Ron Cole : unplugged, unorthodox, sacrilegious

the Kingdom...in God's mind

The Kingdom is to ...

begin to bring in the shalom prophesied by Isaiah and embodied in Jesus. We'll keep on until we are interconnected and intertwined with the whole world. There is a new world coming. It must come because it is in God's mind and God has willed it.

What we do with intensity and focus in our own neighborhood, the one in which God has set our community--your community--will enable us to reach out in affection to the whole globe. To the whole human family. To the whole created order.

The time has come when all limited patriotic boundaries must be transcended. Everything is interconnected. We are related in affection to everything. ( Gordon Cosby )

The Kingdom, in God's mind...this was the vine that Jesus was attached, that he calls us to graft into...this is where the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of re-creation flows from.

May your Kingdom come, on Earth as in Heaven.

Tune in, Turn on, let it Flow...a new Genesis, a new Creation...The Kingdom of God.

 

Brian McLaren @ God Complex Radio

 

 

Apologies for the lack of engagement as of late. Still fighting the flu and cold, so mainly resting reading and listening. A podcast I've been listening to for awhile is "God Complex Radio ", if you're looking for gracious hosts, an open table of stimulating conversation...I encourage you to pull up a chair and join in.

This week they invite Brian McLaren to pull up a chair where Carol engages him in questions around future church, the role of women in church leadership. Jesus said, a grain of wheat must die in order for there to be life and abundant growth. Carol and Brian ask a more profound question...maybe some churches must die, in order for the church be vibrant?

Anyway...tune in, turn it up, listen, think...engage them with your questions here...

 

mission...the point of impact

The reality of the new creation is the impact of Jesus into the margins, and fringe of humanity. After his departure is a profound impression of life. What is left is a crater of divine eternal redemptive imagination. In this crater, is the reality, the mystery of what it is to be God in the world.

When all that remains is the impression, the only way we can reveal " Jesus " is to press into the midst of humanity; its poverty, it's injustice and it's brokenness. Jesus absence is filled with our engagement, the same way you would restore a hole by pouring in plaster. It is the same, the plaster, being our lives.

As we restore injustice we fill the impact of Jesus in the world. The more we fill this mysterious crater, the more the world sees Jesus, and the redemptive imagination of this Kingdom he dreamed, and lived in. The crater is as much the shape as what is poured into it. In essence the two become one, indistinguishable.

The reality of mission is the " point of impact. We only become Jesus in the world to the extent that we fill the impression he left in the margins, and the fringe of humanity.

We can spend a lot of time and effort trying convince people there was an impact...or we can live like there was, filling the impression it left. Mysteriously, when one sees...it takes less convincing.

The gospels are the circumference, and the depth of the impression left by the impact, the crater. The extent that we live out the profound mysterious truth of all that the gospels are...is the extent we fill it,revealing Jesus, and the Kingdom.    

Emerging movement...at the interesction looking beyond

A New Year always seems to bring reorganization, restructuring, out with the old and in with the new and it's a time to look back...and to look ahead. I was going through my Google Reader this morning, catching up and doing some updating. One post caught my eye, " Emerging Church Movement ( 1989-2009 )?" written by Andrew Jones aka TSK.  I've followed Andrew's blog ever since I first started following the emerging church conversation some 14 years ago. Probably more than anyone, Andrew's experience is "global", he is a teacher, practitioner, thinker and has done it globally. So I would not doubt he has a fairly good read on the pulse of the emerging church movement. What I find disheartening is some see the emerging church movement on it's death bed, some of the close family are more than ready to pronounce death while there is still a heart beat, and brain wave activity.

Just maybe were not reading all the vital signs properly. Maybe we've fallen into the same trap as the modern church, using the the same instruments for measuring life and growth. If we are, then yes, death is immanent, and maybe there never was real life. Maybe from it's premature embryonic birth, real life was not realistic. Maybe it was just a short lived lab experiment in which it used up all the medium in it's culture dish, and now with nothing left to sustain it, it is withering away. One of the deep thinkers in the emerging conversation, who still continues to stretch it's theological boundaries, Pete Rollins said this a few years ago...

