Jacob's Well in the Media, Part Deux

Last June, Jacob's Well had the pleasure of hosting The Christian Century magazine assistant editor and contributing writer Jason Byassee. I receive a number of periodicals every month and I always look forward to getting CC. More, I have come to really appreciate Jason's writing on a variety of subjects. The article he writes for this issue of is a follow up to Scott Bader-Saye's first article in CC about Emergent in November of 2004 called, "The Emergent Matrix." Jason came to Kansas City to do a follow up piece on the Emergent movement, this time viewing it through one particular church community - ours. As Jason describes in the article, he was reading through the United Methodist periodical Circuit Rider and came across a short essay by former United Methodist pastor, now District Superintendent Susan Cox-Johnson. In the article she describes how Emergent generally and Jacob's Well specifically encouraged her ministry. Jason took the opportunity, after reading this article, to explore what some churches within the Emergent community might have to say to the mainline church. I was excited to engage with Jason because, like I said, I have enjoyed his writing and thinking and was excited (and nervous) to have him turn his attention towards us. Additionally, I had met Jason a couple of years earlier when I had gone to Chicago for an Emergent Board of Directors meeting hosted on the campus of International Teams. After working far past our brains ability to engage profitably, we broke for a late dinner where we were joined by a small group of people from around the Chicago area, including Geoff Holsclaw and Jason. It was a great night, typical of the spirit of what is often best about the Emergent Community. Anyway, like I said, it was great to host Jason last June and engage with someone who clearly understood what we are seeking to do broadly in Emergent, and more speicifically within Jacob's Well. While not always agreeing with the way such aims are expressed, I feel that Jason captured the heart of our community. We are featured in the September 19 issue, and there is now a link online here. Also, I failed to get Jason photo credits in time and so all pictures are credited to Jacob's Well. In the interest of credit, thanks to Philip Lesniewski, Tim Samoff, and Leslie Tenjack.