tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111936582011-07-28T06:16:05.849-05:00What if we all loved each other?Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.comBlogger851100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-27936484308755492242009-06-06T13:28:00.004-05:002009-07-21T12:42:10.291-05:00

I had the wonderful pleasure of leaving NYC after over 12 years to live in a small apartment a half a block from the Pacific Ocean and work on my book. I wasn't sure how long I would stay but it ended up being a whole nine month school year. I made wonderful friends in Ensenada, had a good number of trips two hours north to my hometown of San Diego, enjoyed the constant auditory and visual

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-58557492427856420002008-07-19T13:05:00.007-05:002008-12-08T23:12:05.883-05:00

One of the great things about NYC is the incredibly talented people here in such abundance and the wonderful little serindipitous connections you make. My good friend had been telling me about the Shack and so I went to Barnes and Nobles to read the first half a few weeks ago, and then got to the second half the other day at a different B&N. The book really touched me and I started hearing more

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-58058586838615551392008-03-17T23:51:00.004-05:002008-12-08T23:12:06.201-05:00

Thought you'd like to see the Hawk that watches over me in Harlem.I've photographed him flying around before, but this time I looked out my window and there he was perched on my building! I was fumbling to put the battery in my camera and got this shot right before he lifted off.Here he is a few minutes later flying off back to heaven to update them on my progress.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-27092738133159628582008-03-13T11:33:00.003-05:002008-03-13T11:47:14.817-05:00

This is from a great blog I've been coming to love called, The Work of the People. That phrase is the actual meaning of the word, "liturgy". Isn't that interesting, the liturgy of our worship gatherings is the work of the people, or as I would further embellish - the artwork of the people for communal worship of God. This group in particular creates, "film for sacred spaces". I hope to get

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-50481428338672622562008-02-15T18:36:00.002-05:002008-02-15T18:40:11.414-05:00

The Yes We Can Songby will.i.amI was sitting in my recording studio watching the debates...Torn between the candidatesI was never really big on politics...and actually I’m still not big on politics...but 4 years ago, me and the black eyed peas supported Kerry...And we supported Kerry with all our might...We performed and performed and performed for the DNC...doing all we could do to get the youth

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-28751705334984739302008-02-10T01:39:00.000-05:002008-12-08T23:12:06.455-05:00

...well right here on this blog and on my face I've been practicing this lifestyle. In March of 2006 I was on the cutting edge of this trend and finally a wider audience is catching up.Just look at some of the quotes from this week's Time magazine article:"I am growing a beard," he explained. "They are sooo in right now.""Beards are back," says Allan Peterkin, a pogonologist (a.k.a. beard

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-65218055875160338082008-01-14T16:13:00.000-05:002008-01-14T16:33:48.484-05:00

It's true, it's the name of a book, and the name of a traveling event. Starting in a few weeks, Brian Mclaren and his team will be hitting the road across America to talk about the future. In eleven cities as diverse as New York, New York and Goshen, Indiana...Boise, Idaho and St. Petersburg, Florida a weekend carnival of new ideas and music and art and most importantly new friendships will

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-53951385891976956162008-01-04T12:16:00.000-05:002008-01-10T03:28:02.404-05:00

I’m writing this on the morning of Jan. 4th, 2008, the morning following Barack Obama’s exciting win in the first official tally of the 2008 Presidential election, the caucus in Iowa. A few nights ago, I sat in a room of about seven or eight people, and I was the only white person – something I experience quite frequently living in Harlem. We got to talking about politics and Barack Obama’s

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-10368784957227926042007-12-03T20:00:00.001-05:002008-12-08T23:12:06.630-05:00

Update: added the photo above, you can't quite see it in the darkness and low resolution, but on the top of that car on the left were three bullet holes. You can see the police car and the streets roped off, this is from the fire escape of our apartment.I heard some bangs the other night, and thought they were just a cars exhaust backing up or something. A little later my roommate came running

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-33680302207844378772007-11-29T15:00:00.000-05:002007-11-29T15:39:01.405-05:00

I had a great time last night with my new friends at Somerset Christian College. They had a panel discussion on art and faith issues and invited me along with Matt Milliner (millinerd) and Michael Cuozzo to be on it. I was able for the first time to present publicly my new powerpoint for "The New Love" (TNL) - the book I am writing. The other presenters really gave me some insights and the we

