I just signed up for the Mustard Seed Associates New Conspirators conference.

If you’re undecided, check out the list of speakers/participants:

Experience the creativity of Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution and co-author of Jesus for President, and his companions at The Simple Way as they help their Philadelphia community rebuild after a destructive fire

Join Karen Ward and her friends as they celebrate their faith at the Church of the Apostles in Seattle and the Fremont Abbey Arts Center

Learn how Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multicultural congregation led by Efrem Smith, co-author of The Hip Hop Church, is making a difference in Minneapolis

Join Mark Scandrette, author of Soul Graffiti, in re-imagining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in San Francisco

Discover with Julie Clawson how God is raising up emerging women to re-invent the church

Celebrate with Tomas Yaccino what God is doing through a new generation of missional leaders in Latin America

Learn how to create more missional churches with Tim Morey from Life Covenant in Torrance, CA

Imagine with Mark Pierson, co-author of The Prodigal Project, how to create ancient/future forms of celebrations and worship for both traditional churches and new expressions

Imagine new forms of social entrepreneurship with Devin Erhardt of Pura Vida Coffee

Meet those who are fashioning emerging expressions of church with Dwight Friesen of Mars Hill Graduate School

Travel with Romanita Hairston, from World Vision, to visit urban churches that are finding a way to make a difference in tough places

Join Mark Van Steenwyk in creating a monastic community of Jesus Radicals in Minneapolis

Learn with pastor Eugene Cho about the flourishing of Quest here in Seattle

Discover with Andrew McLeod how to create economic coops in uncertain times

Explore with Lisa Domke how to make choices as we race into the 2008 US presidential election

Learn with Eileen Hansen how to grow new mustard expressions in a traditional Church

Learn how to find resources to fund creative new ventures with Tom Balke

Imagine how to be friars in the 21st century with Mike Morris from Britain

Create spiritual practices for those in emerging and traditional churches with Bruce Bishop

Imagine with Melanie and Jonathan Neufeld innovative ways churches can provide leadership in urban transformation

Join Ricci Kilmer and Eliacin Rosario-Cruz in beginning the revolution at home

Discover with Christine Sine, author of Godspace and co-author of Living On Purpose, how to create a liturgy of life

Imagine with Tom Sine, author of The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time, how to create missional whole-life faith and whole-life communities for uncertain times

Early registration ends Monday, January 14, so sign up now before the price goes up.

Register here

A journalist with the Monroe, LA News Star wrote an article about faith and blogging this week, and used me as a source:

Justin Baeder, who helped start Seattle Metro Church, started blogging around five years ago.

“I had been using some message boards and I noticed that blogs are becoming a better way to go into more detail — they’re a little bit less discussion-oriented and more of an opportunity to write at length and get feedback,”said Baeder, who blogs at www.radicalcongruency.com.

Baeder sees blogging as an opportunity to explore new ideas and get responses from people who may think along the same lines. That applies to the blogs he chooses to read as well.

“People who are doing the same kind of thing as far as being involved in a church that is nontraditional — I try to keep up with those blogs,” he said.

Baeder feels one advantage of a blog is the feedback feature that can be used if someone posts something that’s incorrect.

“What I like about blogs is you can find someone who will take that person to task,” Baeder said. “If you’re in church and the preacher says something off base, nobody is going to stand up and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute,’ but on a blog someone will.”

Read the whole story

I had a brief but thought-provoking discussion yesterday with the guys about what could happen with the network church as I’ve been thinking about it. However, it was just as valuable to think about what’s impossible for a church or a city full of Christians to do at this point. Why are these things impossible, and what, if anything, can be done about it?

It’s impossible, for now at least…

• For everyone to agree on doctrine
• For everyone to agree to disagree amicably on doctrine
• For everyone to agree on practice
• For people to hold strong their beliefs, yet still accept others who believe differently as equally valid members of the same faith (our book group is starting Exclusion & Embrace, so I may have a different perspective on this soon)
• For one group of elders to lead a metropolitan church (i.e. all the Christians in a city)
• For churches to stop doing what they’re doing overnight (and I don’t think they should)

Given these constraints, what’s possible for a network church model, and what are the goals? More on that later.

