Princeton Emergent Cohort

Conference Audio

2008-11-10T14:47:00.006-05:00

We had a great time hanging out with Pete Rollins this past weekend down in Philly. Thanks to Tim Ghali and Thomas Turner for putting together a great conference for the Mid-Atlantic region cohorts!

If you couldn't make it down to Philly and are presently suffering the existential loss of not hearing from Pete, don't worry! You can download audio of Pete and John Franke's talks on the net.

For audio of the conference visit Church of the Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square's website here.

...make that Nov 12th.

2008-11-06T20:05:00.005-05:00

Okay, we finally have a location where we can all watch the film together, but we'll have to break from our usual Tuesday night to do so. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, November 12th - 7pm at Panera Bread on Nassau St. in Princeton.

136 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08542

So come out and watch the new film Ordinary Radicals, a film that explores a new movement within Christianity that is unifying the Social Justice passion of the church with the Evangelical passion of the church, especially in small "new monastic" communities like the Simple Way. The film follows some of Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw's summer tour for the book Jesus for President.

Cohort Meeting postponed until Nov 11

2008-11-01T23:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry everyone, I didn't mean to schedule our cohort meeting for election day!!! We'll meet Nov 11th instead.

Next Cohort Meeting - Nov 4th

2008-10-28T17:05:00.003-04:00

Our next meeting will be Nov 4th. We'll watch the new film Ordinary Radicals and have some time to unpack it afterward. I'm still looking for the right venue for us to get together and watch the film... any ideas?

Mid-Atlantic Emergent Conference Schedule

2008-10-24T18:31:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, the schedule is out for the Mid-Atlantic Emergent Conference. It's just around the corner, if you haven't registered yet do so now! It's $10 cheaper online than it is at the door.

This is the full conference schedule. The schedule has been trimmed to allow more time to dine with new and old friends after the conference or to travel back and forth to the conference without having to stay at a hotel overnight.

9:00-10:00am, Sign in and Registration
10:00-10:15, Introductions and Invocation
10:15-10:30, Time of Reflection and Prayer
10:30-11:15, Session #1 with Peter Rollins
11:15-11:30, Break
11:30-12:15, Session #2 with Peter Rollins
12:15-12:30, Presentation by our Sponsors: Biblical Seminary and One Village Coffee
12:30-1:30, Lunch Break
1:30-2:15, Special Meditation with John Franke
2:15-2:30, Presentation by Bread for the World
2:30-3:00, Session #3 with Peter Rollins
3:00-3:45, Panel Discussion with Peter Rollins and John Franke
3:45-4:00, Break
4:00-4:45, The Filid and The Family Band
4:45-5:00, Closing Remarks and Doxology

Tickets will be available at the door but they are $10 cheaper online ($20 if you are a student!) so sign up today by using the registration portal to the right.

Mid-Atlantic Emergent Conference

2008-10-01T00:53:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone, be sure to check out this regional emergent event. We'll be hearing from and talking with Irish theologian/philosopher Pete Rollins, author of How (Not) to Speak of God. Registration is $25 or $15 if you're a student. It should be a great time, I know that cohorts from all over the mid-Atlantic region are sending people so it will be a great time to hang out with some folks from other cohorts as well.

For more info check out the website... http://emergentmidatlantic.com

Princeton Cohort Starts Up

2008-09-16T19:42:00.010-04:00

After a bit of a hiatus, the Princeton Emergent Cohort is going to get started up again this fall.

We'll be having our next cohort Tuesday night, September 30th at 7pm. We'll be meeting at T.G.I. Friday's in Market Fair (you can get directions here).

I thought it would be interesting to have a discussion about atonement since that seems to be a pretty hot topic among a lot of us in the emerging church these days. I'll post a bunch of stuff here if you'd like to dig into any of it before we meet. This stuff is just fodder for discussion, there's no "did you read it" quiz!

