progress

Seems like time is slipping by faster and faster these days. Thought we'd give you a quick update of what's going on around here:

*We're about to start our third small group; Kate and I will be leading this group in the city center. You can be praying for that.

*Kate has recently come in contact with a guy named Zaheer who owns a small grocer called "Mama Said" just down the street. He's asked kate to design a website for him. Through several conversations, she found out that he owns over 20 properties throughout the city. He's father is Pakistani, but he's born and raised here. He seems to know everyone, he one of those types. Reminds me of my dad, EZE, Uncle Ed, however you affectionately know him.

We've asked if there was anything we could do for him with his properties cause there is a missions team coming over shortly. He told us that his mosque, which is connected to a community center was damaged after 9/11 and was wondering if we could re-carpet, fix the walls and reorganize several rooms. What an opportunity to show that we don't have a monopoly on grace inside our walls, but it abounds regardless. That, to me, is the epitome of missions, helping our fellow muslims. Anyways, pray for this incredible opportunity to build relationship with Zaheer and the mosque (we have a couple in the Church who served the Muslim Community for over 20 years in Egypt, so we look at this as a long-term potential relationship).

*Since our launch, which was incredible, we've been having great meetings on Sunday mornings. We've had a mixture of people come through our doors, but we really feel confident in where Eikon is at and look forward to building this church. We're planning a "Big Breakfast" Easter Service, which is super exciting. Breakfast is a pretty big deal around here, so we decided to have a service that served breakfast and put together a creative Easter service. Another thing to pray about for us.

*We have an intern coming next week: Sarah Penrod. She's coming from Naperville, IL and we look forward to having her help at Eikon for several months. She will be staying in a Hostel in the city center and volunteering at "The Forest", as well as joining the leadership team at Eikon.

*Kate and I have been volunteering at "The Forest", the art cafe I've mentioned before. We look forward to continuing a relationship with the organization and many people that circulate through during our visits. We really love that place.

I could keep going, but I'll stop:) Just letting you know that we're very busy, loving every minute of this and appreciate all your support. Just keeping up on the blog and shooting us an email every once in a while is a major boost for us.

dave@eikonedinburgh.com
kate@eikonedinburgh.com

Love you guys.

Fraser

Part of what I want from this "blog" is applying a human face to the abstractness of overseas missions. Since I started going on mission trips in high school, I always sensed a disconnect that's only natural to missionaries or ministries that take place all over the world. What does it have to do with me? Newsletters aren't a dis, but don't always give the real picture of what takes place on a weekly basis. I love this, because what you're reading now took place probably within a few hours of when you read this. You're apart of this ministry much more than you think.

I met with a guy named Fraser earlier. Tony had met him at some point, but does freelance documentaries and currently works for the BBC, the CBS/NBC/ABC of the UK. He's caught the excitement of Eikon and has committed to assisting in short-film/commercial video concepts that has such untapped potential in the area of ministry and communication.

I've noticed that Fraser likes to talk a lot. From the moment I met him a few weeks ago, he simply spends more time talking than listening. The thing about Fraser is he's very insightful. He seems to really think differently. This is typical of any truly creative person, their perspective of the world is, in some cases, very twisted.

I learned something new about him today. He's got two hearing aids, and I've always been curious what the extent of the damage is to his hearing. He always seemed to hear and respond intently, so it couldn't be that bad. He shared that he's got 80% hearing loss! He has to work extremely hard to listen to someone. It's exhausting in many cases.

Oddly, he can't hear very well, but listens better than most people I know. Listening is on the short list of things I admire in people. Our mind is constantly processing information, and when someone talks, it takes a very specific, focused effort to block that information and listen to what's being shared. Fraser may not be able to hear very well, but he sees and listens more than most people I know.

Not only did we come up with some really cool potential ideas today, his sharing gave me fresh appreciation for his giftings. He's not only used his lack of hearing to listen better, but is able to focus more visually when filming.

I'm not sure hearing loss is his handicap, but for many of us, it's ours.

B-day

Had a great night out with a bunch of friends from the University. It was Liza's birthday, a student in my comparative policy course.

This is what being here is all about. Had great conversations with most of the group, some I had not met yet. Sean, just next to me in the black hat moved to Edinburgh from Canada when he was 5 years old and lived here ever since. His dad came here for his PhD and ended up loving it so much, they all stayed here. He is studying landscape architecture, mainly focusing on managing a golf course. Not a bad place to study, considering there is a golf course every sq. mile.

Neither of us felt like going out tonight, but we did and walked away so pumped to be able to connect with such passionate, diverse people.

Uni Coach

Add University Coach to the resume.

Kate has been coaching the University of Edinburgh girls soccer team the last several weeks. They had their first big game today, apparently against the best team in the league. I'd love to tell of an exciting last minute victory, but they did lose. They played the team well the second half.

Her voice was going horse by the end.....in my book one of the signs of an excellent coach:), or maybe one that just raises their voice. I joined some friends of ours and supported the team, but Kate did a great job with the girls. She's got some strong personalities on the team, but she handles them really well as a proud husband would only notice:) I got some video of her in action, I'll try to throw it up, we're off to dinner with another couple this evening.