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-14886922706510900572007-09-27T18:58:00.001-05:002008-12-08T23:12:06.754-05:00

I just have to get in on the fun...(anything to get myself to blog)...I'm a member of the wink revolution...a fun way to poke fundie mouth Mark Driscoll while maintaining kindness, and to document historically the point at which he made himself...uhhh.... - well, when all people do is wink humorously at what you've stated with passion, it says a lot....If you're wondering why I chose this lovely

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-91507166717351427172007-08-31T16:04:00.000-05:002007-08-31T17:26:22.574-05:00

I have always felt that an important part of the emerging church conversation/movement is about a new kind of church which rises from a union of post-evangelicals and post-mainliners and post-other-traditions. The idea is that we all in humility discover our own weaknesses and discard them, and in a spirit of joyful discovery we uncover the strengths of the other and wholly embrace them - along

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-85242626012024920322007-08-28T14:28:00.000-05:002007-08-28T14:45:41.917-05:00

So I was going to look at an apartment in Harlem and when I got a block away, suddently cop cars were everywhere, sirens blaring - un undercover taxi police car had it's light blazing in the windshield and screeched around a corner going the wrong way down a one way street to get to the scene faster - and two guys on the corner go, "Man, that was fast, there was a shooting like just two minutes

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-46043517251230217192007-07-31T14:29:00.000-05:002007-07-31T14:50:10.068-05:00

SA (not South Africa) was amazing. Buenos Aires is more of a European city and I liked it very much. It was just great to get away for a longer time from NYC and be in a totally different environment. Plus all the pastors I met and befriended was wonderful.As for your question on new liturgy...that's really the nut to be cracked. I don't think we are going to figure it out very soon. Before

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-11696214351337932412007-07-31T14:10:00.000-05:002007-07-31T14:27:30.559-05:00

Here's a thought. Imagine how significant, how pervasive a historical era and it's mindset are - in the modern era, whatever the mindset was, it penetrated every aspect of life - it was the air we breathed and affected everything.Now, with what we generally believe about the sovereignty of God over the earth and all hummankind - that he has a plan for history and is unfolding it in his way and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-52879842889464296162007-07-31T11:22:00.000-05:002007-07-31T11:51:01.289-05:00

How are communities in our day forming? We have much to think of and learn from what is happening around us if we truly want to imagine a way forward.Look at the LGBTQ community...lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning). They are united in one sense and different in others.You can imagine the voices..."we're lesbian not just gay...we're not happy, we're queer...queer sounds

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-42861976060909175732007-07-18T19:26:00.000-05:002007-07-31T11:51:42.340-05:00

I'm back in NYC, so my work with the New Sanctuary Movement continues. Yesterday we packed a bus full of families, organizers and clergy and drove to Washington DC.We had a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court and visited the offices of congresspeople and senators to let them hear in person the stories of these families facing the deportation of a husband and father (they're almost

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-86319989870181039462007-07-18T19:05:00.000-05:002007-07-18T19:24:37.461-05:00

So before I left for Argentina, I contacted some emergent friends to see if anyone had any contacts down there so I could meet a few pastors and try to get a pulse of what was happening down there with the church. Maybe find a good place to worship while there.So I end up with this contact who is excited about emergent and knows everyone in the church in Argentina and is so excited I'm there and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-68400806064252963332007-07-18T18:49:00.000-05:002007-07-18T19:05:20.562-05:00

I am back in NYC after a month and a half of travels - a full month in Buenos Aires! They pronounce it something like "bwo-nus eye-eee-des" What a place. It's like the europe of South America. Heavy on the Italian and looks like Paris at times.A group of friends talked about going there a number of years ago and it didn't work out but left me always wanting to go there, so when I realized my

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-7767857126629870202007-05-10T11:06:00.000-05:002007-05-10T11:46:42.930-05:00

After two months of hard work, we finally launched the New Sanctuary Movement yesterday at a huge press conference at St. Paul's near Columbus Circle. It was pretty amazing. Rising up and taking a stand in society, for churches to proclaim that they are stepping right into the middle of the immigration debate and the actual environment of raids and deportations the government has created - and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-4217215882089255482007-04-23T22:05:00.000-05:002007-04-24T00:21:05.154-05:00

Ok, so I'm not going to be the guru of fashion activism at the King's college...Maybe I can start a movement to get NYU students to dress better?And I've blown out the idea that emergents are weak-knee'd hippies - having blasted a respected cultural leader like your President in public and blogosphere.So, campus dress codes - a perenial source of complaint and dissent amongst student populations