" While the term ' emerging church ' is increasingly being employed to describe a well defined and well- equipped religious movement, in actual fact it is currently little more than a fragile, embryonic and diverse conversation being held between individuals over the Internet and at various small gatherings. Not only does the elusive and tentative nature of this conversation initially make it difficult to describe what, if anything, unifies those involved; the sheer breadth of perspectives held by those within the dialog makes terms such as ' movement ', ' denomination ', and ' church ' seem somewhat inappropriate. "

"Our first attempt to understand this network will often leave us with a certain frustration, as its kinetic and dynamic nature seems to defy easy reduction to a single set of theological doctrines or ritualistic practices. what we are presented with instead is a diverse matrix of relationships that bridge a number of different communities. Even a cursory glance over this network will show that the participants are unified neither by a shared theological tradition, nor by an aspiration to one day develop one. The word ' emerging ' cannot, then, be understood as describing a type of becoming that is set to one day burst onto the religious scene as a single, unified, and distinct denominational perspective ( analogous to a caterpillar that is soon to break its cocoon, and arise as a butterfly ), or a becoming that can be carefully charted ( like the trajectory of a bullet )."

Really, I think we have to ask ourselves, " What was the expectation?" Did we expect churches were going to fly an " Emergent Banner?"

Peter Rollins musing on the emerging conversation might be a few years old, but, I think in all truth we still might find ourselves closer to there than somewhere else. And, I think that is still the reality why it is so hard to measure the pulse of the emerging church movement. We knew from the beginning it was beyond definition, but certainly looking across the emerging church movement there were common denominators. Professor Scot McKnight wrote this article three years ago for Christianity Today, " Five Streams of the Emerging Church." In the opening paragraphs he says this about the movement...

To prevent confusion, a distinction needs to be made between "emerging" and "Emergent." Emerging is the wider, informal, global, ecclesial (church-centered) focus of the movement, while Emergent is an official organization in the U.S. and the U.K. Emergent Village, the organization, is directed by Tony Jones, a Ph.D. student at Princeton Theological Seminary and a world traveler on behalf of all things both Emergent and emerging. Other names connected with Emergent Village include Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, Tim Keel, Karen Ward, Ivy Beckwith, Brian McLaren, and Mark Oestreicher. Emergent U.K. is directed by Jason Clark. While Emergent is the intellectual and philosophical network of the emerging movement, it is a mistake to narrow all of emerging to the Emergent Village.

Emerging catches into one term the global reshaping of how to "do church" in postmodern culture. It has no central offices, and it is as varied as evangelicalism itself.

You can read the whole article ( here ).

But even with the common denominators, every church planted in it's locality and context, like ecosystems is developing differently. I think that is the beauty of the emerging movement is because it is crossing the whole geographic landscape of church denominations we are seeing incredible diversity. Maybe if from the outset we were looking for conformity the conversation it would have developed much differently, or likely would have shut down all together. And maybe the biggest mistake was this subtle shift from conversation/ movement...to church. One can't help think if that became the point of arrival, or if the goal was to be a church, apart of the BIG CHURCH. 

Even since the Christianity Today article, both Emergent UK,and Emergent Village have all restructured. Emergent Village coordinating group disbanded in April of 2009 which also fueled the myth to some extent that the emerging movement was winding down. Was it the writing on the wall, the leadership throwing in the towel? I know both Brain McLaren and Tony Jones would tell nothing could be further from the truth. It was more to flatten out the leadership, invite more people in, and to expand the conversation.

I love these words from Danielle Shroyer who has been apart of the emerging movement from it's embryonic origins...

As someone who is driven by challenges, I like to look at our current chapter in this global emerging church revolution in a different way.  Now that we’ve gained a following, our challenge to be revolutionary is more important, and more difficult, than ever.   Now we must figure out a way to push the envelope in the middle of something that’s become familiar, to try to redefine church when everyone assumes they know the answer already, to speak poignantly enough so as not to be confused with the pre-fab, boxed kit, marketed products now sitting on the 50% off  table.  We got the audience we wanted, complete with a readily listening ear.  Now what will we tell them?

Now what next?”  That’s where we are right now, and I personally believe we have plenty of work left to be done.  We have institutional structures that still desperately need reform.  (Just because the Archbishop likes us doesn’t mean we couldn’t say a few more words he needs to hear!)  We have theology that is broken and tired and unhelpful that desperately needs to be re-visioned, rethought, reinvented.  We have communities of faith (and pastors leading them) who still need examples of how to live sustainably and holistically.  And I’m certain we each know plenty of people who are just trying to find a way forward in faith, still trying to ask the simplest, most important question of all (and I’d suggest it’s the question we all must ask ourselves, over and over again):  How do I follow Jesus faithfully in this world in which I live?

