Sorry a non-humble moment!

I know I'm unashamedly trumpet blowing here... but...

1) I was completely blown away to discover that Karen Ward and COTA have used our meditations, indeed Karen used one at the CMS gathering (unfortunately I missed it... but it would have been weird!)  and as we left today she said that the COTA folk would be chuffed that she had met ME!!! How bizarre is that!?

2) Alan Jamieson (he of 'Churchless Faith' fame) has E-mailed me to ask if it would be ok if He and Len Sweet were to include some of our St. Brendan stuff in a book they are currently writing!  He says that..

the chapter is becoming 'seasoned sailors' and the place of storms of faith and storms of life to prepare us for the difficult storms ahead of the church

Er... yes I think that would be ok! :-)

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church: Spirituality

Comments

[richard]

I used some of it at the "UK and European cell church leaders symposium"

[steve]

you are both creative and a good thinker. you should be writing a book yourself.

[Mark Berry]

Why thank you Steve... We may well produce a CD/DVD (We have to raise operational costs and the inherited ways just don't seem to fit! Though I even struggle with this... it feels like we would be going against the 'economy of gift' which we value so much!) though philosophically I would rather just keep giving our stuff away... I can't see me writing a book, one, I think there are too many books being written... there are some excellent ones written from within the ECC... yours, Ryan and Eddies, Pete Rollins etc. and some great stuff written around 'Spirituality' etc. but there is so much crap written from observers etc - I'm afraid I have a real issue with the 'book' culture in the UK Church..i.e. you are nobody till you've written a book, then you are an 'expert'... there is also a number of research degrees that will no doubt be published in the not too distant future!... so I can't see I have too much more to offer and in many ways writing a book feels a bit strange - setting the journey in stone - so it seems far more logical for me to 'stream' my thoughts here, it feels more consistent with who I am and what we're doing. I've heard so many writers say that when the book eventually gets published they a) don't feel like the material is their own any more, b) they have spent so much time with it they never want to see it again and/or c) they think differently about so much of the conclusions!

And I probably get far more folk reading this than would ever buy anything written by Me!

[Phil Rankin]

Well Mark if its any consolation I would read a book you authored!! Having said that, I totally agree with all the you have written and would encourage you to be strong! I greatly appreciate your blog and its open access. Its much better than any book.

I have a book and Im maybe a little different to others because I still enjoy picking it up and reading it every so often! It was a terrible struggle to write it though. Even though its short, relatively simple and mainly drawn directly from research, spirituality is growing and changing and to put it in print seemed so stuck. I agree with the book culture thing in U.K. Church and it really frustrates me. There are a lot of unheard and useful voices around and somehow a way needs to be found to allow them to be expressed and heard. I had to accept that books can be part of that process but really, I think blogs are much better!!!!

[cheryl]

i like the economy of gift thing too.

a publisher told me a while back that i was shooting myself in the foot by putting everything onto the web page, but to not do so would go against every principle of the stuff we're doing.

[steve]

i think books are different from blogs. it might just be me though. i have been blogging for a while now. one of my categories was about church transition - doing emerging church stuff in an established setting. i was stunned to discover earlier this year that there are over 200,000 words in the blog category on my blog.

now those 200000 words are jottings and have blessed people on the way. but i suspect there is another way to bless people; to reflect on those 200000 words and integrate and edit them as a 45,000 word book.

is there a place in our world for multiple approaches to communication?

[Mark Berry]

I think so Steve... you only have to look at my bookshelves/Amazon statement to see I love books... and we've yet to see what the length of the Blogging tail is... will I be able to discover some of your (blog) writing in 10years time, for example. I like the idea of taking a journaled narrative ... a relfection over time... and turning it into a book, that to me seems more authentic than writing something completely in hind-sight.

My issue is not with books per-se nor even with Emerging church books... but with the culture that expects that when you 'reach' a certain level of professional Christianity you need to write a book to seal that status... If I felt I had something to say that would be best suited to book form, I would write it! But if I don't I won't write a book for cultural reasons... in some ways it's about being true to the 'material' and, for me, resisting the power games of the Christian sub-culture...

This isn't flattery but 'Out of Bounds Church' and possible Mike Ridells books are by far the best examples of crossover... retaining some of the immediacy and openess of blogs for a non-blogging generation! I guess if I was going to write a book 'OoBC'would be my template.