April 22, 2009
Live from Catalyst West and...
Leadership is live from Orange County and has an announcement.
Today Marshall Shelley and I were at Mariner's Church in Irvine, California, for the pregame show of the first ever Catalyst West Coast conference. Led by Erwin McManus and the rest of the Mosaic team, the Origins Labs (as they were called) were an opportunity for some smaller group, interactive sessions on topics related to engaging culture, reaching the hard to reach, and other perennial challenges. Catalyst West begins in earnest tomorrow, and you'll here more from us about that then.
Erwin used the opening session to explore a familiar story from Acts. For Erwin, Acts 17:16ff provides a framework for understanding the church's spheres of influence. In Athens, Paul first speaks "in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks." This is the "first space," where the church reaches religious people. Paul also speaks "in the marketplace day by day." Our marketplace is where we work, eat, and play. This "second space" is where we reach people most like us. Finally, Paul was invited to speak "to a meeting of the Areopagus." This, Erwin said, is the "third space." This is where you're reaching the world. Jesus thrives in third space.
Thursday will also be the day of unveiling for a new publication produced jointly by Leadership and Catalyst, the Catalyst Leadership digizine. This hybrid publication will (we hope) provide a blend of the very best of Leadership and the Catalyst experience. You can read it here.
When you've had a chance to read the digizine, come back here and let us know what you think.
Posted by UrL Scaramanga on April 22, 2009
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2582
Comments
The content was great, and it looks like it would be a very eye-catching layout if it were a "real" magazine, but I found it very frustrating to try to read. You constantly have to move the page around, the hand scrolls only up and down and not sideways, nothing complete fits in a readable size on the computer screen. A number of times I found I had started reading an article in the middle when I scrolled down and found the beginning of the article on the left mid-way down the page. It would be nice if you could somehow click on an article and get the whole article in a single column format. My time is limited, and navigating this magazine wasted a lot of my time. Even though I might want to, I couldn't make reading it a priority. It's a very frustrating experience.
Posted by: Sue at April 23, 2009
"the pregame show" - this little phrase is quite telling about the nature of these events and how to describe them.
Posted by: Sam at April 23, 2009
If Jesus is "thriving" isn't he thriving in all three spheres? Is there no one in the marketplace that is of "the world"? Are there no "religious people" in the world? So if I go to a mosque that is part of the first sphere or the third sphere? I think the problem is that the "spheres" as McManus has defined them are really superficial and have no real meaning at all. The point of the passage is not where Paul was, but what he was declaring - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Posted by: Michael Cordich at April 23, 2009
Sam,
I think you are spot on, my friend.
Posted by: Steve Martin at April 23, 2009
From what I heard, it wasn't that Jesus thrives in one of the spaces, and doesn't in another. I think it was showing how ministry changes when one is in the third space - preaching in the temple vs. preaching in the Areopagus. His language and posture changed, essentially making the gospel more relevant for the audience.
Posted by: Nathan at April 26, 2009