Then, Kate is off to a birthday party for one of her friends, and I'm off to a birthday party for one of mine:)

protest

I've found something interesting looking back a few years and into the present:

Many of the stories and opinions of the newest church movement, most notably the emerging or PoMo movement has a shared point of origin: traditional evangelicalism.

What most have in common is that they began as one thing and emerged into something else. This gives the movement a flavor of protest and rejection: we were where you were once, but we emerged from it into something different. It's a movement defined first and foremost, against something else. Someone asks, what's the new church movement? Well, I'm not completely sure, but I can tell you what it's opposed to. That's a dangerous position.

The last thing I want for Eikon or myself for that matter is being pegged a "PoMo", emerging church, though I do value a number of issues that are challenged in the process (absolute nature of scripture, objective knowledge and truth, linear thinking, foundationalism to name a few). I've read several books on the subject and more firmly believe people don't really know what PoMo means exactly.

In a PoMo world, tolerance is increasingly understood to be the virtue that refuses to think that anything is beyond the pale - except the vew that rejects this view of tolerance: for that, there is no tolerance at all.

Isn't that so interesting? When I look back a few years ago of being in "protest" of the traditional modern church I was raised in, I found myself becoming tolerant of anything but that.

Lastly, how about this thought:
A tree does not simply grow up, but adds a layer at a time and the accumulation of layers is what enables it to grow. Each layer embraces everything that went before. It is a bit like learning to read. The ability emerges, embracing and moving on by acquiring the new.

"Perhaps a culture plaqued by absolutism needs a dose of relativism to correct what is wrong with it - not so much a relativism that utterly displaces what came before, but a relativism that in some sense embraces what came before, yet moves on. If absolutism is the cancer, it needs relativism as the chemotherapy. Even though this chemotherapy is dangerous in itself, it is the necessary solution."

happy new year, kind of

Celebrated the Chinese New Year last night.

Sheaun is a student at Edin. Uni and also a valuable partner at Eikon. She invited us out with a number of her friends, including Yvonne and Tony. It was a site to watch Tony and Yvonne because they're both fluent in Chinese, they were the life of the party. The group in the picture were some other students we met, from Lybia, Uganda, Nigeria, China, S. Korea, Taiwan and ourselves. Kate mentioned how enjoyable it was to be around young people that value their traditions so much. There past-time was making dumplings along with a massive feast. They showed such respect to us as "guests", refusing to let us clean-up and ordered us to eat first.

I also happened to meet another couple there who happened to be at our Ceilidh. The girl was in one of Yvonne's classes, while her boyfriend, eric, was from france and is working. Eric lived in Japan for a while, speaks 4 languages while I'm not very good at English. Sad, very sad.
Kate and I made dumplings and we slowly got the hang of it, everyone was very gracious.

Portibello

Mostly sunny, low 60s, beach, february, scotland.....'nough said. Only about 20 minutes by bus, this small-town was beautiful. Granted the water was probably 50 degrees, the sky and weather was near perfect. Pretty sad it took us 6 months to finally make it to the beaches around here. How's your weather?

no performance necessary

I love when movies have outtakes in their DVD menu. Seeing people screw up and laugh about it is disarming, brings us into the action, shows the mask behind the performance, shows who the actors really are.

Here are our outtakes. The message speaks for itself.

Click HERE

6 nations

The 6 nations Rugby championship (italy, france, ireland, scotland, england and whales) is every year and people are incredibly passionate. Whales played Scotland in this video that happened this past saturday about 15 minutes from us.

Scotland was the underdog and pulled off the upset, it was quite exciting.

I love watching people sing their national anthems.
pride

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no perfect people allowed

What do an atheist, transient, retired missionary, opera singer extraordinaire, student, professor, filmaker and web designer, buddhist all have in common? They are the future church.

As Christians in a post-Christian society, our job is to become cultural farmers (I shared from 1 Cor. a few posts back). The task is to develop the right soil, a healthy environment where people can grow up in faith until the invisible God is made visible through his Body, the church. For us, God is responsible for the growth, the changed hearts, but the soil is the responsibility of the leaders and people who make up that church. Creating that culture is the most important task leaders can undertake to engage a post-Christian society, yet we often give culture creation little mental effort. Because culture is largely unseen, we are mostly unaware of the cultural soil we have created in our churches.

A great book by John Burke (No Perfect People Allowed) talks about creating the right cultural soil. "The culture becomes highly ingrained to the point of becoming invisible to the members of the organization. That is why it is so difficult for group members to talk about their culture, because it operates at a level below our normal consciousness. Perhaps this explains why many churches try to reach the same group with the same methods, but the "feel" in each group is entirely different. The intangible feel is the culture. The culture is what seekers pick up on immediately.

One thing I do is observe first-timers at the end of a meeting. Generally speaking, they'll stick around if it connected with them and talk to people. Our meetings have been great, Tony's really fascilitating conversation and people are so active in expressing their thoughts (this week was on relational conflict and resolve, for some reason the ladies were the most vocal:)). But I think the most enjoyable time is watching people stay an extra hour following the meeting and talk with others. This morning, the meeting went from 11-12:15 and nobody left until 1, and the last to leave was at 2:30.

