Thanks for the invite Randy. I'm looking forward to this conversation, as well as getting to know everyone! My name is Andy, and I pastor in a po-dunk church in Alabama. I have been a part of the Emergent/Postmodern/Post-Evangelical/Post-Reformation/Post-toasties, whatever you want to call it Conversation for about 7 years now. I have been in the Church of God my whole dang life, so any opportunity to listen and contribute to ThinkTanking and blending 2 very different worlds (the CHOG Ref. Movement and the Emerging Church Movement) I am all for it!

If I could, I would like to offer up 2 things. The first is a chunk of resources - I spend a lot of time reading (paper and screen) and I try to absorb as much as I can on the emergent movement. If you would like to tap in to a bunch of emergent blogs try the following:

http://www.planetemergent.org (every Emergent blog post you can think of)
http://www.bloglines.com/public/shoogerbear (my own emergent blog readings)
http://andrewdailey.typepad.com/ (my personal blog)

Second, I would like to ask a question. Where do you see the Church of God headed, what course or path is our church movement taking? If you have a definitive answer to that, I would be surprised and happy to hear it. If you have a worriesome and yet somewhat cynical answer, then I wouldn't be surprised and would count you as a close brother or sister.

Oh and one last thing. This April, a book was released by D. A. Carson called "Being Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications"
This is a pretty sharp attack on the Emerging Church. To read more about it go here
Anyone else been attacked for doing church in a different way?

be God's

ChOG Postmodern Thinktank
last week [04.08] @ beaners in lansing - good conversation. we started off talking about the difference between some words [postmodern & emergent].
the thing we kind of landed on was this...
for the modern church everything they did [or we still do] is try and offer solutions to the problems that we as people have in our lives. a valid persuit, for our lives are screwed up; mostly by our own doing.
the biggest problem is that many times the modern church is wanting to offer answers to questions [problems] that many people are no longer asking [prove to me that Jesus existed, how do i know there's a God?]. most people know there's a God, they're not sure which one they should listen to.
so, solutions to problems/heartache are the bend of the modern church.
looking at new words like postmodern and emergent there are a couple of thoughts that came out of that discussion...
postmodern - this thought of doing church is still trying to answer the questions of life and offer Christ as solution. but they have changed the way in which they go about answering the question. it's become much more interactive and there is room for push-back from the questioner. that has not always been the case for the modern church. 'these are the answers and we don't really have time to go further because we're bogged down with meetings and mission statements.' [that's a general statement, not specific]
the communial aspect of getting together is very high for the modern & postmodern church [large worship setting, conference mentality, bumping into others].
emergent - the bend here seems to be much more interested in connection with God. i think if you look at the elements of what is involved in an emergent setting there is an element of interaction, but the focus of interaction is on the personal connection with God. community is not the primary focus of the gathering.
at least that's from my perspective.

hmmmmmm, i'm having some very interesting thoughts about student ministry as i write this. a comment on randy's post from 04.07...

but something else was touched on in the conversation from fri. it has to do with our compulsion to label everything and have it fit into nice, neat little file folders and place in a drawer.
labels are important so that we know what we're doing and how to find the next step. but all very modern...
just a funny aside

I was thinking about the people that have taught me. Things that have really stuck with me. Why do I remember driving around near downtown Lansing doing drive-bys, giving out McDonalds gift certificates. Why was that so life changing? When I looked into that hard working man's eyes as he walked with his wife and daughter. His eyes filled with tears as I gave him 10 McBucks. He shook my hand and I said "God Bless" as I sheepishly jumped back into the church van. That was 14 years ago. I learned about grace that day. That was life changing.
So I ask myself "Are you teaching your students like that?" Am I merely trying to changed their minds, rather than begging God to change their lives through me? They go to school 5 days a week and get their minds changed. We all know how excited they get about that. So if I am trying to do the same thing, why would they come? Jesus has changed my life, he did today and yesturday and the day before. Am I really offerning new life in Christ? I hope that I can look back on a time period some day and can say that life change was the rule, not the exception.

God's trimmers hurt, but they free us of dead weight.

was just reading the latest issue of relevant mag. and found some interesting slices of info.

relevant march/april, p.24 misc.
'the feb.1 issue of time mag. featured a cover story listing the 25 most influential evangelicals in america.' for consideration...
'there wasn't anyone under 45 years old.'
so what does that say about how the non-Christian world views the message of Christ? and what are we willing to do about that?
it may say that there are those who think of the gospel as an older generation issue. so what does that mean for the post modern church.

same section & p.
'a recent poll stated that although three out of four people in britian believe in God, fewer than 25% regularly attend religious service. america: 43% say they attend regularly...'
remember, britian has gone through a major struggle to maintain a sense of God in their culture. they have recenty come through an entire unchurched generation.
43% of americans say they regularly attend church. look around. does your area/county have seats for 43% of the population in church? neither does my area.