the republic is on the move

with the summer whipping by, and 2008 now more than halfway done, i've felt a little stalled out on this new service initiative that i've been working on. so i thought that i'd better go back to the instigator - the guy that really helped shake things up to the degree that i sensed that maybe my life direction was going to take a more daring and possibly heroic path - alex mcmanus.

so i gave alex a call yesterday, and we talked for about an hour.

and wouldn't you know that he'd give me more than enough to stoke up the fires and generate new ideas.

here are a few ideas that we shared:

• it may be more helpful to get out of the mode of thinking about 'church planting', because most church planting strategies are essentially about launching the careers of the 'church planter' ... so i've been encouraged to adopt the language of an activist (or, as i prefer, 'provocateur')

• the culture pub movement is not driven by the timeline of business, but by a sense of existential urgency ... the world is dying untouched by love, truth, beauty and community, and what are we doing about it?

• raising money for a new initiative can creat a false sense of security ... rather than using $ to generate momentum, it's better to start with very little resources/overhead and use $ to preserve momentum

• and here's one that i definitely want to use ... what if there was a gathering of not-Christian artists (e.g. painters) who came together to develop a collaborative work on Easter Sunday - and the only guidance that they are given is that they are to depict themes of resurrection, be it the phoenix, the Matrix, the story of the Christ - just some images rooted in literature or media. wouldn't it be awesome to simply have the community abuzz talking about resurrection on that day and not even be in church? this event will already be taking place in Orlando, Sacramento, and Sheffield (England) ... and i hope to add Barrie, Ontario to it to make it truly a global event.

and if you didn't catch it, the name of this movement/space/community is The Republic (web presence soon to be developed - wearetherepublic.org).

we are on the move ...

the republic is on the move