Peter Rollins's Blog, page 58

Curating Worship (Book)

Curation is a term usually used in the art world for the role of imagining and overseeing an exhibition or art experience. However the word is now being adopted by people in alternative worship, as it affords a very different and inventive way of thinking about how to lead a gathering. Rather than simply presiding over liturgy or fronting a band, curation involves negotiating between institutions and artists and making do with what is to hand to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

Curating Worship is in two parts. The first considers the kind of thinking, skills and disciplines involved in good curation. The second consists of in depth interviews, which tease out from people who have curated amazing worship experiences around the world, the ideas and theories behind their approaches and the practical processes involved.

Myself and Jonny McEwen from ikon are interviewed in the second part of the book.

To purchase it click here

Curating Worship

Curation is a term usually used in the art world for the role of imagining and overseeing an exhibition or art experience. However the word is now being adopted by people in alternative worship, as it affords a very different and inventive way of thinking about how to lead a gathering. Rather than simply presiding over liturgy or fronting a band, curation involves negotiating between institutions and artists and making do with what is to hand to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

Curating Worship is in two parts. The first considers the kind of thinking, skills and disciplines involved in good curation. The second consists of in depth interviews, which tease out from people who have curated amazing worship experiences around the world, the ideas and theories behind their approaches and the practical processes involved.

Myself and Jonny McEwen from ikon are interviewed in the second part of the book.

To purchase it click here

I Don't Want to be Free

There is an old story about a little rabbit who had been born and brought up in a laboratory. One night his cage is accidently left open and he escapes from the complex. As he runs away he is amazed to feel the grass beneath his feet and see a sunset for the first time in his life.

A little further down the road and he ran into another rabbit, "Hello, I just escaped from the lab down the road, were you born free?"

"Oh yes", replied the rabbit, "I live just down the road, wanna see?"

"Yes please" said the rabbit and they jumped down the road.

Soon he was brought to a beautiful field full of lush grass and they began to eat

"This tastes amazing", said the rabbit

"This is nothing, let me take you to the next field, its full of lettuce and carrots"

Sure enough the next field was overflowing with vegetables and so the lab rabbit happily tucked in.

"And now for the best field" said the lab rabbits new friend

They jumped a little further down the road to a field full of female bunnies. They spend the rest of the day there and had a ball. But as the sun began to go down the lab rabbit turned to leave.

"Where are you going" said his friend

"Oh, this is all so amazing, but I got to get back to the lab"

"Why, you have all the food, freedom and companions you could ever want here"

"Yeah mate, that's true but to be honest with you I'm dying for a cigarette"

Self-Portrait

This is a video created by Ryan McKenzie as part of his study at Fuller Seminary. It uses some audio from an interview I did at Mars Hill with Rob Bell.

On the Demise of the Emerging Church

This video is part of a promo series for the new book Church in the Present Tense. I have written two chapters for the book entitled: 'The Worldly Theology of Emerging Christianity' and 'Tranformance Art: Reconfiguring the Social Self'

Church in the Present Tense (Book and DVD)

Much has been written by practitioners advocating the emerging church phenomenon, but confusion about the nature and beliefs of those who identify with the emerging church still exists. Now that the movement has aged a bit, the time has come for a more rigorous, scholarly analysis. Here four influential authors, each an expert in his field, discuss important cultural, theological, philosophical, and biblical underpinnings and implications of the emerging church movement. Their sympathetic yet critical assessment helps readers better understand the roots of the movement and the impact that it has had and is having on wider traditions.

The book includes a 60-minute companion DVD that provides a background introduction to the emerging church and video clips of alternative worship services. The DVD also contains interviews with emerging church leaders and observers, including Brian McLaren and Rowan Williams.

To buy the book click here.

Church in the Present Tense

Much has been written by practitioners advocating the emerging church phenomenon, but confusion about the nature and beliefs of those who identify with the emerging church still exists. Now that the movement has aged a bit, the time has come for a more rigorous, scholarly analysis. Here four influential authors, each an expert in his field, discuss important cultural, theological, philosophical, and biblical underpinnings and implications of the emerging church movement. Their sympathetic yet critical assessment helps readers better understand the roots of the movement and the impact that it has had and is having on wider traditions.

The book includes a 60-minute companion DVD that provides a background introduction to the emerging church and video clips of alternative worship services. The DVD also contains interviews with emerging church leaders and observers, including Brian McLaren and Rowan Williams.

To buy the book click here.

Maranatha

This is the seventh of fourteen films from my 2010 Insurrection Pub Tour. I will be posting some of the films up here, but if you would like to see them all then download the Insurrection app.

These videos were recorded and edited by Bala Boyd at Gypsy House Productions

Losing Belief (Drew Marshall Interview)

Drew Marshall show

This is an interview I did with Drew Marshall where we talked about the nature of belief and the possibility of losing it.

Retroactive Justification

This is a clip from a talk I gave in Grand Rapids in which I talk about the way that life is lived forwards and understood backwards.