Tony Jones » travel

Best Road Trip Hints for Kids?

Tony Jones — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:17:26 +0000

I’m hitting the road with the kids at the end of the week, not to Washington, D.C., as originally planned, but to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. (I decided we’ll go to D.C. when the kids are a bit older.)

So, I ask you, dear readers, for the best road trip games for kids. I’ve already printed out some road trip bingo cards, and the license plate game. Any other ideas?

And how about favorite audio books — or, better yet, podcasts (free!) for the trip?

Really, any tips for the road trip?

Tilting at (Real) Theological Windmills

Tony Jones — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:13:08 +0000

Tripp "Sancho Panza" Fuller and Philip "Don Quixote" Clayton, by Dave Huth

If there’s a Don Quixote of theology, it may be Philip Clayton, in that he attacks orthodoxies with an evangelical zeal rarely found in liberal and progressive ecclesial circles. Tripp Fuller, Clayton’s erstwhile doctoral student and cornhole zealot, shares the wry, earthy wit of Quixote’s sidekick, Sancho Panza. I first made this allusion in the preface to Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society, the book penned by Clayton and Fuller, and they proved true to these characterizations last week at Theology after Google.

My thanks to them for bringing together this event. In many ways, it felt like an early emergent event, in that the quality and curiosity of all participants — those in front, and those in the audience — was uncommonly high. And also, because of that quality, the participants walked away somewhat disappointed. That’s because this was a demanding group, and because events, by their nature are bound to disappoint. Someone’s constituency is always underrepresented; someone else’s ego not sufficiently stroked; and someone else is convinced they could have given a superior presentation (which surely they could have).

For these reasons, it’s a difficult task to produce an event — more difficult, I’ll say, than producing something more static, like an article or a book (or a blog post!). So, I write to publicly express my gratitude to Don and Sancho for sharpening their lances and throwing a great party last week. Bravo! (And thanks to Dave Huth for taking me up on the challenge of the above illustration!)

Theology After Google

Tony Jones — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:30:25 +0000

Starting tonight, I’ll be participating in (and co-hosting) Theology After Google, part of the Transforming Theology Project at Claremont School of Theology. You can watch much of it live on UStream. You can also follow our Twitter stream:

#tag10

Washington, D.C. Travel Tips

Tony Jones — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:58:34 +0000

Call me Clark. I’m loading the kids into the family truckster (Volvo wagon) and driving them to Washington, D.C. at the end of March. We’re going to do the usuals: tour the Capitol Building, spend a day in the Smithsonian(s); visit Mount Vernon.

But my question for you, dear blog readers, is this: What else should I know? Any off-the-beaten-track suggestions? How about where to stay (I’m currently searching VRBO.com, and looking for hotel deals)? Anything else?

Thanks for your help!

Theology After Google

Tony Jones — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:52:58 +0000

I’m going to be part of a very cool gathering, Theology After Google, March 10-12, 2010, in Claremont, California with such luminaries as Philip Clayton, Spencer Burke, John Franke, Helene Slessarev-Jamir, Adam Walker Cleveland, Bob Cornwall, Dwight Friesen, Jon Irvine, Glen Stassen, Tripp Fuller, and Ryan Parker. Philip recently interviewed me via Skype and has posted it at the Transforming Theology site:

A Report from Black Stump

Tony Jones — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:49:08 +0000

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zw7_aA_RPoA]

Australia Day Four – A Day Off

Tony Jones — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:43:07 +0000

My hosts mercifully gave me a day off on Friday. I needed it, since I was honestly tired of hearing myself talk. Duncan, who has now blogged about my visit, and his wife, Ennis, drove me to Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. From there, we walked north along the gorgeous beach to Surfers Paradise and had a leisurely breakfast as we watched “nippers” being trained.

We arrived back at Duncan’s in time to hear Sarah Palin ramble incoherently about various topics and watch Gwen Ifill like a deer-in-headlights refuse to ask any follow-up questions. Biden, I thought, was his usual knowledgeable self, if a bit dry.

(BTW, I think this is interesting to note: People in the States, and here in Australia, often talk to me about how the dominance of the U.S. is waning, how India and China are already the ascendant global powers, etc. But, here in Australia, at 11 o’clock in the morning, the U.S. vice presidential debate was played in its entirety, both on television and radio. And I imagine that also happened in most Western countries yesterday. Do the Australians cover the Chinese financial markets with the same eye as the U.S. financial markets? No. Do they broadcast the parliament of India like they do the U.S. Congress? No.

Globalization has surely relativized the dominance of the U.S. in world affairs, but from where I sit on the other side of the globe, the U.S. still captures the imagination of the world in a way that no other country does. And, of course, the transparency of our political machinery aids in this.)

