The new website is PACKED full of new features to help provide “resources in spiritual formation for the missional life.”

Online Courses

Right on the main page – you’ll see a bar going across the screen – “Mono, Micro, Meso, Macro, Mondo…” this is our fresh series on the Christian life – looking at the layers of Christian community!  We are most excited right now about the Meso – or small group/house church – Layer.  It is at the cross-hairs of Christian community – the place where your sense of belonging, love, and purpose collide – and where identity and intimacy are formed.  You can register for the Meso Course, starting Sept 1 here!

New Pages

New thoughts on our Focus/mission, a straightforward list of ways to subscribe to Godgrown, and a simple way to support our work.

Connections

We wanted the new Godgrown to be a place to easily discover networks of faith – both in Chicago and around the country.  So we’ve developed a healthy Connect page, that puts faith communities we’re connected to front and center.  Our local church network we’re a part of is the Underground Church Network, so we’ve connected Godgrown’s site to that prominently.  All this, as well as our Twitter site and Facebook page, and the Pray4Chicago Project, as a way to jump into the mission of God…

Resources

Finally – we’re fleshing out what resources we have to offer!  I’ve mentioned the Online Courses, but you can also request us for a seminar or workshop for your church or group.  You can also sign up for spiritual direction and/or missional coaching from yours truly!

—–

I am very excited about what will be possible through the website – and the new “blog collaborative” we’re developing!  Please feel free to leave a comment about the new design on this post – and help me thank Katrina for all her work to make this possible!

Wow.  Call this one my 400th post.  I’ve never done any of the “blogaversary” milestones, but since we are about a week away from my 4th year in the blogosphere, and with this being my 400th post, I figured something must be said so we can all move on.

Blogging is a strange form of introspection and public disclosure.  There is a whole lot that we assume we know about ourselves, and until we write it up and publish it online, there is no way to really get feedback about our wacky perspectives or our off-our-rocker feelings.  Friends and family from around the world can comment on what would have otherwise remained trapped in one little cranium – thus creating a kind of honing and prodding that I believe has drastically and subtly affected my learning over the last 4 years.

Grad school made up years one through three.  And I actually started my blog only a semester into my grad school experience.  I opened a trusty Blogger account mainly as a way to process what I was learning in the classroom through a more conversational and reflective method.  My first post was on spiritual photosynthesis, and on the “organic” nature of our relationship with God.  I made mention that I was being confronted with this new buzz word at the grocery store, in my seminary classes, and in my prayers with God.  Without a doubt, this blog helped me to approach, analyze, and consider the incredible amount of mind-bending, worldview-shifting ideas being presented to me in grad school in a way I otherwise would have completely missed.  This blog put some traction on my learning and gave my feet something to run on.

An almost randomly chosen example of such “theo-blogical reflection” was pretty early on October 2005 – I had just read David Garrison’s Church Planting Movements, and was struck by some of the common elements of “church planting movements” he had studied in India, China, Africa, and even North America.  I began wondering if the early church had such characteristics as a church planting movement.  So instead of just leaving the thought alone, I sat down and did some searching, then posted my findings on this blog.

I never did any of the flashy blog stuff – live blogging, technorati promotions, or did much with group blogging…I never could get into blogging once a day like so many bloggers I admired seemed to have time in their day to do.  I couldn’t find a rhythm at all in my life for my web log.  But it was always seemingly present – an undercurrent of my consciousness, online for all to see.  While I never set out to write a blog exclusively on organic theology, mission, and spiritual formation – anything I wrote apart from those broad topics seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.

My categories section has much to be desired.  Organizing (and consolidating) my categories cloud is something I both want to do and dread.  I’d like to create a sort of “best of” playlist of blog posts – featured articles if you will – or maybe several “tomes” arranged around specific concepts.  I’d like to do some serious reflection on my own personal theological evolution over the last four years – hopefully finding it fairly obvious that God has continued to reveal his truth to me and shape me more into the image of Christ.  I hope to use a select few of these posts to invite others we’re training to consider some of the thoughts I’ve been confronted with in my own training.

So that’s enough reflecting for now.  I can’t tell you if I’ll still be blogging when I hit the 5th anniversary or not – and I beg to God that twitter won’t have completely wiped out the “macroblogging” (i.e. any post over 140 characters long) universe.  I can say that I am hooked on the cycle of (1) provoking theory, (2) radical action, and (3) deep reflection – and this blog has offered me a vehicle for doing just that.

Thanks for being with me on the journey friends.  Your comments, thoughts and push backs have kept me honest, opened me up to my own silliness, and provided a prism of perspectives that aim me toward the Person of Truth seeking after my heart.

We live in amazing times.  Technology is advancing in amazing ways, and it has profound implications for how we live our lives.  The very fact you are reading this is proof.  I really love keeping up with the latest news; new gadgets, widgets, social-technology in particular has been something that I find fascinating.  In some ways I suppose its a throwback to my geekdom, but maybe there is something more.

There are more ways for us to be and do the work of the church every day in this fast-paced world.  We seem to be moving toward a persistent connection, an “eternal communion” of the saints.

Let’s call this “eschatechnology.”

I’ve written on technology before, and recently I’ve been tossing around ideas regarding how faith communities can discover and collaborate with each other in ways never before thought possible.  Blogs of course have already become part of the strategy, as have social networks.  (We recently set ours up for the organic network we’re a part of in Chicago.)  Wikis have become the new church councils, where doctrine and theology are discussed and discoveries are made.

I was reminded of this as I was reading 1 Cor 16 this morning on YouVersion, an online bible and reader community.  Paul is suggesting a method for the Corinthian disciples to give generously to the Jerusalem church who was in need.  He mentioned sending off not only the donations but also some ambassadors from Corinth to greet and encourage the Jerusalem community.  Paul even mentioned that if schedules worked out, those Christians could come along with Paul for the journey.

Talk about a visual for the blood of Christ flowing through his body!  No amount of technology, blogs, online social presences, Second Life profiles, webcasts or whatever can take the place of flesh and blood relationship.  It’s a beautiful thing when disciples can connect together and share in true fellowship.  When a handfull of hard-earned cash can exchange hands rather than be sent through a Paypal account, when a full embrace replaces a “facebook poke,” when a fireside chat is chosen over a chatroom.

That said, let’s not drop the tools we have to connect throughout the rest of our lives.  I’m excited to see how Christians in our organic network begin to work together, creating events, serving the poor, training leaders, and sharing resources through technology.  I’ll be sure to report back here (on my blog) what we find!