Mark Scandrette

Next Sunday, June 3, I will be speaking on SOUL GRAFFITI, along with THE COBALT SEASON playing songs from their new album, IN SEARCH OF A UNIFIED THEORY at FLOOD, Sacramento. If you live in the area, come out and see us– maybe we can have dinner after the event (5-7 P.M.)

I don’t believe I have ever met Bill Dahl, author of the Porpoise Diving Life, but he seems like an interesting and soulful character, who has made his book available for free online. Bill represents what I believe is a growing constituency of people of faith who search for God and for a path of faith, with a sense of realism about the messiness and ambiguities we face in our daily lives.

ReIMAGINE presentsa Learning Lab on COMMUNITY
Sundays June 3, 10 and 24 at 5-7 PM
(optional) Community Retreat June 31- July1

During the month of June ReIMAGINE will host a Learning Lab on the theme of community. These labs, formerly called the Jesus Dojo, serve as a project based learning experience designed to help people integrate the teachings of Jesus into real life.

This Community Learning Lab will focus on reconciliation. We will help one another take personal risks to be reconciled wherever needed, with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and anyone else. We will divide into teams to host parties of hospitality and visit local communities of faith with the intention of pursuing unity. We will pursue reconciliation where necessary while training ourselves to develop an attitude of love and appreciation that will keep us from drifting into judgment or fear in the future.

We hope that acting together will spur us on towards a life of unity and reconciliation flowing from our love for the Creator and creation. As much as possible it will help the flow of the Learning Lab if people attend all three sessions. Know that everyone who attends will have the opportunity to form this experience together and take it to a meaningful level for all of us.

Details of the Community Retreat will be shared during the Learning Lab.

Details:
When? June 3, 10 and 24 from 5-7 PM
Where? 3166 25th Street in the Mission District
Registration? Please email nateATreimagineDOTorg to register or ask questions
How much? Please bring $3-5 per night to help pay for dinner and printing costs

SAVE THE DATE: Tuesday June 12, 9 a.m.-??

The stars have aligned and a critical mass of emerging church leaders happen to be in the Bay Area on the same date. We thought this convergence a good reason to host a day of conversation and friendship building among missional leaders and seekers.

The Spiritual Ecology Project. A day of conversation about the emerging church and God’s mission in our world., featuring Karen Sloan, Ian Mobsby, Doug Pagitt, Nathan George, Mark Scandrette, Tony Jones and Bob Carlton.

9 A.M. - 12 P.M. Introductions & Break Out conversations
12 P.M. - ???? Lunch and continuing open source conversation

Come for all or a portion of the days festivities.

LOCATION: San Francisco, TBA.

Please R.S.V.P. to Amy Ross. Limited Space available.

Details to follow shortly shortly.

There are many, many layers to becoming whole
and learning to flow
with the force of love

Partly, it is how we think about ourselves
and the world that surrounds us.

And partly, it is what we choose to do
with our bodies, our time and our resources.

“How do I love?” Is the question I keep asking myself.

The bottom feeders, small time crooks and thieves,
those of us who are more unstable or crazy
keep getting moved around by external forces;
loss of jobs, housing, spouses.

Those of us with more svelte skills
move ourselves around through constant career changes
or the restless desire to try another city
like a fantasy of making love to another woman or man
Somewhere or someone else might be better.

We ache for what we do not have:
money, beauty, time, a cause, a family, love
We envy those whose pools of emptiness
are different than our own.

I’m staying in the same house, in the same city with the same woman
learning these streets, these creaking walls, and the curves of this lady
like they are part of the chemistry and rhythms of my own body.

Growth comes through change
and the changes, they can be external or interior
When there is not enough stability
it is hard to tell the difference between growth and entropy.

It is easier to follow messiahs from town to town
than to settle down
to the true work of becoming
the question, “How do I love?”

The prophet, hero or saint
awakens our imaginations to the real work of change–
which, is an inside job, an unglamorous daily chore
like brushing your teeth or taking out the garbage.

I want a love that is alive
an ice chest full of cool drinks on a warm summer day.

I want a love that is full of hope
chasing shadows away with its light

I want a love that is bold
leaving a clear and distinctive taste when swallowed.

I want a love that is enduring
a pair of shoes well worn and well made.

I want a love that is skillful
like good diction, neat handwriting
or the poetic motions of an artisan plying their trade.

Let me step with beauty through this scene
in the ongoing drama of loves triumph over greed.

THis morning I am being interviewed by Michelle Mendoza on am 630 in the Seattle area.

How long can we keep on running around
Spending time like paper dollars in a monopoly game?
I used to think that I could do it all,
when my ambitions were small,
and I wasn’t so strong.

In my mind, and with your words, we can create worlds
that come into being through the work of our hands
and the shear power of will.

Our dreams, they are bound, by the limits of time.
There are things that I do only for today,
eating, praying, exercise
Other things are done for next week or next month
appointments, planning, reservations for camping

But I wonder about the paths I might open for future generations
through the choices I make
Land bought for my grand-children
words written on a page that may only be understood by strangers in a future decade
I chafe at the reality that we are time bound– the pressure to make our lives count
when we don’t know which of the ways we spend our days will matter
in two years, twenty or two hundred.
In history, a whole life collapses into two or three events or artifacts
and the lives of entire peoples are reduced to the caricatures of a few great men.

We have such a small window into each other’s lives
Act with the future in mind
What can we leave behind to guide those who go on
after we have passed away?

My friend Nathan George has developed a very practical approach to addressing human trafficking and global poverty. Nathan is one of the most articulate, devout, hard-working and earnest people I have ever met. The work of TRADE AS ONE is worth your attention and patronage.

In a conversation at the book party for SOUL GRAFFITI on Saturday night I tried to explain my general approach to spirituality by suggesting that we try to live into our questions– about God and ourselves. The important thing is that we keep asking, searching and seeking. In previous generations people tended to rely more on external authorities and institutions for their religious answers. The remix of spiritual authority in our culture provides us with the opportunity to be more engaged in wrestling with our questions about how to love God and one another. The story of an authentic search and the conversation carries increasing authority in our society. I would even suggest that this is what Augustine is most remembered for (His Confessions more than his theology). And the warrior/poet/king David of Israel is the quenticential example of one who lived in the questions.

My friend Ryan Sharp is a contemporary example of one who bravely wrestles with the larger questions in a way that is soulful, honest and articulate. He teamed up this time with his wife, Holly Sharp and friend Dan Dixon to produce a wonderful new album called “In Search of a Unified Theory.” Less angry and more constructive than his previous Cobalt Season albums birthed out of an era of deconstruction, “In Search of a Unified Theory” is, I believe, a coming of age album for Ryan, in which he settles into a more mature voice musically and spiritually. The addition of Dan Dixon’s Eno-esque arrangements and instrumentation add sonic complexity,nuance and added intrique to Ryan’s singer-song writing and near tearful croonings. It is also more of a piano album than previous releases– with banjo and chimes added by Dixon. “In Search of a Unified Theory” is a hopeful audio companion for anyone striving to live with greater intentionality, conscience courage within the ambiguities of human fraility.

You can hear The Cobalt Season perform live at Goat Hall at the end of May. See details below. I will also be doing a reading from SOUL GRAFFITI as part of the festivities. (Ryan and I will be doing several dates together over the next few months).

I did a taped interview earlier this week with Pat Williams for WTLN - 950 AM radio in Orlando, Florida. The interview will play this Saturday in the morning. So, if you live in Florida, enjoy hearing me feel my way through my first radio interview.