Mark Scandrette

Today I’m going to be interviewed on The Bob Dutko show in Detroit on WMUZ at 1:30 EST. I haven’t quite gotten used to these live radio interviews.

October 2-5 2007 Glorietta, New Mexico

Since ancient times tribes of people have gathered to tabernacle—to rest, celebrate and feast together—with a sense of expectancy and awareness of the Maker’s presence.

What can happen when 200 people converge for three days to relax, feast and talk about the things that matter most to us? Friendships are deepened. Memories are made. Imaginations are awakened. Hope and a sense of solidarity are rediscovered. New projects and collaborations get instigated.

For almost a decade now people have been making pilgrimage to the annual Emergent Gathering in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is one of the events sponsored by Emergent Village that I believe best embodies our commitment to generative friendship. The Emergent Gathering is a participatory “happening,” where we conspire and collaborate together to create hospitality, conversations and common action. An advanced planning team sets up basic logistics like housing, food, and a daily rhythm. But beyond this, participants are invited to host conversations and activities each day.

Talking is one of the rhythms that helps us discover what it means to seek the kingdom of God in the times and places where we live. We like to say that the Emergent Gathering is a “for-us-by-us” advanced conversation where we learn from one another. We especially welcome voices from vocations that are not primarily “pastoral” or academic to encourage cross-pollination among life disciplines.

What I love most about the Emergent Gathering is the intensive experience of community that is facilitated by sharing life together over 72 hours. The relaxed atmosphere and beautiful surroundings allow us to have integrative encounters: hearing each other’s stories while preparing a meal; hiking or gallery-hopping while talking about issues of faith, ecology or spiritual leadership; discussing theology or the new sciences while sitting in the sun down by a lake; learning and practicing healthful life skills like yoga, meditative prayer, cooking, poetry and song writing, textile design or how to taste the nuances of coffees from around the world.

If you have been around Emergent Village and the emerging church conversation for a while and are looking for a way to become more relationally connected, the Emergent Gathering is a great place to transition from observer to participant. It is also a good space to meet and talk with people face-to-face that you may know through books or blogs. I encourage you to consider joining us this October.

This year the Emergent Gathering is October 2-5 at Glorieta Conference Center near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Gathering will begin on Tuesday afternoon at 3 P.M. and conclude on Friday before noon.

The cost for this event is $75 per adult, which includes all meals and organizing expenses. Children (12 and under) are free. 12-17 year olds are $35. Go here to register.
Participants must make their own housing arrangements with the conference center. Rates are quite reasonable and shared housing is suggested.
To make housing arrangements, please call Glorieta conference center directly 800-797-4222. We have two kinds of housing reserved:
-The Thunderbird Inn ($49 per night for two queen beds).
-The Garden Apartments ($55 per night includes kitchen, two beds and a hide-away couch; large apartments can accommodate 4-6 people, small apartments can accommodate 2-4 people)
-Camping is also available. $17 for RV hook up.

Spaces for this event will fill up fast, so I encourage you to register early.

We are looking for people interested in helping organize and host the event. We have four teams: Conversations, Activities, Food, & Hospitality. If you want to join one of the teams, contact dofarrell AT bridgesonline DOT org

We hope to see you in Santa Fe this October!!!

Mark Scandrette, for the planning team:
Saranell & Tim Hartman
Jen and Damien O’Farrell
Stacy and Mike Stavlund
Holly & Ryan Sharp
Troy and Kelly Bronsink
Wendy Eason
Randy Buist
Doug Pagitt
Michael Toy

Today Lisa and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary. We got married when I was 20 and Lisa was 21 and we were best friends for five years before that. If you do the math, that means that Lisa and I have been together for 21 years now! We met at a child evangelism training camp in Minnesota (think Jesus Camp minus the cool factor and charismatic gifts) when we were 15 and 16. Although we were very happy together when we got married 16 years ago today, we both agree that at this point, every year is better than the last. The friendships & conversations are better, the sex is better, our weekly date nights are more fun– and at this point I think we both keep getting better looking!

Because I’m loud and Lisa tends to be calm & quiet, many people don’t know all of Lisa’s charms and accomplishments. She devotes alot of her time to guiding and educating our kids– and if you have met Hailey, Noah or Isaiah–you know that her investment is paying off in their character and confidence. She also spends 15 hours a week doing administrative work with ReIMAGINE, mentoring younger women and hosting the stream of people who come through our home. I should also mention that Lisa is the administrator for our local home education coop that serves over a hundred families and she is a girl scouts co-leader and co-op writing and knitting club teacher. In addition to all this she is making great progress in taking care of her body– eating well and walking an hour a day– and this year she has lost almost 50 pounds. Some of you may know that Lisa is also a compulsive knitter– in her spare time she always has needles and yarn in hand creating something for the many people she loves. In the past year or two she has been kniting prayer shawls for friends who are going through hard times. As she knits she prays for the person and then gives the shawl to them as a gift to wear when they are feeling sad or discouraged. I really feel like out of the two of us, Lisa is the best at living into the greater wholeness of the kingdom. I teach and write about the life she is living. I love you Baby-Mama!!! Happy Anniversary!!!

