name that tune

I've began going through video from this past August during the Edinburgh Festival.

This tune reminded me of waking up to it every morning for a few weeks right when we moved into the flat.

Name the tune:


Click Here

creativity as value

Check out Tony's thoughts on the 4th value of Eikon: Creativity. His insight into Acts 2 is something I've not heard before.
The video is 30 minutes short:

Click Here

Couple of key points:
-Creative churches are rarely orderly, and Orderly churches are rarely creative.
-Creative churches are messy and confusing cause we're dealing with real people and real problems.

Acts 2
-Peter explains to people who are confused at all the noise and languages being spoken, "what you're seeing is what's in there" (tangible evidence of the holy spirit). "This is that"
We've got facinated with the "that" and so little of the "this" to confuse and provoke curiosity in the world. We've become so focused on expository (that)....it doesn't make us any more interesting or attractice. It doesn't necessarily provoke curiosity.

-A U2 concert sells out all over the world. 50,000 here, 500,000 there. Why would I go to an event like that? Cause I want the "this". They don't want U2 to explain why they wrote the songs, why they put this verse here, that verse there. They want them to sing it, and let's feel it. Let's do this together.

-Creative church is not something that we can explain, it's something we're going to experience and practice at the same time.

british embassy

I received an email the other from someone at the british embassy offering the availability for an american student to blog once/week about their experiences at a UK University. It further stated that, if selected, we could essentially share about any facet of culture: night life, studies, museums, churches, what have you.

I emailed her back with my "substantial resume" of why I would be a good candidate for the job(partly can't believe I'm trying for this). I'm hoping for the opportunity, which, to me is pretty cool. The lady suggested that potential traffic for the blog could be huge, considering the popularity of blogging and number of prospective students in the US. It could be a great way to share about Eikon to potential students looking to make Edinburgh their home for a few years.

My brother-in-law, Ryan Turner has been an awesome example of using the web to maximize you connections (prayonit.com). Mark Batterson is yet another example, who's evotional.com is continuing to make a high impact on the web.
This particular blog isn't necessarily for that, but hopefully a blog to thousands of students in the US about UK universities could, or Eikon's very interactive web site that's being designed right now will.

walking

One of the things I love most about living in a city is the walking. We walk everywhere, and it seems nothing is closer than at least a 15 minutes walk.

In fact, we haven't driven since we've been here.

I decided to find out exactly how much we walk, so I hunted down a pedometor. The guy at the store said I was the first male to purchase one in a long time.

Anyways, I've been counting the last week, and I've been averaging roughly 4-6000 steps. The average steps/mile is roughly 2000:1.

Kate and I are walking 2-4 miles/day, which for most is a good thing. On the day of our anniversary, we put in 6800 steps......I've never really done this before.

Kind of curious if anyone else has.

quintessential

Check out these blokes tellin stories, lovin life.

They were on a bench in the center of the city, but somewhat isolated from the sidewalk by about 20 feet, so they were such a spectical. Even scots would walk by and just die laughing at these old men looking as scottish as one would imagine, surrounded by their drink and telling stories.

I took a few pics of them, and then was approached by the man in the middle. He told me they were old war veterans telling old stories and catching up.

I couldn't help but sit and watch them for a while before kate showed up with a camera. It was a perfect shot of humanity in it's rawness: Just some guys completely oblivious to the spectators, just being themselves. They were just happy.

I interviewed a guy the other day who wore all black and a hot pink mohawk (probably in his 40s). I asked him what he thought about church and I appreciated his response: "Religion has done nothing for me, or to me, I've been happy without it and don't plan on needing it in the future."

I asked Tony the other day, "What do you say to people who are really happy in life without christianity or church, and don't feel empty or lost as we often assume?" Tony experienced similiar reactions during his time in Taiwan. They would often say, "I'm fine without this, so why do I need this?"

Though there is the wide spectrum of issues people face, we face more and more people with this attitude over here. There are many people who have seen it fail so many times either in their lives, or in someone else's over the years, they've just moved on.

I think that part of the paradigm shifting going on in church and evangelism is that way in which people often come to Christ is in reverse. Previously, people would come, here a message or be witnessed to, get saved and then become discipled. This certainly takes place even today, but I see it more often now as people hearing messages and having discussions and through this undefined process becoming discipled, then choosing to commit to Christ. Part of our goal at Eikon is to highly involve non-believers from the start, not limiting them or putting them on a program before they can be active partners.

Part of my passion is to be sensitive to this shift, recognizing the many ways in which people come to know Christ.

Cheers to these old men reflecting on the narratives of their life.

behind-the-scenes

We're making our website almost entirely interactive-based, including our values.

I filmed tony this past week on the value of "acceptance"....basically a 45-60 sec. spot that was supposed to take about 5 minutes.

Here's a quick video I threw together with tony struggling to nail the clip:) Showed this past sunday and it was a hit.

warning: some adult language:)

Click HERE to view clip

paper

We made it.

