as you can see, deepdirt is getting a face lift. thanks to iggy for being the guru of blog template designs!

"emerging churches" get some ink

recently, a reporter from a major paper (the seattle times) got interested in our local band of non-clone emerging churches, so she wrote an article about the goings on... pretty good overall, i'd say... at least some folk are finally figuring out that the non-sense "traditional vs contemporary" stuff was and is a tired intramural batttle between modern "styles" that emerging groups could care less about .

also, i got quoted in the article (and my evil twin eugene cho did not), so i've earned a few more guru points here (hee hee). read emerging churches drawing younger flocks

vintage faith, emerging church

keep an eye out for pastors dan kimball and josh fox in santa cruz, ca. i've met dan only in passing... but he has been a real influence on me and apostles, seattle. dan is a tru emerging church pioneer who started the seminal "graceland worship" at santa cruz bible church. now dan is helping god expand and enrich that vision via the formation of the new vintage faith church, santa cruz.

p.s. dan will have a new book out on the emerging church soon. at last, i can tone down my rant a bit... as it will be so nice to see a native postmodern leader write a book about reaching out to native postmodern generations.

beware the attack

*caveat: this post employs "no brow," xer humor via a pomo literary form called a "rant." rants feature "over the top dissin" as an extreme measure to try and get important points across... so do be offended, eh? and do look for some hope and love (but beneath the fierce barbs).

START OF RANT
in the last months, me and my friend eugene cho from quest, seattle, have sat on several panels and done several workshops and talks on "postmodern" ministry. if this keeps up, we may become part of the "established pomo" (oxymoron) "guru class." yet most "postmodern" gurus ( =:-O snarkety snark snark) seem to be pre-postmodern born boomers or silents with multiple book contracts and we are not, and don't, so a tiny part of us is jealous and angry #*#$**!*!!**^*%$""X-*#*%$*#$!!

yet we be the goatee sportin,' beret wearin', double non fat decaf mocha sippin', david eggers readin', hookah puffin', bad poetry writing, rummage sale divin', tru type native pomos (with negative bank accounts to prove it) word up! friggin' eh! ... how's come they keep writin' books and hostin' seminars about us, yet we don't reap any of the benjamins and our little non-mega, organic church plants are strugglin' to pay the rent?

but if we can sneak into the guru class, maybe we can nab that elusive book deal! after all, we do have the novelty factor goin' of being "ethnics" (i'm black with a touch of eastern cherokee and eugene is korean), this is a novelty to be sure, as much pomo leader stuff is almost totally anglo, male and middle class (when half of the real world is non-white, non-western, non-male and poor) details, details... whatever...

so why bust our behinds as still book-less local church planters in the most postmodern and secular city in the united states (seattle) with 5% church goers? why keep getting a daily butt whoopin,' from a wacked crucified god who bids us to "come and die," when we can sign autographs and pomo tour ourselves around the nation?

this weekend, i will do another panel and workshop at a great event here in seattle called "does the future have a church," yet, i'm starting to get worried... that some folk (moderns, especially) but also some over eager postmoderns, are secretly falling for the attack. "tell me what you are doing at apostles?" "what are the "components" of your this or that..." "where do you get your ideas for being artsy?" where can i find blankety blank... "just like yours..." "do you have a "manual" i can purchase?"

yikes batman!, this could be a holy problem for the future church... if folk get the idea that organic churching can be shrink-wrapped, packaged and sold at a workshop, cause it can't... you gotta get deep in your own dirt to see what god has put there. you gotta respond to your own zip code, your own people, your own gifts, your own calling from god, your own heart broken for god, learn from your own failed ideas and get your butt kicked while trying to serve in the world around you... and as you do this, there won't be any other parish or ministry exactly like yours! (welcome to the clone free world of the real emerging church).

for more, read this article and try resist the borg inspired, modern drenched cloneaid pomo church. and p.s. "if you see a pomo guru on the road..." (well, if you are christian, you can't kill him/her) so just run! RANT COMPLETE

a new book 2 read
amazing, a few new posts in one week! this must mean i'm learning how to manage my new "life with baby." the baby is god's new church plant, called apostles, seattle (now just over one month old). it is still crying, wiggling, kicking, throwing up and giving me 70 hour work weeks and sleepless nights... but somehow this week, i found time to catch my breath enough to post a few things. also, i now have a complete daisy chain of 802.11b hotspots all over the emerald city, so when i get the urge, i can post something from all my java joints of choice.

in any case, check out the book "digital storytellers." follow my link (right side column of this blog) under "book club." if you buy it via my link, i, as an "amazon associate" will get a micro credit towards book purchases, so i can keep buying books to read and post about.

my church plant (apostles, seattle) has little funds, but big dreams... we are seeking to raise $200,000 to launch a non-profit cafe/art gallery for god in seattle. we need both small and major donors. click below to make a tax deductible donation. if you are a major donor, please contact me off blog at: karen@apostleschurch.org

i ain't oprah, but here we go...

digital storytellers by len wilson and jason moore: at last, a book to save the world from the "modernist use of powerpoint in worship hell." if you want to torpedo boring ppt. bulleted sermon points from a modernist pastor who thinks he or she is now hip because he or she is using technology, read this book! better yet, buy the book and send it to the modernist pastor and do his/her congregation a big favor. read digital storytellers

gen x religion, ed by richard w. flory & donald e. miller, provides an accurate "npr like" documentation of religion, as actually practiced by xers, and even reflects theologically on xer subsets (like the goths) and on the phenomenon of piercing among us.
and, unlike many other xer books (filled with clever quips by boomers about xers), this book was written by serious sociologists of religion (many of them xers) who actually researched and studied churches founded by and for xers. amazing and authentic...
read gen x religion