When I think of all the questions facing us as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, I get both giddy and dizzy at all the new ground we’ll get to cover- and that we’ll need to cover.  And I know, as we start to ask those questions and come up with our first round of answers, there will still be people joining this conversation who have yet to hear the word “missional” and others who could really use some help in re-envisioning their church gathering to reflect a change from hierarchy to web.  Somebody’s going to need friends to discuss how great the idea of perichoresis is and how brilliantly Moltmann applies it to our ecclesial shared life (and that person should call me!). Someone is going to read one of these Emergent books for the first time while browsing through Barnes and Noble and need a cohort of people to walk with through each of the questions it raises.   Someone is going to need a friend and fellow companion to walk this road.  And the beautiful, Spirit-drenched truth is that we have friends to recommend, and churches and communities of faith where we can send them, and books we can give them, and a map of cohorts we can offer up.  And as sexy as it was fifteen years ago, we didn’t have any of that on our side.  If our goal in this movement is to help people follow Jesus better in our current world, we’ve created entire networks of friendships and artifacts that can be of great comfort and help.  We’ve become that married couple who has the weight of all those beautiful memories on its side, even if it’s added a few extra pounds.

I still continue to see us somewhere here, while the term ' emerging church ' is increasingly being employed to describe a well defined and well- equipped religious movement, in actual fact it is currently little more than a fragile, embryonic and diverse conversation...leading to experimentation and practice. If we look at it in the same way as we look at emerging natural science in ecosystems it is a slow evolutionary process. Maybe, we were thinking more in terms of revolution, that by now we would have seen something more tangible. But like new growth in an old forest, this started deep beneath the forest floor...in the dirt, and the dark. Conditions, seasons, environment all dictate the rate of growth. Sometimes the growth is not always visible, sometimes roots, sometimes shoots. But the movement continues to grow, there is something happening on the forest floor.

We live in a profound place of uncertainty. Deep, deep questions about life are floating to the surface of the sea of humanity. We are at three way intersection of religion, and science...and something beyond. Our religious theological language is tired, worn out. No one is asking the questions to which we have answers for. And, science is no longer the ace in our back pocket to save us in the game of life. We live in an emerging world, of multiculturalism, pluralism, world religions, not widely spread and segregated around the world, but in your own neighborhood.

At this cross road of religion and science and looking to something beyond we need to look a redemption in a radical new dimension. We need to immerse ourselves into the truth of the gospels, not reading from the point of an answer...but to deeper questions that move us forward. The myth of certainty is over. Brilliant questions will always move us.

We need to get past personal salvation, about it just being God and us. That salvation is about God and creation, in which we are just a strand woven into the fabric of that profound relationship. The radical idea of a universal redemption, that the cross is about restoring the righteousness of all creation.

Like I say, we are at a profound place of uncertainty. But, I look ahead with excitement, and hope, and I think the emergent movement will continue to grow, and help the church to navigate that road beyond.

Some people I continue to see helping us in the conversations are Brian Swimme, Philip Clayton, Nic Paton, NT Wright, Spencer Burke, John Franke, Miroslav Volf, Jurgen Moltmann , John Caputo , Jim Henderson and yes, still, Brian McLaren.

So emerging movement ( 2010? and beyond ) yes, I think so. Put your ear to the ground and listen, maybe scratch the surface and cultivate something.

Another person I'm waiting patiently to hear from is Bill Dahl, in his upcoming January Next Wave article, " The Decline of the Emerging Church (?).

Spiritual Abuse Recovery: Barb Orlowski

I'm excited that this book, " Spiritual Abuse Recovery: Dynamic Research on Finding a Place of Wholeness " has been published, hot off the press and ready for people to access. It has been a long period of gestation for Barb Orlowski, to finally see her " baby " birthed. I'm guessing I first talked to Barb when she was working on her doctoral dissertation at the Associated Canadian Theological Schools, the Graduate School of Theological Studies of  Trinity Western University a couple of years ago. I know from the updates along the way it was a tremendous amount of work, and research on a very sensitive subject. But through her work, she has gathered data from interviews across the landscape of the whole church ; big and small, cross denomination; evangelical, mainline and traditional. It is a must read for the whole church, to help us better understand spiritual abuse, and move forward from dysfunction to wholeness.

