The Keymaker profile picture

The Keymaker

making church livable ... again

About Me

Myspace Layouts ..The biggest challenge for the church at the opening of the twenty-first century is to develop a solution to the discontinuity and fragmentation of the American lifestyle. [Lyle Schaller Sociologist]The Keymaker exists to connect all things emerging and missional to a livable context... "The key for the twenty-first century church will not be in buildings, programs, or great sermons or worship services, and not even in small groups as we have known them. Church leaders must address the severe fragmentation and discontinuity of the American lifestyle as they design future plans to meet the needs of our congregations. No longer can we add an isolated program, even with grade A quality, to address one aspect of the Christian life. While we may have good intentions for doing such a thing, it may only make matters worse for the already harried and worn-out parishioner. Our thinking must be more holistic. The church’s relevance and growth will largely depend on her ability to authentically “connect” people to the experience of doing life deeply together. This new community cannot be the typical isolated small group of Christians. Rather, it must intersect the local group of citizens living in close proximity to them as well – including those who do not believe in or live for Jesus." [Making Room For Life - Randy Frazee] Video Above: "Enter the myspace matrix - you have the keymaker!" Another World Is Possible! Video Above: "Dangerous Stories" - with my friend Michael Frost plus Brian McLaren and Wolfgang Simpson We want your soul! Consume Video Above: "The Soul Sucked Out Of Ya." Eugene Peterson, who translated "The Message" version of the Bible, writes: "Geography and theology are biblical bedfellows. ...I find that cultivating a sense of place as the exclusive and irreplaceable setting for following Jesus is even more difficult than persuading men and woman of the truth of the message of Jesus."

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

I'd like to meet people interested in Livable Church, Incarnational Ecclesiology, New Urbanism, Sociocultural Constructionism, Bioregionalism, Traditional Neighborhood Design, Import Substition, Green Urbanism, Deliberative Democracy, Relational Autonomy, Smart Growth, Narrative Design, Glocalism, Systems Theory, Social Capital, Appreciative Inquiry, Asset-Based Community Development and other various nerdy subjects.

Books:

Here is a short list of philosophers and theologians I attempt to read and frequently misunderstand and misrepresent: O'Connor, Dostoevsky,Percy, Moltmann, Wright, Hauerwas, Grenz, Levinas, Derrida, Olthius, McIntyre, Hays, Raschke, Vanhoozer, Zizioulas,Smith, Ong, Habermas, Polanyi, Arendt, Brueggeman, McLuhan, Voeglin, Bonhoeffer,Barth..................Here are about 75 popular authors of whom nearly everything they write helps me reimagine the church as livable again.

Michael Frost - The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for t...
Walter Brueggemann - The Prophetic Imagination
Shane Hipps - The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Fa...
Steve Chalke - The Lost Message of Jesus
Donald Miller - Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spiritua...
Lesslie Newbigin - The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission
Shane Claiborne - The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
Stories of Emergence: Moving from Absolute to Authentic (Em...
Parker J. Palmer - To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey
N. T. Wright - The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is
Brian McLaren - The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Coul...
Alan Hirsch - The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church
Wendell Berry - Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays
Randy Frazee - Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connec...
James K. A. Smith - Whos Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and...
Erwin Raphael McManus - An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had i...
Eric O. Jacobsen - Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Fa...
Doug Pagitt - Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an E...
Robert Inchausti - Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other C...
Larry Crabb - Connecting: Healing Ourselves and Our Relationships
Manuel Castells - The Rise of the Network Society
Murray Jardine - The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Chris...
Robert E. Webber - Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postm...
John McKnight - The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits
Brad Kallenberg - Live to Tell: Evangelism in a Postmodern Age
Michael Frost - Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture
Bruce J. Malina - The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropolog...
Andres Duany - Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the ...
John M. Perkins - Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development
William Saunders - Sprawl and Suburbia: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader (Harv...
Carl Raschke - The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmod...
Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Daniel Kemmis - Community and the Politics of Place
Leonard Sweet - Out of the Question...Into the Mystery: Getting Lost in the...
Peter Katz - The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community
Iris Marion Young - Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford Political Theory)
Restoring At-Risk Communities: Doing It Together and Doing ...
Timothy Beatley - Native to Nowhere: Sustaining Home And Community In A Globa...
Benjamin Barber - Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age
David B. Schwartz - Who Cares?: Rediscovering Community
Community Practice in the Network Society: Local Action / G...
Kenneth B. Hall - Community By Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Com...
John D. Zizioulas - Being as Communion
Manuel Castells - The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (Informat...
Brian J. Walsh - Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire
Randy Frazee - Connecting Church, The
Neil Postman - Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of ...
Benjamin Barber - Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshapin...
Ivan Illich - Disabling Professions (Ideas in Progress)
Mark Gerzon - Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform ...
Arbinger Institute - The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict (BK L...
Martin Linsky - Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers o...
Ronald Heifetz - Leadership Without Easy Answers
Christine Sine - Living on Purpose: Finding Gods Best for Your Life
Michael H. Shuman - The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating...
Tom Sine - Mustard Seed vs. McWorld: Reinventing Life and Faith for th...
Mike Carr - Bioregionalism And Civil Society: Democratic Challenges to ...
David Holmgren - Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
Eugene H. Peterson - Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spir...
Henri J. Nouwen - In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
Wolfgang Simson - Houses that Change the World
Richard Rohr - Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Differe...
Frank Viola - God's Ultimate Passion: Unveiling the Purpose Behind Everyt...
Seth Godin - Unleashing the Ideavirus
Rodney Clapp - A Peculiar People: The Church As Culture in a Post-Christia...
Jim Wallis - God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Do...
Margaret J. Wheatley - Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chao...
David Dark - Everyday Apocalypse
Daniel Taylor - The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk ...
Robert D. Putnam - Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Commun...
Martin Buber - I And Thou
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Communit
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Man Is Not Alone : A Philosophy of Religion
MySpace Book Lists at MySpace Toolbox !