Exactly 1 year ago today kate and I did that whole "I do" thing. Yes, I did remember, phew.

We've been wanting to take this tour of Edinburgh, but haven't ever done it, so I took her on the tour in the afternoon following church. The weather was a perfect fall day, and ended up at this amazing spot overlooking the city where we were met by Tony, Yvonne and their son, Luke for a glass of wine to celebrate. It was a blast hanging out for a while, and then went for some Thai food (our favorite and first time having it in Edinburgh cause it ain't cheap). We're now at home and I'm not going to share with you the remainder of our evening.

Thanks for all your support out their for Kate and I. It's these days when we reflect back at how amazing our family and friends really are. We're stinkin blessed!!!!!

We had a great day this morning and will post tomorrow....great video to show of some bloopers:)

Edinburgh 6, St. Andrews 1

Happy to report another Burgh victory this week! :) We're currently 4 and 0, which puts us at the top of our conference...apparently there will be some type of championship between all UK universities later in the year.

Had a great night tonight! Tony and Yvonne hosted a really nice dinner at their house and invited two couples (James & Inke; Bruce & Mary) who have become Eikon regulars! We shared a meal, good conversation, tea, dessert(s) and played a couple board games...the two couples are fantastic, such interesting people! James and Inke lived in Egypt for about 15 years and worked with the local church there; they have three sons in the early-twentysomethings range. Bruce, on the other hand, is an opera singer and (according to Dave) an amazing trumpet player. He attended Eastman School of Music in NY, which Dave asserts is right up there with Juliard. His wife, Mary, is a school teacher and musician as well...very very nice people, we had a great time with them tonight...and, of course, introduced them all to Ticket to Ride and Settlers! :)

This past Wednesday we had the Master's Commission team come and stay with us for a night...though sleeping quarters were regretfully a bit cramped, we had a great time just hangin...again, playing settlers. :) We all went to a concert at the Uni but it was a pretty solid waste of 7 quid...nonetheless, the students enjoyed being in the city and we enjoyed being with them. Mike Laberge, Director of Edinburgh MC, is working on moving the students closer to Edinburgh (they're currently residing about 45 min outside), but there are some logistical snags preventing that from being a quick process...please pray that the Lord would make clear the property He has prepared for them!

We'll be having our 4th Sunday gathering for Eikon this weekend; will be sure to post the videos online soon!

nightscape

For all the bad press this country gets for its cloudy weather, we've enjoyed many beautiful evenings and sunny days. It's beginning to cool off here and the leaves are starting to change....mmmmm, our favorite time of the year.

Got this shot the other night. I got out of class and was walking to the gym and the sky was like monet's "vanilla sky". I raced home to get my camera. By the time I got home, up and down 4 flights of stairs, and to a place to shoot, most of the incredible sky had passed.

This one turned out pretty good.

Photo Gallery up on EikonEdinburgh.com!

Ahh! This took me far too long!! :) Sorry for the wait, but at last, the Eikon photo gallery is up on EikonEdinburgh.com! I'll be polishing it up in the coming weeks (making the logos sharper, the images load faster, adding picture captions, etc.) but wanted to get it up asap as many people have been asking to see our pictures...!

Anyway, as always, feedback is very much appreciated! Otherwise, enjoy!

GO TO PHOTO GALLERY

Dance to the beat of your own...iPod...at 7pm...

Wow...I guess this is just the next logical step in the process of individualizing music and/or experience and, well, adding new meaning to the adage "dance to the beat of your own drum"!!

"Everyone who was there - the dancers, the commuters; even, I suspect, the police - would agree that this week's mobile clubbing event at Liverpool Street station in London was magical. I'd heard about these happenings, and I loved the idea of hundreds of people freaking out to their own personal stereos - and their own choice of music - at a certain time and place, in silence."
--Excerpt from The Guardian -- READ FULL ARTICLE

"Hundreds of people descended on Liverpool Street station for the biggest ever turnout for the latest internet craze - mobile clubbing. Armed with MP3 players loaded with favourite tracks the "clubbers" arrived on the concourse just after 7pm last night. Students, business people and office workers danced in silence as they listened to their iPods among commuters listening to announcements about late trains."
--Excerpt from the Daily Mail -- READ FULL ARTICLE

Edinburgh 6, Abertay 0

Though the score doesn't show it, this was our toughest match yet. The fog was so thick you could hardly see to the opposite side of the field. About halfway through the match the fog gave way to misty showers, by the end of it you wouldn't have been able to guess from our appearance if we were Rugby or Football players...(yes, there are women's Rugby teams at the Uni). Abertay was said to be our toughest rival...

There's this social quality about European football that I think is really great...it's called "hospitality". Basically, for every match, the home team arranges to provide the visiting team with food (sandwiches, chips, etc.) and drink after the game. At first I thought it was a bit strange that we would go and dine with the opposition right after a tough match, but I've come to really appreciate it. It's great bonding time for us as a team and also just a kind gesture to the opposition before their long bus ride home...

