I just got signed up on twttr (by the same folks who brought us odeo). It’s just a nice little way to track what’s going on with my people. If you sign up send me your info.

These next few weeks will be a little crazy on here because I will be
pulling together all my thoughts for the paper I have to write for
class related to this topic. I have not been a very good student
because I have never learned the art of doing what I need to do for
class (as opposed to everything I want to do related to the
topic). So, even though I am just beginning to learn all the things I
want to learn about this topic, I now need to focus in on the point of
this paper. This is a skill I need to learn not only for this paper,
but for life.

I’m sitting here at the Chatterbox Pub in Minneapolis waiting to see who shows up. (Ryan just walked in). I’ll post later how the conversation goes. (Steve made it too).

Update: It’s really late. The conversation was wonderful. I have a lot to think about and explore. I’ll sort through my thoughts on the conversation tomorrow.

One for the road: What is the Emerging Church? We had to agree on a vocabulary for most of our conversation, and this piece helped us clarify what exactly an emerging church was. I’m looking forward to reading this book. (After I get through about 100 others). Anyway, here’s a piece:

Emerging Churches are those who take the life of Jesus as a model way to live (one), who transform the secular realm (two), as they live highly communal lives (three). Because of these three activities, they welcome those who are outside (four), they share generously (five), they participate (six), create (seven), they lead without control (eight), and function together in spiritual activities (nine).

[more]

Links and thoughts about “A Churchless Faith” by Alan Jamieson

- Quotations and overview of the book on pgpl.co.nz
- Article: “A Churchless Faith” by author on reality.org.nz
- Article: “Ten Myths about Church Leavers” by author on reality.org.nz
- Article: “In search of Turangawaewae” by author on reality.org.nz
- Article: About the book by another author on faithworks.com
- The Author’s blog: Prodigal Kiwi(s)
- Article: Greenbelt explores the ideas of the Book on Greenbelt.org.uk

These are the ‘textbooks’ I picked up on Amazon today. I will of course be doing research and looking up other books, articles, journals, intereviews, etc. Plus, there are a few books I’ll be checking out from the library. But in case you want to dive deep into this discussion, here are some good ones to pick up:

- The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations
- A Churchless Faith
- Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
- Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
- Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens
- Revolution
- The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church

this church lost its building, so it just stopped meeting in buildings. Well, kinda. They still go inside, but just not any particular inside.

I still have to read more about them:
- Doing Church at the Metro Stops via Christianity today
- “The Multi-Site Church Revolution : Being One Church in Many Locations” by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, Warren Bird

Once I do, I’ll start sharing more thoughts.

Ok, so no one has asked these questions yet. But I think the answers might be helpful anyway. A number of people have expressed interest in being a part of this project, but very few have taken the plunge, so I want to make this as simple as possible.

Theology/Philosophy
Question:
What is the blog for?

Answer:
The blog is the place to get involved in the discussion of how/if/should this centered set thing really matter. Everyone is invited to comment, but if you feel particularly drawn to this discussion, let me know in the comments, and I’ll make you a contributor to the blog.

Community
Question:
What are those other sites for?

Answer:
In the centered set church, community isn’t defined by who’s in or who’s out, or membership, or any other boundaries. And while people certainly gather, the community isn’t defined by events that everyone is invited or expected to come to. Rather, we’re exploring how the church forms where life happens. There are three tools we are using to help explore community:

- twincities.dodgeball.com
We can use this service to tell our friends and our friend-of-a-friends when we’re out at an event. This is a more spontaneous way to connect. All you have to do is sign up and search for dydimustk, then check in when you’re out-and-about.

- upcoming.org
This allows us to let each other know when something is coming up (hence upcoming) that is a little more organized and intentional. Once you signup with upcoming.org, you just want to join the centeresetchurch group, then when you add events to the group, every one who is a member of the group will be able to see it.

- google.groups
I would invited everyone who is even the slightest bit interested in even a little part of this whole thing to join the email list.

do you have a question?
Question:
What if I have a question that you haven’t made up and answered?

Answer:
Let me know if the comments below, and we’ll try to figure it out together.