Thinking About the Atonement - Tony Jones interviews Mark Baker
Emergent Village Podcast

Interview with Scot McKnight from
The Nick and Josh Podcast

Scot McKnight just wrote a book called A Community Called Atonement and has been blogging about the Atonement a TON.

Princeton Cohort Hosts Tony Jones

2008-04-27T22:04:00.004-04:00

Don't forget that tonight we will have the privilege of hosting the National Coordinator of Emergent Village, Tony Jones, at the cohort. We'll be meeting at 8pm at the T.G.I. Friday's in Princeton's Market Fair Mall. Tony will be sharing with us about his new book, The New Christians, and will be sharing with us a little bit of the "state of Emergent." You won't want to miss the cohort this week.

For directions to T.G.I. Friday's, go here.

Three Upcoming Events

2008-04-08T17:23:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to let you know about three upcoming events of the Princeton Emergent Cohort. But first, I wanted to introduce you all to Charlie Pardue, who has been an active member of the Cohort for the past year or so. Charlie is going to take over leadership of the cohort next year, as my wife and I are moving to Berkeley, CA. You can check out Charlie's blog here. Also keep checking out this website for more details on the cohort. Now, on to the three events:

Brian McLaren at Princeton Seminary / April 15
Many of you already know this, but Brian McLaren is coming to Princeton Seminary on April 15th to discuss his new book, Everything Must Change. The discussion is from 6.30-8.30pm in Stuart 6 and you can find more information here.

After the event, Brian will be hanging out with the Princeton Emergent Cohort at the Yankee Doodle Tap Room in downtown Princeton. He only has an hour or so until he'll have to drive home, but this is a great opportunity to connect with Brian with a small group of people. We'll be there from 9-10pm, so please plan to meet us there, or walk over with us after the lecture on the campus of Princeton Seminary. If any of you know for sure you'll be there, and aren't planning on attending the book discussion, if you could show up to the Tap Room a little early (8.45pm or so) and begin to start saving tables, that'd be great! Thanks!

Cohort Guest: the National Coordinator of Emergent Village, Tony Jones / April 29
Our next cohort meeting will be on April 29th, from 8-10pm, at TGI Friday's in Princeton (directions here). Tony Jones, the National Coordinator for Emergent, will be in town for the Institute of Youth Ministry at Princeton Seminary. He'll be joining us for the cohort to discuss the "state of Emergent" and to share with us about his new book, "The New Christians." You won't want to miss the chance to connect with Tony.

Brian McLaren and the Everything Must Change Tour / May 2-3
Finally, May 2-3 is the "Everything Must Change" tour in the Bronx. The two-day event has recently been underwritten by a church, so the total price is now only $20. A few of us from the cohort will be going up, so if you want to join us, send me an email back and we'll be in touch. To find out more information and to register, click here.

See Brian McLaren in NYC for $20

2008-04-06T18:28:00.004-04:00

The Everything Must Change Tour is coming to the Bronx May 2-3. Because a church graciously has underwritten the event, you can now go for just $20. It is a really important event that has been getting some great press during the past few months.

If you are able to, I'd highly encourage you to go to this event. For more info, and to register, go here.

.bE, Alternative Worship Gathering, at Princeton Seminary

2008-03-12T11:48:00.002-04:00

If you're around Princeton, I encourage you to check out .bE, an alternative worship gathering on Tuesday, March 18th at Princeton Theological Seminary. It will be on campus in the Auditorium in the Mackay Campus Center (map here) and it will start at 8pm. I hope to see you there.

Cohort - March 4 - Discussing Phyllis Tickle's idea of "The Great Emergence"

2008-02-29T00:36:00.004-05:00

The Princeton Emergent Cohort will be meeting Tuesday night, March 4th at 8pm at the Princeton T.G.I. Friday's. It will be led by Charlie Pardue, co-leader of the Princeton Emergent Cohort. This is the description he sent me:

Phyllis Tickle recently gave a message at this year's Youth Specialties convention which will soon be a book by the name of The Great Emergence. In her message she drew a diagram as a way of illustrating what's happening in Christianity that we're calling the emerging church (see link). Her diagram illustrates the ways in which Christianity has been split into different streams that tend to "specialize" in a particular way of being Christian. The "Great Emergence" or the emerging church is in many ways the attempt at (re)joining those streams. In emerging Christianity it is not uncommon for Evangelicals to embrace high-church liturgy or on the other hand for social-justice minded mainliners to embrace a radically personal relationship with Christ. We'll spend some time talking about our own experience in crossing these borders and where all this might be taking us in the future.

