Tribute Week - Andrew Jones
What Tribute Week of mine would be complete without a big shout out to the man that led me down this dark rabbit hole of blogging. Andrew Jones, more famously known as the Tall Skinny Kiwi has been blogging since before they had indoor plumbing. And way back in the day, almost 6 years ago, I took the leap into the wild world of blogging. Without this tall bloke from New Zealand, I never would have started blogging and I never would have met all the great friends I’ve met through blogging. I could go down the list for days. But I met Nick Leslie and Eric and D10 and Daley and Troy and Sharon and I could go on and on for days with all of the people I’ve met in person and now see on a regular basis because of blogging. Not to mention all of the people that I talk to via chat, email, Twitter, and at conferences or traveling. That alone would be well worth me paying homage to the kingpin of the blogging underworld. But there is more.
A couple of years ago we met up with Andrew in Chattanooga for dinner, a pint, and a podcast. Our conversation ended up on what could best be described as Andrew’s take on ecclesiology. Or basically his philosophy or value statement. At the time, Anna and I had just left our church and our jobs there and were really struggling with what role we would have within the established or organized church. Andrew said something that night that has stuck with both of us since then and has giving our lives and our “ministry” tremendous shape and value as we went forth. It’s something that we even find ourselves randomly talking about at times over dinner or in a car ride.
Andrew essentially said, and forgive me if I butcher this, that his goal in life is to . . .
Tell Stories, Throw Parties, Give Gifts, & Make Friends
Basically, if you could sum up his life or how he would be remembered it would be by those 4 things. Or how he would consider himself being faithful to the way of Jesus, would be by those 4 things.
I don’t think Anna and I quit talking about those ideas for days. At the time we were so worried that we were going to be forced back into the organized church out of guilt or out of necessity. We were feeling like we weren’t being “faithful” to the “local body”. And while there are some elements of truth to those feelings, we also realized that if we could tell stories (conversations with people), throw parties (have our neighbors into our home for dinner, movies, and Wii), give gifts (work on some downward mobility), and make friends (live deeply with those we are friends with) . . . that we would be going a long way in the right direction.
Our conversation with Andrew Jones that night and some of the subsequent ones via email and following his blog, have led us to a very comfortable place with our role in the larger christian community without feeling guilty or inferior.
He is more than the don of the emerging church. He’s a really decent guy. Despite him defending those “conservative” types more and more (sarcasm implied).
Today . . . I raise up a tall pint of Chimay and salute the man who got me into blogging and the man who provided some sort of validation for our live outside the 4 walls of the church. Here’s to you kid.
I will raise one for Andrew as well. He is one of the first blogs on “post-modern” church (he and Jordon) that I ever read. I also got to meet him in person in St. Louis at Search Party, and he was gracious, very approachable, and very much the gentleman. His thoughts on theology/ecclesiaology and the way that he lives his life with his family has inspired me to try to escape my suburban lifestyle and live a less Amerikkanized way of Christianity. If more people inside (and especially outside) the emerging conversation shared his passion, humilty, intelligence and grace, the Christian world would be a more loving, useful place.
I’ll also raise one to Andrew. I first knew of him through the Underground Railroad (www.theundergroundrailroad.org, and by the way, do you allow html in comments?), and he is the reason that I have come to understand the unique place that the underground/alternative church has, has had in the past, and will continue to have in the wider emerging church. Coming into things of Emergent from the underground is a great viewpoint that he has that gives him great perspective, and one that I feel blessed to share with him.