I don’t know if many of you use Remarkable! or not, but it’s basically a Digg service for the emerging church world. I posted a story about Presbymergent.org here, and if you are a Remarkable! user, I encourage you to go over and vote for the story, so we can continue to get the word out about the site. I’ve been encouraged by those of you who have been signing up for the site, and submitting your blogs and churches/services to be added to our links. We now have 12 “official” users of the site and have been linked to by numerous blogs, including some pretty well-known ones.
User-driven Content
January 27, 2007 By 4 Comments
The site has been live for just over 24hrs at this point, and we already have eight people who have subscribed to the site and it’s gotten mentioned a few times around the web today. If you’re a blogger, please spread the word about the site so we can continue to grow a strong group of users to help provide quality content to this site.
We’re still thinking about the best way to handle users and posting. Ideally, we’d like everyone to be able to contribute content to the site. I think it is important to recognize that this is site for people connected both to the Emergent movement and to the Presbyterian Church (USA), so I think we’d like to keep the posting to those who are PCUSAers (though we’re open to having guests posters). We may set it so that when someone registers, they automatically become a Contributor, meaning they can write and submit content to the site, but that it just has to be approved by an Editor. Or we may just open it up, make everyone Editors and see what happens. As I mentioned before, Karen Sloan and I just came up with the idea for the site yesterday and haven’t had time to think through all of the implications for it. There will be a large group of Presbyterians at the Mainline Emergent/s event at Columbia Seminary next week, so we may have a conversation to see what people would like to see with a site like this.
At any rate, this is just to let you know we are still figuring things out. For myself, I’d love to see this place become a place of conversation and discussion, a resource center for people involved in the conversation and a place of support for those who are struggling with remaining Presbyterian despite their “emergent leanings.” I’ve heard comments from many who are still in the church, but who secretly have been reading McLaren books, that they feel alone and even that some people tell them that they’re not “Reformed enough.” I would hope that this would be a place where they would feel welcome.
Anyway – keep spreading the word about Presbymergent and we’ll continue to work on the site.
Mainline Emergent/s
January 27, 2007 By 5 Comments
Columbia Theological Seminary is hosting the Mainline Emergent/s event this upcoming week. Are you planning on attending? Are you going to blog the conference? For those who won’t have the chance to be there – could you all leave a comment with the link to your blog or where you’ll be posting your notes & thoughts from the conference?
Loyal Radicals
January 27, 2007 By 2 Comments
UK Anglican church planter Bob Hopkins uses the term loyal radicals to describe those who stay on the inside of traditional churches to help bring about emergent expressions of an historic faith. You can read Bob’s article here, as well as my blog post here, reflecting more about how the concept of loyal radicals might be played out in our Presbyterian context.
Content and Site Design for Presbymergent
January 26, 2007 By 5 Comments
Since this site will hopefully become a community effort, I’d like to open up the design process to anyone who might be interested. If you have any ideas for content that you think should be included on this site, please let me know.
Also, I’d like to see Presbymergent have a unique design as well. Presbymergent.org is powered by WordPress 2.1, so we need a Valid XHTML/CSS WordPress theme to be designed for our site. It must incorporate the PCUSA logo/seal (though you don’t have to keep it the same colors) and also should portray some organic, creative elements. If you are interested in working on a design, or if you are interested in helping to code the site, contact Adam Walker Cleaveland.
Presbymergent Bloggers & Churches
January 26, 2007 By 12 Comments
Are you Presbyterian? Are you “emergent” (whatever that means…)? Are you a blogger? Let us know and we will add your blog to the list of Presbymergent Bloggers.
We are also collecting a list of churches that are Presbyterian (USA) and seeking to engage an emerging, postmodern culture in their ministry. We know of some (Wicker Park Grace, The Portico) but we’d like to create a larger list so that pastors and leaders from these churches could network and support one another.
So please send us your links so we can begin to grow the resources here at presbymergent.
Welcome to Presbymergent.org!
January 26, 2007 By 4 Comments
Welcome to presbymergent.org, the online community for those involved in the Presbyterian (USA) church and in the Emergent conversation. Many would agree that while the Emergent conversation may have first begun among evangelicals, the conversation is moving into the Mainline/Traditional church world as well. Next week, Columbia Theological Seminary will host the Mainline Emergent/s event, a conversation about Theology, Practice and Hope.
It is our hope that this website will serve as a portal for all who are interested in connecting with Presbyterian and emerging pastors, leaders and lay people who are interested in and wrestling with how to live in and work in a “presbymergent” world. We hope that people will share their stories and thoughts.
Join the Conversation