• the Society of Vineyard Scholars: i’m really excitied about the society of vineyard scholars; my paper submission – Signs and Wonders: Wisdom and the Kingdom of God – was selected to be presented at the  upcoming SVS conference  February 11-13, 2010 in Sugarland, Texas;  the SVS conference program looks really great, with plenary session with Don Williams and Ron Sider, as well as two days of 6 panels session (i will be presenting in Panel #1: Bible!); here is a look at the panels:

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  • Panel #1: Bible
    • Matt Croasmun, Yale University / Elm City Vineyard, USA
      “The Cross, Eucharist, and Imitation in the Gospel of John”
    • Addie Pearson, Greater Boston Vineyard, USA
      “Original Death: A Biblical Alternative To Original Sin”
    • Steven Hamilton, Baltimore Hebrew University / Central Maryland Vineyard, USA
      “Signs and Wonders: Wisdom and the Reign of God”
    • Respondent: Todd Kennedy, Union Theological Seminary / Elm City Vineyard, USA

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  • Panel #2: Culture
    • Jason Clark, King’s College London / Sutton Vineyard, UK
      “Consumerism, Social Imagination, and Ecclesiology”
    • Jason Coker, Fuller Theological Seminary / Ikon Community, USA
      “The Begging Bowl: Towards a Kingdom Economy of Gifts, Power, and Justice”
    • Elisa Berry, University of Minnesota / Mercy Vineyard, USA
      “Beauty and the Practice of the Kingdom of God”
    • Respondent: Ron Sider, Palmer Seminary

•  
  • Panel #3: Theology
    • Jared Boyd, Central Vineyard, Columbus, USA “Naming Injustice: Doing Theology That Does Something” 
    • Orion Edgar, University of Nottingham “Justice and the Kingdom of God: Atonement and New Creation”
    • Ryan McAnally-­‐Linz, Yale University / Elm City Vineyard, USA
      “The Problem of the Contested Center”
    • Respondent: Steve Robbins, Vineyard Leadership Institute / Vineyard Columbus

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  • Panel #4: Religion and Science
    • Naomi Forrester, University of Texas, Galveston
      “Science vs. Christianity: A Battle To Be Won or Lost?”
    • Jonathan Rutz, University of Utah / Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, USA
      “The Case for Creation Care as a Defining Paradigm for the Vineyard Movement”
    • Sarah Parker, Drew Theological School / North Jersey Vineyard, USA
      “Farmville: Longing for the Kingdom and the Persistent Problems of the Garden”
    • Respondent: TBA

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  • Panel #5: Mission 
    • Cathy Zellmer, George Fox Evangelical Seminary / Vineyard Boise, USA
      “The Divine Perichoretic Mission of Love”
    • Steve Burnhope, London School of Theology / North Thames Vineyard, UK
      “Culture, Worldview, and the Cross: Penal Substitutionary Atonement and 21st Century Mission”
    • Rick Love, VineyardUSA Blessing Muslims Initiative
      “‘Teaching them to obey all that I commanded you’: A holistic and integrated approach to training Kingdom disciples”
    • Respondent: Amy Coffin, Evanston Vineyard / Vineyard Discipleship School, Delhi

•  
  • Panel #6: Concerning the Vineyard
    • Jon Bialecki, University of California, San Diego
      Jamie Wilson, Coast Vineyard, La Jolla, USA
      “Surprise, Return, and Futurity: Social Science Analysis of the Vineyard’s Temporal Imaginary of the Kingdom, and a Theological Rejoinder”
    • Steven Schenk, Buffalo Vineyard, USA
      “Power and Purpose in a Cross-­Shaped Community: Examining the Contradictions Between Theology and Praxis”
    • Doug Erickson, Marquette University / Vineyard Bible Institute
      “Advice to Vineyard Theologians (and Philosophers, and Scholars…)”
    • Respondent: Ron Sider, Palmer Seminary

• the vineyard theological consultants: this seems to be Facebook-centric, but it is an initiative of Vineyard Bible Institute, which is an exclusive service to participating leaders who want to be theologically informed and kept up to date with recent research, trends and important or influential publications. this monthly membership will include a two hour webinar with Derek Morphew as well as a monthly book review.

- dan wilt, artisan

there are two threads on Jason Coker’s blog – pastoralia - that are going on which are really good discussions…check them out:

• Did Tony Jones Kill the Vineyard?
• Vineyard Churches at the Crossroads

peace

…it is really great so far, but I have been pondering a quote from bonhoeffer in his ‘prison letters’, so I wrote a blog post about it, and it is my guest post at the not-the-religious-type blog today…

check it out: godless yet closer to God?

• the sustainable faith blog (content managing and contributing)
• the central maryland vineyard blog (managing and contributing)
• the deep church blog (not managing, merely as an irregular contributor)
• the maryland human trafficking task force blog
• the vineyard bible study blog
• verve&verse blog (managing, contributing…in wordpress)

be sure to regularly check out the sustainable faith blog, as I have two recent posts and every friday we have a ‘Lectio’ post based on the Gospel portion from the Revised Common Lectionary.

my two recent posts are:

• what can we learn from the latest climate “scandal”?
• the aggravation of a profound isolation

peace

wounded head yet heart withheld
such gruesome blows, knights hand upheld
Thomas á Becket, a murder beheld
Canterbury’s son betrayed and felled

a life they sought to extinguish and quelle
yet beloved martyr did they propel
marked by history and grace doth knell
Thomas á Becket, archbishop excelled

a-hunting, a-hunting, what a day to begin
clouds tell us where can we find the great wren?
fleeing his catch the betraying bird shudders
O how to escape the celebration of mummers?

they hunt me for treachery not of my own
they hunt me, O why can’t they leave me alone?
the wild-eyed strawboys a-hunting the wren
garish colours of scarecrows their gaze turns within

how blind can you be to your own treachery?
given over as they are to innermost lechery
yet continue they do as always they will
pursue me with violence that can by no means fill

he who was martyred by an intimate betrayal
the celebration of new bread dipped in a grail
the wrenboys mourn for poor saint stephen
still hunting the wren like all the other heathen

just like our man judas who died in trespass
the kiss of betrayal, his blood in the grass
festive parade for my death – O how are they lost
how far have they wandered away from the cross

chasing me still they all flutter by
can they help but be captured in tradition but why?
why do they hunt me, hateful words do they utter
and how it began with this weary mutter:

‘the wren, the wren – the king of all birds
on staint stephens day was caught in the furze
up with the kettle and down with the pan
give us some money to bury the wren’

if I yield to their catch O what will they do
can they kill me and remain blind to virtue
I call to the ground and my God in the sky
witness my death yet forgive them thereby

and rain on my funeral O God in the sky
please make it a mess, don’t let them get by
with hunting and killing for Your Name sake
open their eyes that they see their mistake

take them back to remember years ago on a tree
Your very Son suffered and died even for me
for all of creation does groan with the weight
for the curse to be lifted when Your Kingdom dilates

then the wrenboys and I can at last end our feud
and sit down in laughter to lighten the mood
at Your great wedding feast for many to attend
the wren and the mummers at last to be friends

come forth fresh
from chosen flesh

beyond our imagination
is He, the Incarnation

Life turned toward
a people adored

enmeshed in our circumstance
threshed in His glorious dance

with Love does He chase
until eternity to embrace

all bundled in this cloth
this newborn doth

hold the future and past
light and fire to cast

upon a people hallow
sitting in dark shadow

hoping for this very One
and a curse to be undone