From the monthly archives:

January 2010

Merge

by Mark on January 27, 2010

I have something important to share with you.

This fall I wrote 7 blog posts about how we gather which continued off the blog with a lot of folks who host conferences for church leaders or for students. These have been personally encouraging conversations for me as people begin to explore a framework in which transformation happens for people in communities.

This summer (June 27-July 2)Mark Novelli and Kelly Dolan (Imago Media) and Michael Novelli (Echo the Story) are hosting an experience called MERGE. It maybe the most unique, teen empowering, discipleship experience I’ve heard of for high school kids.

They are combining both the story of God (specifically a 16 story arc from scripture) and a way of gathering that cultivates transformation of communities.

It isn’t a camp where you hand off your kids to strangers, the framework allows for you to bear the responsibility of leadership of your group, but also allows for the teams to own their own faith and the responsibility for it.

The MERGE team plays host and facilitator.

The experience will work because the folks like you will be there and the MERGE are great guides.

Michael, Mark and Kelly are on my short list for people I think are/will truly change the church. They are pioneers of ministry and thinking.

So go check out the MERGE site. Take your kids to MERGE. Then email me and thank me for sending you their direction.

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Nipple Cracker (2005)

January 19, 2010

This is an essay I asked my wife if I a could publicly post few years ago.It’s a very intimate conversation about breastfeeding, but more importantly, about the amazing devotion my wife has to our kids. 2005 was a time in which I started writing about things outside of the church. This is still a [...]

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Scrolls we need to hide (2004)

January 18, 2010

I wrote this after visiting the dead sea scrolls when they visited Grand Rapids, Michigan. Rereading this I love the idea of writing that will be forgotten then re-remembered. I’m asking myself this today. ============================================ Saw a few of the scrolls on Sunday. Very cool.Written by the Essenes, the 900 scroll they discovered in a [...]

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Copy Driven Churches (2004)

January 14, 2010

What I remember about this post is the snarky title. But re-reading today I’m taken back by my comments on experts. I don’t think I really knew what I was saying, but today I really appreciate what I said then. I think I was on to something then. Whatever it was 6 years ago that [...]

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"Just Not in Charge…" (2004)

January 13, 2010

From 2002-2004 there was a lot of conversation about “the death of youth ministry”. I think the term can originally be attributed to Holly Rankin Zaher, around the same time, but there were several of us who’d been asking questions about the future of youth ministry and how it needed to change. I gathered a [...]

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Untitled doc (2004)

January 12, 2010

In late 2004 it seemed to be a critical time for me. I had a lot going on personally at the church I was working within & was still rethinking some things regarding the church. I wrote the following piece and I don’t think I ever posted it anywhere publicly (til now). Re-reading this is [...]

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Don’t call me youth pastor (2004)

January 11, 2010

Below is something I wrote in early 2004. Though this comes off as toxic, it wasn’t written to be so. It was an honest prayer and confession. One that I still think I can agree with. Maybe not literally, but the sentiment is real and helpful. As I re-read this I’m taken by my burden [...]

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On Postmodernism (2002)

January 7, 2010

This repost from 2002 is a bit odd. after writing a couple de-tox rants Spencer Burke of theooze.com invited me to write a weekly rant. This was both good and bad for me. Good in that I had a group of people who gave immediate feedback and additional thoughts on what I’d written. Writing something [...]

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Christian Bookstore as the New Church (2001)

January 6, 2010

The next piece from the past decade is this is a rant I wrote in 2001. I wrote this for theooze.com. As I re-read this post it seems interesting to me that I’m deconstructing consumerism and the church’s fixation with it. A quote from this article made it into Skye Jethani’s book last year. But [...]

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Pastors or Prostitutes (2000)

January 5, 2010

Wow. I’m gonna start off with a doozy. I wrote this post 10 years ago and I’d describe it as a purge. I wrote it shortly after leaving a large church and taking a 9 month sabbatical from professional ministry. I’d been a youth pastor my entire adult life and could not tell the difference [...]

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