mountain masala

wisdom

i hate telling people about resources that are so good that I want to be the only person to have them and show them in workshops etc....

so I'm reluctantly telling you about the book and dvd 'wisdom' by andrew zuckerman and alex vlack. i actually bought it at the sydney airport qantas club on my way home (i rejoined the qantas club before i travelled - soooo glad i did). the book is a hard cover, about 30 x 30 cm and costs $75. not cheap.

'wisdom' contains print and dvd interviews and portraits of 50 people over 65 years of age. it's a great concept and a brilliant resource.

more middle eastern food...

I'm visiting Minnesota for about 10 days - here at Luther Seminary and staying with Prof. Roland Martinson. Luther is a big place by Australian standards, with about 70 faculty and over 700 students. So far I've met with Dr Andrew Root who teaches youth ministry and authored Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation. Andrew did his PhD at Princeton with Kenda Dean, and his book has been receiving rave reviews. I've bought a couple of copies and look forward to reading it. He draws on Bonhoeffer to develop a solid relational theology of youth ministry, something we sadly lack. We had a great conversation about a range of issues, including youth ministry in a post-youth group church. I'm going to see if I can get a video interview with him before I leave.

Luther has developed an MA program in Children, Youth & Family ministry based among other things on the Exemplary Youth Ministry research which Rollie directed. I'm meeting Terri Elton, the Director of the program, on Monday. The program is proving immensely popular. How envious I am of a seminary that takes vocational education in this area seriously.

I had a great middle eastern lunch with Mary Hess, who is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership. Mary has been part of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture and has a strong interest in the use of media in education. We had a wonderful conversation about all manner of things including my proposed research. Mary is interested in theologies of communication, which will be a key area for me to explore further.

fidelity of betrayal

pete rollins' new book,  "fidelity of betrayal" is out in june.

read about it and download the intro here.

looks like another provocative piece....

community development handbook

I've just come across the book "Community Development and Partnerships" published by Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. It's a reprint of some Canadian materials that are available free online.

You can read about it here on our new (and still developing!) College website.

free lawrence lessig audio book

lawrence lessig's book "free culture", is available as an audio download here. Lessig is Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society.

The dowload is 100mb...

postcard secrets book

i should have mentioned a while ago that the postcard secrets book has been published.

postsecret continues to astound.

contemplative youth ministry

Mark Yaconelli's book Contemplative Youth Ministry arrived in the mail from Amazon yesterday. Looking forward to a read.

books & music

popped into the Open Book closing down sale today (and got an online order in the mail). I could have spent squillions, but I was very disciplined. Among the haul
- "The Child in Christian Thought"
- "When Kumbaya Is not Enought" (I always thought this must be a dreadul book since it has a dreadful title and cover, but its supposedly good)
-" The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries"
- "Screening Scripture: Intertextual Connections between Scripture and Film"
- "Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media"
- "The New Era in Religious Communication" (which i have but its out of print) (darren, do you want it in return for the ikon CD??)
- Malina's "Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels" (I ordered some others too but they're sold out.
I nearly ordered N.T. Wright's trilogy but I suspect they're sold out too.

And "Helium" by Urban Myth Club arrived from the UK. Having heard both jonny and cheryl mention they'd used bits, I thought I'd track it down. I always appreciate people telling me what music they've been playing in worship.

No Bruce, not you. I'll never play Dolly Parton in worship.

Powerful Persuasion

Tex Sample has a new book called Powerful Persuasion. So new that Amazon dont have a picture up there yet!

After his other great books, "Ministry in an Oral Culture", and "The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World", I expect this to be good.

Section One focuses on Story,
Section Two on Rhetoric in Image, Sound, Beat, Light, Move and Dance
Section Three on the Prophetic Church and Prophetic Use of Figure - in Hebrew Poetry and in Electronic Culture

Here's what the back cover says:

When it comes to communicating the gospel through new media and technologies, churches are often faced with one of two bad options. Either they can reject these new vehicles for sharing the faith as “not the way we’ve always done it”; or they can uncritically embrace them, failing to see that when not understood properly these media can obscure the gospel message just as much as they can communicate it. If they are going to reach the generations formed by electronic culture, churches must engage in a new evangelism, one that makes use of new technologies and cultural expressions. Sample explains how the electronic generations receive and process the information communicated by new media, and how the ways in which our consumerist culture makes use of those media are not good models for how the church can employ them to spread the message of Jesus Christ.

Tex (what is that short for?) was Professor of Church and Society at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City - now he's a freelance author and lecturer.

Tex is fifty-something with a rural background. He loves country music, and has a wonderful way of blending theology and philosophy to give an older person's take on contemporary culture. I find his insights really helpful for some on the situations in which I work.

Through the book he quotes Karl Barth, John Milbank, Manuel Castells, "Pretty Woman", Wittgenstein, Simon Frith, Walter Ong and more. Get the idea? He also writes clearly and accessibly.

Now i'll add it to the reading pile, which includes Graeme Codrington's "Mind the Gap", Robert Johnston's "Reel Spirituality", and Albert Borgman's "Power Failure", and about 20 others. I'm planning a summer of media reading!

it finally arrived

my youth study book finally arrived from the US today. the design is very boring, not at all what i had hoped, and they completely left off my bio and photo. sigh. still, nice to have it in my hand.

and I finished the text for the youth version of Companions in Christ intro volume. another author has worked on it too. apparently they come out next May.

what to write next?