It should be a really great conversation, and in order to get your mind thinking about the issues that Tickle addresses, take a look at these two very short articles:

First is a blog post written by Charlie after hearing Tickle give the talk / link
Second is an article written by Tickle entitled, "The Emerging Twenty-First-Century Christianity." / download

We hope to see you all there!

John Franke at the Princeton Emergent Cohort

2008-01-28T15:50:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in the last post, our next guest for the cohort is going to be John Franke, professor of theology at Biblical Seminary in Philadelphia. He's going to be hanging out with us, and we'll probably be talking about the plurality of the truth in scripture and the voice of the other. John's spoken at the past few Emergent Conventions and was the keynoter for the first Presbymergent Conference at Pittsburgh Seminary, last fall. He's a wonderful thinker and a good friend of Emergent.

John has sent us a short article he wrote for a "Reforming Ministry" gathering he participated in at Columbia Seminary last December. It's on the plurality of truth in scripture and the voice of the other. If you have a chance, please give it a read to prepare for our discussion at the cohort. You can download it here.

Again, this cohort will be meeting at the T.G.I. Friday's at Princeton Market Fair Mall. It will be Thursday, February 7th at 7pm.

Jim Wallis & Brian McLaren at Princeton Seminary

2008-01-07T11:59:00.000-05:00

As part of Princeton Theological Seminary's Spring Book Club Series, both Jim Wallis and Brian McLaren will be at Princeton Seminary during April of 2008. Jim Wallis will be speaking about his book, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America on April 10th from 6.30–8.30pm (register here) nd Brian McLaren will be speaking about his book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis and a Revolution of Hope on April 15th from 6.30–8.30pm (register here).

These events are free and you can register for them here. I'm guessing these will fill up soon, so I would recommend registering early. The Princeton Emergent Cohort will be meeting after Brian McLaren's talk, on April 15th. Brian will most likely have to head home after the Book Club, but if he decides to stay in the area, he said that he may be able to come and join us for the cohort.

Princeton Emergent Cohort in 2008

2007-12-18T14:59:00.000-05:00

We had a great discussion about Preaching in the Emerging church - thanks for those who showed up for the dialogoue.

I just wanted to share with you our schedule for the spring of 2008.

February 7 @ 7pm: John Franke will be with us, probably discussing some along the lines of plurality within the scripture
March 4 @ 8pm: Discussion topic TBA
March 18 @ 8pm: .bE Alternative Worship Gathering at Princeton Theological Seminary (photos from past alt.worship events here)
April: Brian McLaren and Tony Jones will be in Princeton toward the end of April, dates will be announced when available

Put these dates on your calendar, and I hope to see you all at some or all of these events!

December 11th Cohort: Preaching in the Emergent Church

2007-12-03T23:16:00.000-05:00

The Princeton Emergent Cohort will be meeting Tuesday, December 11th at 8pm. We'll be meeting at the Princeton T.G.I. Friday's in Market Fair Mall again. If you need directions, go here.

Last month we met with AKMA and discussed biblical interpretation in the church, and in the end, we touched on the significance of interpretation for preaching in the church.

I thought we should continue discussing preaching in the Emergent church for our December cohort. Solomon's Porch pastor, Doug Pagitt, wrote a book entitled Preaching Re-Imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith. In Preaching Re-Imagined, Doug argues that we in the church (and I'd add in seminaries like Princeton) have let "preaching" actually turn into something he calls speaching:

"The speacher decides the content ahead of time, usually in a removed setting, and then offers it in such a way that the speacher is in control of the content, speed and conclusion of the presentation." (22)

Doug would prefer that instead, we move toward what he calls progressional dialogue...