All too often, leaders implement new "seeker" services and "postmodern" services with cool music, candles, art, aesthetics, or whatever the latest thing is, but miss the most essential nutrients for the healthy body....those intangibles. It's not the visible but the invisible that needs our focus. It's not candles but community, not art but attitude, not liturgy but love that makes the difference.

What a relief too. We've toiled over wanting to be creative, and "do" Church differently because many of the old paradigms have changed. The more I talk to young people around here, the more I discover that they could honestly give a crap about the order of service, or seeker sensitivity. People want to feel that invisible, that intangible culture only people can create out of the raw, authenticity of being human on a individual, corporate and spiritual level.

Tony shares this often, but it's right on: as churches, we need to create the right context for conversation.

I love this Church.

quick vid

Showed about 6 commercials during the Ceilidh. Here's one of 'em. They work.

celine

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billy gates

Bill Gates was here this past week to receive an honorary degree by the senior staff at the university of Edinburgh before beging a tour of the university's world reknowned scientific research facility.

He was also in town to hold the Microsoft World Leaders Conference-which attempts to harness technology to promote democracy and good governance. The conference took place about 10 minutes walk from our flat.

There was a lot of buzz around the University last week, mostly poor students hoping to have 30 seconds to convince him to pay off all their school debt. We were hoping he would come to the Ceilidh, there was no response from him, even though we told the doorman at his hotel. We were hoping the doorman would tell his manager, who would tell the Hotel owner, who would tell his publicist, who would tell his secretary who would tell Bill that we'd give him 25% off the meal if he made it.

Ceilidh Intro Vid

This is one of the many videos we showed throughout the dinner.

They were very well received.

(lessoned the quality this time for faster streaming)

Click HERE

hot tub

Kate and I never want a nice, expensive home. I do however, want a hot tub. That's my goal in the next 5 years, well, maybe ten at this rate, to get a hot tub whereever we live.

I've been kind of searching the city for one that I could get into fairly cheap. I'll be honest, free. Well, I found one.

I got up one morning last week at 6am to go over to the hot tub for a while. I wanted to have the place to myself and thought that'd be the best bet. I got in the tub, nobody was there and everything was going according to plan. I closed my eyes for a few moments and opened them to discover there was a middle-aged woman sitting right next to me in the hot tub. I mean, shoulder to shoulder. The hot tub could fit 10, but she chose to cozy up next to me. A little weird, but I closed my eyes and tried to ignore it. I opened again to discover that an additional woman had sat next to me on the other side.

So if you can picture me in between two older woman with the rest of the hot tub completely wide open, you could understand my confusion, and predicament. They weren't trying to hit on me, in fact weren't interested in a conversation. But why so close? I began to ask myself if it was some cultural issue where I needed to redefine my understanding of personal space. I don't think so.

Anyways, I tried to wait it out because I had mesh shorts on and they're a bit "clingy" without getting too graphic, and didn't want to have a show for the ladies. I ended up sitting in between them, shoulder to shoulder for a solid half-hour and didn't enjoy myself one bit.

But at least I was in a hot tub.

sweet land of liberty

Tried to get out to Mike and Claire's to watch the Bears game with them and the master's students but missed the train by 30 seconds. We made the best of it and shot to a pub slammed with, you guessed it, americans to watch the superbowl. Besides Devon Hester's kick-off return, the highlight of the night was when Billy Joel sang the national anthem.

Everyone in the bar rose to there feet, put their hand over their heart, and blasted "Oh say can you see......" I love how patriotic Americans can be.

The game was on sky sports, so one of the commentator was Don Johnson. Yes, he's an 80's star actor analyzing football. We all enjoyed his incredible wit and insight to the forays of American football.

Side note: what was up with Prince's 80's shot with the shadow/screen jamming on his guitar?

Someone asked me if Grossman was going to need 24-hour security now after that performance. Bartman can rest easy tonight.

Launch Party

Watch this video HERE

last minute preparations

It's been an exhausting few weeks getting everything prepared for this weekend. Everyone has been diligent and we sat in our meeting this past tuesday tired, but ready to see what the Lord has in store for this weekend.

We've done all we can up to this point: 6 months of planning, praying, strategizing, connecting, laughing, yelling:), but we all feel proud with where we're at. It's been so encouraging to have such a strong network of partners literally throughout the world.


I read the other day, "Origin determines destiny. Therefore, the origin of a church will determine its destiny as well as its quality. Put another way, how a church is planted will determine its character, its effectiveness, and its future."


We've heeded the words of 1 Cor. 3 where it talks about nobody being able to lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Christ. We've built Eikon's foundation on Christ, and emphasized the values of acceptance, honesty, change, creativity and hope. We're hoping to be innovative, intelligent risk-takers, challengers of the process; but our goal will never push the method beyond the message of Christ. These are what we feel are essential to the life of a healthy, thriving, influential Church.


Pray for this weekend, that the Lord blesses those who walk into the doors of Eikon, and that we can relax, enjoy and be apart of what we've all come together to do.