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-50271204103318673962007-04-23T11:45:00.000-05:002007-04-23T12:12:01.697-05:00

On Saturday I gathered with many others at the Federal Plaza downtown to stand vigil with the families and children who have had a parent detained and deported. Families are being torn apart as our broken immigration policy causes people who have American citizen children and spouse's, who may even have a green card - a registered, documented resident in this country - in the case of one of the

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-46613582322367457462007-04-18T23:35:00.000-05:002007-04-19T00:32:08.271-05:00

or, A Revealing Metanarrative Dispatched From the EliteOver the last few years, I've come to know and love a good number of students from King's college here in Manhattan. After an unrelated event we all attended, I ended up with an audience of the President of King's college, J. Stanley Oakes along with a number of students. In what began as an innocent but earnest plea on my part to get the

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-466703908256822262007-03-13T23:16:00.000-05:002007-03-13T23:20:41.630-05:00

Communion of the Arts renamed Communion Four weeks of Art&Love Hello friends, Thank you for following our progress since our birth less than a year ago. After a long road and much learning, Cota is experiencing a rebirth on Sunday March 18th as Communion. The most significant addition is our awesome new musical worship leader Isaac Wardell. We've been dreaming for a person like Isaac to

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-81263692500080725542007-03-10T18:07:00.000-05:002007-03-10T18:36:32.553-05:00

It's Cohort time again in NYC. This time we're gathering with our Latino Leadership Members (LLC) and they are guiding our dialog and helping us to see how they are emerging. David Ramos the founder of the LLC is also a leader at the Cohort.The NYC Emergent Village Cohort blog is here.I'm really excited about this months gathering - when we talk about everyone being at the table, this is it

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-58215847239884982162007-02-18T19:56:00.000-05:002007-02-24T00:42:24.757-05:00

Starting today is Chinese New Year's. And what an awesome animal this year - the pig. You already hear westerner's chiming in with pork related comments, eat a lot of bacon this year. I wonder if the Chinese would find that strange that we think of eating pork first. Kind of like Europeans are aghast when they discover we eat pumpkin pie as a sweet dessert. To them it's like squash to us and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-59793714715688480882007-02-12T15:21:00.000-05:002007-02-12T15:23:08.194-05:00

Here is an awesome youtube that explains the future of the web with XML and Web 2.0 and how we are all creating the web of the future in real time as our choices combine to create online communal reality. It has so many implications and was done by a doctoral student. (and is my blog's premier youtube post!)

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-75511233061618012442007-01-29T15:55:00.000-05:002007-01-29T16:18:46.805-05:00

So here's the issue: How do we give wise and sensitive pastoral leadership concerning many areas of sexuality in an age of new openness to gayness and other aspects of human sexuality in general and being careful not to prescribe to people how to live, but have them discover from their own faith in Christ how to live. (Knowing that people don't really learn from our prescriptions but by Christ

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-7899728774501916432007-01-23T18:23:00.000-05:002007-01-23T18:37:51.717-05:00

So God, because he loves me and doesn't want me to have to labor along with all the character deficits that hold me back, decided to crush me and his little church he put me in charge of, in order to resurrect us in a much more capable and streamlined version. He's good this way, and I am thrilled that he trusts me to suffer so much in his name. I kind of think that's a big part of Christian

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-38158307957916334242007-01-23T16:03:00.000-05:002007-01-23T16:20:58.046-05:00

From my favorite daily email, The Daily Asterisk (at Culture Is Not Optional)The literalism that surrounds us has so steeped our minds in the logic of proposition statements that we've lost our ability to hear anything addressed to the logic of the imagination. Consequently, we miss the point of almost everything Jesus has to say--because it's the logic of images that makes his parables tick.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-84389948685601492022007-01-04T17:35:00.000-05:002008-12-08T23:12:07.456-05:00

I went out to my front yard for a New Year's celebration, later I noticed the NY Times took a few photos of it, so here they are. This shot was taken right from our spot in the crowd, which also happens to be a half a block from where Cota started in the Lamb's theater, and where I lived for the last year and a half (so if you had a really big front yard, that would be about the distance of half

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1166131331941224152006-12-14T15:51:00.000-05:002006-12-14T16:22:12.003-05:00