"...where the content of the presentation is established in the context of a healthy relationship between the presenter and the listeners, and substantive changes in the content are then created as a result of this relationship." (23)

In the second section of the book, he goes on to give a more detailed examination of his understanding of speaching, and then shares what he imagines preaching as progressional dialogue could look like. I have uploaded the second section of his book "Preaching Beyond Speaching" for you to read before our next cohort. It's in PDF form and it looks like a lot, but it really doesn't take too long. As our discussion will be based off of the selection, I'd encourage you to to at least read a few pages of it. I think you'll really like it.

Download the selection here.

Looking forward to seeing you there - please RSVP by leaving a comment here so I know how many seats to reserve. Thanks! See you all then!

Nov 13th Cohort Guest: A.K.M. Adam

2007-11-06T20:41:00.000-05:00

The next Princeton Emergent Cohort will be at 8pm on November 13th. We'll be meeting at the Princeton T.G.I. Friday's in Market Fair Mall again. If you need directions, go here.

We are lucky to have a special guest with us, the Rev. A.K.M. Adam (usually known as AKMA). AKMA is a professor of New Testament at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (an Episcopal seminary), and is currently a Member-in-Residence at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton for the year. AKMA blogs regularly at AKMA's Random Thoughts and writes extensively on postmodern biblical interpretation.

I was first introduced to AKMA through his little pink book, What is Postmodern Biblical Criticism?, and Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible. You'll really enjoy hearing from him. The morning after he is with us at the cohort, he and his wife will be flying out to San Diego for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and he'll be giving a paper entitled, "Rene Magritte, Krazy Kat, and the Truth of Interpretation." I met with him last week at lunch and heard a brief synopsis of the paper, and was very interested. He'll be giving us a shortened version of his paper and his thoughts on postmodern interpretation and we'll be discussing what this means for the church, and how we can practice this different form of biblical interpretation.

In preparation for the cohort, please try and read through AKMA's article in Reading Scripture with the Church - "Poaching on Zion: Biblical Theology as Signifying Practice." Download it here.

If you know for sure you'll come, please RSVP by leaving a comment here on the blog or on our Facebook group so I know how big of a space to reserve. Peace!

Cohort Meetings for November and December

2007-10-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

The Princeton Emergent Cohort will be meeting on November 13 and December 11, both at 8pm at T.G.I. Friday's in Market Fair Mall. Check back for discussion topics and short articles to read before both cohort meetings.

Princeton Cohort Starts Up

2007-10-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

After a bit of a hiatus, the Princeton Emergent Cohort is going to get started up again this fall. For those of you who are Presbyterian, you may be interested in the Presbymergent Conference happening at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in just under 2 weeks. It's not too late to sign up and if you're interested, there are 3 of us from Princeton who are going out to it. Just email me and let me know. John Franke, theologian from Biblical Seminary, will be giving our keynotes and it is going to be a really great time.

We'll be having our next cohort Tuesday night, October 16th at 8pm. While we will desperately miss Charlie Brown's - we're going to try this cohort at T.G.I. Friday's in Market Fair (you can get directions here).

Some of us will have been at the Presbymergent Conference, and so we'll have some to share about that. But we'll be discussing Emergent and (Dis)Unity. In order to get you prepared for the conversation, please take a few minutes and read these two articles:

Mark Driscoll's Critique Gets Mixed Response: This is an article from the Emergent Village blog and discusses pastor Mark Driscoll's recent critique of Emergent (particularly Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt and the new addition, Rob Bell)
Different Versions of Christianity: This is a blog entry from Tony Jones' blog. Tony is the National Coordinator for Emergent (and PhD student at Princeton Seminary) - he responds as well to the critique by Mark Driscoll and offers his perspective on the issue.