It seems like every week at this time of year someone is shot and killed in our neighborhood. I was especially saddened when I walked by the memorial for 15 year old Edivaldo Sanchez– only two years older than my daughter. The Chronicle did a story on Edivaldo that can be found here.(see an excerpt posted below).

(06-17) 16:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A pair of gang members in a stolen car shot and killed a 15-year-old boy Saturday night as he stood with a friend outside his family’s apartment on a busy street in San Francisco’s Mission District, police said. The victim, identified by the city medical examiner as Eddie Valdo, was shot at about 8 p.m. at the corner of 24th and Harrison streets. Two young men, believed to be 17 to 20 years old, drove up in a Honda Accord and the passenger opened fire, said police Sgt. Neville Gittens, a department spokesman.

Eddie left a trail of blood on the sidewalk as he ran a half-block west on 24th Street and collapsed outside a taqueria at the mouth of Balmy Street. Paramedics pronounced him dead near a tree, where on Sunday a shrine of flowers, candles and photographs began to form. Eddie’s friend was unhurt.

The 24th Street corridor is a bustling business district full of cafes, restaurants and markets. It is also known for gang activity, but Eddie was not a gang member, said family members and Gittens. Even so, Gittens said, homicide inspectors believe the killing was gang-related.

Relatives referred to the victim as Edivaldo Sanchez, who went by “Eddie.” They said he came to the United States three or four years ago from Puebla, Mexico, attended San Francisco’s Horace Mann Middle School and loved to play soccer. He lived with his mother and several other relatives a half-block east of the shooting scene, in a second-floor apartment above a Mexican market.

“He was a really good boy,” said Jannet Alonzo, a 26-year-old cousin of the victim. “I don’t know why this happened to him.”

You can read our latest ReIMAGINE newsletter here.

In a recent conversation, a local friend of mine on a spiritual quest referred to several of the historic Christian mystics as people he deeply admired for being “tuned in.” His comment renewed my interest in studying the lives of various mystics and theologians. Yesterday I picked up a compilation of 52 well regarded figures from various ages. Today I read about Gregory of Nyssa (331-396 AD) whose greatest contribution seemed to come from his emphasis on continually striving after virtue. His emphasis on leaning into what is beyond agrees with my current thoughts about the message of Jesus being an invitation into the impossible. Or perhaps Gregory’s focus on straining toward what can be is a helpful defense of my relentless idealism and disatisfaction with what is.  Below is a quote from his work, THE LIFE OF MOSES, that struck me:

““For in the case of those things which are good by nature, even if [people] of understanding were not able to attain everything, by attaining even a part they could yet gain a great deal.”

In the past several weeks as our team has sought to clarify the goal of our work I have found myself reiterating my personal ambition to discover a way of faith in the emerging culture. I don’t talk this way much anymore– having overdosed on talk of cultural shifts and postmodernism 7 or 8 years ago. But lately we have found it helpful to consider the role one’s host culture takes in setting up questions of faith. In my opinion, the emerging world is way beyond new urbanism or a critique of modernist philosophy or theology. The emerging world is a way of seeing our rapidly changing reality– and this includes global economics, communication and technology. I think it is really exciting to be working out faith and life on the edge of the future– and I believe we are invited to push into our questions and experiments about what it means to be faithful to the Way of Jesus in these changing times.

Last week was a whirlwind of travel, speaking, hosting events and people and spending more time in front of the camera than I ever have before. A film crew took over the lower flat of our building on Saturday night to get some footage for a documentary they hope will explain the emerging faith expressions to more traditional church folks. The same crew came to The Spiritual Ecology Project on Tuesday to do more interviews. At the end of the week my publisher had me do an hour long interview with a film crew on the deck of a hotel penthouse downtown San Francisco. Working the camera and speaking in soundbites takes some getting used to–but by the interview I felt sheepishly like Tony Robins or other motivational speakers pitching their wares.

I downloaded the new Arcade Fire album, NEON BIBLE, from itunes this afternoon. I know some people have said that there isn’t anything new on this album, but after 4 listenings I like it even better than FUNERAL.

On Sunday June 10 I’ll be flying to San Diego to collaborate with THE COBALT SEASON and ADAM KLEIN at  MISSION GATHERING at 10:30 a.m.  In the evening we will be doing a house show together hosted by my old friend Jason Evans at 7 p.m. If you live in San Diego and want to connect in the afternoon, on the beach, give me a holler.