Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Cohort on Hiatus

Because our monthly cohort gatherings have had waning attendance, we think it best to put the monthly conversations on hold and come up with a new plan. If there is anyone in the Scranton area interested in these conversations please be in touch with your ideas.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Cohort Meeting -- Tonight! Nov 7

The cohort will be meeting for our regular monthly conversation tonight at 8:00 at Northern Light. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it because we have family in town, but I hope others of you will still gather to share thoughts, ideas, and updates on our various efforts. No specific reading or topic this week -- just come and check in.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Cohort Conversation: Tues., Oct. 3 -- Fresh Approaches to Scripture in the Emerging Church

Our cohort conversation is coming up in just over a week, so I thought I'd post a topic for us. At the end of our last conversation we decided to talk about "fresh approaches to scripture in the emerging church." Here is a pamphlet about reading scripture that I thought might be helpful to get us started: Simon Perry, What is So Holy About Scripture? (this link will take you to a page where you can download a PDF of the pamphlet--it is formatted to be printed on front and back, collated, and folded like a pamphlet so it is hard to read online--best to print). I'll look for some more online materials and if I find any I'll post them here. Looking forward to our conversation.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Emerging Church Learning Party


Praxis - Learning Party
Originally uploaded by dydimustk.
Thanks to Thomas Knoll for the photo; he helped Karen Ward, Lacey Brown, and Bob Fisher lead the Learning Party this past Saturday at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

More photos of the event are on Thomas's Flickr account, or head over to a local emerging community, Peacemeal, to see a few others.

If you were a part of the event, or are in the area and interested in the emerging church, make sure you join the Cohort on the first Tuesday of each month at Northern Light Espresso Bar on Spruce Street in downtown Scranton.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Cohort Conversation: Tues., Sept 5: What is the Emerging Church?

Our Emergent Cohort will be meeting this Tuesday at Northern Light at 8:00. We will focus our conversation around the topic, "What is the Emerging Church?"

I've linked here some online articles that will help us get into the topic. If you have time please read these and come with your own thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

George Lings, "What is 'Emerging Church'?"

Doug Pagitt, "Unraveling Emergent"

Karen Ward, "Post-missionaries, or 'walking amongst cats'"

Steve Taylor, "A to Z of the Emerging Church"

Kester Brewin, "The Body of Christ could use some sleep (or what the Church can learn from iTunes)"

We look forward to the conversation and hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Coming September 16: Emerging Church Learning Party: Resources for Outreach, Worship, and Spiritual Formation in Today's Culture

Our budding cohort has a great opportunity to explore the emerging church together through an upcoming event in Wilkes-Barre.

Karen Ward, abbess of Church of the Apostles, Seattle, and a key figure in the Emerging Church conversation in the US and the UK, will be leading a "learning party" at St. Stephens Episcopal Church. Here's a description of the event:

Date
Sep 16, 2006

Time
10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Location

St. Stephens Episcopal Church
35 South Franklin St.
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701
United States

A new movement being called the 'emerging church' is making a major impact on the landscape of North American Christianity and around the world. FIND OUT what it's about and DISCOVER its significance for re-shaping church and MISSION in today's culture.

EXPLORE how traditional mainline congregations can GET INVOLVED in and be enriched by insights from the emerging church movement.

This mission event will be helpful for those from mainline congregations (Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, UCC...) and also from traditional evangelical congregations.

Come to REIMAGINE CHURCH, and EXPERIENCE new ways to integrate ARTS, NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES, and ANCIENT CHRISTIAN PRACTICES into worship and community mission for today's contexts.

Consider BRINGING A TEAM of 2-3 or more from your congregation with you to help fuel missional momentum when you get back home.

You will be ACCOMPANIED by native, postmodern guides, from Church of the Apostles (Seattle)--a leading edge, mainline (Episcopal/Lutheran), emerging congregation. Also giving a talk is Philadelphia based emergent leader Robert Fisher, from SE Penn Synod of the ELCA.

In the context of an experiential Kingdom PARTY, discover the new ways to RE-SHAPE CHURCH for the contours of mission in today's culture,

The Learning Pary includes LUNCH and ends with a 5 pm emerging WORSHIP service with Church of the Apostles.

Early Registration (through Sept. 4) is $25
Regular Registration (Sept. 5-15) is $30

You may REGISTER ONLINE here: http://learningparty.mollyguard.com

Or you may register by sending a check to:

The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem
c/o Barbara Lewis
Diocesan House
333 Wyandotte St.
Bethlehem, PA 18015

This event is sponsored by Church of the Apostles, Praxis Center in partnership with Peacemeal and the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem PA

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Change of Venue

Due to the fact that Northern Light's air conditioning is broken and we have record breaking heat outside, we've decided to move our Cohort Conversation to Borders tonight. We'll meet at the same time, 8:00, in the Borders Cafe. See ya there.