Duncan drove me to the airport and I had an eventless flight back to Sydney. Fuzz retrieved me, and we made our way through rush hour traffic back to his place in The Hills. Along the way, he told me many stories about his consulting work with youth ministry in Egypt, which sounds fascinating.

Carolyn and Fuzz then took me to dinner at their favorite seafood place and, as you can see below, ordered the seafood platter which means that we ate far too much food, complemented by a fine Australian white wine.

Like I said, it was good to have a day off.

Carolyn and Fuzz Kitto with the Seafood Platter

Australia Day Three – Brisbane to the Gold Coast

Tony Jones — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:34:11 +0000

I awoke at about 4am on Thursday, which was unfortunate. But I made some coffee and did some writing. Dave awoke a bit later and, likewise, sat and wrote. He’s written several books on community organizing and such, and I am even more impressed with his theological vision for his neightborhood…and the world. The two of us are in many ways sympatico, and I plan to come back here to West End Brisbane for a longer stay sometime.

Around 7:30, we walked a few blocks over to Black Star Coffee, which is presently housed in a small warehouse. I watched (and filmed) as Matt roasted a batch of beans

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=3lTiOPqZqKs]

He’s already started a similar company (People’s Coffee) in New Zealand, and now he’s helping at Blackstar for a while. Blackstar is a part of The Waiters Union, which is the community that Dave and Ange started when they moved back from India. Their commitment to the community of West End is really astounding, and Blackstar is a part of that. Matt joked about all of the emerging churches that have failed coffee houses in their pasts, and about how important it is to have a bigger vision than a cafe. Well, these guys have a bigger vision. They’re also true coffee connesiers, and they pull an amazing shot:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZWXoh8x2gxM]

The rest of the morning consisted of a personal and interesting conversation with a group that is basically the emergent-esque cohort in Brisbane. We talked about life and church and ministry and theology. I really, really enjoyed my time with these folks.

After lunch, Duncan drove me to his home on the Gold Coast. We went to his gym for an hour, then out to dinner with his family. On the way across the parking lot to the restaurant, it seemed that a tree was coming alive with birds. Duncan explained they were rainbow lorikeets, which make a racket for about 90 minutes each evening:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=T7Jakpg2bi0]

After dinner, another conversation with church leaders and others from the Gold Coast, then off to bed. All in all, a long and gratifying day. I get Friday basically off, so I’m looking forward to the down time.

Day Two in Australia – Brisbane

Tony Jones — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:14:23 +0000

Carolyn Kitto and I both got up early and left for the airport. Carolyn works for World Vision Australia, and she was heading for their annual day of prayer in Melbourne. She was meeting Mike Pilavachi there, and he led the prayer day.

I flew to Brisbane. As we pulled away from the jetbridge, I saw my suitcase on the tarmac and thought, “Oh, shit.” It’s now 24 hours later, and I still don’t have it.

In Brisbane, I was retrieved by Duncan MacLeod, a long-time emergent blogger and networker. He currently works for the Uniting Church in Australia (a 1970s merger of Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians). We went to Duncan’s office for a couple hours and I caught up on emails, etc.

At noon, we left to have lunch and a 90-minute conversation with a group of about two dozen Baptist church planters. The conversation was cordial and passionate. We found areas of agreement and disagreement, to be sure.

After that, we went to meet up with Dave Andrews. Dave is also known to many emergents around the world. He and his wife, Ange, spent many years in India, living as a Christian communal presence. A few years ago, they moved back to Brisbane where they founded the Waiters Union. The name, Dave told me, comes from the idea that a good waiter is a helpful but not overbearing presence at a restaurant. They’re trying to be the same in the West End of Brisbane.

As Dave describes a bit in the video below, the West End is Brisbane’s most eclectic, diverse, edgy area. It’s full of ethnic restaurants, has a large aboriginal population, and is also struggling with gentrification and the concomitant rise in housing prices.

The Waiters Union is a collective of a few dozen people who live in several houses in this neighborhood. As Dave told me, “It’s Christocentric, but not Christian. Our value for membership in the community is not whether you ‘believe’ in Christ but whether you’re living a Christlike life.” They’re quite involved in the activity of the neighborhood, and they’ve got several ventures like a fair trade, organic coffee roastery, which I’ll be visiting on Thursday morning. The whole thing reminds me a bit of ReIMAGINE, and Dave said something that I’ve heard Mark say: “We’re caught between the emergent church and the new monastics. Now quite one or the other, but a little of both.”

After dinner (see below), Dave and Matt drove me to a nearby church where Duncan hosted the local emergent network, called “Postcards.” We chatted for a couple hours about all things emergent, then back to Dave’s house for a few hours of sleep.

Dinner in Brisbane…

Tony Jones — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:42:08 +0000

…with Dave Andrews and Matt from the Waiter’s Union.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uft4CS6e1io]