Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. This is the first time the revolutionary XO laptop has been made available to the general public. For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. $200 of your donation is tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).
The next Coffee for People Who Like to Think will be on Sunday, November 4th at 8:00 p.m. at The Living Room on Broadway. We are tackling Chapter 1 of Signs of Emergence. If you need the book, McNally Robinson and Parable can order it in for you. If you like the book or want to know more, it's author, Kester Brewin keeps a pretty great blog as well. We'll post more about Chapter 1 as we get closer to the date.
The Dusty Cover is a non-profit used bookstore started in October 2007 in Winnipeg's historic West End neighbourhood and is dedicated to serving and investing into our community. In addition to being a good source of used books at great prices, our comfortable lounge is an excellent place to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, all fair trade products.
Check out the site for more information and help pass along the news.
Jesus...envisaged that, scattered around Palestine, there would be small groups of people loyal to himself, who would get together to encourage one another, and would act as members of a family, sharing some sort of common life and, in particular, exercising mutual forgiveness. It was because this way of life was what it was, while reflecting the theology it did, that Jesus' whole movement was thoroughly, and dangerously, 'political'. And...the main characteristic of the cells that Jesus called into being was of course loyalty to Jesus himself.
Last spring we used Phillip Yancey's book, Soul Survivor for discussion. We are thinking of using Brian Walsh/Sylvia Keesmaat's excellent book, Colossians Remixed this fall.
Have we really heard the message of Colossians? Is this New Testament book just another religious text whose pretext is an ideological grab for dominating power? Reading Colossians in context, ancient and contemporary, can perhaps give us new ears to hear.In this innovative and refreshing book Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat explain our own sociocultural context to then help us get into the world of the New Testament and get a sense of the power of the gospel as it addressed those who lived in Colossae two thousand years ago. Their reading presents us with a radical challenge from the apostle Paul for today. Drawing together biblical scholarship with a passion for authentic lives that embody the gospel, this groundbreaking interpretation of Colossians provides us with tools to subvert the empire of our own context in a way that acknowledges the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
Any thoughts or input? Leave them in the comments or e-mail us at hello AT exileschurch.org.
For those of you who may be interested, Soularize 2007 is coming up and some of us who are a part of the Exiles will be heading down to it. Here it is...
Spencer Burke sent this out as a part of TheOozeletter today.
This year Soularize is a counter intuitive relational learning party
There are three important reasons why we chose the Bahamas;
This is the first international venue for the missional / emerging conversation. I am surprised how many people in the USA are unaware of how difficult and expensive it is for our international friends to come to US. It is only 60 miles off of our coast but it makes a world of difference for many desiring to engage on neutral ground.
We are always connected to a local ministry and spend a year or more working with them on the event to ensure this is not a "road show". All of the creativity and experiences are in collaboration with Clint, Tim, Kelly, Gillian, Christian (New Providence Community Church) and local artists, musicians and families. You should check out all of the spaces we are using to create the conversation and learning experiences Soularize, (no hotels or conference centers).
It is hard to fight the perception of the Bahamas - cost was one of the factors (although it is cheaper to fly from NYC, Minneapolis, Seattle and Canada, stay in our host hotel and pay the registration fee for Soularize than it is to fly to a San Diego conference). Soularize has been the one safe place for those who have left the comfort of the established church and their conference budgets. Many have to take time off of work as well. But this has become more than a conference, for some, it is a family gathering. It is always great to see the friendships pick up from last year and new ones begin. The key to Soularize is relationships. Online 24/7, in person Oct. 25-27, 2007.
Below is some Soularize Resources, please pass the word on and I hope to see you on the sand with the rest of my friends Frank Viola, Becky Garrison, Karen Ward, Mark Scandrette, Kristyn Komarnicki, Michael Dowd, Barry Taylor, Dwight Friesen, Jim Palmer, Gareth Higgins, Ron Martoia and more being added weekly.
