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Sally Morgenthaler Interview with Alan Roxburgh

In early December, we had a great Allelon weekend in Vancouver with a number of team members from around North America. I was there with a couple of cameras, as is my wont.

This interview was shot early Saturday morning on our last day together. (The weekend began on Thursday.) Sally and Al talk about her book, Worship Evangelism, the problems with how her book was applied and where she finds herself today as part of the mission-shaped conversation. Let me know what you think. And please also comment on the Allelon site.

Mark Priddy and the Consumer Church

One of the folk I thoroughly enjoy working with is Allelon's founder and team leader, Mark Priddy. Mark's latest blog post is Business, The Gospel, and the Consumeristic Church. Mark was a very successful business person before moving into what some might call full-time ministry. (I think Mark might call it "Moving into the Neighborhood.") From his post,

The Plan: If we could present the gospel in a reduced message, a catch phrase, several bullet points, something less than two to three words, and market it on billboards, benches, bumper stickers, radio and TV ads, then we could reach thousands of religious customers. If each campaign carried a simple message, or perhaps better stated, a “catchy slogan,” if we worked together and invested enough money to cover the largest market and deliver the maximum amount of “impressions,” then we could implement a successful marketing strategy to reach our targeted customer. That’s right impressions!

In marketing, one of the most important laws is to capture the mind of the customer— the prospect. Get the message out there as much as you can. It needs to be in front of them at all times—when they’re eating, driving, or taking a siesta on the local bench—make it quick, easy to read, short, sweet, and catchy. This approach is vital to the success of any marketing program. If all goes well, then theoretically it will bring people into the store and successfully convert them from “customer to consumer.”

So, following that line of thinking, it only makes sense to market the gospel, right? And what other product is free? What other product can forgive sins, take care of our needs and secure a place in heaven?

Please read the entire post and comment there.

Allelon Site Updates

Now that the site redesign is stable, we've added fresh content.

Alan Roxburgh's post on the Missional Order Event is up on his blog, along with a new Roxburgh Journal Netcast where Alan "sounds the call" to the 40+ folk gathered. From his post,

Those who gathered at Seabeck shared stories of what drew us to this conversation. We were a mixed crowd – denomination leaders, ministers and a lot of us from more mundane vocations. We came from across a range of Protestant denominations and a wide set of regions. Like others across Canada and the US, what drew us is the sense something is terribly wrong with the church in North America and our need for companions on the way to nourish our lives and understand together what God is about in our time. I heard experiences of pain, dissonance, emptiness and disconnect in relation to the church life we’re experiencing just now. No one was railing against the church, blaming, deconstructing or setting up false dichotomies. A tension that came through consistently was a love for the church and, at the same time, pain over the disconnect we find there. For some, the tradition in which they were formed is incredibly important but there is a painful awareness that it has lost the habits and memory of its origination and formation. In our stories was a desire to engage again with rhythms and disciplines that once made these traditions sources of Gospel hope and witness.

We've also put a video of the event up as well.

There's also another very good article from Sally Morgenthaler (who I look forward to meeting later today) on the site, After the Show is Over: The Rise of the Feminine in the Postmodern Turn,

Could it be that women have spent so long trying to climb the ladder inside old church and leadership systems that the very questions they’re asking about gender equality, opportunity, and power are stuck? Perhaps the real questions go more like this: what does it mean to seek biblical equality if the Church itself is no longer functioning in biblical ways? What does it mean for women to pursue the full use of their gifts in the Church if western Christianity has lost its missional purpose? What does it mean to hitch ones’ star to the Christian status quo, especially if that status quo is a narcissistic, capitalistic perversion of the Gospel? In summary, what does it really mean for a woman to be released into her potential, to be trusted with a ministry role, or to secure a salaried ministry position only to find that, for all her new-found freedom, authority, and seeming equality, she is only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

There's more new content on the site, so please check it out.

Allelon Launches Updated Site Design

After a lot of hard work on the part of a small team of people, the latest iteration of the Allelon website went live very early this morning. We've done a complete redesign of the site (with some things still left to do) to make it much faster to access the great mission-shaped materials Allelon has both produced and made available.

The site is in it's live shakedown period, so you may find a few anomalies - feel free to drop us a note about them via our contact page.

Special thanks to Brother Maynard who joined the web team late in the game and helped immensely. His code warrior skills have been put to good use.

Please note that we will be adding a lot of fresh content later this week - as soon as we are out of the shakedown phase.

Cultivate Gathering

Have had a great day in Hamilton at the Cultivate Gathering. Dave Fitch was one of the speakers and I'm about to grab a bite with him. I'll report more on the day later.

Pernell Goodyear and the good team at the Freeway should be proud of themselves. They did a fabulous job on putting this unconference together - and serving the fifty-five of us (capacity crowd) who came. I'll blog more about this later. And share some of the video later next week.

Allelon Updates

As we work away on the new Allelon site (that is sadly taking us longer than anticipated) we've updated the present site with a number of new articles and the last in the three part interview with Brian McLaren on his book, Everything Must Change...and the reaction to it. Al's Vaclav Havel point around the 17:37 point of the audio is important in understanding where Brian is coming from in his new book. I reference this in my post, Havel, the VJ Revolution and A Little More Missional Shampoo.

The three part interview is available as audio on iTunes, on Alan's blog, the Roxburgh Journal and as video here: Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Note, I've done a minor re-edit to Part One (making Al's intro a little more pithy) and adjusting the shots to make them a little more pleasing. (The joys of shooting HD and editing SD.)

As well, from the Allelon Front Page:

Al is also making his new book, Missional MapMaking available in pdf installments. The Intro and Chapter One are both up.