Anyway, good game today...now time to develop some websites!! :)

Sunday, Tony, Online...check it out!

We will soon be posting these messages to the "video" section of EikonEdinburgh.com, just thought we'd give you all a sneak peak...!

This is a video of Tony's talk this past Sunday at Eikon...our second Sunday gathering!

VIEW TONY'S TALK

death of a president

Kate and I were watching tv last night, and click to a station and there's a news anchor on, and says, "ladies and gentlemen, we're just now receiving reports that shots have been fired towards President Bush in Chicago, shots have been fired...." A few senconds later, he says, "This just in, President George W. Bush has been fatally wounded by a sniper."

Literally, Kate and I dropped our jaws, we couldn't believe what was happening. I'm about to flip the channel to go to BBC coverage when it becomes clear to us that it's a trailor for a controversial film about GW Bush getting assasinated in Chicago on October 18, 2007. Wow, that freaked us out!

They ended up showing the film and it was crazy, they actually used footage of bush in Chicago, and then Computer Graphics to show him getting shot. It's literally portrayed as a documentary, and I found myself in the middle of the film completely convinced Bush had been shot. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to everyone, but it's bold to have a documentary of an acting president killed a year from now.

HERE for film description

HERE for trailor

sunday gathering w/ ol' Yahweh

yeah, so it's been a while and gonna try to get some blogging in everyday this week cause a lot of things are going on over here.

This past sunday we gathered again with the team and JCh, and what a refreshing time it was. I really like the fact that we're meeting together for the first few months to pray, discuss, experiment and discover one another.
I'm so pumped for our progress over here! I'm just sensing a "this is finally real" here amongst all of us who have a passion for this ministry.

We got together and honed in on about 45 minutes of relaxed structure. I shared briefly about the power of an image, showed a few videos we developed this past week and Tony shared. I'll post some of his thoughts later in a video we recorded. We spent literally the next few hours sharing and laughing. Some retired missionaries to the middle-east came, James and Inca (he's scottish and she's norwegian) and had some wonderful conversations with them. They had randomly met Tony and were so interested in being apart of something new in Edinburgh.

Gosh, so much to talk about......I'll post some stuff later

Another Burgh Victory!!

Well folks, it was a tough match against Stirling Uni today, but we pulled off a 5-1 win! :) The team is going bowling tonight; lots of good, clean fun to be had! I'm obviously just getting to know the girls, but they all seem really great...I'm excited for the relationships that are slowly being built...!

On my way home, one of the girls, Jill, invited me to the CU (Edinburgh University's Christian Union) on Friday night, apparently she was the CU's International Secretary last year! Will definitely check that out! She explained that the CU is not meant to be "church", it's more of a social gathering...getting involved and plugged in there has been an imperative step in our plans for Eikon...I'm looking forward to Friday night!

early gathering

A few months ago, Tony solidified a location for the church-plant, at least for 6 months. The Carlton Hotel is an incredible location; just off the royal mile and North Bridge, one of the busiest intersections in the city.

We've been given a small room to start, with the possibilities of moving into larger rooms as we grow in the future. The room overlooks the city, and the lighting is really nice. It's got a great private entrance into a coffee bar, then on into
We met this past Sunday for the first time. We have the space, so we thought we might as well get used to it.
We don't plan to have "kick-off" until January, but this will be the time to build a base of believers that want to be apart of the vision of Eikon.
We had 2 couples actually come to check it out through conversations Tony had with them. The Master's Commission team was there, making it about 17 of us. It was great time. Tony shared very briefly, and we spent the remainder of the time just getting to know one another better.
Things are starting to get really busy, as you may guess.


I met a lady named denise, a PhD student. So, kate and myself spent an evening with her the other night......well, 6 hours! We had great conversations, sharing stories, laughs and why the heck we're here. We shared about the Church, and there certainly was a curiosity there.

One thing I've discovered: people are so intriqued with the idea of "planting a church." Denise just didn't know what starting a church really was, along with most other people I talk with. It's a great segway into hearing her spritual past and sharing what the church is about.

I shot some video of the first meeting, so working on putting something together. Keep an eye out.

you gotta get this book

Mark Batterson's new book is on amazon now and I'm pumped to get a few copies of this book. The church he pastors, National Community Church is doing incredibly innovative things.....check out their new website: NCC

Here's some details of the book below,


Book Description
Find Purpose in Your Past Ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time...several times? These memories leave you with an ill taste in your mouth, and nothing good seems to come from them. But what if the seemingly messy pieces of your life were actually strategically positioned by God? What if you've actually been in the right place at the right time every time? In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day will help you make sense of your past. You will begin to connect the dots to see clearly how God has been preparing you for future opportunities. Impossible , you think, not with my past . Think again. With a God's-eye perspective, you'll soon be thanking Him - even for lions, pits, and snowy days.

Buy a couple copies if you like:)