Emergent Brethren

This month marks an anniversary since the start of this blog site. Here are some numbers to show its activity:

166 Posts, including the section on Brian McLaren’s book
13 Authors who contributed the posts
13 The most number of comments to a post (see the 3/15/08 post by Michael Salerno called, “My money, my mouth”)
11 Number of countries with readers who have visited this site.
5 Number of pages visited by a new visitor in Saudi Arabia.
3 Number of years this site has existed.

Thanks to everyone who’s written a post or left a comment! Your writing is a blessing to many people (even if they don’t leave comments)!

With much appreciation,

Jeff Glass
Site Administrator

There’s a free resource available through the Building Church Leaders website. Since many of you are either using video projection in worship, or are considering it, this resource might be helpful. The following describes the resource:

This tool will help you understand and establish values and policies for using images and video in your worship services. You’ll also learn where to get projection software, and how to select and use the right equipment to make your video projection the most effective for your congregation.

This Training Pack contains all of the following:

Values and Policies for Screen Use
An example of how one church drew up guidelines for video screens in worship.

Using Still Images
Think about these four major categories when deciding what goes on the screen.

How to Make Great Eye Candy
Simple, colorful graphics help create an attractive principal image of worship.

Church Projection Software
A wide selection of programs gives your church alternatives to PowerPoint

The Screen is Like …
Consider how the video screen fits with existing elements of your sanctuary.

Select the Right Screen
Factor in church size, screen uses, and surface material to get the big picture.

Pass the Screen Test
What you project on is as important as how you project it.

Projecting an Image
Don’t shortcut the evaluation process when choosing a new video projector.

Here’s the link to download it: Building Church Leaders.

This morning, I was meditating on Psalm 19. Here’s a few thoughts that came to me in my meditation on verses 1 and 2.

The heavens declare the glory of God.
Declare the glory of God.
The glory of God.
God.

Night after night they display knowledge.
They display knowledge.
Display knowledge.
Know.

I don’t normally create writings in the midst of my spiritual disciplines. But, I found this helpful in reflecting on God’s Word today. What are your spiritual practices?

Blessings to you!

Jeff

Ryan Braught is a church planter who’s put many posts on this website. The church that he is planting, Veritas, is holding its first regular worship service this Sunday!

Here’s what Ryan wrote a few days ago for prayer requests:

1. Launch Sunday: Pray that God would be drawing people to come to the Launch Sunday. Pray that all the various details that need to be done this week will get done. Pray that everything would come together and that Sunday morning at 10:45 AM would be an amazing experience. Pray for those who come who are “true prospects” that they would feel welcomed, loved, and experience God and that they would want to return.

This week is exciting and there is a lot to do (write a sermon, get a bunch of stuff, set up, finish painting the Veritots room, etc… Pray that I won’t be so busy that I forget to stop and pray and seek God’s guidance.

If you’re not on Ryan’s prayer list, I would invite you to join with many who are praying for these requests. Let’s pray for God to do a mighty work through Ryan and the people that God has called to partner with Ryan in this effort!

Blessings to you all,
Jeff Glass

Sorry to be so late in reporting how our gathering was at Annual Conference. The week following conference, I was busy preparing for and attending my D. Min. classes at Bethel Seminary.

I was surprised and amazed by how many attended our gathering this year! Knowing that some who attended in previous years were not coming to San Diego made me wonder if anyone would show-up. Twenty-three people showed-up for all or part of the gathering! This is the highest attendance since the group started with Brian McLaren’s participation (2005).

No only was this year’s gathering different by having the highest attendance, but the topic of conversation was very different. In the past, this has been more of a time of support and sharing what’s happening in our ministry. This year, about 2/3’s of the group was older than 50. Some came because they feel like their traditional-styled ministry is not working, they don’t know much about emergent-style ministy, and so they came to find out. One literally asked, “What is emergent?”.

Some attempted to answer this question in different ways such as:
* the local community works best at defining it.
* it is measured both subjectively and objectively.
* it is a combination of both artistry and technology.

In addition to those who didn’t know much about the topic, there were some from a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence group who had studied the topic and gone to Europe to explore different churches. There were also a couple pastors present who are trying to move their congregation in this direction. So, much of the conversation was going back and forth between those who are new and curious about the topic and those who have seriously explored this style of ministry.

My wife commented afterwards that she felt like she had been in one of my seminary classes at Bethany. This was a good description of the level of conversation.

If I mis-interpreted what happened, please leave a comment below to correct my reflections! Those who didn’t make it West this year — we missed you!

Jeff Glass