First new post in two months! For the few of you out there who follow my blog, I am back, sorry for the delay, it was inevitable.You remember I had a hard summer, well I had an even harder fall. I am not some complainer, but God has seen fit to mold me some more in ways that are harder than anything I've gone through in decades. I am here, and my little church is here, and I am amazed that it

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1161314532886285402006-10-19T21:56:00.000-05:002007-02-17T05:33:52.042-05:00

Amahoro means peace. It is a word of Bantu origin used widely across Africa. It has special meaning in places like Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo, where violence and genocide have inflicted such pain and suffering. When people from various tribes embrace, shake hands or kiss, and say "amahoro," they are expressing a deep hope for a better future.Amahoro my friends. This is a post I'm very passionate

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1160775315767047802006-10-13T16:28:00.000-05:002006-10-13T16:35:15.786-05:00

This week we had a seminarian from Union Theological Seminary (The Seminary connected to Columbia University, and where Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught before returning to Germany to help the church oppose the Nazi's) visit with us. We discovered that we are now listed on Union's list of churches to visit for first year seminarians.Here's how he described the listing....."a list of what our

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1160768848118689772006-10-13T14:32:00.000-05:002006-10-13T14:50:22.276-05:00

When the seed bursts, the plant then suddenly spreads asunder. At that instant it feels that it is being dissolved, after lying so long narrowly folded in the seed. On the contrary it gains a new world.... Birth must seem to the new-born babe what death seems to us--the annihilation of all the conditions which had hitherto made life possible in the womb of its mother, but proved to be its

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1158912173765780932006-09-22T03:01:00.000-05:002006-09-22T03:02:53.780-05:00

People inhabit stories – surfer, political type, artist, jock….The Modern era had a few big stories that gave coherence to everyone, that everybody kind of bought into – for example, even though a surfer, you were also an American and listened to the same music as the politico and the jock. Fashion had the big look of the season, and you had it or didn’t.But now in the post-modern era there are

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1158450585517361032006-09-16T18:46:00.000-05:002006-09-16T18:49:45.526-05:00

Sorry to report we've had some communication problems with our website and the email connected to it - cotanyc.comOur Sunday gathering is at 11amLamb's Theater130 W 44th St.(between 6th & 7th Ave.)5th FloorMy email is jkursonis@yahoo.comcell phone 917-553-6843

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1156890386067924922006-08-29T17:15:00.000-05:002006-08-29T17:26:26.160-05:00

We had this big Brian Mclaren meeting which you can read about in the early posts of this blog. When I got up to talk for a few minutes about our hopes for this new faith gathering, I blurted out something which I had thought about a number of times, but had never planned on saying in public quite so straighforwardly."I'm starting this church because I'm lonely and I don't have enough love in my

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1156624054372336602006-08-26T15:27:00.000-05:002006-08-26T15:33:20.980-05:00

"Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties -- once seen as an

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1154811315858155282006-08-05T15:39:00.000-05:002006-08-05T15:55:15.870-05:00

Thanks to all who have prayed for me during this "brutal" time as in the post below. I am glad to announce that the Lord has brought me out of that and shown me that I was going through a 40 day time in the desert - from late June through all of July.In the midst of it, I had a few oasis of respite, and I was about to write a new post a number of times, but then I was right back into the desert

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1152593672137956552006-07-10T23:38:00.000-05:002006-07-10T23:54:32.150-05:00

This blog is supposed to be about the journey of starting a church within the NYC art community, but it also goes into general emerging stuff also. This post is very much about our journey.We are on a bumpy part of the road, rather than a boat in a storm, we are a sailboat in the doldrums. No wind, really hot.70% of our congregation is gone for the whole summer - and when you have 20 people and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1151820163772505802006-07-02T00:34:00.000-05:002006-07-02T01:06:00.120-05:00

We had our first NYC Emergent Village Cohort gathering last week. It was a great group of people, and as we expect here in NYC white males were in the minority!!Brian McLaren is often asked whether EC is just a conversation, or a movement. He says that he does not want to see it become a movement until all the parties are at the table - that we need to hear from the leaders of the churches in

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1151193101240660152006-06-24T18:51:00.000-05:002006-06-25T01:11:06.513-05:00

What is the secret that links these three men together, and the conspiracy that through them is controlling a major portion of the emergent churches that are being planted in major U.S. cities?New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis…These three emergent church pastors barely know one another, yet a single influence has surreptiously worked among them to keep them all on a similar path of personal

