in the little reading that i've done about the emerging church, with the exception of andrew jones and a few others, there seems to little talk of actual emergent theory and how it applies to what's occuring. if you're unfamiliar with emergent theory i highly recommend reading steve johnson's book Emergence.
Onto the point - in the case of slime molds when certain conditions are met each slime mold slug will emit a "scent" and leave a trail and when other slugs run into that "scent" or trail they will either coalesce or diverge. So given the right conditions/environment a huge amount of slime mold slugs will aggregate to form this huge mass. Every slug emits this "scent" not a few select leaders. so i wonder what is the "scent" the we humans emit? what trail do we leave behind that allows for the emergence of certain communities. Conversation to me seems like a very logical "scent" that we could leave behind or transmit to one another. think about conversations you've had and how one conversation you had might spark you to bring that same conversation to another person. and so on. and if the conversation is intriguing enough then a group might form to carry it further. i think
this is what we've seen with the emerging church.
introduce now this idea i've been having about opening up a very unique lounge. in my mind i think it could act as 1) an environment for the transmittal of these conversations, a place where the feeling of a particular converstaion would lingere. 2) a hub for the conversations that take place "out there", somewhere that people could come and gather. a natural meeting place. one tagline i've thought of is "an offline gathering". are those reasons the same? hmm.
what conversations? i think mainly conversations that circle around our musings of life, us, God and others. granted i know to some degree these 3rd places already exist, but there is something inside me, this feeling i have that what is out there is just inadequate. that it can be done better - and i think with some help i can pull that off.
comments/suggestions?
continue reading.....
4 comments:
i like what you are saying here about the purpose behind this new third space... i feel like you are moving forward with your thinking in terms of getting somewhat more focused on what you want to create, which is good :)
of course, my mindset goes straight to thinking in details that bring plenty of questions to mind- some/most of which might be too preliminary, but hopefully will encourage your thinking to move forward some more:
what kind of elements do you want to use to set up the environment for conversations to happen and then keep them lingering?
how involved do you want the atmosphere/decor to be... like would there be suttle christian-esque hints in the place that may or may not be sensed? or a more just relaxed, spiritual-stirring kind of setting... or something else altogether?
do you want to influence those conversations? would you want to encourage certain topics to be discussed? in some ways I would think yes, some no...
would you want to offer some kind of structured events- like book discussions or topical discussions or even bible discussions? other things...
will there be food/coffee/bar? would you have a stage of some sort?
what would take place there?
i am reminded of friday at soularize when the guys leading worship opened it up to us all and anyone could pick up an instrument and join them in the rhythm... a loose picture of what could happen here.
i like what you are saying here about the purpose behind this new third space... i feel like you are moving forward with your thinking in terms of getting somewhat more focused on what you want to create, which is good :)
of course, my mindset goes straight to thinking in details that bring plenty of questions to mind- some/most of which might be too preliminary, but hopefully will encourage your thinking to move forward some more:
what kind of elements do you want to use to set up the environment for conversations to happen and then keep them lingering?
how involved do you want the atmosphere/decor to be... like would there be suttle christian-esque hints in the place that may or may not be sensed? or a more just relaxed, spiritual-stirring kind of setting... or something else altogether?
do you want to influence those conversations? would you want to encourage certain topics to be discussed? in some ways I would think yes, some no...
would you want to offer some kind of structured events- like book discussions or topical discussions or even bible discussions? other things...
will there be food/coffee/bar? would you have a stage of some sort?
what would take place there?
i am reminded of friday at soularize when the guys leading worship opened it up to us all and anyone could pick up an instrument and join them in the rhythm... a loose picture of what could happen here.
wow - thanks for mentioning me
i should say that karen ward recommended that book to me when it first came out (emergence)
and kester brewin has a superb chapter on emergence theory in his book "The Complex Christ"
cheers
lately my third place of choice has been a locally owned "mom and pops" coffee shop. While it is a very community-oriented place, there is still such a level of isolation. ("Appropriately proportioned public space"- have you ever observed how people will space themselves out so that they don't have to sit "too close" to anyone?) thinking back on all my favorite third places, i realize that a certain level of isolation was present in each.
i am in a place in my life where i am searching for connection. in my life, in this current era of transition, i am seeking a greater understanding of myself. For me this process includes gaining understanding of who i am through relating to others. I think this is the general experience of many young people. If a third place could provide a communal environment in which people could relate to others through conversation, art, music, and others form of raw self expression, i think it would create a place, an experience that would be truly invaluable and truly unique.
adam, your passion and depth of thought concerning this dream of yours is incredibly inspiring. thank you for sharing it with everyone who frequents here. thank you for sharing it with me.
a few thoughts...
what kind of communal facilities were you pondering? is this a place for people to come and go through their days (and nights) or a place where people could stay for indefinite amounts of time? Or both?
would you want the lounge to serve as a community outreach spot as well, or be something more internally focused, incubator-like?
i think kristie's question concerning the influence of conversation is a very interesting one. what about a place where people could compose poetry or pose questions where all could read, reply?
looking forward to many more conversations (or blogs) in this vein...
again, inspiring.
Post a Comment