the slow church convers(at)ion

The more I find out about the Slow Church movement, the more I like it. And I love the tagline on the site above: "Because you can't franchise the Kingdom of God."

This movement takes its cues from the Slow movements (especially the Slow Food movement) and applies those principles to the church. For instance, the basic virtues of the Slow Food movement are good, clean, and fair, which the Slow Church movement has translated to ethics (good), ecology (clean), and economy (fair). At it's essence, this movement seeks to bear witness to God's reconciliation of all things, and begins to answer that call through conversation around a shared table.

For more details and a fuller explanation, see the Slow Church blog (link above), and particularly the entry called The Slow Church Conversation. Regardless, I have a feeling that entering into this conversation might be leading me toward a conversion...to slow down the Church.

But as much as I like the theory behind this movement, I can't shake the practical questions. Would this actually work in a church (particularly a church in the South)? How would someone apply these principles in a parish ministry setting? How would this look, especially in a church whose Sunday morning schedule is built around an hour-long worship service, and whose congregants expect to be out in time to get a good spot in line at the local country-cooking place? In other words, How do we do Slow Church?

becoming conversational

I recently came across an interesting article through the Patheos Progressive Christian blog portal. It's a great site with a variety of progressive Christian writers and bloggers, with lots of different emphases. Check it out in my links on the right side of the page.

This particular article came from a Slow Church blog, a super-interesting movement that takes concepts and themes from the Slow Food movement and applies them to being church. (I'm gonna learn more about this...it may make an appearance here at a later date.)

Becoming Conversational - Regularly Share a Meal Together

I'd love to hear your reactions, thoughts and questions.