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1150881715374052392006-06-21T04:21:00.000-05:002006-06-23T21:18:01.086-05:00

I just read a long series of comments following this post, the main thrust of which was trying to understand the emerging church movement in light of a whole series of criteria, all of them current or modern ways of thinking, and trying to make sense of emergent within those modes of thinking. I was overwhelmed by a sense that they would never get it if they didn’t realize that they couldn’t

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1150436253229683542006-06-15T23:16:00.000-05:002006-06-16T00:37:33.296-05:00

I just returned from the Emergent Coordinating Group meeting in Minneapolis. It was such an amazing gathering of likeminded people of faith set on reforming our tired and broken church so that God's Kingdom can be on earth as it is in heaven. I just watched the movie, The Patriot, at the end of the war, surrounded, Cornwallis realizes that these farmers and commoners had defeated the British

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1149306405545292752006-06-02T22:25:00.000-05:002006-06-02T22:46:45.556-05:00

Well, that's it, I'm a marrying man.I had a wonderful time this weekend presiding at the nuptials of a wonderful young couple that comes from a couple of wonderful families. In particular, I was adopted by the Bride's family. I spent the weekend with them and they treated me with such love and hospitality that I'm probably good for another year of singleness.I was refered to this lovefest by a

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1149305096633048952006-06-02T22:18:00.000-05:002006-06-02T22:24:56.646-05:00

Arrrgggghhhhh. After nine hard months of church planting, the summer comes and 2/3rds of our people are uprooted, leaving our plant very shaky.Of my eight core team members, only two are here. Another one will be here some this summer, and the other not sure. Four key people gone for the whole freakin' summer. Arrrggghhhh.This is what happens when you have very cool artists - they do cool

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1147153106707230432006-05-09T00:23:00.000-05:002006-05-09T00:38:26.726-05:00

We had our fourth Sunday this week. It was the first time I was really able to relax.Because we have the problem of a bunch of our key people starting to be out of town for the summer, we have had to pull back a bit and be a little more low key. We had started with a bang, and that was kind of necessary, but now we are simplifying. For me that makes it more enjoyable - more intimate, more

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1146519657320200322006-05-01T13:38:00.000-05:002006-05-01T19:38:32.086-05:00

So, now we have three Sunday gatherings under our belt and we're feeling a little better about everything in terms of logistics.This Sunday we had a wonderful time with our special guests Becky Garrison and Paul Thorson and his family.Becky and Paul got hooked up by their Christian publisher's while Paul is here in NYC to do many things and amongst them help launch his first book, Painting in the

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1145470027824184192006-04-19T12:27:00.000-05:002006-04-19T13:07:07.840-05:00

This blog was started to record the journey of starting a new kind of church for the NYC artistic community (which includes anyone who loves the arts - many non-artists), and to be a place for discussion of Art & Faith issues.Well, we have reached a major milestone - our first full Sunday worship gathering. Just to let you know, we didn't choose Sunday morning for traditional reasons - we were

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1145041344709816032006-04-14T13:57:00.000-05:002006-04-14T14:08:47.730-05:00

Thanks for the encouragement Lord! (and to the reporter from the WSJ!)Details of our first Sunday gathering on Easter in the post below.(click on the picture to make it bigger)It's an article on a church in Pittsburgh that uses drama as their liturgy, so the reporter wanted to talk to others doing a similar thing. If you can't read it, it says "In New York, the Communion of the Arts hopes

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1144694101305490842006-04-10T13:03:00.001-05:002006-04-10T13:35:01.320-05:00

Many other cultures call it Resurrection Sunday, and it is definitely a time of new beginnings - like all of mankind being redeemed - each of us being given a new start.For us this is the time where we go from being a home group plus, to becoming a full fledged church on Sunday mornings.For me it is quite amazing to see this thing after 2 1/2 years fully blossom. The more amazing thing to me is

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1143669502134396922006-03-29T16:39:00.000-05:002006-03-29T17:21:50.820-05:00

"It's a sign of the times," Mr. Martin said. "People are into beards right now."- NY TimesMy hair is shorter than this now, but the NY Times has finally given me the acclaim I deserve as bearded trendsetter. Finally the world understands. Paul Bunyan, Modern-Day... [attractability]... Symbol Excerpts from the article:...At hipster hangouts and within fashion circles, the bearded revolution that