As part of my continuing series on the as-yet-undefined “network church,” I’d like to explore the relationship between church community and dining.

I don’t think churches should be seen as providers of products and services. The seeker-sensitive, consumeristic model in which people church-shop in order to find the best fit for their family doesn’t resonate with me. Nor does it seem to me what Jesus had in mind for his people.

I’m not sure where this similie will go, or if it will be logical and complete when I’m done, but try this on:

Our modern model of congregationalism is like always eating at the same restaurant.

We’d find it rather strange and possibly unhealthy if someone ate every meal at the same restaurant. Even if their choice was fairly healthy, it does seem a bit unbalanced to depend on one restaurant for all of your dining needs.

Similarly, I consider strange our notion that you should just belong to one church (even though there may be hundreds in your area) and only have one group of Christian peers, instead of forming a network of Christians that can help you live in the way of Christ.

But wait, you say. I thought Justin didn’t like the idea of churches as service providers. Isn’t a restaurant’s job to feed people? Is he or isn’t he saying churches should “feed” people spiritually? And isn’t church-hopping even more consumeristic and narcissistic than church-shopping?

Within the dominant model of churches as competing service providers, yes. Jumping from one church to the next so you can get the best of each, without all the responsibility and commitment of belonging to a single congregation, is incredibly self-serving and consumeristic.

But maybe the practice seems wrong because the system in which it’s possible is wrong. I think we’re going to see more and more people not really belonging to a single church, but hopping between different activities, services, and gatherings of different churches in their area (as well as events such as conferences and concerts that aren’t organized under the auspices of a single church). You may not like this trend, but I think it’s only going to increase.

So let’s look at what might be wrong with the current model, at least as compared to the early church and what we’re actually told in scripture (not that churches are wrong, but that we might not have figured everything out fully yet):

• We have one set of elders per congregation rather than one set per town
• We have churches organized as nonprofit organizations. In the US, a nonprofit organization is a type of company. The motive is not profit, but the challenges this introduces are similar. Hmmm, I don’t think I can find a scripture reference for how to structure local churches as legal organizations.
• We have a single, paid staff person called the pastor/priest/preacher/minister, who is basically in charge of everything for the local congregation (subject to the approval of the congregation’s elders or denominational oversight structure). I’d love to see a case for this made on the basis of scripture, really.

I say this not to attack 99% of the churches in the world, but to put in their place those who get high and mighty when defending the status quo.

I think the best models for church life are yet to come, meaning they aren’t on the radar yet, though they will be soon. It will be painful for congregations that have built themselves up as nonprofits to thrive in this environment, and easier for low-overhead, low-key groups that are OK with people being transient and having overlapping commitments to various communities of faith.

Doesn’t that make sense? Would a restaurant owner get mad if his customers ate at another restaurant? Or would he simply strive to provide something of value to the customer, while recognizing that he’s not the only one in the business capable of doing so?

Ultimately, though, maybe we don’t need so many restaurants. We need some, but maybe we need more grocery stores, markets, farms, co-ops, and cooking classes.

Thanks to a tip from Thomas Knoll (via Twitter), I found this post about getting rid of 100 things in the month of January, and keeping a list of what I get rid of.

There’s some debate in the comments as to whether magazines should be counted separately, and I expect to have to make some decisions about what really counts as I work through the piles. However, I like the prospect of getting rid of stuff I don’t need any more, especially if it can help someone else.

Item #1 was a CF card reader for a PC card slot, which I successfully gave away via craigslist tonight, after it sat in the living room for about four months. The “free” section is a great way to get stuff picked up by people who want it. Here’s someone else who’s getting rid of 100 (unspecified) things on craiglist.

What are you getting rid of? How?

Update 1/6/08: I’ll be posting items #2-100 in the comments rather than in follow-up posts.