"Not Dead Yet"

2007-04-18T20:34:00.000-04:00

Hello Emerging Friends,

This is your friendly Princeton Emergent Cohort convener saying hello. I just got back from the Emergent Philosophical Conversation at Eastern University. It was a wonderful time. I learned a ton.

I wanted to throw this shout out into cyberspace to say that the Princeton Emergent Cohort has not died but has merely gone into hibernation. I have not had the time to schedule meetings since November. Life at Princeton Seminary is crazy. Just ask any of my classmates. But after the conference I have some renewed vigor for Emergent Cohort life. We will be having one more cohort meeting before the school year is out. I will send out an e-mail to those of you on the list and post to the blog for the rest of the emerging conversation participants.

Hope to see you all soon (once I get my act together)

Josh

Pete Rollins Lunch and Lecture

2006-11-29T22:38:00.000-05:00

The fun continues with Pete Rollins on Thursday November 30, 2006.

Pete will be joining us for lunch at McKay Campus Center on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary. Lunch is available in the cafeteria from 12:00 till 1:30. The conversation will be taking place in the far balcony of the cafeteria.

Pete will then be offering a public lecture Thursday night at 7:00 in Stuart Hall on the Princeton Theological Seminary campus. The lecture will be in Stuart 6 which is located on the second floor of the building. You can go to www.ptsem.edu to find information about the campus.

Hope to see you all at these events.

Pete Rollins at Cohort Events

2006-11-26T00:33:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday November 29 at 8:00 pm, Pete Rollins will be at Charlie Brown's for a pub conversation. Pete is the author of How (Not) to Speak of God and a member of the Ikon community in Northern Ireland. We will be gathering informally to discuss subject matter pertaining to the emerging church conversation and specifically Pete's book. I look forward to seeing you all at Charlie Brown's.

We will also be having a public lecture at PTS on November 30 in the evening and Pete will be speaking at a class on Dec. 1 at Princeton Theological Seminary. Details about both events are forthcoming.

November 15 Cohort Meeting: post-colonialism

2006-11-14T14:37:00.000-05:00

For the Cohort meeting on Wednesday November 15 @ 8:00 pm at Charlie Brown's in Princeton, NJ, we will be discussing post-colonialism. This is a topic which Brian McLaren is bringing much needed attention to. An article will be sent out by e-mail that will help prepare people for the discussion. If you do not receive the e-mail and are interested in the article, let me know and I can add you to the list. Thanks. Looking forward to the conversation.

Josh

Two Cohort Meetings in one month...is that possible!

2006-11-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends!

We are going to have a cohort meeting on November 15 at 8:00 pm @ Charlie Brown's (directions can be found on the right side of the blog). The topic is to still to be determined and I open to suggestions.

I know that some people were not able to find us at the restaurant during the last meeting. I am in the process of trying to figure out a way to make the meeting more recognizable. I am thinking that sign of some sort will be helpful. I will send out more details about this.

This information will also be sent out by e-mail. If you do not receive the e-mails about cohort events, please let me know and I will gladly add you to the list.

Also, please put on your calendars a few important events. From November 29 - December 1, Pete Rollins will be at Princeton Theological Seminary. Pete Rollins is the author of How (not) to Speak of God. He is an active participant in the emerging church conversation. You can find Pete's bio here. We are excited to have him coming to PTS. We are planning a Pub Conversation with Pete for November 29 @ 8:00 pm at Charlie Brown's. We are in the process of planning a few more events at the PTS campus so please check this blog in the weeks to come for more details about Pete's visit. Kate Elliot has been the contact person in making this work and she will be providing more information as the event gets closer.

Hope to see many of you soon.

peace,
Josh

Cohort Meeting Tonight at 8:00 pm at Charlie Brown's

2006-09-27T01:20:00.000-04:00

Just thought I would put a fresh post out to remind people about the cohort meeting tonight. Wednesday September 27, 2006 at 8:00 pm at Charlie Brown's. Directions are on the right side of the blog.