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1142877703463211442006-03-20T13:01:00.000-05:002006-07-18T00:57:04.600-05:00

When you are dismissed, you go awayTwo mobsters:“Hey, things with Joey ‘aint workin’ out”“Whattya wanna do?”“Joey should go away”Interesting, the meaning of “go away” means murder, and in scripture the idea of hating someone is the same as murdering them.In each case we simply wish the person did not exist anymore.We do this all the time in our lives in the most casual way without realizing it –

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1142064932664466542006-03-11T03:15:00.000-05:002006-07-18T00:52:02.160-05:00

Politics – it starts as children when we tell Mommy things that we knowingly exclude from Daddy, so that we can get our way.Politicking within a group is the covert building of support towards something you want in order to gain advantage over opponents, so that they don’t have time to build equal support. You politic so that you can win, whether by vote or organic popular approval or by

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1141073098070006442006-02-27T13:37:00.000-05:002006-04-01T17:00:47.230-05:00

The original post below is getting a little long, so I will continue it here. Please read the original post below in order to get the main idea I've presented.I am so excited by all the comments which allow me to continue refining and developing my understanding.A fundamental concept of my approach is that change is needed. There are a lot of well meaning Christians that in their heart would love

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1140475858439582712006-02-20T17:50:00.000-05:002006-02-27T17:40:02.680-05:00

Recently a friend emailed me and asked me if I thought they should go see Brokeback Mountain, they wanted to but also had questions about if they should because it might be supporting something they don’t believe in.As a new pastor in New York City, I have been thinking and praying for some time of how I will handle this incredibly important and controversial area of human community.Here is what

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1139959069340735062006-02-14T17:07:00.000-05:002006-02-14T18:17:49.376-05:00

I had a wonderful time up at Yale last week. I had never been on the campus of an Ivy League University until I became emergent, and now I've been to Princeton and Yale (not bad for a fringe group).One of the great things about going to hear a major Theologian is that it really encourages you about your place in the scheme of things.I couldn't understand about 1/3 or maybe 1/2 of what he said.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1139954667628565772006-02-14T16:51:00.000-05:002006-02-14T17:04:27.740-05:00

I havn't posted yet on the incredible time had at the Yale Theological Conversation with Miroslav Volf, but I will soon.But here is a wonderfully thought out and written post on Feminism by one of my favorite blogger/scholars, Matt Milliner at Millinerd. It really gets to the heart of some good thinking regarding women and their role in society and church.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1138820398221141842006-02-01T13:26:00.000-05:002006-02-01T14:05:21.343-05:00

One big part of the emergent conversation is about missiology - the study of how to communicate the gospel cross-culturally. I actually have a degree in Christian Ministry which is half bible and half missiology. The idea is that the culture of the church we have now was designed for a culture that existed 30 or 40 years ago in the case of many evangelical churches (parents of baby boomers), and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1138732715886197822006-01-31T11:26:00.000-05:002006-01-31T14:29:55.090-05:00

Well, I've done a lot of posts about emerging stuff, and art stuff, and personal stuff. So now I'm going to do a series of posts about our church plant, Communion of the Arts.We started Sept. 15th, 2005 with a seven member core team. I dropped the term "start team" because I always had to explain what it meant, and I just found it easier to say core team.We decided to spend our team meetings on

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1137968075772423172006-01-22T17:14:00.000-05:002006-01-22T17:23:49.553-05:00

Four Jobs you've had in your life: Soda jerkDeck hand on hydrofoil boat at Sea World, San DiegoHearing aid dispenserLegal Secretary Architects or architecture you like: Santiago CalatravaFrank GehryHate the fact that New York City is wimpy compared to Europe and even the Middle East.Rem Koolhaas Four Movies you could watch over and over: I

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1137896924856021122006-01-21T21:28:00.000-05:002006-01-21T21:32:39.943-05:00

We are an arts community church. We want to create vibrant new artistic liturgies. We are in New York City where there are a lot of talented and vibrant artists.It would not be hard to develop a culture of excellence where only an aesthetic of the highest quality would be allowed “on stage” in the public liturgy.But I find the gospel’s focus on the poor and needy compelling me to think this

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1137657807621408752006-01-19T02:51:00.000-05:002006-01-19T03:23:13.080-05:00

Wow, I finally won an award!Is there a monetary consideration??...no?...I will estimate the encouragement value to be worth at least one month's pay...no, not as averaged from the day laborer's who come from other countries to do our lesser work, but from a factory worker in a Detroit auto plant!! (What my Grandpa did for 30 years).Thanks Zeke!