Book Description

What factors contribute to active Christians in ministry leaving their church and becoming exiting statistics? Every year dedicated Christian people leave churches because of spiritual abuse. The stories of people who left their home church because of a negative and hurtful experience paint a picture of a widespread occurrence which beckons consideration by church leaders and church congregants alike.

Spiritual abuse, the misuse of spiritual authority to maltreat followers in the Christian Church, is a complex issue. This book shows how people processed their grief after experiencing spiritual abuse in their local church and how they rediscovered spiritual harmony. Their spiritual journey shows how one may grow through this devastating experience.

This book offers a thoughtful look at the topic of spiritual recovery from clergy abuse through the eyes of those who have experienced it. It invites church leaders to consider this very real dysfunction in the Church today and aims to demonstrate a path forward to greater freedom in Christ after a season of disillusionment with church leadership.

Endorsements for Back Cover

 "In an age of increasing calls for strong church leadership, this book is a gift to church leaders and those who have been severely hurt and abused in our churches. Through careful research and an insider's perspective, Barb has opened up both pathways for healing from church abuse and insights for leadership to ensure that potential future abuse is stopped."
—Alan Jamieson, author of A Churchless Faith

"What we refer to as spiritual abuse was a concern for Jesus in his earthly ministry and it is a common problem today. It is, therefore, surprising that more attention is not given to it by today's Christian community. Barb Orlowski, however, does take it seriously as she offers insight into the causes of bad church experiences and how to recover from them. Her counsel alerts people to the dangers of spiritual abuse, and if leaders hear her, they will be less likely to become part of the problem . . . I encourage you to read it."
—Ken Blue, author of Healing Spiritual Abuse

"Dr. Orlowski's research has provided a balance for various perspectives on the experience of woundedness. She listens to the voices of the wounded and lets them inform us of their reality of feeling disappointment and disenfranchisement, tragedy and turbulence in the Church . . . For recovery, Dr. Orlowski gives an excellent starting point—the voice of the wounded—and follows that with the grace of God demonstrated through hearing the voice of God and basing recovery on the Word of God."
—Kirk E. Farnsworth, author of Wounded Workers

You can purchase a copy of the book by contacting Barb Orlowski  at ( info@churchexiters.com ). She will have books available, autographed if you like...and details about cost of the book and postage.

terrorism on another front...IHOP rallies troops against an emerging enemy

Big, huge conference happening in Kansas, " the One Thing 09'", in which the speakers will address some of the biggest faith issues concerning the church today.

According to Mike Bickle of the influential charismatic movement ( IHOP ), International House Of Prayer, " emerging churches are turning 20 and 30 somethings to ' casual Christianity ' or even apostasy!Along with gays, Muslims, and abortionists, emergers form a quadrangle 0f evil threatening the pure ' end-times move' of God today."

You check out Mike Bickle and Lou Engle plugging the conference...

http://is.gd/5ihDA

It reminds me of my army days of a general, or battalion commander rally the soldiers for a frontal assault on a perceived enemy. It's obvious they should have left there fortresses and camp and done some real reconnaissance.

They also say the following on their website...

We will also address the growing crisis that is emerging in many churches across America. A new wave of confusion is systematically seducing many young adults into deception. Sincere young people whose hearts were once ablaze for Jesus are being allured into compromise on foundational biblical truths and practices, while at the same time they are increasing in works of compassion and justice. No amount of increased ministry activity can “balance out” their profound spiritual compromises. In the name of tolerance, they are settling for a humanistic and "politically correct" theology that trivializes the glory of Jesus. Many young adult ministries are falling prey to this as they are seeking “relevance” that dulls the razor’s edge of truth for the sake of man’s approval. It is not enough to mention Jesus’ name if they deny foundational truths about Him. Our works of justice must flow from deep allegiance to Jesus and the Scripture.

Really! If Mike Bickle and others in the war room had read intelligence from from other sources they would have discovered there are few emergent terrorist cells propagating their weapons of faith destruction. And interesting a couple of days ago I was in a FB conversation with Bill Dahl around him being approached by a publisher to write an article about the decline of the emerging church. Some early authors of emerging conversation are re-thinking the terminology and use of the word. Kan Kimball says this...

