Life in postmodern Europe

New friends - the case for missionaries to Europe

Already some weeks ago, before I went to Rwanda, a group of 7 church interns from the US visited us in Münster. They came to get to know what we in EPIC and Christian Associates are doing in Europe, some of them considering joining us. We had a great time together and some great new friendships got established.

Europe has seen almost 2000 years of Christian influence. One can very well argue that Europe is what it is largely because of this Christian influence in the past - the good (like education, civil service, equal rights, rich culture and art, etc.) and the bad (like the crusades, anti-cultural and fundamental attitudes, self-centered dualistic thinking, etc.). Today, however, Christianity as we've known it for several hundreds of years is declining in Europe, despite the enormous interest in matters of spirituality as such. It is clear that what started as a movement long time ago became a disappearing culture these days. Most churches are a vivid reminder of the rich history but are barely more then museums, or, at best, own little sub-cultures these days. It is of utmost importance to the Christian faith in Europe to regain it's movement ethos around the person of Jesus, ending a 1700 year long period of institutionalized Christendom, as authors like Alan Hirsch or Stuart Murray argue convincingly.

Though some - good friends of mine among them - see it different, I am very glad about non-Europeans like this group of American Christians coming to Europe in order to help us regain the core of our faith. We need their outside perspective and the values they bring, like for example the entrepreneurial mindset and emphasis on healthy leadership. These people invest their lives so that, in the end, others might live. What a gift. In case you are one of those I described here: THANKS for coming to Europe!

Rwanda - church experiences

The Lord is risen! Peace with you! Happy Easter!

Ýesterday, Easter Sunday, we had our first church experiences in Rwanda. In the morning we walked past a church on our very pagan way to the shopping center - we ran out of drinking water the night before ;-). The dusty roads to the church were unusually crowded, and when we turned around the corner we saw why. You can see on the picture to your right: The church was packed! A church that, I would guess, fits at least 2000 people seeted, had so many people visiting that there was a huge overflow on the streets. Quite a stark contrast to the picture of German churches. But could be that this is only because it is Easter, right!?

In the later afternoon a new friend of ours, Christin, who is a Rwandan, took us to church. I was not sure what to expect. Yet it turned out to be a great experience of simple but passionate and devoute Christian faith. The independent but fairly charismatic church is only 8 years old but has already more then 2000 attenders in a fairly modern building with quite modern technical equippment. But could be that this is only because it is Easter, right!?

Well, as we learned from Christin later, the numbers are not only because of Easter. She shared with us that the genocide, that took place about 13 years ago, drew people even closer to God. There were some bad experiences about churches too, though: Some priests took refugees (so called "Tutsis") into their churches whith the promise to hide and protect them - and then went to get the Hutus to kill everybody. You can only cry about those incidents. I can so understand why some are done with church, hearing and reading these stories, some of them well documented in a Genocide Memorial Center.

Despite and because of these bad past experiences, Christin said, Rwanda people are more drawn to new churches then old ones. Here is a reason for church planting in Rwanda!

I feel I have to touch on the choir before ending this post: It was excellent and as you imagine African worship: Very lively, involving, rythmic, passionate. I look forward to the heavenly choir and hope that there are lots of Africans in it ... ;-)

ECPN - in Barcelona

As said, the first European Church Planters Network (ECPN) gathered for the last three days in Barcelona. It was my first time in Barcelona and I must admit: I fell in love with this city! It is of extravagant beauty, filled with amazing architecture and sparkled with so many nice plazas. Here are some pictures:

protect the environment, save your vine bottles

Last week I had a fierce debate with a friend of mine about if the whole talk about climate change is accurate or only invented by media and some forces in business and politics. Yes, I could not believe it at first, but H.McW. really advocated that all this climate talk is nonsense. Wow.

Here is a guy who thinks different: Today I came across the story of Peter Little from Australia, who, after 30 years of thinking about how to best save energy and prevent air pollution by better insulating houses, came up with a great idea: He is building a house, using only wine bottles as building material. By filling 13,500 of them with water the house will be completely insulated, he argues: "Water is probably, I think one of the miracle building materials of this century which nobody is using. ... It can store more energy, heat or cool than any material we know."

The only question left then is: What took you 30 years to come up with this idea? The answer most likely is: Drinking a lot of wine.

[story found on abc news online; picture from sxchng, taken by "quiman"]

get a (second) life! And meet U2 in the metaverse

Ever heard of a metaverse? In case you are unhappy with how your life goes, and may it only be an aspect of it, here is your chance: Get a new one! Get a second life in the metaverse!

This life (I am talking about the physical one, that thing we came to call "reality") has it's ups and downs. Usually each of us can instantly name a list of things we like about our life, and list of things we don't:
You don't like your butt, nose, hips, hair?
You don't like your image, colleagues, neighbors?
You don't like your job?
Well, here is your chance: Construct yourself another identity in a different life. How? With SecondLife.

"SecondLife is a 3D online digital world imagined, created & owned by its residents", as the self-description goes. And the latest census showed 3,602,097 (Feb 14, 2007) of those residents and owners of this new world. Numbers rapidly growing.

In this (almost) complete virtual reality, you can do pretty much everything you can do in "real" life too: Sell, buy, cloth yourself, go for a walk through the neighborhood, lay at the beach, have a job, befriend others, make love, buy land, build a house, watch a movie, ... You choose how you want your life to look like.

