The 2010 Emergent Village Theological Conversation will feature a global panel of theologians- Musa Dube of Botswana, Richard Twiss of the Lakota Sioux tribe, and Colin Greene of the UK.  Engaging issues ranging from mission to postcolonialism to the AIDS epidemic, the Conversation is sure to be as rich as it is lively.  Our panel of theologians will share stories and parables from their traditions, discuss their latest theological research, and challenge the Western American Church to engage and welcome voices from the margins.

Don’t miss this opportunity to become more familiar with theologians doing remarkable work in their respective (and distinct!) contexts. We are certain it will be a landmark year in what has become Emergent Village’s signature event.

Featuring the following speakers:

Musa Dube

Musa Dube, Professor of New Testament at the University of Botswana and author of “A Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible.”

Richard Twiss

Richard Twiss is a member of the Rosebud Lakota/Sioux Tribe and the author of “One Church, Many Tribes.” He is the President of Wiconi International.

Colin Greene

Colin Greene is the Head of Theology and Mission Development for SGMLifewords in the UK. He is the author of “Metavista: Bible, Church and Mission in an Age of Imagination.”

Don’t miss it!

Register Online.

Our Discipleship Training School (DTS) is a five month intensive in spiritual and missional formation. The first three months concentrates on engaging students in a holistic discipleship experience that challenges the mind, heart and body in a praxis oriented program. Offered in the heart of Winnipeg’s West End, students will integrate in one of the city’s most culturally diverse, yet poor neighbourhoods. Our emphasis on urban missions means that as part of the community, students will engage the realities of poverty, injustice, racism and much more, all the while have the opportunity to respond in exciting new ways.

Starting October 6. Spaces still available. Read full description at the YWAM Winnipeg page.

By Tom Sine
God is doing something new through a new generation that has a distinctly Anabaptist accent in these uncertain times. These young initiators are creating new ways to make a difference in both the world and the church. In The New Conspirators, I explained these activists and innovators as being found in at least four streams: emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic. 

Read more…

 The Mustard Seed House (MSH) is a small expression of Christ community in Seattle.  MSH is what I  called a Liberated Space – a God’s Liberated Space. With God’s help we are striving to embody in a physical space what we believe are the values of God’s new society. As a community living an alternative story and by different rhythms than those imposed to us by the Empire. If you ask us to describe ourselves, we might say that we are a group of people trying to follow God in the way of Jesus as a new kind of family.  

jordoncooper.com: The Missional Imagination
My question is what if we started to start ministries and ideas that had the community in mind as opposed to planting another church, what would they look like?  I think of Harambee (I love their history), Urban Rest Stop, a small scale family housing program, third spaces like the Freeway, or the Franktuary (read the story), or places like the Simple Way, Mustard Seed House, or the Hawthorn House. 

My other question is what if we made a commitment to the places abandoned by the empire?  I expressed my frustration before about the 1000 Christians descending on the west side to “clean up the place” for a day.  I guess it gives warm fuzzy’s to people who don’t actually shop, live, or even visit the lower west side but I am talking about making a long term commitment to a place that are often left behind.  These places aren’t just in the inner city either.  I was outside of Ottawa a couple of years ago and some of the rural communities look like the last the good thing that happened to them was during the Diefenbaker years.  I think of what former NHLer Joe Juneau is doing up in northern Quebec. 

When I have shared these discussions previously, one of the questions that comes up is sustainability.  Of course all of the links I have given have shown sustainability over the years in a variety of ways but there is a bigger question that we don’t often address and that is the unspoken idea something has to support a salary (often of clergy) to be worthwhile.  Until we figure out a way to fight our addiction to a paycheck from the church, the mission of many churches will be to provide employment for pastors.  Are we courageous enough to take a risk knowing that it probably won’t pay off but because it is the right thing to do and do it in some of the poorest neighborhoods where they may be no pay off?

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The conversation started from the question of why we as followers of Jesus should care about the social aspect of the web. While many of us experience the social applications of the web, churches and ministries still jogging the the “information” super highway by making their web presence a mere online copy of their church bulletin or ministry brochure. Before the conversation turned into one about new cool applications to attract more readership to our “missional” blogs or  how to use the web for evangelization and to proselytize, Thomas Knoll who was the “web/social guru” of the night, was wise enough to stir the conversation to the importance of relationships, online and offline.  He was very emphatic on the importance on the latter. From then on we moved from the virtual to the real.

Part of the conversation was dedicated to the topic of gatekeepers and their place  in the church and in the web.  Institutions that in the past were the repository of information and knowledge are not anymore. We live in an age where have access to the same information as seminaries and elite institution of higher learning. Take for example MIT Open Course Ware  which offer materials for nearly all its courses freely available on the Internet. So the raw information is out there for us to get. What is needed is a way to process that information in community and with relational mentors. This is where gatekeepers come to play, gatekeepers can bring life by pruning and nurturing by being open and collaborative, or can squash it by command and control.

There were several online tools mentioned that can foster or enhance relationships that we already have with people – i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Seesmic, Ning among others.  Tools like this serve to facilitate more conversation among smaller groups of friends for an more authentic relationships, instead of the myspace syndrome of thousands of friends who do not know anything about each other. Thes tools if used with a well plan purpose and mission can foster wonderful experience of collaboration and participation among likeminded missional groups and organizations.

The “organized” conversation ended around 9:30 p.m., but many stayed around for coffee and more informal-networking-get to know each other chatting. Some of us hit the road for some good belgian beer and more conversation at the Die Bier Stube.

Bloggers that were present:

Thomas Knoll

Dave Laird

Karen Ward

Steve Lewis

Justin Beader

Alex, Karen Ward, Thomas Knoll and Kimberly Knoll.

A good conversation about the need for more “blessing and release” and less “command and control” from the gatekeepers

Me (Eliacín) Dave Laird and Justin Beader.