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1137525853035778972006-01-17T14:24:00.000-05:002006-01-17T14:36:10.423-05:00

I love my post yesterday (below) for its ability to straddle the line deliciously between “stupidity and pure genius” to quote a fine fellow (he seems to be a fellow, but would be thrilled to discover she’s not).All last night and this morning I have been privately cracking myself up with the goofiness of the term I minted, “accidental colonial sheathing”.  So, it was with great joy that I found

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1137452092011207632006-01-16T17:54:00.000-05:002006-01-16T18:33:48.230-05:00

As I interact with many different people in real life and through their blogs, I have begun to notice some patterns.Here is my observation of some of the weigh stations along the Interstate that feeds into the county of emergent (and I don’t mean the organization Emergent).  As Josh from Stupid Church People says, “Emerge we will. Without a title. Without a common voice, except love.”First people

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1136881454344451102006-01-10T03:24:00.000-05:002006-01-10T15:19:25.166-05:00

Some great insights about art leadership (critics/historians) from Roger Kimball:"...In my view, it often happens that the most a critic can do is to remove the clutter impeding the direct enjoyment of art. True, that clutter sometimes includes the debris of ignorance or insensitivity, and in this respect art critics and art historians can provide useful guideposts that make it easier to see the

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1136878851246602812006-01-10T02:19:00.000-05:002006-01-10T02:40:51.260-05:00

Just one more wonderful reason why it's soooooooo good to be post-evangelical, and post-protestant....Wheaton fires a professor who converts to Catholicism.WHEATON, Ill. -- Wheaton College was delighted to have assistant professor Joshua Hochschild teach students about medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas, one of Roman Catholicism's foremost thinkers. But when the popular teacher converted to

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1136677782336193262006-01-07T18:27:00.000-05:002006-01-31T11:25:51.396-05:00

Here's a comment I received on a comment I made at this wonderful blog called StupidChurchPeople which is two blogs in one by Steve and Josh. To give you the context, even though I loved these guys blogs, I thought that they had come down a little hard on my good friend Tony Jones, and so I wanted to bring some balance. I really see both sides of this situation where some people think the

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1136156327351822332006-01-01T17:48:00.000-05:002006-01-01T18:01:40.553-05:00

Here is a picture that really says who I am.I'm just a little guy peering out from among the plumeria's.Plumeria flowers grow on trees in Hawaii. I spent most of my twenties there. They grow year round.Before I went to Hawaii, when I was nineteen years old, someone told me how it was amazing because you could actually just smell the scent of flowers in the air there.So, when I first got off the

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1135589823603081602005-12-26T04:22:00.000-05:002006-01-08T17:46:34.220-05:00

I spent so much time writing this letter to my new friend Tim Keel, the pastor of Jacob's Well in Kansas City, and because it was all inspired by my reading the wonderful warm, funny things he said about me on his blog after we hung out at the recent emergent get together at Princeton, I thought it would be good for my PR to have others see what he said, and then to read what I said as a good

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1131395498557480562005-11-07T14:52:00.000-05:002006-01-07T12:56:11.443-05:00

My friend Christian, a church planter in Berlin, who spent a year here in NYC before going to plant a similar kind of church in Berlin's hip, artistic urban center came up with the term "start team" instead of core team or launch team, and I liked it.We just had a wonderful young married couple join our team - Mauricio and Cindy. They are real go-getters and gatherers and overall inspiring folks.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1128553483492751212005-10-05T17:58:00.000-05:002005-10-05T18:04:43.496-05:00

So now the drama is over, and we're chugging along with Thursday night meetings and Sunday afternoon with the start team. I've been doing, "vision casting" with the start team for the first three weeks and for a little longer, but also this week we began our first real work assignments - we have to focus on fundraising, because we havn't joined a denomination yet, and so we are on our own

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1127770744236578532005-09-26T16:19:00.000-05:002005-09-26T16:39:04.243-05:00

Hey, I've been in a sea of both joy and stress from our first meeting, and then our second meeting, so I haven't blogged. But I was really, really thrilled to finally have our first meeting. Now after two years of prayer, preparation and planning (and freaking out) - we are finally a church.We gathered in a circle, slowly more people came, until we had 10-12 people (I purposefully didn't count)

