Monday, July 14, 2008

NOOMA


A few months ago when I had a lot of time on my hands (OK, I still have a lot of time on my hands, as if there was any doubt) I decided to do some research into The Emergent Church, and more specifically, the geeky face of the Emergent Church - Rob Bell (see above). What followed was a mini series of recaps/reviews/commentaries on the NOOMA DVD franchise.

I could only watch the ones that were streamed on Youtube (since I wasn't willing to cough up the necessary cash to do otherwise), so in all I've recapped/reviewed/commented on NOOMA's 1, 2, 5 and 6.

The style of my pieces ended up being a lot more relaxed than I had first intended. Initially I was determined to write a very serious collection of commentaries that gave an unbiased, biblically based viewpoint on Bell's teachings. What followed was actually a collection of biased, biblically unsound recaps that did nothing but satisfy my own self indulgence.

OK that last part is untrue...for the most part. These reviews quickly morphed into recaps of what Bell said and done throughout the NOOMA, and comments on various things that struck me. Some of the things are quite serious in nature, and some are just funny little things that came to my mind as I watched with my admittedly cynical hat on. With the more serious issues I tried to remain as close to the Bible as I could, and to keep my personal preferences far away. The silly remarks I make throughout the reviews were added to try and keep things light hearted and to put a bit of 'Dec' into the writing. Some of them worked, some of them didn't, but that's life.

Anyway, without further delay, here are the 4 pieces in question, with links to the actual NOOMA I wrote about. There's a lot of words to sift through (somewhere in the region of 12,000 I think) but I'd really appreciate for people to read them and let me know what they think either by comments or emails or facebook or whatever.

In no way am I standing over this work claiming all of what I've said is spot on. Far from that in fact. There will undoubtedly be several mistakes or things that I've said which were just phrased awfully, or times when I made fun of Rob Bell just because. But whether you're a Rob Bell fan or not I hope you can keep an open mind, just like I have (n't).

Anyway, without further further delay, here they are:

NOOMA 1 - Rain

NOOMA 1 Recap


NOOMA 2 - Flame

NOOMA 2 - Recap


NOOMA 5 - Noise

NOOMA 5 - Recap



NOOMA 6 - Kickball

NOOMA 6 - Recap

(I can't find the Youtube link, but since my recaps are so comprehensive and accurate you don't really need it [?])


So that's it. Let me know what you think and if I should do some more or quit while I'm behind.

3 comments:

  1. I love your style of writing but i must admit quite often it goes over my head, i posted a comment on one of your other posts, curious of the answer if you ever 'simplify' your writing just a tiny bit so perhaps those less blessed with a 'thinkers mind' shall we say can get a grasp of what you are saying. Iv since found a solution though, to read your older posts. You make some very interesting points and its cool to see your quite open to various opinions on different subject matters! Just out of interest and to save me looking through your many posts I was wondering to you have any posts based on more personal experience relationship with God, perhaps less theory and more practice? I often find these very interesting reads! Keep doing what your doing though your work is pretty cool!

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  2. Hi Grace!

    I'm glad you're enjoying some of the posts. I'm afraid I don't intentionally simplify, but only because I hopefully don't need to. I try to keep things short and sweet, which I hope makes what I write understandable. But of course there is somewhat of an ongoing story in the blog, so perhaps just jumping in at the end makes things confusing.

    As for "personal experience", there is not much here. I tend not to like what I write when I write about myself. But there are a couple that might fall under that category, which you can read here:

    http://iamdeclan.blogspot.com/2010/09/queen-of-sciences.html

    and here:

    http://iamdeclan.blogspot.com/2011/05/exile-in-need-of-bride.html

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  3. Hey, no worries at all - to be fair it was probably a bit silly asking if you simplified your stuff as I guess that would mean changing who you are? I do thoroughly enjoy it non the less. As for the personal experience ones, this would be more down to my own personal preference more than anything else, just thought by chance id write and see. I read your 'exile in need of bride' post...very interesting read and very honest too! Must have a wee nosey at the other one. Many thanks indeed for info and like I said, keep doing what your doing, your stuff is pretty cool :)

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