Dreams Unlocked

Ok - so John wanted more stuff from Allelon. I agree - it wasn't very good "live blogging", but its kinda hard to blog when the wi-fi is as effective as a hi-fi. Bill Kinnon explained what was happening today by saying that someone "in this room" was kicking everyone else off the netowrk because of something on their computer. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. Bill is one cool dude, who I had actually wished I had actually talked to - next time Bill! Ok - so to sum up - Allelon is doing a great thing. They have recognized that the "missional" conversation is expanding and is most likely going to be a dominant influence in the church in the coming years. So, they are helping church leaders grapple with the changes coming, to articulate what is happening. Alan Roxburgh - the face and voice of Allelon right now is a thoughtful speaker. He is so well networked that he is able to bridge the various "worlds" within evangelicalism. Alan Hirsch i...

9:00 - I can't find a parking space. I end up parking outside the campus and taking a bus in. 9:30 - Walk in late sheepishly. Roxburgh and Hirsch went through various excellent presentations. roxburgh on organizational change and Hirsch on starting new movements. I am most excited by what Hirsch is talking about. There is a lot of energy and dynamism there.

I am going to be live-blogging from the Allelon Summer Institute. This morning there was a problem getting on-line. Alan Roxburgh set the context (historically and sociologically) for the missional church in North America right now. 1:19 - Alan Hirsch just got up to speak. He is introducing his talk, entitled "From Static Institutions to Dynamic Movements". 2:09 - I am digesting my food which is making it harder to concentrate - luckily Alan has good power-points, which makes note taking easy. He has given an excellent presentation on how the Western Church can not become totally obsolete! 2:30 - Break - Time to get re-fuelled with caffeine and sugar. The Starbucks at VST was closed!!! I came back and had Kool-Aid. 3:00 - Group Discussion - my group is Scott from Calgary, Jay from Surrey, Lorraine from Kelowna and Bryan from rural Alberta. Good group - good discussion. 3:30 - Large group discussion - hosed by Alan R. Getting to the questions underneath the questions. Could ge...

Team A&O ready for business. We have a house guest: Olivia Welch. Olivia is the daughter of Spencer and Renee. They went to L.A. to see some awards show called the Grammy's. I've never heard of them either. So we are taking care of little Olivia. Olivia is also the first child I ever dedicated as a pastor, so that's pretty cool. Olivia is quite well behaved - sleeps well, is polite, until she doesn't get her way! She is quite affectionate towards Adam, but it is a sort of unrequited love, as Adam tends to ignore her. I took quite a nice pic of them (above). Scott Kripps, who is planting a church in Calgary called "Awaken" spoke at first@night tonight. He was good - an easy guy to like. Also Michael gurule and Emily helped with worship which was cool. I shared about being "sent" and how we see a lot of movement in the Bible: Adam and eve left the Garden of Eden. Cain went to the land in the east Abraham left Ur (his home) and went, not knowing whe...

Oldman asked me what I meant by a missional incarnation of the gospel. Here's my answer. Most of my life I have grown up in churches that I would label "attractional". By this I mean our goal in life would be to get someone to "come to church" - especially if there was a special speaker or event in which the gospel would be communicated. I would say that 80-90% of all churches operate on this principle. This means that all our energy will be directed to making the Sunday event as great as it can be - tight worship band, stellar preaching, killer power-point, etc. etc. When I use the term missional, I am referring to a church or christian community that sees itself as on a "mission". So we live lives where we are actively trying to bring Jesus to people through the way we talk and act. This concept of church sees church as people, not an event once a week, or a building in which we enter. Incarnation recalls the concept of jesus as God "incarnating...

Thursday - Southside Interns was good. Friday - Meeting with Cam Roxburgh - church planter extrordinaire - he is helping me with a strategic 2 yr. plan for first@night. Also Friday night we had a few people who are new to FBC and first@night. One of them actually lives in our building! So getting to first@night, should not be a problem for her! Today we bought Adam a bed shaped like a racing car, which he will probably like. He is moving out of the crib and into a "toddler" bed. Tonight Felicia and I went to a restaurant for dinner. Every year a bunch of restaurants put on this thing called "Dine Out Vancouver". They offer a 3 course menu for 15, 25 or 35 $. You get an appetizer, main and desert. It's a pretty good deal, because the main courses in most of these places run between 30 and 40. It was a fun date. It's good to date your wife. Matt - I remember busting a gut listening to Song of Songs being read in the most montone voice ever!!! It still ranks a...