. Anyway, the fact that most emerging churchs are willing to define itself as "and" or "with" in stead of as "against"is a good question for me in my future ministry and in my place in the church.
The definition of Emerging Church by Gibbs and Bolger gives a good idea and put words on what I would like to pursue while going back to Belgium. This chapter makes me aware of the tension bestween this and the tradition, the modern church our culture.
Gibbs/Bolger: Chapter 3.
The emerging church's will to replace Jesus' life at the center of their message is something that strike me. The church has to take its missionnal place in the community, in the city, in the country. That shift from a "bringing-in" church to a "living-out" church sounds so real to me and my reading of the Gospel. The church needs to be real to its contemporaries, it needs to propose a way of life instead of dogmas and dry beliefs. I think that this is what people are looking for today: something real, even if it can be hard in some ways, but real.
Smith: Chapter 4.
Our evangelical background has put aside all kind of spiritual formation/discipline, excusing it by the fact that "faith is a personal matter". But as Smith analyses it, spiritual practices are found in our culture and has an effect on us, wether we want it or not. The goal of the church should then be to bring counter-discipline, counter spiritual formation. I think that we have a whole lot to learn from the fathers of the church and the monastic tradition, and I feel that more and more peoples of my generation feel like returning to those traditions.
Gibbs/Bolger: Chapter 2.
The question of denomination and labels is an important one in the US, a less important one in Europe I think. Anyway, the fact that most emerging churchs are willing to define itself as "and" or "with" in stead of as "against"is a good question for me in my future ministry and in my place in the church.
The definition of Emerging Church by Gibbs and Bolger gives a good idea and put words on what I would like to pursue while going back to Belgium. This chapter makes me aware of the tension bestween this and the tradition, the modern church our culture.
Gibbs/Bolger: Chapter 3.
The emerging church's will to replace Jesus' life at the center of their message is something that strike me. The church has to take its missionnal place in the community, in the city, in the country. That shift from a "bringing-in" church to a "living-out" church sounds so real to me and my reading of the Gospel. The church needs to be real to its contemporaries, it needs to propose a way of life instead of dogmas and dry beliefs. I think that this is what people are looking for today: something real, even if it can be hard in some ways, but real.
Good work, I'd like to see a little more discussion about your own church/denomination/tradition context because where you have it, it's good.
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