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September Newsletter
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September 23, 2008
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In this issue....
The CFI Continues
Godspeed the Plow!
The New and Improving EP Website
Manna for the Gathering
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THE CFI CONTINUES
This fall, our second round of congregations begins to walk through the Congregational Formation Initiative. Four congregations have embarked on this journey:
The development phase of the CFI was made possible by a generous grant from the Lilly Foundation. But all grants come to an end. As the Board reflected on the the our various initiatives last February, we concluded that the CFI is central to the work of the EP, a critical embodiment of our vision. We have placed it as one of our central initiatives, alongside the Gathering, bLOGOS, and the pamphlets. Our question, then, is: how can we sustain it going forward?
We have congregations ready to take the plunge. We have skilled pastors and scholars ready to accompany them. We have wonderful materials for CFI groups to use. But we wanted to think differently about how to finance a project such as this. We understand the CFI not as a 'product' to be sold but as a process of conversation and relationship. How might we fund the CFI in a way that is consistent with our claim to be a network of subversive friendship, we asked? Our answer: ask congregations -- those who have participated in CFI and others -- to support those who are entering into the process. So we have set up a "CFI Fund." In a few short months, this fund has received almost $2,900 from congregations and others. In this way, we hope to offer the CFI as a gift to those congregations who wish to participate, a gift that they will then pass on to their successors.
The success of the CFI, however, will require the support of the whole EP. We hope that both congregations and endorsers will keep the CFI congregations in your prayers. We hope you will discuss among your congregations the possibility of embarking on the CFI in the future. We urge congregations to get to know one another, to enter into conversations and partnerships around radical discipleship. We ask that you discern with your congregation the possibility of donating to the CFI Fund. In this way, the EP will be able to begin to change the conversation, to foster a new way of thinking about life-long formation in discipleship not as individual but as congregational.
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GODSPEED THE PLOW!:
The Church and The Redemptive Practice of Agriculture
A conversation on church, food and economy; an exploration of what it means for our churches to
be faithful witnesses to God's work of redeeming a fallen creation.
Friday evening Nov. 7 and Saturday Nov. 8, 2008
Englewood Christian Church, Indianapolis
Food is one of the basic elements of human life, and yet in many churches there has been little reflection upon how our eating habits intersect with our call to live peaceably with all humanity, and indeed all creation. In recent years, there have been plenty of prophetic voices (e.g., Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan) calling us to re-examine how we eat, but how do we respond as communities of God's people to these calls? Maybe we eat less. Maybe we eat more local foods. Maybe we work together to grow some of our own food. Let's come together in November and share our stories and encourage one another to a more just pattern of eating.
The Ekklesia Project is a conference partner with our friends at Englewood Christian Church in this important conversation. You can find more information here.
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THE EP WEBSITE: NEW, IMPROVED, AND IMPROVING!
By now most endorsers have discovered the fruits of EP's major spring project : the refurbishing of our website. We are the EP, however, and one way God reminds us that all we do depends on Him is by visiting us with constant web challenges. Consequently, we ought not have been surprised that almost to the day that we launched the new site in July, Apple also launched its new MobileMe venture, which (as Mac users know) has been fraught with problems that have yet to be satisfactorily resolved. And we had located our new site on the Mac server.
Consequently, we have spent the last couple of months adjusting the site. We remain delighted with the new cleaner look and the more intuitive structure of the site over all. PC users, however, may still experience a slight delay as the various pages load (if it is really slow, let us know). Some Mac site problem wrecked havoc on the "Comments" function on bLOGOS. We have consequently moved bLOGOS to an adjunct site. It is now running great, and endorsers and registered users are invited to enter into discussion with the posts and each other. Those who wish to comment, please email Zach Kincaid and he will enable you to do so.
We are currently in the process of developing a place for the forums. We anticipate that it will be ready by the time we send you our next newsletter.
Debra Dean Murphy, Jessie Larkins, Brian Volck, Joel Shuman and others have been regularly posting thoughtful, timely reflections on the lectionary, politics, workers rights, and more. Please visit the bLOGOS page, scroll down to the very bottom of the page, and click where it says "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)." If you then select "Bookmarks Toolbar," after clicking on "Subscribe Now," a bLOGOS menu will be added to the toolbar at the top of your browser, so you can check regularly for new posts. And after reading, post a comment.
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GATHERING MANNA NEEDED
Our July/August newsletter gave you a window, we hope, into the powerful
days God gave us during this yearšs Gathering. Most of the plenary
presentations are now posted to the EP website, as are photos and follow-up.
The weeks following the Gathering are a time for Brent and the Gathering
team to recuperate and for Mike Bowling and Melissa Benton, our bookkeeper,
to deposit receipts and pay the bills. Every year, wešve been able to report that the EP Gathering either met its goal of being financially self-sustaining or that we inadvertently came out ahead. This year, for the first time we find ourselves in the red, in the amount of $4,141.
What made the difference this year? In the past, we have turned mostly to
EP endorsers to present plenaries and offer workshops, endorsers who have often paid their own way to the Gathering and presented without accepting an honorarium. This year, however, we recognized a need to bring in additional expertise, and we felt obliged to offset their travel costs, to pay their registration, food and lodging, and to offer them a modest stipend. We did not, however, factor these additional costs into the registration fee.
After our time together in July, no one could doubt the wisdom of bringing
in these gifted people. We hope that manyof you who were able to attend
the Gathering might find it within your means to make an additional
contribution to help us offset these costs. We hope that manyof you who
were not able to attend might likewise be open to making a contribution to
the EP toward this goal. If you donate by check or through Entango, you can
specify that your donation is for 'the 2008 EP Gathering.'
As always, we appreciate your presence and support. Thanks for being the
EP.
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FROM THE EDITOR
Some of us bristle when the EP gets labeled a "theological think tank," but it is certainly a setting where ideas are exchanged within a context of common theological formation. I attended this year's Gathering as my spouse and I were finishing the proposal for a book we are co-authoring on "friendship, community and dementia." Stanley Hauerwas was kind enough to give permission for me to "borrow" (he prefers the term "steal") several ideas, Brian Volck steered me to some worthwhile books, and other friends offered their feedback and support for the project: it will be a better book because of the help I received from my EP friends. I applaud our important "official" initiatives like the CFI and our pamphlet series, but also give thanks for the creative ripples that flow through our friendships. They lead us to do better work than we would do alone, and perhaps, by the grace of God, to live more faithful lives as well.
John McFadden
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