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1126363387680671482005-09-10T09:24:00.000-05:002005-09-10T09:43:07.686-05:00

The wonderful tale continues to unfold. We got the space I had hoped for in the East Village!It's a wonderful old building that used to be a library, and then became a church, and is located right in the heart of one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Manhattan. There are a number of neighborhoods in NYC that could be considered as hotspots for the art scene - Chelsea, Williamsburg, Dumbo -

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1125723120225596422005-09-02T23:36:00.000-05:002005-09-02T23:52:00.230-05:00

I've had two meetings now with a pastor who wants to help us, along with being asked to consider joining his denomination - though he will help us either way.We are definitely going to get some space to use, but there have been some details to work out with the schedule. So, good news!Also, I had been hoping we could get space eventually in a certain part of town (they have two spaces), and at

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1125205327644215952005-08-27T22:15:00.000-05:002005-11-16T16:55:52.736-05:00

We all want communityWe all want to participateWe don't now have communityWe don't now participate (unless an authorized leader)I have seen churches promise to be something new...cooler, more arts based, more relevant...But rather than listen to their promises, what I like to do, is to just watch the journey of one or more individuals when they come in the church door, while they are inside, and

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1125003750820353882005-08-25T13:54:00.000-05:002005-08-25T16:12:46.950-05:00

Here's some of our/my story of this developing church.I spent the last year and a half by myself in this journey, hearing God's call to do this, getting that confirmed by submitting it to many in the local community, and then going through a church planter training process with a very cool big church here that trains people outside of it's denomination (but it's only here in NYC, so unless you're

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1124922291207582292005-08-24T16:32:00.000-05:002005-08-24T17:36:18.276-05:00

In an effort to transcend my inherent blogger limitation (I'm over 30), I am going to try to start blogging more often. This may turn into one of those, "join the healthclub" things where you start well, and then one day wake up with a donut in your mouth and the realization you haven't worked out for over a month. But I do like to write, so there is a seed of hope. In fact if you were to take my

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1124466859911767522005-08-19T10:53:00.000-05:002006-01-06T20:20:09.030-05:00

Wow, what a night! Brian McLaren in the middle of his generally busy schedule, but with his daughter getting married this weekend, came up from Baltimore on the train to spend the day with us on Monday. I had the privilege of spending four hours with him during the day, then we had a pre-meeting get together with our team, and all the guys who blessed us by being on the panel for our

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1123622228285857262005-08-09T15:21:00.000-05:002005-08-09T16:17:08.293-05:00

We are very excited about our progress as an early stage church plant for the artistic community in NYC (a wide group including those who love and support the arts). The big event this summer, that God has opened the doors of through my wonderful and growing relationship with Tony Jones, is that Brian McLaren is coming this Monday (Aug. 15th) to speak at the final meeting of our summer series.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1111863137103976672005-03-26T12:52:00.000-05:002005-12-29T20:44:17.636-05:00

As the emergent conversation continues, the role of the pastor continues to be an important focus. Many of the people joining in the conversation are pastors and elders, or are about to become one, and so they have a keen interest in understanding how this is all going to affect their actual daily life.Some anxiousness may be imaginged as we rethink issues like the profession of the pastorate,

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1111777760596175842005-03-25T11:57:00.000-05:002005-03-26T19:32:24.126-05:00

Here's an email I sent to a friend the other day:I'm looking forward to sharing with everyone some ofthe ideas I have for what kind of core things a new kind of church may have that really help create the inner changes necessary that will then manifest outwardly in a way concurrent with all the changes we see around us. Without significant inner/structural change, we cannot expect significant

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1109896177272719552005-03-03T19:24:00.000-05:002005-03-03T19:40:44.683-05:00

I’ve been trying to understand what it means to be an artist of faith for some time, and God has led me on quite a journey in this regard. For the last five years I’ve been involved with a group of artists of faith that meet weekly in New York City, and observing and sharing their journey has helped me greatly in my own. This summer I gathered a set group of twelve people to meet every five days

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11193658.post-1109802965283327762005-03-02T17:34:00.000-05:002005-03-02T17:36:05.283-05:00

Welcome to my new blog. I wanted to get this up quickly, so come back soon for my first real post. Last night at the emergent cohort meeting I shared my new "theology of art", and it seemed to go over pretty well. I'll share that soon.

Jeff Kursonishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00686792279384350024noreply@blogger.com1