A Couple of Days Away

I went to San Diego last week for the Emergent/Youth Specialties conference (you can read blogs from some people who attended via a link on this page). It was a quick trip at two days, but I enjoyed the time nevertheless. The weather was glorious, sunny and 80 degrees. Green, too. I am reminded that we are approaching Spring. San Diego was a nice foretaste of what is on its way here (not including the beach and ocean). It was also great to catch up with a group of people with whom I've developed relationships over the last several years. Last year was the first such conference and Mimi came along. The conference was good but, unfortunately, it was cold and rainy for the entire time.

Both last year and this year Doug Pagitt and I did two day seminar on Church Planting in the Emerging Culture. We're doing it again in Nashville in May. Nine hours talking about church planting over two days! It is always good to spend some time reflecting on what has happened in the context of our community and how to talk about it meaningful ways. It is also really good to listen to Doug talk about Solomon's Porch and what drives both him and that community. These are environments that stimulate learning and creativity for me. I am grateful that as a communicator and teacher I inhabit environments where I can also be a learner at the same time.

And I am always grateful and humbled to talk to a group of people who are, in many ways, putting themselves on the line. Some people come to these critical concerns courses for the purpose of exploration - to listen to some people who have gone ahead of them and see if they have a similar spark. Others come looking for tools and language, permission really, to follow their dreams and begin intentional missional communities for the sake of expanding the kingdom of God.

By the way, I ran into Dwight Friesen, a pastor in Seattle who I met six years ago at a gathering for "future church planters" in New Mexico (Doug was leading it). He is in the same doctoral program at George Fox University as Jason Clark. Anyway, Dwight and I were discussing some interesting books (Linked and Nexus) and the notion of how fluid structures are and the way that might affect our understandings of community. Dwight is describing them as "Christ-clusters." I downloaded a paper he is working on that is titled, "Scale-Free Networks as a Structural Hermeneutic for Relational Ecclesiology." If you want to read it, go to his site and hit the "writings" link, then the link for "essays."

Comments

[James Mills]

Tim,
Thanks! Once again you are pointing folks to a great resource. I just got done reading Smart Mobs so I have been thinking about some of this stuff. It was nice to read Dwight's piece.

Hope you had a great time in San Diego and I'll be praying for you in Nashville too. Hope you get a chance to hook up with Jason Smith out there. Peace.

[Tim Keel]

Hi James...I was thinking about having met you a year ago at this deal. A lot happens in a year, doesn't it? I like your "Doug Pagitt action figure," by the way. I'm also looking forward to meeting Jason - we have iChatted (is that a verb?) once or twice. Wish you and your bride could be there. I like the redesign by the way.

[Shmuel]

"Scale-Free Networks as a Structural Hermeneutic for Relational Ecclesiology" - dirrect link to the pdf (565 KB).

[Shmuel]

Oops, didn't accept my link, heres a URL: http://www.dwightfriesen.com/WritingEssays-Dwight-ScaleFree.pdf