Jesus for President this Wednesday

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals is a book written
by well-known author Shane Claiborne, who's a founder of an
intentional Christian community in Philadelphia called the Simple Way.

The author hopes to "provoke the Christian political imagination" in
this election season. "The language of Jesus as Lord and savior is
just as radical as it would be to say 'Jesus as our commander in
chief' today."

There will be a 2-hour presentation with a talk by the authors, music,
art, and discussion. Please join us!

When: July 23rd, 7pm
Where: Tabernacle Baptist Church, corner of Meadow & Grove in the Fan
Parking: Parking at the church is limited. An overflow lot and
shuttle service will be available at the DMV's K-lot, at the corner of
DMV Dr. & Leigh St.
Cost: FREE!

Family needs a host for one night

This morning I got this in an email. If anyone can help, please contact them directly. BTW, Pam gave her permission to post her contact information online.

Thanks!

-Joey

Hello, my name is Pam Franklin and I'm from Modesto, CA. I got your email addresses by googling "emergent church Richmond, VA". My son, Jeshua, has had an ongoing interest in the emergent church and has been to a conference and workshop as well as avidly read both blogs and books. We are Dunkard Brethren in background, a more conservative branch of the Brethren Anabaptist groups.

The two of us and Jeshua's wife-to-be are going to be in Richmond for a Church of the Brethren Annual Conference at the Convention Center. We have been looking for some alternative housing to the hotel/motel option. We are putting out feelers looking for someone who could extend overnight hospitality to us. We often use the "Mennonite Your Way" directory for housing, but the folks listed already have guests. We would not need meals or entertaining as we will be at the conference. We are looking for accommodations for Saturday and Sunday nights, July 12 & 13. I am 55, Jeshua is 24 and Sara is 26.

If you have a way of putting our request out to others in the Richmond area, we would appreciate your help in this way.

Pam Franklin
Modesto, CA
209-602-3967

Jesus for President

Brent Underwood, the pastor of "The Well", a progressive church in the West End, sent me this announcement of an event they have coming up.

Brent says:

"Are you looking to get involved in a Presidential campaign? A campaign that you can believe in? A campaign that could benefit the city of Richmond? A campaign that is truly for revolutionary change?

This summer The Gabriel House (A Catholic Workers Hospitality house) and the Well are pleased to announce that Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw are coming to Richmond, Virginia for their Jesus for President book tour.

When: July 23rd (7:00 p.m.)

Where: Tabernacle Baptist Church (located on the corner of Grove and Meadow)

Check out the book today: Jesus For President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw"

Cohort Meet and Greet Pictures

These aren't very good, sorry. Apparently my camera phone was irritable that night.

It was great to meet everybody. I'm looking forward to the art show and to continuing the discussion and getting into action.

Have a great week!

First Cohort Meet & Greet!

Well, even with a little hiccup last night with The Camel, the Richmond Cohort had its very first meet and greet at The Village Cafe. I think it was a success, with 13 people coming out! After we went around and introduced ourselves, Katryna asked us: 1. Why we came to the cohort? and 2. What we wanted to get out of the monthly meetings? Here are the responses:

*Provocative, network w/ like-minded, more real, interesting people
*Someone brought me here
*Conversations about a Biblical model of justice
*Outreach to Christians who are unchurched, not traditional, burned out on traditional church
*Don't get support for what they are doing @ their own church
*In her church, breaking away from tradition. Church needs to change.
*Acceptance & unconditional love
*"This is crap", speaking of traditional church
*I have a lot of issues with the church and want to move beyond anger & bitterness. I don't fit in most churches.
*Positive change
*Bored, more active participant, non-traditional
*Bored, mad @ GOD, stopped going to church, "not fit", traditional roots in new ways. Church is still highly PATRIARCHIAL. Need more expansive imagery of GOD.
*More diversity: race, ethnic, GLBTQ, different beliefs/non-belief welcome and accepted AND NOT expected to change.
*Safe place to doubt and question faith/beliefs, et. al.

The funny thing to me was that the women outnumbered the men at our meeting, which from my personal experience in emergent circles, is a rarity! Now we need even more diversity!

Thanks to everyone who came out and made our first meeting such a success!

See you all next month!

Adele aka Existential Punk

"Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief"

Here's a note from my good friend, Pete Rollins, about his forthcoming and second book, "The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief" published by Paraclete Press:

In this work I make the claim that, in order to remain faithful to Christianity, we must be courageous enough to betray the bible (section 1), God (section 2) and the church (section 3). Why? Do I think that we must abandon them as redundant relics of a by-gone era? Do I think that they have served their purpose? Or do I feel that they prevent the world coming of age? By no means! Here I argue for a betrayal that remains faithful to these very words by helping us to re- discover the truly untamed, white-hot, life-transforming reality that they house.

This book was not easy to write and it will no doubt be difficult to read, but I hope that you find it to be a provocative and worthy dialogue partner as you continue to reflect upon what it means to follow Christ today.

Cheers,
Pete Rollins

And the ride begins!

Thanks to Brian McLaren and the "Everything Must Change" tour, it looks like the Richmond Cohort is about to take off.

As I expected, there is a nice number of emergent thinkers in the Richmond area. We've just never had the chance to be introduced.

But now is the time.

On Saturday, April 26 at 6:00 PM we will be having our first Richmond Cohort meeting. The meet-and-greet will be held at The Camel, Richmond's new social oasis. As our networks are beginning to mesh, it looks like we could have a nice turnout.

I can't wait for the opportunity to meet others not like me.

Starting from Scratch

A few weeks ago I was surprised to find that there was no emergent cohort already in existence in Richmond. Surely Richmond is a large enough Metro area to support a cohort.

When I inquired of EV, however, it turns out that there has been some interest in starting a cohort. There simply has been nobody who wanted to lead it.

I don't mind getting a cohort started. I don't mind leading it, either, but I would prefer doing it with a community.

Right now I am in the process of getting in touch with all those who have inquired with Emergent Village from the Richmond Area. Hopefully we will be able to get enough together to start having meetings some time in Spring of 2008.

In the mean time, if any are interested in joining the cohort, please leave a comment here. I would love the opporunity to meet others.