This starts already by naming yourself as you are born (i.e., you register as a new resident in this world). It is quite a contingency experience already at the beginning: How do you name yourself? You can freely choose your first name in your second life but of course you also need a last name, which you have to choose from a list of options. Wow, quite a big step to choose how you will be named your second life long. In the first life others (most likely your parents) decided how to name you - and thus construct a core element of your identity. Now YOU have to make this crucial decision - already before you are born.
Once you have named yourself the next difficult choice awaits you: How do you want to look? You need to choose an avatar (a visual impression of your virtual identity). Not easy either.
The last thing relating to the real world then is to fill in some real world data. After doing that and downloading the SecondLife client - you are born and immediately able to walk in your new life. Now choose wise how you want to live your life...

But more then only deciding who you want to be and what you want to do in your second life, you also have the chance of sharing in the construction of the world you live in itself. You are bored or not happy with the opportunities life offers to you? Or you have a great idea how to make life more enjoyable? Well, invent and/or create a new feature of this world - let's say, some cool new shoes to wear - and make it available to others. Either for free or by selling it for some "Linden Dollars", the currency of this world. This world is open for everybody to shape. Join the creation. Become a creator.
And besides making this world a better place, you might even get rich by it. This is (about the only place) where your first and second life meet: The virtual Linden Dollars from SecondLife have an exchange rate to the real US-Dollar in your first life. As you want to buy and/or sell in the virtual world you have to have a credit card number or a paypal account from the real world.
With this basic structure some have become rich in both worlds. So, in case you do not like your job in the first life, resign, sell  or trade some cool stuff  in your second life and cash it. But why should you come back to your first life? After all, you made a living out of your success in the SecondLife. All your friends are there, you own a house on some nice land, you ... You can even go to a live U2 concert with Bono !!! What do you want more? Watch this:

work in progress - Die ID-Reise

Wer bin ich?
Wie bin ich zu dem geworden, der ich bin?
Wie stellt Gott sich meine Persönlichkeit vor?
Wie kann ich als Persönlichkeit reifen, wachsen, mich weiterentwickeln?

Wichtige Fragen, die irgendwie irgendwann jeden von uns beschäftigen.

Derzeit arbeite ich an einer langfristig angelegten Entdeckungsreise (manche mögen Kurs oder Seminar dazu sagen), die zu wesentlichen Orten  der eigenen Identität führt.
Bisher gibt es 6 Etappen, die einige mutige Reisende aus EPIC bereits bereist haben. Weitere Etappen sind in der Mache. Über Feedback würde ich mich freuen: ID-Reise.

Die Persönlichkeitsentwicklung, so habe ich den Eindruck, ist in unserer europäischen Kultur ein weit unterbelichteter Wert. Man spricht von Fähigkeiten, Skills und einen möglichst klarem Lebenslauf. Dass das Leben aber oft nicht linear ist und sich daraus vielfältige Chancen, Herausforderungen und Probleme ergeben, wird meines Erachtens viel zu sehr vernachlässigt. Manchmal hat man den Eindruck unsere Gesellschaft hat nur Platz für Typen die (scheinbar) alles unter Kontrolle haben. Beim Streben möglichst gut darzustehen - vor anderen wie vor sich selbst - wird der gründliche, tiefer gehenden Blick in den Spiegel als nur auf die Frisur dann vermieden. Verständlich, schließlich ist es nicht nur angenehm sich mit sich selbst zu beschäftigen, je nachdem wie die eigene Geschichte bisher verlief. Die meisten schauen bei ihrem Auto vermutlich häufiger unter die Motorhaube als auf die eigene Persönlichkeit, die Prägungen und den Charakter. Falls dem so ist muss sich was ändern. Zum Wohle eines selbst und aller anderen, die es mit einem aushalten müssen ...

Brit Awards 2007

3 of the more important choices and thus winners of the Brit Awards yesterday:

• International Female Solo Artist: Nelly Furtado
• International Group: The Killers
• Outstanding Contribution to Music: Oasis

Great music.

Web 2.0 - - - We have to rethink a few things ...

Thanks to my friend Traui I came across this nicely made clip explaining some of the developments leading to and showing aspects of Web 1.0 and 2.0:

The end captures it well:
"We have to rethink a few things ...
                                                  ... copyright
                                                  ... authorship
                                                  ... identity
                                                  ... ethics
                                                  ... aesthetics
                                                  ... rhetorics
                                                  ... governance
                                                  ... privacy
                                                  ... commerce
                                                  ... love
                                                  ... family
                                                  ... ourselves."

The list could go on and touch on every aspect of our lives. As Zygmunt Bauman says, we live in a fluent form of modernity, where we have to construct our self again and again. Everything is contingent, meaning everything could be different too and could change in a moment. This Contingency depends heavily on media, as media offers us a wide variety of potential structures of meaning and consequently building blocks in the endeavor to construct. One can argue that without media there would be no modernity as we know it.

With the internet, and particular web 2.0, media becomes much more then a tool to transmit information and much more then something external to be consumed only. The medium internet becomes part of the very fabric of live, sometime live in itself. Don't believe it? Take a look at the (possible) second live you can now live: http://www.secondlife.com/

As time and space shrink together we are only at the beginning to see and feel the revolutionizing dynamics of the web. When web 1.0 meant worldwide access to information, and web 2.0 means interaction and participation, what will web 3.0 be?

Abolish slavery in this world - Amazing grace movie

A new film coming out in February, called "Amazing Grace", tells the story of William Wilberforce, who, 200 years ago, started a movement to abolish slavery - and by that change the world.

Chris Tomlin with his addition to the hymn Amazing Grace is part of the deal too. To watch the movie trailer, as well as an interview with Chris Tomlin and an intro to the campaign www.theamazingchange.com click here.

Rwanda - Ruanda

1) Who has insight into the spiritual, cultural, sociological, ... situation of Rwanda? In case you have, please contact me. I would love to talk. Especially if you know about churches, missionaries, ...

2) Who has a heart for this country? I want to get to know you.