Folks,

We have not had any activity on this site in quite awhile, but I would like to ask for your prayers as I move forward with a new mission to try and break down some of the walls in my church.  You can read more about it here.

God bless you all and I hope that you too are moving forward with the kingdom dream.

Dave

Hi all, it has been awhile since I posted here because it seems that there is not a lot of activity in the area around the Emergent stream.  But I want to point out that it does not mean that God’s work and conversation is not moving forward in the Richmond area.

Since our last meeting I have been in contact with three new people who potentially would like to do things in the Richmond area.  Two were college students (one undergrad one grad) as well as a Richmond area resident.

Even though the Emergent conversation as a brand has slowed down, there are many other possibilities for making a difference in this world.

I also want to offer that if there is anyone who is having a difficult time asking questions in a traditional religious setting that perhaps I can help, drop me a line.

Dave

We had the first renewed meeting on January 28th and I had a great conversation with Greg.  We are going to continue to provide the venue and hope we can have even more people in the next meeting.

Dave

It’s final  Thursday January 28 at 7 PM, The Village Cafe.

I am middle aged guy…….5′ 10″ …..good looking of course…….a goatee……..short hair parted on the side……my kids say I am chubby which I think is worse than fat…….

Directions here.

The Baptists in Richmond are holding a conference in January called C-21 Leading Today’s Church Transition into Tomorrow.  Here is the website.

They define it:

Transition is defined as “a passage from one place, period, state, stage of development, type, etc., over, across, or through to another.” Whether we like it or not, transition happens! So why not be intentional about it?

I wonder what kind of transformation they are thinking they will encounter.  I am certain I will write more about this leading up to the event.

Dave

This article discusses the relationship between being baptist and emerging christianity.  Of course, many in the Richmond Virginia area are Baptists so this article is quite relevant to our city.  As I look at the comparison of what it means to be a Baptist and have emerging thoughts I believe more and more that there is a consistency there and not a conflict.

The original Baptists in this country were fair, open minded people who accepted other interpretations of Christianity.  I believe those baptist roots are going to be revived eventually.

2nd Opinion: Emerging church: Threat or ally? from the Baptist Standard

Dave

I am looking to move the date for the first meeting until after the new year to allow a bit more time for the word to get out to people who are interested.  Please email me and email your friends who would benefit by this meeting and let’s all get in contact.

Dave

I think the Baptimergent site is probably relevant to the Richmond VA community given that we may have a few Baptist churches around the area (and I hope a few emergents).  I like the idea of these hyphenated groups since the emerging conversation is really no more than a conversation at this point.  There is nothing to give up your church to join unless you want to start your own or move to Michigan

Perhaps we should be Richmergents in the Richmond area.  Ah, I don’t think so.  I guess I will add the link to the blogroll now….

Dave

I have listened to several episodes of the something beautiful podcast and have been touched by these folks.  I like what they say, but I want to point out the bonus audio of one of the podcasts because I was especially inspired by it.

The main site is something beautiful, and the podcast that I am referring to is the bonus audio here.  There are several things about the show that I liked, but one that really struck me was when they discussed that we should live our lives like Jesus said we should, then go to Church on Sunday and doubt it all.  Go to church and ask the hard questions and have the good conversations.

I realize that many of us don’t have that at our churches so that is why I am doing this site and going to set up some meetings.

I am going to add them to our blogroll, and I need a good picture for this post….

Dave

I had a fun conversation with a coworker last week that I would like to share.  This person was working on new methods of manufacturing, and he was trying to come up with ways to do things better.

As we talked it struck me how much his way of thinking was like the Emerging Conversation that is happening.  Here is how it works.  Basically people only know what they know.  But when you bring people together that have different beliefs then they can expand to a conversation that encompasses all the beliefs.  So people can come up with better methods of manufacturing by involving people with different backgrounds.

I think this may be important because we are not able to fully comprehend God using our human abilities.  But if we have people with different backgrounds and beliefs involved in the conversation then we get new perspectives and can, perhaps, come closer to what God intends.

I hope that we can have a rich conversation around our God and beliefs.

Dave