Harvard PhD candidate and founder of Friends of Justice, Lydia Bean writes Missional Conversion? How I Became a Christian.

And Clark Cowden has a very good article, What is God Doing Underground and When will We See It? This article also appeared as a post at the PGF Outbox - a blog you should subscribe to.

Busy Allelon Day

We've been hard at work on the Allelon site redesign and had hoped to have it up for my birthday...well not actually for my birthday, but on the same day, All Saints Day (which I've always felt was rather appropriate). Some software issues have delayed our progress by at least another two weeks, so today I've been hard at work (as have my compatriots in Vancouver and Boise) at updating our present site.

Tomorrow, Part Two of Al Roxburgh's interview with Brian McLaren will be up as video and as a separate audio podcast. It will also be available on iTunes in m4a format with chapters and graphics. Part One, which was released as a video interview in early October, will be up on the site as an mp3 and will also be available from iTunes as an m4a.

The final segment of the interview, Part Three, will be up with the launch of the redesigned site.

Have a wonderfilled All Hallows Eve - and a fabulous All Saints Day.

Random Randomness

Raising Up Some Dental Floss

When I think of Montana, I always think of dental floss. Probably too much listening to this guy in my misspent youth. (I need to check and see if his stuff is available from iTunes.)

So. Why am I talking about Montana. Well. Triple D, Brian Mullins and I sat down with the returning-to-Canada-from-the-Bahamas, Jordon Cooper at a restaurant called Montana's on the airport strip. We were grabbing a quick dinner together. Five hours later we realized we were some of the last people in the restaurant when they dimmed the lights on us. 'Twas great to finally meet Jordon and Brian - and always good to be with the most gracious person in the blog world (and in pastoral ministry in Toronto), Triple D. He has his own review of the evening here. And we all missed Pernell and Jared. Jordon's Soularize stories made us all wish we'd been with him. (Although I'm happy to have missed the sharks and sea lice. Yikes!)

TSK and Brian McLaren

Jordon brought up TSK's review of McLaren's book, Everything Must Change. Darryl and I asked him what he was talking about, it wasn't out yet. We were both still awaiting it. We were so convincing (I offered to bet Jordon the price of his dinner that we were right) that Jordon almost believed it hadn't been published. Turns out he was right and we were wrong. Something he's probably used to by now.

It would seem that Google Reader missed TSK's review - which was an update of an earlier post. Both Darryl and I are GR users. (I had discussed the McLaren review with Andrew @ Seabeck - and had been expecting it soon.)

Andrew does a great job of being gracious in his review. He expresses his concerns in a humourous and honest way - and points at some other writers to help the rest of us consider what Brian is talking about. It's well worth the read.

On my 52nd birthday, November 1st, Part Two of the 3 part interview with Brian will be up at Allelon. We are making it available as both a Flash video and an audio podcast. Part 1, that is a discussion of dealing with criticism is available here.

Reflections on Luke 10

Paul Fromont has a great post on this passage, Sitting at a Luke 10 table in Cyberspace. For those of us returning from the Missional Order un-conference, it is particularly appropriate. (Speaking of which, check out Brother Maynard's post on the MO from today.)

Letters from Kamp Krusty

Our part of the interweb's Krusty Kurmudgeon, Brant Hansen comments on the "latest computer rankings" of the top churches in the United States of Amerigo Vespucci. You'd be an idiot not to be a regular reader of Brant's. Though many of us are idiots who do read him regularly. (Read the comments.)

A Better Kinnon Blogger - on Listening

I've been impressed with my eldest son's writing for a long time. He is a university student, so much of his writing is in getting assignments done. He is also a gifted song-writer and lyricist and most of his free time is taken up with his music.

But. When he gets the chance. He blogs. And he says more in a few paragraphs than I can say in an essay.

His Nobody Listens post is another good example of his writing. It's also pertinent to my own life.

I'm not noted for being the best listener. I am attempting to improve with age - and there has been some minor progress but still...

Dwelling in the Word: Listening the Other Into Free Speech

One of the practices we did at the Missional Order gathering, and one that I've seen a number of times at different Allelon events is what's called Dwelling in the Word - something we do at the beginning of each day. The sub-title is Listening the Other Into Free Speech. Luke 10:1-12 is the passage used. (A number of Dakota elders shared this practice with Pat Keifert, who has shared it with the rest of us.)

In these kind of gatherings, the idea is that we read the passage together (one person reading it aloud) and then find a "reasonably friendly stranger" to discuss where in the passage we were arrested...what gave us pause. The Listening the Other into Free Speech takes place as we report back to the group what our now "new friend" saw in the passage.

I've found it interesting the number of folk who mention where the person stopped and then go off on their own thoughts. This happens less and less as we spend more time together. We learn how to listen in this practice - and we see more of the Sending God we serve as we study the passage from Luke-Acts. Really listening to the other is hard - especially with all of the thoughts racing through our own heads.

My son Liam, ends his post with this comment,

Thomas Aquinas was known as the Dumb Ox because when someone said something to him he wouldn’t respond right away. Instead, he would think long and hard and give the perfect response. The response that took everything you said and processed it. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to do that. Would people even give me the chance?

Would that a similar sobriquet to Aquinas' be used for me.

Seabeck Blog Storm

The bloggers at the Allelon Missional Order event at Seabeck Conference Center in Washington this past week. From the left, Dan Steigerwald, Andrew Jones, Len Hjalmarson, Rob Robinson, Rick Meigs, Me, Mark Priddy and Brother Maynard. Missing from the shot but now committed to blogging, Pete Askew, Peggy Brown and Rickard Bjerkander.

Oh, and Brother Maynard says I forgot to mention Alan's blog.