Saturday, November 29, 2008

Topics for discussion? (asking for directions)


ok ...

...no one is interested in talking about mission and evangelism, or the massive exit of young adults from the church. Its ok -- really -- it doesn't hurt ... at least not much ... Brian, please through in some gentle irony here ...

Let's open up a thread to take suggestions for topics for discussions ... what would YOU, dear blogger, like to talk about?

or have we talked about everything and run out of things to say? What think ye? Anybody know any good jokes?

20 comments:

Joseph Holbrook said...

PS: I think we are going to try to do a ventrilo conversation tonight at 8:30 pm eastern ... although I have to pick up someone from the airport and might be a few minutes late... Brian and JohntheMusician will be in there to host.

Also, Travis will be joining John and I in the ventrilo chat room around 10pm Sunday night.

Brian Emmet said...

Like the cartoon!

I like the blog. ventrilo is kinda fun, but with more than two or three it can get kind of congested. Emails seem to generate more response just now, and that's fine except for the ever-lengthening length of the email as we reply-to-all--reply-to-all--reply-to-all.

Actually, I'm in favor of whatever we will actually use, for deepening conversation, spiritual formation and missional fruitfulness.

We've also talked at times about how the blog posts can get too heady, or too long, or both, so I guess it's not only the format (email, blog, ventrilo) we should discuss, but also the basic ground rules for whichever we choose. I'd like to suggest that one of the ground rules be, "You have to participate!"

Your honest responses are now twice-requested (once by Jose and here by me)!

Joseph Holbrook said...

I wonder if we should add one or two of the young guys as contributors and let them set up some topics?

by-the-way, we need some of your irony ... I find that when all else fails, fall back on humor.

Brian Emmet said...

Sure thing on adding some others as contributors.

It's hard to make an assessment (about this blog)without much input, although the lack on input may be an assessment all by itself.

I'll work on being funnier, or funner... or maybe just try to be fun.

steve H said...

Weekend tend to be slow on the blog, don't they? Holiday weekends more so, I would guess.

Joseph Holbrook said...

sked to write a composition entitled, "What I'm thankful for on Thanksgiving,"
little Timothy wrote, "I am thankful that I'm not a turkey."

Joseph Holbrook said...

wow! I posted the link to this blog on facebook yesterday ... and the traffic spiked up despite the fact that no one commented. We had visitors from Madrid, Spain, San Miguel, Chile, as well as all over the United States. We even had one visitor from Beaver Dam, WI (was that you Jeff? wink, wink). We also had a visitor from Panama City (Dan or Patti?).

Maybe I should use cartoons and tell jokes in here more often ...

By-the-way, Brian and I had a great conversation last night around 10 pm on ventrilo -- we were joined by John the Musician later. We had a fruitful conversation about social change and the "lost" 20-something generation. I'll be on again tonight around 10 pm.

Joseph Holbrook said...

here is a good one someone sent me:

"HOT AIR BALLOONS: a male object, because to get them to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under their butt."

by-the-way, Carlos (caloozian) posted a comment for the first time on the previous thread. He speaks in visual movie metaphors, so the lights that we are NOT supposed to follow in the swamp in his LoTRs metaphor are the flawed lights of Christian leaders....

John W Holbrook said...

Don't fret guys probably just a slow time of year.

I would however like to stress one more time (even if I've already stressed it a bunch of times before) that thing's have gotta start getting relational.

Great conversation happens between great friends, and great friends happen between trials and tribulations.

i.e. we've all got shit we're dealing with but if we take just a little bit of time to be open in relationship to one another without an agenda then it will generate friendships which will generate great conversations which we will probably, at some point down the road, end up setting agendas for.

I'm half asleep but it sounds good! =OP

Will Currie said...

when daniel was reading through scriptures he discovered the seventy years of captivity had been reached, so he began to pray that his people would return to their home.

we all have noticed that we are in a changing time; that an increase of the Spirit is needed for us not only to reach the lost, but also to walk with the Father.
Is there anything that we, togther, can do to (for lack of a better phrase) speed it up?

Brian Emmet said...

Well, following Daniel, we could pray together. Any ideas about how to do that electronically?

John M. said...

Carlos, don't know if you are reading here, but thanks for your post. It gave me food for thought, but I didn't get around to responding.

Brian, how to "pray electronically?" Post your prayer. And let others post theirs.

John the Musician, I think the reason your Dad and I have been friends for over 30 years and Steve Humble and I have been friends for almost 40 years is because we have "shared our shit" as you say.

JOKE: This guy died and was given a choice of going to either heaven or hell. He decided to check out hell firt. He loved what he saw: A swimmiing pool in a country-club setting with lots of bikini-clad women. Free drinks for all, nice landscaping and a pleasant climate. "Wow, I don't see how heaven can top this," he tought, but decided to find out.

When he got to heaven, he found a pleasant pastoral scene. Very, nice, but nothing compared to the attractions of hell, so he decided to go back.

When he returned to hell, it was totally different: dry, arid, hot desert no water, no pool, no girls...

He found Satan and asked what happened to the place he had been before. Satan's reply: "That was before you voted".

John W Holbrook said...

I think the exact punch line was something like, "We were campaigning yesterday but you voted today." Lol

Thanks for the affirmation on what I said about "sharing our shit" technically if we wanted to pray we could all get on vent and have one person pray while the others all silently Amen in the back ground. =OP

Joseph Holbrook said...

Hey, just to counteract the impression that nothing is going on in this blog, in the last few days we have had visitors to this blog from 13 countries: Spain, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, 2 from the Phillipines, Australia, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Chile, Canada, and the U.S. Kuala Lampur, Singapor, and one from an Island in the Caribbean I have never heard of. They should be able expand their English vocabulary whether it is our resident theologians and historians talking, or our dear 20-something friends using colorful metaphors.

Any other ideas for topics? I am kind of interested in hearing more about McKnight’s new book, The Blue Parakeet, and discussing how one interprets and applies scripture in new situations and new generations.

Anyone interested in a ventrilo conversation tonight or Sunday night? I will be busy on Saturday evening with an end of the semester grad party.

William, I am still thinking about your reference to Daniel and prayer. I'll get back to that.

John the Musician: if "fellowship" is two fellows in the same boat, then what is "fellowshit"? Perhaps the economic situation we are all facing.

Brian Emmet said...

I'm trying to get to some posts on "The Blue Parakeet." Stay tuned, but keep talking amongst yourselves until I get to it!

John M. said...

John the musician, You're right! I never could tell a joke.

Joseph, where are all those people come from? Are they just surfing and come accross us, or do they have some context? Do they actually stay and read, or just move on? How do you know these things?

Joseph Holbrook said...

John: I don't know where they come from ... some of them are probably just browsing the web, doing google searches. Recently, I posted a link to Covenant Thinklings on facebook and the number of visitors jumped.

The way I know who is visiting is through a program called "google/analytics" which I embedded into the blog to be able to track the daily visitors. When you come down to Miami in January for the campout, I'll show it to you.

jh

Brian Emmet said...

"Covenant Thinklings--internationally known yet universally ignored!"

Brian Emmet said...

New post available--look for "Birdwatching I."

John M. said...

Joseph, I thought the retreat was in Feb. Have we move it back to January?