Last night I got a very pleasant suprise to see a couple of comments on the blog from some friends I met in Delft in 2005. Kyle Holland and his family were the founding pastors of Levend Water, the church that my Exodus team were working with in 2005. We had a blast hanging out and serving with the guys then. Kyle is currently in the USA working on a project called theunheardchurch, before he and his family move to Dublin in June to pioneer some church plants in Ireland.
He has a video on his site about Ireland, particularly how Irish youth view the church these days. Very humbling to watch. Check it out here.
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Just wanted to drop a quick hello, check out Shaun Groves’s blog and the topic of discussion. I reverted back to our discussion on my comment on that blog entry, I hop eyou don’t mind. By the way, the church movement not only in the U.K. but also in the U.S. is in the middle of a huge revolution in my opinion, hopefully moving away from that feel good, fluffy, christianity being taught in business model churches.
Peace little sistah! Shawn
Shawn, thanks for the heads-up. Really interesting thread of convo going on there! I agree with you on the church ‘revolution’ thing, in fact I posted about it a while ago too… http://emmsy.wordpress.com/2006/07/12/its-rising-up/
I’m excited about the stuff Kyle and Michael are going to be getting up to in Ireland because its part of the generation rising up. (Generation 24 by the way, is a vision from psalm 24 of a generation who seeks after Gods own heart) I think there are benefits in most church models, but I know where I’m most comfortable, where I meet with God most regularly. I was in Chicago in the summer visiting various churches, to get a glimpse of how they do church. Was very interesting to see how the different models play out in different contexts.
Hey Emma do you have any messenger services such as MSN or Yahoo or AOL/AIM? I would love to chat with you more. Yeah I think I may have pissed off a couple of the people by pointing out that the modern american evangelical church blindly supports a certain political party(the republicans, I’m a registered independent) but oh well. I am some who thinks that there is a lot of reform that needs t happen in the organized church, and I have gotten into srguements about this simply because people will make a comment like, what are you going to change? You are only one person…blah,b blah, blah. Do you think any revolution would have ever started without the imagination, dream, and persistant will of one man who share it with others? So anyway, I would suggest N.T.Wright’s book “Simply Christian” it is awesome so far. And by the way, I wasn’t going to tell you this, because I didn’t want you to know who they were coming from, but you have a wish list on amazon and I tried to by you a couple books, but it said there was an issue with the address, or maybe it was because I was trying to pay with US currence, hell I don’t know, all I know is it wouldn’t work and I was trying to buy a couple books for my broke little college sister in Christ.
Peace Yo 😉
And by the way, I put some pics up on my blog and added you on my blog roster, you would be the one that says Emma the wee Irish lass.
Saw the pics and my wee blog link, thanks a million! Shawn you are an absolute legend with the books thing… I have to admit I did see a couple in my ‘purchased’ section and was wondering who they were from/ why they hadnt actually arrived… did it not let you actually buy them? Should I move them back to unpurchased then?? I think I changed teh delivery address from my Ireland one back to my Glasgow one, which may have caused some confusion. Sorry about that!
Also, I use iChat for IM, emmaboyd at mac dot com!
alright, I am ignorant, I think I have made this statement clear already. A couple questions, I would like to send you N.T. Wright’s “Simply Christian” as well as a couple books on your wishlist. So would you add it to your wish list and the other one’s I had the issue with before? Also, you said your screen is emmaboyd at mac dot com, or is is emmaboyd@mac.com because I am frickin confused.
Wishlist fixed for ya… Email… is as you wrote it… I wrote it differently (with the at and dot) because it makes it harder for spambots to find my email address!
wow, Emma. . that video was hmmm. . . disturbing and yet not surprising. I will remember to pray for Ireland. What a beautiful country you live in.
I’m not a ‘young person’ and I’m not Irish. . but here in Canada we have a similar problem with people (younger ones especially) losing respect for church leaders, losing interest in church, losing faith in the institution of church. . . I’ve lost faith in ‘church’ here. . I don’t know of the stats, percentages, but Canada, as a nation, is really so needy for Jesus – and a lot of Canadians don’t know that Jesus is who they need.
Kat I think it’s a global thing at the minute, people, youth especially, disenfranchised with the traditional / authoritarian models of church… and yet I see so much potential and so many reasons for hope… God is raising up a generation of people who are longing for his heart and his passions and aren’t concerned about the fact that, a lot of the time anyway, it means they are frowned upon by more traditional, less flexible (in structure, not content) organisations.
Generation 24 is rising up and it is coming soon…
“For when they see their many children and all the blessings I have given them,
they will recognise the holiness of the Holy One of Israel.
They will stand in awe of the God of Jacob.”
Isaiah 29:23
beautiful and truthful words, Emma. . yours and God’s.