Wilmington-Lexington Emergent Cohort

Wilmore-Lexington Cohort

1. Next Cohort Meeting: May 17th, with Matthew Sleeth
   Hey Everybody,
   
   Please mark your calendars.
   
   Thursday May 17th at 7:00 pm at the Communality House on 112 W. High Street in Lexington, we will have a time of conversation and reflection with creation caretaker and author Matthew Sleeth.
   
   Matthew wrote Serve God, Save the Planet. Matthew was an emergency medical doctor and chief of staff of a hospital when God called him to reduce consumption, monitor his impact on the environment and leave his job to become an activitst for creation care.
   
   We are confident that it will be a moving and motivational time.
   
   Invite your friends!
   
2. Next Cohort Meeting: Brian McLaren, January 23rd
   The Wilmore-Lexington Emergent Cohort will be hosting author, lecturer, activist and pastor to the Emerging Church, Brian McLaren. We will be meeting Tuesday, January 23rd @ 112 W High St, Lexington, KY (click here for a googlemap). We will gather at 7:00 P.M.
   
   The discussion that evening will center around Brian's latest book, The Secret Message of Jesus. If you are able, I would encourage you to pick up a copy and read it before that evening. Not required, but you will better be able to participate in the conversation. I have an extra copy if you would like to borrow it.

   We will have coffee and finger foods that evening. If you can help with the setup, or if you have any questions about the evening, please email me or Mark Russell.

   
3. Emergent Cohort Meeting: November 7th
   The next meeting of the Wilmore-Lexington Cohort will be Tuesday, November 7th. In honor of election day we will be hosting a conversation entitled Jesus & Politics.
   
   Two resources that will help you prepare for the discussion:
   
   Wesley's Thoughts Upon Slavery
   
   Bill McKibben's article The Christian Paradox
   
   We will meet at 11:45 in the Cordelia Dining Room of Asbury Seminary. Email me or Mark Russell with any questions or for any additions to the reading list.
   
4. Next Official Meeting
   This first meeting was great. We had a good amount of participation and everyone seemed interested in the topic. I will be posting some follow-up thoughts about the conversation, including some I have gathered from of you.
   
   Next Meeting: April 20th
   
   Place: Cordelia Dining Room of the Asbury Dining Hall
   
   Topic: I am still working on the exact question(s), but I want to talk about the role of scripture in the emerging church conversation. If you think of specific questions we should tackle, please post them in the comments section.
   
5. First Official Meeting - March 23
   The first official meeting of the Wilmore-Lexington Emergent Cohort will be on Thursday, March 23. We will be meeting immediately after chapel, around 11:45, in the back dining room. We will meet until 12:50. Here are the topics we will be discussing:
   
   • What is the emerging church?
   • What is Emergent? Is it the same as the emerging church?
   • Is postmodernism a conversation partner in this discussion? Is the question of postmodernism even a valid discussion?
   This is a lot to chew on in the short amount of time we have, so come prepared. Below are some blogs to peruse for some sense of the kinds of discussions that are taking place, as well as the diversity of the conversation. As a qualifier for those of you looking over this list - some of the people on here do not necessarily self-identify with the Emergent and/or emerging church conversation, but these are people I have judged to be asking similar questions.
   
   • Jonny Baker
   • Ryan Bolger
   • Dylan Breuer
   • Rudy Carrasco
   • Maggi Dawn
   • Dwight Friesen
   • Andrew Jones
   • Tony Jones
     
   • Cliff Knighten
   • Christy Lambertson
   • Lilly Lewin
   • Scot McKnight
   • Rachelle Mee-Chapman
     
   • Jonathon Norman
   • Wes Roberts
   • Anthony Smith
   • Steve Taylor
   • Karen Ward