In The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church, Dave Gibbons gives eloquent voice to many things that have felt just out of my grasp. Dave defines third culture as “the mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort.”
Normally I would wait until finishing a book before posting a review, but I wanted to post some of my impressions right away because of the way this book is already speaking to me.
In honor of the recently resurrected Star Trek and Terminator franchises (well, not really, but still…), Mixtape=Love lives again! Here is what has become a semi-annual presentation of my Mixtape=Love series, (though this is the first mix I’ve worked on with my daughter!).
Just returned from a quick trek out to Long Beach for The Idea Session at WFX hosted by Charles Lee and The Idea Camp. I can’t say enough about the collaborative, creative ethos Charles and The Idea Camp foster — so much hope & inspiration to go and demonstrate God’s love to a broken world.
Tonight, we heard from Tony Kim of Newsong, Eric Bryant of Mosaic, and Mel McGowan of Visoneering about, “The Ethos of Creativity.” Great insights all around from everyone and, in Idea Camp style, plenty of interaction from everyone who was there. You can read my first attempt at a true live blog about The Idea Session here at Scribble Live.
A few of my favorite quotes:
Let me say up front that I am usually a little bit over my head whenever talking about art. I have never formally studied art or art history. I likes what I likes and I read up on things that are interesting to me, whether because of aesthetics, medium or message.
I was intrigued by the inclusion of well-known street artist Banksy‘s Wall and Piece on Rob Bell’s Poets, Prophets & Preachers conference required reading list. The street art/grafitti world has always intrigued me (and, no, not the “let me doodle my tag on lockers and bathroom stalls” variety) because of its subversive nature. Along with raising important issues such as who own public space, I love how well-placed street art can reconfigure the ethos of a particular environment.
While doing some back-end work for a recent Ecclesia Collective article, I was introduced to the work of an artist called Specter. Notice how simply adding a word or two to this awning communicates volumes about this neighborhood:
… as face to face interaction.
That’s not to say I’m jumping on any anti-Twitter bandwagons. No, I’m not a big fan of using Twitter (or any other social networking media, for that matter) to randomly shout every bit of personal minutiae into the darkness (although, I must say, sometimes it is nice to catch up on the mundane parts of far-away friends’ lives). I think platforms like Twitter can be very useful for collaboration, and even building friendships. Eugene Cho hosted a thoughtful dialogue about Twitter, faith and church life a little while back.
As much as I believe Twitter can be a good thing (although it’s killing my ability to write longer thoughts!), I don’t think it can ever replace face to face interaction.
Last Saturday, our family went to the San Diego Childrens Book Festival (which was lots of fun, by the way!). Our daughter was really excited to meet the illustrator from the Fancy Nancy series, Robin Preiss Glasser, who was signing autographs at the Book Festival. Our daughter is a little shy, so she practiced what she would say to Robin while waiting in line. However, even after practicing, she was still too shy to say much to Robin when she was finally able to meet her in person.
This is where face to face interaction is irreplaceable: Robin was signing our daughter’s book and seemed to perceive that there was more she wanted to say. So Robin had our daughter come around to the other side of the author’s table, asked a lot of great questions and took time to listen to her. At the end, Robin gave her a big hug and took a great photograph with her. My wife and I were so grateful for Robin’s perceptive, thoughtful interaction with our daughter.
This kind of empathy and perception is really difficult to emulate in a purely online conversation. How many of us have misread the intent behind comments in the blogosphere because we couldn’t read non-verbal cues on our screen?
headsparks* 