My Blog

The Conversion of Communities

Tim Stafford interviewed Andrew Walls in a recent edition of Christianity Today.  In the article Andrew Walls describes "the astonishing shift of Christianity's center of gravity from t...
Posted by The Keymaker on Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:13:00 PST

How Do I Give God More Than 10%?

Last month Tom and Christine Sine of Mustard Seed Associates visited one of our gatherings in Tacoma.  As usual both their lives and their words spoke volumes regarding the meaning of following C...
Posted by The Keymaker on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:32:00 PST

Globalism with Pagitt, Friesen, and Kimball of Emergent Village

Last night I drove to Seattle to speak on a panel with Doug Pagitt at Mars Hill Graduate School.  The discussion centered on the tension between remaining relevant to a quickly-changing world whi...
Posted by The Keymaker on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:05:00 PST

What do sidewalks have to do with the kingdom? Keymaker Review

Review: Sidewalks In The Kingdom By Eric O. Jacobsen This is one of the few books to discuss theology and its implications for urban design.  Urban design is a crucial issue in a modern world....
Posted by The Keymaker on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 05:37:00 PST

How did the "good news" spread in Paul's time? Keymaker Review

Cities of God By Rodney Stark     It is amazing how many assumptions travel with us from the era of modernism.  We always imagined Paul as the charismatic evangelist whose words wer...
Posted by The Keymaker on Sun, 20 May 2007 07:30:00 PST

4 quotes & 4 flicks from Shane Claiborne

There are congregations on nearly every corner. I'm not sure we need more churches. What we need is a church. I say one church is better than fifty. I have tried to remove the plural form churches fro...
Posted by The Keymaker on Sat, 19 May 2007 01:40:00 PST

Being the Church Where We Live

This excerpt was taken from http://nextreformation.com/?p=228"Being Church Where We Live" is a book by Ron McKenzie. Pub. by Kingwatch Books. Christchurch, NZ: 2004. p 9 "A church is a group of Christ...
Posted by The Keymaker on Fri, 18 May 2007 02:21:00 PST

Are we 'Killing the West'? Keymaker Review

Old Church Model 'Killing the West'Excerpt found on Christianpost.comLeonard Sweet, considered one of the church's most provocative thinkers, said the old model of church is "killing the West," at a c...
Posted by The Keymaker on Tue, 15 May 2007 05:19:00 PST

Glocal - the key word for the 21st century church? By The Keymaker

"Glocal is as important a term to the 21st century as postmodern and seeker were to the 20th century," says Roberts, who has written two books, Transformation: How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and ...
Posted by The Keymaker on Mon, 14 May 2007 05:54:00 PST

10 questions for exploration??????????

Last year I partnered with a reputable foundation in the city of Tacoma to work on a program that would demonstrate and embody some of the core potentials of a responsible commitment to a "livable com...
Posted by The Keymaker on Tue, 08 May 2007 01:06:00 PST