andrew jones has this beautiful idea of the transformational party. invite a bunch of people and eat a meal together and see what happens.
the great thing about a party is that you can't complain about it not living up to expectations. if you have a conference or a meeting, you are supposed to come out of it with tangible by products. if you have a party, you were supposed to eat and talk to people.
last night one of these parties happened at my house. people involved in "mission", and people involved in making shiny electronic things go beep. my rough summary of the dream behind this particular party goes likes this: andrew and his friend joe are looking to the future and imagining a world where this whole internet thing does not go away, but continues to manifest itself into more and more places in our lives. while they are confident that "life will find a way" and what is good and beautiful will manifest where ever people seem to go, they are also intuitively sure that there is equal opportunity to enhance or impede the appearance of that beauty and we should be looking to enhance.
so what are we all doing, dreaming of doing, or regretting having done or not done?
interesting tidbits for me:
the word "virtual" which andrew kept using. i love this idea of "the church" being something so rich and complex and beautiful that it could never fully manifest. you will find that there are "virtual" manifestations of the church which are all the pieces of the big complex and beautiful thing which fit in some local context. the thing we think of at first when you hear the word "church" would be one manifestation, but it is just as virtual as some other local manifestation with different beauties and limitations, say "on line church".
i am very skeptical about "on line church", mainly because of my coming to understand christianity as something best expressed by the way it influences the motion of your limbs, and my concept of "on line church" always seems to be more focused on an arena of ideas and opinions. but i also had an interesting conversation with joe about the possibility that my inability to imagine on-line church may be a result of my not fully belonging to the on line culture. i still don't believe that, but it made me think enough that i am going to keep my eyes open to that possibility.
and then there were the hints of stories of things other people were doing that all seemed so creative and daring and beautiful. the party wasn't long enough to hear them all. i'm hoping to be able to catch up with some of those people and hear more.
and finally ...
september 22nd is frodo and bilbo's birthday.
i have always wanted to start a tradition of having a big party on that day. when andrew asked if i'd host the party, and it was going to be on the 22nd, i could not resist. so we had a hobbit party, we gave gifts to the guests, we ate, we drank, we laughed. brad seargent brought all these gorgeous peices LoTR stuff to "hobbit up" the place. i have a replica version of narsil, the sword of elendil that cut the ring from sauron's hand, which i keep hidden because while it is meaningful to me for a number of reasons, i don't really feel great about having weapons hanging from the wall in my house. but for the party i got drag the sword out.
the great thing about a party is that you can't complain about it not living up to expectations. if you have a conference or a meeting, you are supposed to come out of it with tangible by products. if you have a party, you were supposed to eat and talk to people.
last night one of these parties happened at my house. people involved in "mission", and people involved in making shiny electronic things go beep. my rough summary of the dream behind this particular party goes likes this: andrew and his friend joe are looking to the future and imagining a world where this whole internet thing does not go away, but continues to manifest itself into more and more places in our lives. while they are confident that "life will find a way" and what is good and beautiful will manifest where ever people seem to go, they are also intuitively sure that there is equal opportunity to enhance or impede the appearance of that beauty and we should be looking to enhance.
so what are we all doing, dreaming of doing, or regretting having done or not done?
interesting tidbits for me:
the word "virtual" which andrew kept using. i love this idea of "the church" being something so rich and complex and beautiful that it could never fully manifest. you will find that there are "virtual" manifestations of the church which are all the pieces of the big complex and beautiful thing which fit in some local context. the thing we think of at first when you hear the word "church" would be one manifestation, but it is just as virtual as some other local manifestation with different beauties and limitations, say "on line church".
i am very skeptical about "on line church", mainly because of my coming to understand christianity as something best expressed by the way it influences the motion of your limbs, and my concept of "on line church" always seems to be more focused on an arena of ideas and opinions. but i also had an interesting conversation with joe about the possibility that my inability to imagine on-line church may be a result of my not fully belonging to the on line culture. i still don't believe that, but it made me think enough that i am going to keep my eyes open to that possibility.
and then there were the hints of stories of things other people were doing that all seemed so creative and daring and beautiful. the party wasn't long enough to hear them all. i'm hoping to be able to catch up with some of those people and hear more.
and finally ...
september 22nd is frodo and bilbo's birthday.
i have always wanted to start a tradition of having a big party on that day. when andrew asked if i'd host the party, and it was going to be on the 22nd, i could not resist. so we had a hobbit party, we gave gifts to the guests, we ate, we drank, we laughed. brad seargent brought all these gorgeous peices LoTR stuff to "hobbit up" the place. i have a replica version of narsil, the sword of elendil that cut the ring from sauron's hand, which i keep hidden because while it is meaningful to me for a number of reasons, i don't really feel great about having weapons hanging from the wall in my house. but for the party i got drag the sword out.
thanks again michael for being a spectacular and laid-back generous host as well a valuable contributor.
Posted by: andrew | Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 04:45 PM
twas a delightful evening, sir michael! thanx to all the toys for your kind hosting of the party. nice to explore missional in middle-earth with a fellowship of techy-geeks, lotr-geeks, and missional-geeks. tri-geekal. hmmm. there's sure to be some kind of analogy there, but will have to sit on it a while to figure it out...
Posted by: brad | Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 09:56 PM
Michael, thanks for hosting the evening. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the company of those there.
Posted by: mereimage | Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Sounds like your place would have been a nice place to be on September 22nd. I suspect (without having given it a whole lot of thought) that the "online church", like the "broadcast church" is an interesting adjunct to the Kingdom, but not really a new manifestation of it. I think that I live online most of the time -- it is how I keep up with most of the creatures that I keep up with -- but I agree that the Kingdom is about your hands and your feet and your tongue. And poking is not hugging, and hugging is necessary.
Posted by: Glenn R. Wichman | Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 12:48 PM
"poking is not hugging"
i like that, i'll be stealing that next time some one asks me about on line church.
Posted by: Michael Toy | Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 01:17 PM
Michael, once again, thank your for your opening up your home and allowing me to work in your kitchen and using your grill. I enjoyed our conversation, so that you know, I am also on the journey which is lite by a vision to reach all those yet to be made disciples of Christ. gracias mi amigo, joe
Posted by: Joe Hernandez | Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 01:10 PM