Myth #1 - The Bahamas is too Expensive Fact - October is the Off Season with great deals on airfare and hotels
Myth #2 - The Emerging conversation is limited to the USA
Fact - We chose the Bahamas because it is an International venue, it may be a short flight from Miami, but it is a huge leap towards our friends
Myth #3 - Conventions are talking heads in stuffy rooms Fact - Soularize includes a Private Island, Art Studios, Swimming w/Sharks, Social Networking website, Beach Reclamation Project
Myth #4 - Big name speakers equal big impersonal crowds Fact - We limited the event to 500 attendees, with a key note line up of the decade (N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Fr. Richard Rohr)
There will also be some Canadians there. We will be the ones playing road hockey on the private island while swimming with the man eating sharks.
Stuff has gotten a lot cheaper, but our attitudes toward it haven't changed correspondingly. We overvalue stuff.
That was a big problem for me when I had no money. I felt poor, and stuff seemed valuable, so almost instinctively I accumulated it. Friends would leave something behind when they moved, or I'd see something as I was walking down the street on trash night (beware of anything you find yourself describing as "perfectly good"), or I'd find something in almost new condition for a tenth its retail price at a garage sale. And pow, more stuff.
In fact these free or nearly free things weren't bargains, because they were worth even less than they cost. Most of the stuff I accumulated was worthless, because I didn't need it.
What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will.
Companies that sell stuff have spent huge sums training us to think stuff is still valuable. But it would be closer to the truth to treat stuff as worthless.
It's hard to believe that this summer is almost half over. It has been a busy one for many of us with some ups and downs along the way. We thought it would be a good time to reconnect, take a deep breath, and share some stories this Sunday night (August 5th) at 7:00 p.m. and have a dessert and snack potluck at 1403 Avenue D North. If you can attend, RSVP to wendy@exileschurch.org or via our Facebook page.
More photos can be found online at Flickr. In case you are looking for more photos from the Church of the Exiles, you can find them in our Flickr Photo pool.
As we began to question whether or not the point of church really came down to adding more people, making more money, keeping people more and more busy with more and more programs, etc. we anticipated that if we weren't going to continue to try and attract large numbers of people to our services, we could likely expect that we would look like miserable failures in many ways to many people as we instead looked to "the sending out" as a way of measuring whether or not we were a living Kingdom community. In other words, rather than counting the number of people who come in to consume church programs, etc. we would celebrate people who left to follow to Jesus outside of the church walls. This shift meant several changes in the way we had always done things and the "results" we had always seen (some of which we would never have been able to anticipate ahead of time):
It meant that Sunday services could no longer be the main focus of our week. If attracting people to our top-notch services wasn't the point, and living missionally was, then we should spend less time and focus on Sundays and actually encourage people to not come unless they needed to.
It meant that rather than creating and maintaining church programs, we should set out to intentionally and organically be-friend one another and our neighbours. We should seek hospitality and justice and deep community together as we respond to the call of Jesus in each one of us.
It meant that we would lose two thirds of the people who actually join us (we would lose many more "Christian tourists" who come to check things out, and many of the folks who want the church to be a "self-help" group). One third would leave disgruntled. One third would leave as Jesus called them on to new and exciting missional ventures (often they are some of our brightest and best folks). One third would stay and continue to learn to live out mission as a community.
It meant that we would lose money. Lots of money. Many of the people who leave are the best financial supporters.
It meant that our tribe would need to be very patient with us and that we would need to intentionally foster relationships with the "powers that be" because our monthly statistic forms and financial records would be terrible indicators of Kingdom activity. Much time had to be invested listening to each other and creating space for each other. (Thankfully our Kingdom-focused leaders have been a brilliant support to us.)
It meant that we would never have a good answer to the "important questions" (insert sarcasm here) like, "How many people are you guys getting now?" To which I like to respond "10 or 12"... I just like to watch the expression on their faces. Or, "What percentage of people are involved in small/cell/house groups?" To which I usually respond "about zero".
The
Church of the Exiles is a holistic Christian community in Saskatoon.
We are also an incubator for creativity, celebration and core
life spirituality.
We
tell stories, install art, exchange gifts, and increase the
peace, within our local community. If you are interested in
learning more, you have come
to the right place.
This
blog/site exsists to connect the community called Church of the
Exiles. Upcoming gatherings, information, links, resources will
all be available here for easy access.
