First Blog Review...and New Friends

The first (blog) review of GloboChrist just appeared.   It also is announced on the Baker-related blogsite, where I will be responding to posts about the book in August. 

I find the review  most interesting, and of course it is very favorable.   I realize that calling attention to the intimate interconnection between the global and the postmodern is something supposedly radical and new for a lot of American (and perhaps European) readers.  But it should within a short amount of time become a kind of "duh, now I get it" sort of phenomenon.

I'm really happy that Andrew Jones, whose name is a household word among "new kind of Christian" types of bloggers, is slated for one of the first series of talk-backs on the Baker-related (it's not supposed to be officially an advertising site for the publisher) blog. 

I love Andrew's vision and perspective...and his down-homineness, even if he is a New Zealander (for a long time in my youth, even though geography was my favorite subject,  I thought that was part of Antarctica where the penguins spoke with clipped British accents) living on the Orkney Islands with his kids somewhere in Britland.  Consult Google Earth to find out  where that is.  I'll tell you more about meeting Andrew in a future post.  He's funny and faithful - and he's also deep, something that might sound like a contradiction in terms, if only to an American.

Anyway,  the  reason I really admire Andrew is the same I treasure my newfound friendship with Tangible Kingdom author Hugh Halter, who unlike Andrew I can see regularly since  he lives in Denver.  For some reason Hugh seems to like me, even though he refers to me as the professor with his high-minded philosophy writings he doesn't try to understand.  It's probably because both of us like to drink beer, but neither of us has the kind of sophisticated beer-snobbery that seems de rigeur these days if you want to be more than just a postmodern wannabe. 

I really like Hugh because his TK book and his MCAP movement is about as being real as you can be when it comes to calling oneself a "postmodern Christian".  He's already doing  in reality through his ministries  lwhat I talk about "theoretically" in GloboChrist, at least when it comes to the "radical rhizomatic relational" networks that we are going in the future to mean by the word "church."   I've recommended his book now to far more people than I've recommended his own, and they've all coming away saying "wow" (including my wife Sunny, who's a self-proclaimed blonde and an artist, and says she can't understand my books - like Hugh - though she can understand Hugh's book. BTW Sunny's language is visual; her neo-figurative and abstract art is chocked full of powerful uses of colors and signs, very Deleuzian, that get Christianity across in ways that words can't). 

In Hugh's latest blog post he describes his experiences in bringing The Tangible Kingdom to Beirut, Lebanon.  I resonate with that, particular ly his concluding remarks, because it calls our attention not only to the emergent global Christianity that is postmodern, but not in the sense that you're probably used that word.  It's a call to us to radical obedience to Christ, and it's not just about being hip and playful.  If trying to do "tangible kingdom" stuff  in the same neighborhood as Hezbollah is what he blogs about, I can heartily concur, which is why I call attention in my new book to what I call  "the clash of revelations."  Islamic militancy is challenging all of us to take our Christianity more seriously than we've ever taken it. 

             

Comments

[Nate Custer]

Carl,

I am really glad to hear that you finally met up with Andrew. I am looking forward to hearing more about the meeting in the future.

Nate

[Missio]

A few months back, we noticed on your blog that you wrote about The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. Thanks for taking the time to do that.

One of the questions Matt and Hugh often received following the launch of that book was "Loved the book, but how do I get my community to do that?" The newly launched The Tangible Kingdom Primer is our effort to help small groups and churches do just that. It is an 8-week guide to creating missional and incarnational communities.

If you would like to receive a free copy of the Primer, please contact us at: books{AT} crmleaders.org. Please provide your name, the street mailing address you would like it delivered to (no P.O. Box please) and your email address. In the subject line, put Tangible Kingdom Primer Blog Copy.

For more details on the Primer, please log on to www.tangiblekingdom.com