I enjoyed myself immensely over the Thanksgiving holiday. The only way it could possibly have been better is if the Food & Drinks Committee had thought to pack a 55-gallon drum of eggnog.

Sociologists have long known that when you put eight fun-loving, games-playing adults in one cabin and when it's known that there will be no permanent record of what was said to whom and about what, people tend to unclench, as it were.

So the drive home was a bit worrying for me. I could feel some of my neck and shoulder muscles re-clenching. What in the last few days could the emergent church have announced that might compare with the happiness I'd enjoyed in Homer?

So Monday morning I sifted through the usual emerging internet dumpsters and learned some things that sparked a hope.

First of all, Doug Pagitt's run for public office in Minnesota has hit a snag. To hear Doug tell it, Governor Timothy James Pawlenty ripped him off for the funds necessary for his run for Senate District 41. All expressions of gratitude should be sent to:

Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Steve Knight, "Kingdom Journalist", is out of a job, so he's had more time to do some blue sky thinking—which I thought is just what he's been doing all along. He's not as happy as he once was: Kingdom Journalism is "...not quite as accessible conceptually as I'd like it to be for a broader range of people". He's now inclined to devote himself in a more intentional way to telling stories and throwing parties. Maybe he can become a Kingdom Party Planner; that should broaden his support.

No news is good news, Steve.

EmergentVillage announces no plans for any Frisbee Smackdowns or Barbecues of People. There are no plans for doing theology on a single lawn, but there is a "Call for Voices" here. "...social object theory states that worthwhile social interactions tend to center around an object, described by social media theorist Jyri Engeström as ‘the reason people connect with each particular other and not something else.'"

So there's the on-going search for worthwhile social interactions among emergents.

If any of you have "Kingdom-stories that are meaningful social objects at a local level" (and even if you're not sure your Kingdom-stories are meaningful social objects at a local level), please contact Amy at amymoffit42@gmail.com. She would love to help you with that.

Last night I listened to this. Tripp Fuller and James F. McGrath chatter about conceptually inaccessible things and tell us why they don't believe the Bible. There's nothing new here, there's nothing interesting here, there's nothing coherent here. I don't necessarily suggest that you listen to all 64:28 minutes; I just listened to the whole thing to test my stamina. Three days and three nights in a cabin with Double Twelve Color Dot Dominoes can make you soft.

The emerging "communities of disbelief" continue their search for meaning and their struggle for existence. It has been about a decade and we still don't detect anything emerging. We recall the bright, promising days of Trucker Frank and Marie, but things move very slowly with emergents; glaciers go by in a blur. It takes forever to get out a print artifact, they still search for their Kingdom-stories, and leaders continue rebranding themselves.

Yes, it's sad and pathetic, but it's sad and pathetic in a comical sort of way.

That's my Kingdom-story and I'm sticking to it.