Mark Scandrette

I’ll be in Seattle next week connecting with various groups. If you live in the area maybe we can connect aroun one of these happenings:

FEBRUARY 28-March 1 THE NEW CONSPIRATORS CONFERENCE with mustard seed associates. Lisa and I will be doing a workshop on Emerging/Missional parenting and I will be doing a workshop called “Entering the Jesus Dojo” on activist spiritual formation.

MARCH 1: The Purple Door in Seattle with The Cobalt Season.

MARCH 2: Wits End Church 10 a.m.Seattle.

MARCH 2: ZOE LIVABLE COMMUNITY with The Colbalt Season, Tacoma. 6 P.M.

Here’s a workshop I am facilitating this spring as part of ReIMAGINE’s Jesus Dojo:

EXPERIMENTS IN TRUTH: a laboratory for personal transformation.

The master invites us to rethink or reimagine our whole lives in light of
the Maker’s dream of greater wholeness for our world.  This workshop
explores the physicality of spiritual formation. If I change what I do in my
mind and body, how will it effect my capacity to flow with the Creator’s
energy & love? (what eat? how I spend my time?  The media I consume? How I
use my money? Who I spend my time with?) This practical workshops seek to
deal with the disparity we often feel between how we want to live and how we
actually live.  Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and facing his
greatest shadows and temptations. Participants in this workshop will engage
in practices aimed at confronting our own shadows and obstacles to the
spiritual life through “experiments in truth.”

Wednesdays March 19th through April 23rd. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Location in central
SF TBA.
Cost: $25  Register on-line www.reimagine.org

If you are new to the bay area or curious about Emerging Faith and the Emerging church, this is a great opportunity to connect with co-conspirators.

Sugarlump Theology Salon.

When? February 24th, 7-9pm

Where? Sugarlump Coffee Lounge
2862 24th Street @ Bryant
San Francisco CA 94110
http://www.sugarlumpcoffeelounge.com/

Upcomimg Topic:

Where does the emergent church stand in relation to this mystical relational faith? Does its focus on contemplative exercises combined with its hostility towards evangelism lead to self-focus? Does its formulation of the Gospel in terms of “following Jesus” and his kingdom lead to an impersonal “way” rather than a relationship?

Familiarity with readings from “mystic” texts such as: St Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, St John of the Cross, & The Cloud of Unknowing, New Seed of Contemplation, etc.   will be helpful in your participation.

Also check out this post by Scott McNight: http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=1001

In order to facilitate the best conversation possible it is helpful for us know how many people are coming. PLEASE R.S.V.P. to this event, by contacting Adam Klein, adam AT reimagine.org

The Sugarlump Theology  Salon is a gathering of theologians and thinkers in the San Francisco Bay Area who meet in order to share and discuss their ideas and get peer feedback from one another. In the tradition of “The Inklings” (the literary group of C.S. Lewis’s and J.R.R. Tolkien that met in a pub for readings and criticism of their own work) we meet in a coffee house (the San Francisco equivalent of a pub) called the “Sugarlump Coffee Lounge”.

This summer I will be on the road with my friends Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. We will be traveling in an RV to towns and cities across America (and Canada) conducting GOSPEL REVIVAL meetings and connecting with friends who are similarly passionate about pursuing the Way of Jesus in the exciting times we are living in. You can help host us and become part of the show in your city!

Today in the mail I received my copy of my friend Tony Jones new book, The New Christians. I’ve take a quick browse and must say that it is a book that Tony should be very proud of: well written, hopeful and proactive. I also believe that for those who have been critics or just curious about the emerging church phenomenon, Tony does a great job of explaining some history and concepts that are defining what could be described as a move of the Spirit in our generation. His treatment of the topic is broad, even-handed, generous and personal– and Tony does a kind job of responding with humility to critics. Read this book!

NIGHT (January 26th, 2008)

Through skeleton branches
the western sky fades from blue to pink
apocalypse red then starry black
and I feel the night
coming on the wind
and in the darkening gray
as the temperature drops
in minutes by degrees

Night comes like death
All the promises of the day lost
in the fatigue of twilight dusk
The shadows now lengthening
over all that is left undone

The warmth of the kitchen hearth
aroma of dinner simmering
The artificial glow of electricity
and the music on the radio
do so little to dissuade me
from the sneaking suspicion that the best efforts and ideals of my nature
now lay aborted, still born or hopelessly deformed
by the grave inevitability and the cruel withholding of your blessing

I am haunted in this witching hour
The hour when you abandon me
to the lonely voices and lingering doubts
kept hidden by the business of the day

I am desperate for comfort
In your absence
I savor of my food, cheap laughs,
fantasy film violence or the stupor of wine—
some sweat release or illicit escape
from the anger and frustration of being your unloved child
left alone in the night.
Your truancy is felt in the empty spaces
And so I rush
Past teeth brushing or bedtime prayers
to sleep and dream of other worlds
Tasting the milk of a mothers breast
Where all strivings cease
And all that has been
And all that will be
Is unmade

9:30 P.M. Organized by students at Westmont College

We will be exchanging bursts of poetic flow with light snacks and conversation.

Ocean View Apartments #19 (second floor, left side, closest to road)
Ocean View Ave., Santa Barbara 93103

From E. Cabrillo Blvd heading towards Montecito:
Go under 101 overpass
Turn left onto Hot Springs
Left onto Old Coast Highway (very soon after turning on Hot Springs)
Right onto Ocean View Ave.
Apartments are first complex on the left.

Can be found here.

If you haven’t been to our website recently, check out the new look. Pictures and resources will be added soon. www.reimagine.org

We still have a few spaces available for our annual prayer retreat. You can sign up here.
ENTERSPACE: Silent Prayer Retreat

Prayer is our breath of life and it is through prayer,or communion with God, that we live and breath. In him we move and have our being, so much so that we are inexplicably linked to our Creator. The Nazarene came proclaiming union with God, the seed of life rooted in us.The practice of prayer should aid us in removing the layers that have been placed on us, moving us toward finding the life breath of God within us. Prayer is not merely the utterance of words or petitions. It is life with God in everything we do. Through new experiences,information and reflection we are able to awaken the dormant pulse of God that resides within.

Please join us for a 3 day guided silent prayer retreat. Where we will practice the art of stillness and learn to listen for the voice of God.

The retreat will take place February 22 - 24th 2008.
Location - Klein Cabin @ Kirkwood.
All meals and lodging included.
Cost - $95