Slow Church - Latest Comments

Re: The Taste of the Place

Davey Jones — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:22:55 -0000

This is one of my favorite and thought provoking posts in the Slow Church progression. Part of its impact has to do with the emphasis on food--no, no, not that I'm always thinking about food, but because I've really been thinking recently about the importance of pure-grown food and the impact of local growing. All the same, my wife and I have been talking about this post quite a bit and really trying to understand the full implications of it.

Re: Broke into the Old Apartment (This is Where We Used to Live).

Dan — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:47:55 -0000

For one who has been in 'hypermobility mode' for some years, I find your piece intriguing. Moving around has some benefits--opportunities to discover people, places, food, etc that otherwise would have been remote or unknown--but it also can wear thin. More and more, I like this notion putting down roots. Your post helps, indicating how this can bring good to self, others in the area who stay, and even to those who are passing through.

Re: Broke into the Old Apartment (This is Where We Used to Live).

Josh Kelley — Sat, 12 May 2012 21:06:28 -0000

While this really has nothing to do with the content of your post, I would like to add that BNL is a great band with well written lyrics. Thank you.

Re: Slow Church and the Mainline Churches.

Scott White — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:22:21 -0000

Thanks Chris for coming, and for your helpful reflection on what you experienced! From what I have read so far, I am a fan of Slow Church. Blessings, Scott

Re: The Moral Importance of the iPhone

Ray Siler — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:11:53 -0000

Great questions John. It is just amazing how hard it is to really disconnect and limit something that is so multifunctional and connects us to so much information. My wife and I are trying/failing to keep iphones only in our office and entryway. We plan to start wifi free weekends soon.

Re: There Are No Unsacred Places

suzannah {the smitten word} — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:06:39 -0000

thank you for poetry and good food for thought. *shutsdowncomputer*

Re: There Are No Unsacred Places

northierthanthou — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:09:57 -0000

How often the one paves the way for the other!

Re: The Moral Importance of the iPhone

David — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:43:48 -0000

I'm a geek by trade. But (especially) computer technology vexes me. I'm bothered by how the distraction of smartphones crept into my own habits, and then how others are distracted from the Present by their phones. I've had to draw some clear personal lines when it comes to technology. A few include: 1) no headphones when my family is home or when I'm working outside. It's amazing what you notice when you listen to ambient noise. 2) No phones during home group. We lead a small church Bible study and have noticed that (of course) a house full of teenagers wouldn't interface with each other because they were so busy looking at smartphone screens. But many of the adults aren't much better. 3) No technology (including books!) at the dinner table. And we will not answer ringing phones during dinner. This is just old school, but an increasing temptation with text messaging, twitter, and FB.

I'd like to hear what limits others place on their phone time or technology time and how it's enriched their relationships or what, if any, backlash they've experienced.

Re: Technology, Community and Discernment.

Rade — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:31:04 -0000

Most of the ills besetting modern Christianity (or as one writer put it recently "industrial Christianity") have come from the substitution of the discernment of the community of believers with the discernment of the "free market". Of course this imposition of market thinking into the lives of our communities, families, and selves goes far beyond religion.

Re: The Moral Importance of the iPhone

Steve — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:30:56 -0000

Then there is the question of finances that isn't even considered. How much will I spend this year on my data package?

Re: Relevant Irrelevance [An Ekklesia Project Guest Post by Edwin Searcy]

Ed Searcy — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:29:29 -0000

Cindi - Thanks so much for your encouraging reply. This sharing is the gift of the community of friends that is the Ekklesia Project. Our journey into hosting the Word came about as we engaged the work of others who encouraged us to think of hospitality as crucial to life as citizens of the Reign of God. So we, too, think of this as a gift from others ... in the end, a gift from the God who sustains us and call us. We send our greetings to everyone at Redeemer Community Church.
Ed

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

EnglewoodReviewOfBks — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:05:07 -0000

Well said, John!
"constant re-evaluation, an ongoing conversation." //Love it!

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

John Pattison — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:43:45 -0000

Great points, Steve. True story: I almost went back and changed the line "we need a new standard" at the end to "a different standard." I didn't change it because a couple people had already posted links to the article on Facebook and one of them had actually quoted that line.