Although I am finding that the term [emerging church] has become so broad now and so confusing, it is very important to know that I am not by any means stopping being involved and pursuing the heart and mission of what the term "emerging church" originally meant.

And, Andrew Jones author, blogger, global missionary and practitioner of the emerging expression of church says this...

Words change. We give meaning to words and we take it away.

Both Dan Kimball and Andrew Jones are dropping the term while remaining faithful to the original intention of the conversation and movement. They represent many others in church leadership, bloggers, people on the fringe of the church, and ordinary people in church seats struggling to understand post-Christendom, and who might be move towards a post-emerging church paradigm.

I'm still using the word on my blog, and still writing about it. Why? Because in a sense I think it is important. I think for many there has been a sense of jet lag, many now are just catching up, ( yes really ) reading, thinking and beginning to ask questions and looking for safe places for conversation. They might not be using the term " emerging ", but they are asking and wrestling with same questions as many were in the beginnings.

For me the conversation and movement were, and still is important. Not because of the bells, smells, the ambient music of the alternative worship practice, but because it made me look seriously at postmodern culture...to take a serious look at the world outside the church. It made seriously look at interfaith dialog, conversations and cooperative interfaith justice. It really made me look at theology, especially in the terms of mission. Jesus not only spoke the truth of the Kingdom, he practiced the same truth he spoke.

I know Mike Bickle and IHOP do some wonderful Kingdom stuff, but I'm saddened when one part of the beautiful, diverse, and complex body of Christ attacks another. I know it's nothing new, but still it is a cancerous infection that really that makes the whole body sick.

 I don't think it was ever destined to be a brand, a label, a denomination setting up a structure of power, and theological dogma, and doctrine...it is still destined to be something much more humble. Perhaps if they understood it's embryonic beginnings, they would put their swords back in the sheathes.

It initially was a fragile, embryonic and diverse conversation being held between individuals over the internet, small gatherings, pubs and cafe's. The conversation had an elusive tentative nature what made it difficult to describe, what if anything unified those involved. The shear breadth of perspectives and diversity of conversation made it difficult to but a label on. But maybe, to it's demise one was put on and stuck, " emergent." It was a diverse matrix of relationships that bridged various faith communities that shared different theological traditions. It never really could have been described as a becoming into something, or possible as having arrived. In the conversation there was always an acknowledgment that it is a shared journey of becoming all the Jesus is, and trying to live that truth out.

So I pray that the spark that kindled this conversation that dared to dive into the redemptive imagination of Jesus is never snuffed out. That there will always be safe places of conversation, where we dare to explore faith to it's limits. That will honor the past, but that we will stretch what faith is...but never breaking away from the truth that we live in unity.

Fresh Expressions...life boats of exploration in changing seas

A man I have really grown to appreciate, and respect over the past 10 years or so is Bishop Graham Cray of the Church of England, and his tireless work around Fresh Expressions that evolved from the Missional Shaped Church document.

He's got a great personality, a contagious imagination, humble...and a fantastic sense of humor. There is a glimpse of his funny side on the video at the end of the post.

At 62 years old, a lot of clergy would be in their retirement slump, but, Graham has a passion for the church and the gospel. He is on the go constantly encouraging new pioneers and entrepreneurs to build something on the fringe that will spark the imagination of a disengaged culture. 

There are many folks involved in Fresh Expressions, but, Graham from an idea that evolved out of the ( Missional Church Document ), ( Download Mission_shaped_church-1 ,  ) has, and continues to nurture the culture from which it's embryonic growth started.

The Archbishop Rowan Williams, says this about Fresh expressions...

But, to live with risk like this, we need to have a clear and robust understanding of what the Church really is. It is not, in the New Testament, a carefully constructed human society, organizing itself in local branches, with members signing up to a constitution. Instead, it is what happens when the news and the presence of Jesus, raised from the dead, impact upon the human scene, drawing people together in a relationship that changes everyone involved, a relationship which means that each person involved with Jesus is now involved with all others who have answered his invitation, in ways that can be painful and demanding but are also life giving and transforming beyond  imagination.

