i am paradox

Emergent open to change

Just found out something cool, from jonny baker's blog. The Emergent Convention, which will be getting ready for its 3rd year next spring, are currently in the planning stages. They have a brand new site which is open source, so we can all have a say in the planning!

Emergent planning blog

Final Session

The convention is officially over. The last session was one of the best, although I was alone. Chris was not feeling well, and Dave and Dana kidnapped Angie and made her go to Mexico with them. Tribe Church of Los Angeles were amazing! It was very tribal. At a few points, some techno was mixed in with it, and it reminded me of the very sensual and infamous cave rave in the second Matrix movie. What was so rad was that they handed out instruments to people in the crowd and people were also invited to join them on stage in worship. Speaking of stage, there were 15 of them in the band! They lead with drums and percussion. What an interactive form of worship!

Communion was also served. Various types of breads, wines and juice were available. As everyone took communion, we raised our glasses as a toast to life, and against injustice, suffering and violence.

One of the most powerful forms of worship this week was lead by Doug Pagitt. At his church Solomon's Porch, they do what is known as prayer postures. Realizing that our human bodies and spirits are connected, its a way to pray with your body and not just use words.

Many different people were blogging this week, you can see them all here: Emergent Convention Blogs

Well, that is all for now. Time to go eat, then the trip home. BTW, we ended up seeing Hidalgo last night.

More

Today was the last full day here. And it was probably the best day. Tony Campolo was a surprise guest in the general session. And I also heard his seminar on homosexuality was one of the best this week. I personally attended the Brian McLaren session on pluralism and was totally blown away.

Something like Silas has been playing this week, and I heard rumors they are the worship band from Flood San Diego. And I have enjoyed and been blown away by Peter Nevland and Paul Finley. They are what is called spoken word. Its kinda like hip-hop, poetry or talking, but with music. Just check out their site to experience what I mean.

We have been surprised by who has been attending NPC and who has been attending Emergent. The age difference is fun to watch. If anyone who has bought cds from this week want to trade copies, let us know. We have about 6 or 7 cds from the week, including: Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rick Warren and a few others.

Here are some more notes that I have been taking:

Spiritual Formaion beyond the Education Model by Doug Pagitt

Pluralism Revisted with Brian McLaren

Tony Campolo

New Theology for a new world: Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones

Ok, that is all for now. We are going to see the new Johnny Dep movie Secret Windows. PS--remind me to tell the story of Dave and Dana's experience sharing drinks and conversation with a priest. And don't forget to check out my fotoblog for pics from this week:

iamparadox.fotopages.com

New Friends

I am meeting a ton of new friends this week. Tonight our Doug Pagitt cohort group had dinner at the mall. I met a cool girl named Anna who is also blogging this week. She works at a church in LA and could be moving to England. We had a great conversation and her blog is here so check it out. I still think that Chris has one of the week's best so far. That's it for now. Going to enjoy some stand up comedy and then its off to a pub.

The general session was one of the best events I have ever been to. It will actually probably be historical. There were 3 main guest speakers, all from different backgrounds. Robert Webber represented evangelicals, Phyliss Tickle represented Anglicans/Mainline and Jack Caputo for Catholics. It was a mind blowing session, I would highly recommend getting the cd or video.

We got into many things in the discussion, including: what each tradition could offer the others. And about the gender of God and the view of the trinity. What sucks is that the recording failed.

We had a great lunch with our friends from God's House in Huntington Beach.

Not only is there a labyrinth and spiritual directors here this year, there are also sages available to talk and meet with.

I have taken some of my notes and edited them down to one page summaries. Here is what I have so far:

Critical Concerns: Church planting in Emerging Context Pt: 1

Critical Concerns: Church planting in Emerging Context Pt: 2

Deiter Zander: Forming Holistic Faith Communities

Tim Keel: Preaching as Intimacy

General Session 1: Jim Wallis and Social Justice

Live from Emergent

So there is lots of blogging going on around here. There are 2 official bloggers sponsered by Emergent/YS:

www.desertpastor.com provides a great overview, complete with pics and video.

http://thecorner.typepad.com/bc/ has detailed notes and descriptions of classes, workshop/seminars, etc.

Then of course you have mine! I am trying to have the most phots. Check out my photoblog for all of them:
Emergent Foto Blog

If you must have more emergent blogging, be sure to check out these 2:

http://annaaven.typepad.com/emerging/

www.chrismc.net

So today, I attended the first general session, had a great dinner at Rubio's, hung out with Spencer for a minute, and met some really great people in Doug Pagitt's cohort group. I am not doing as much tomorrow, should be more of a reflection type day. That's all for now.

Oh, BTW, that's Chris meeting Robert Webber.

1st Day at Emergent

Well, Tuesday was a great day here in San Diego. The weather could not be more perfect. I am really digging the CCC class by Doug Pagitt and Tim Keel. Karen Ward was also there. I will definately try and post more pics today. But in our church planting class, there was a lot of practical and philosophical discussion. Among the many issues covered were should pastors receive salary, how to staff, should we plan for growth and if so what do we give up, etc. Many in the room have not yet started, and from those I have talked to that have, everyone is pretty new at it. Its great to meet so many different people who are busy trying to build God's kingdom differently. Someone I met is planting a muticultral church out of the highway community church (the crew from highway video).

What a fun atmoshpere. Dan Kimball has a cool display for his new book, its complete with a Harley. He just walked by as I am blogging, he has the coolest hair! Well, time to run, will post at again soon! Make sure you keep up with everything at www.desertpastor.com.

Emergent San Diego!

I am so excited! We leave for San Diego a week from tomorrow. I am taking a CCC on emerging church planting with Doug Pagitt. I am also in Doug's cohorts group. We have a group of 5 going, and are planning on splitting up so we can take in as much as possible.

Chris has been asked to be one of only 2 people to blog live from the convention! They are even putting a link to his blog on the YS and Emergent websites.

Had a great time at our worship gathering tonight. The theme was missing the point: the passion. Besides tech. difficulties and running behind time wise, there was tremendous worship and discussion. Also had a good leader's meeting.