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

John Pattison — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:41:18 -0000

"Health" and "flourishing" were two words I had in mind as well. What I like about those two words is that they are standards and not goals. We're not likely to ever get to the place where we can say we've arrived. There needs to be constant re-evaluation, an ongoing conversation.

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Alex — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:34:43 -0000

Buy an electric car and church hop to your hearts content LOL. I hear Mars Hill is opening another Satellite Campus on the edge of town soon :-)

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Scale of Life — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:12:24 -0000

Shalom
Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
Not being conformed to the patterns of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Brandon Rhodes — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:45:46 -0000

Dan, in a $3.79 gallon of gas, $2.88 of it is the crude itself. Taxation was about $0.45. (see attached infographic...)

Also, what regulation do you have in mind? The oil industry gets subsidies... more popularly known as corporate welfare. If anything, government intervention is keeping prices down, not up.

You're spot-on that there's a lot of fossil fuels in the ground, but over 1/3 of all oil, for example, is so thick that it would take more energy to get it out of the ground than we'd actually recover. And that's to say nothing of the diminishing returns on investment between the 50% mark and that final "not worth it" point in each oil field. Diminishing returns on investment are what pop economic bubbles and create crises and market panic.

If anything, the basic principles of supply and demand are responsible for high oil prices. Flat-to-declining supplies in the face of an exploding human population and consumption rate (which means we're just as responsible as our brother and sister Christians in China on this...) make the price skyrocket.

In other words, it's not about when we run out. That's a LONG way off. It's when demand permanently exceeds supply, and what we'll do about that in the meantime.

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

EnglewoodReviewOfBks — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:25:21 -0000

Dan, I do agree with you that there are a host of economic factors that play into the pricing of gasoline. But there are also a host of shadow costs -- social (hypermobility, destruction of rural communities, etc) and environmental (spills, climate change, etc) and otherwise -- that are NOT and probably will never be factored into the pricing of gasoline. It these costs that I have in mind when I talk about "cheap" oil. These are the greater costs, not the penny- and dollar-wise inflation of oil and governmental powers.

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Steve Vines — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:22:53 -0000

While I agree with what you are saying, I think we've needed a new standard for quite some time. If peak oil helps us come to that conclusion then hooray but we need a new standard nonetheless. Now to answer your question I think the standard needs to be based more on impact than anything. Would the people in your community, or circle of influence, who don't attend miss you if you were gone?

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Dan Benson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:15:32 -0000

I disagree with your premise. Gas prices in America have been forced higher through government policies and taxation. Enough carbon fuels exist, I've read, to power us for the next 300 years. I'm not against utilizing other forms of energy generation or denying that there are consequences to fossil-based fuels, I'm just saying your opening premise is flawed. "Cheap" by the way is a value judgement. How about we use the word "inflated" gas prices?

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Aaron Klinefelter — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:38:40 -0000

Agreed, Chris. I do think the question should be asked whether or not we are driven (pun intended) there by Peak Oil. I suppose I'm oddly thankful for the push that it (and higher gas prices) brings to discussions about church life. Those standards of the "health and flourishing of our places" *should* be motivating factors regardless of the price of oil.

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

EnglewoodReviewOfBks — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:03:47 -0000

The standard should be the health and flourishing of our places -- i.e., how well does the church community serve to catalyze a rich and healthy local culture in its neighborhood?

~Chris

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

SelfGov.us — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:58:30 -0000

The church should be the impetus for a new gift based economy.

Re: Peak Oil and the Local Church

Kork Moyer — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:56:08 -0000

The poor being with us.

Re: Relevant Irrelevance [An Ekklesia Project Guest Post by Edwin Searcy]

Cindi Fong — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:20:53 -0000

Ed, reading your article helped me realized how different ways we have heard about your congregation through Ekklesia has been a gift to our congregation. We, too, have shifted from Bible study to Hosting the Word and this has provided a framework for many people in the congregation to give meditations during the seasons of Advent and Lent. Thanks for your faithful work that is a gift beyond your congregation.

Cindi Fong - Redeemer Community Church, San Francisco