The ’strength’ of the Church is never anything other than the strength of the presence of the Risen Jesus. And one thing this means is that, once we are convinced that God in Jesus Christ is indeed committed to us and present with us, there is a certain freedom to risk everything except those things that hold us to the truth of his presence – Word and sacrament and the journey into holiness. These will survive, whatever happens to this or that style of worship, this or that bit of local Christian culture, because the presence of Jesus in the community will survive.

Fresh Expressions, I’ve suggested, has helped us see something of this liberating vision. It’s true, from one point of view, that this takes us beyond a concern with denominational identity; and for some this is worrying. Is it really Anglican, or Methodist, or Baptist?  What I hope is that, in the next phase of the work of Fresh Expressions, as it continues to enter more fully into the bloodstream of the churches, we start asking instead – of Fresh Expressions, but also of some of our inherited patterns – ‘Is it really Church?’

In the most recent podcast of Fresh Expressions (UK), Graham Cray has some sofa time sitting down in conversation with others talking about Fresh expressions...its' beginnings, present and future.

Without a doubt we know in post-Christendom, things are not the same, nor can the stay the same. " Church ", is in decline, especially in North America, and Europe. We've hit the ice berg! We can continue to rearrange the deck chairs, and have the worship team play on...or.

More than ever for the church to survive it will need to be sustainable, fluid and missional. Some ships, churches may survive the collision with the ice berg. But, many won't and perhaps it's time to put out some life boats, filled with dreamers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, pioneers and explorers into the changing waters of to day to explore and experiment to build in different landscapes.

I encourage you to listen to the podcast, it is filled with great questions and answers. But, most...I encourage you to dream, not to get lost in your dreams...but to build your dreams.

You can listen to the podcast ( HERE ), click ( 1. December 2009 podcast extra ). Also in the sidebar of my blog, under the heading of Bill Kinnon's Missional Videos, there are 2 excellent videos of Graham Cray in an interview at Wycliffe College in Toronto talking about Fresh Expressions.

James Cone...on church success

A great clip, short, (7min) by James Cone of Union Theological Seminary on Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Church."  It would be a gross injustice to not hear this message for the whole church. The gospel is far more about failure, than success. This is so very timely, especially in the context in which so many churches struggle to only survive.

 

Mirrors and Maps...inspiration from the margins

I know what you're thinking...Arghhhhhhh! not another conference. I think this one will be good on 2 counts; a great line up of speakers, and cheap. 19$ for Friday evening, or 49$ for both Friday evening and Saturday. Now, if I can just lay hands on my 92' Honda Accord and pray some healing into it...I just might be there. Anyways, if your looking for a weekend getaway this might be it.

In the 50s and 60s, when the music industry was in search of a breakthrough sound, they found it on the margins. Artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and other African American artists provided The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis the inspiration and songs that would become the soundtrack for the majority culture. Today, Jesus followers all over the world are looking for their own breakthrough sound – something that brings heaven to earth.

It turns out that once again the African American church has been developing this kind of spirituality on the margins for years.  What we call new, they call normal.

Elvis and The Beatles did pretty well drawing on this inspiration.

We think Jesus followers could as well.

The missional church that gave us Martin Luther King Jr. has something to say.

Join in the crazy creativity that happens when people from the margins get together.

You can check out all the details >>>> Here

Keepin' up with the Joneses...an urgent apeal for a missional adventure

The Jones family is traveling the world in their truck, exploring the world that God loves and seeking to bring real transformation and change. They have just visited 12 countries, hosting leadership training events, encouraging social enterprises, and supporting missional entrepreneurs in a sustainable and effective way.

This preview has been restricted to 400 pixels wide; when you embed this video, it will be 300 pixels wide.

Text link Video description Text link and video description will be shown once embedded.

Video by Bill Kinnon.

Its been an incredible time but the financial crunch has caused a number of funders to drop out and now the funds are depleted, just as they head south and east towards the next 25 countries.

The Joneses need to raise $30,000 by the end of the year but the urgent need is $5000 for visas, diesel, ferry and plane tickets that are needed immediately. Can you help them by supporting them financially or by spreading the word?

There is a link in the top right hand corner of my blog, for info and how to donate. Or you might think about the following options...from Andrew.

I've followed Andrew's missional stories for years now...He's the real deal, on the ground doing it. It's not an extravagant holiday, it's living by faith a day at a time...providing great teaching and resources in places where they don't have the access. It would be great if we could all give a little to see the Jones family finish this missional adventure.