Mark Scandrette

THE MARK & LISA TEAM  As our kids become teenagers with more independence, Lisa and I have begun to think about how we can partner in our work more synergistically. This year Lisa has taken over an increasing amount of responsibility on our ReIMAGINE team and we’ve started to dream about common work we can do that fits with our passions and gifts. At the New Conspirators conference in Seattle we taught a workshop together entitled “Intentional Parenting and Missional Living.” Over fifty people participated and were very engaged in the question of how to nurture children in a way that connects them with God’s holistic mission in our world. We shared about how we try to live the seven vows of our community as a family. After our session many people stayed around to talk more–particularly with Lisa. As you probably know, in our family I’m generally the one who talks the most and enjoys the crowd. But in our community and circles of influence  Lisa is sought after as a wise woman with a lot to teach. We find this to be true even among the college students who come to visit us. I really feel like in our family, Lisa shines as someone who quietly lives out our deepest values and beliefs most consistently in the details of life and relationships.  

THE NEW CONSPIRATORS… a conference hosted by Tom & Christine Sine as part of the launch of Tom’s new book of the same name. In this well researched book Tom, a noted futurist examines four streams of new expressions of the church in the western world: the emergent, missional, mosaic, and monastic. Although our work with ReIMAGINE might be described as emergent, missional or monastic—for this conference Lisa and I were asked to represent  communities who live in close proximity to one another and try to live by common commitments. We spoke on several panels, and in addition to our workshop, I taught on action-oriented spiritual formation inspired by the way Jesus trained his disciples.

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

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

I did a talk on the concept of THE JESUS DOJO at The River Community in San Jose on Sunday. You can downloard this talk for free here. I have also posted the chapter called ENTER THE JESUS DOJO on the SOUL GRAFFITI BOOK WEBSITE

I’m excited that SOUL GRAFFITI is going to paperback, which will make it more affordable and widely available. I’ve had a chance to add an author’s note for the paperback edition, explaining a bit more about the meaning of SOUL GRAFFITI and who the book is written for:

WHY A BOOK CALLED SOUL GRAFFITI?

What would you write on walls or sidewalks about your spiritual questions and longings if you could do so anonymously? In every literate society since ancient times people have acted on the impulse to scratch their names, their questions, their wisdom or their subversive messages upon walls and other public spaces. Graffiti, as a medium of deconstruction,  reveals a primitive hunger for renewal that makes space for what is emerging. This book is for people with honest discontent and heartfelt questions about what it means to be truly spiritual in the times and places where we live.

You and I are alive during a time that many believe to be one of the great turning points in history—a  time when previous constructions are breaking down and we search together for solutions in an increasingly complex, mobile, interconnected, and fragmented world. This is a time of great possibility– for healing, reconciliation and greater awareness about how we can live together in harmony with our Maker on the planet we call home. Yet these changing times have created fault lines, particularly within religious communities. As I write there is widespread intrigue and controversy about what some describe as “the emerging church.” I suggest that this phenomenon, rather than representing a particular group or movement, is the historic and pervasive process of our response to an ever evolving and emerging flow of human consciousness. In this sense, the church of Jesus has always been emerging—wrestling with what it means to follow his message and teachings in particular times and places. I believe we are invited to add to the many scribbles of soul graffiti on the walls of our religious landscape as an integral part of the messy process of becoming.

Graffiti, in its most provocative form, is a tool for revolution that sounds the alarm and calls us to action.  Among forward thinking people and younger generations there is tremendous dissatisfaction with religion as usual—a quest for perspectives and practices that integrate body, mind and spirit with moral, social and political conscienciousness to address tangible needs and opportunities in our world. This book is for people searching for an integrative spiritual path that is not merely a way to believe, but a way of life. I like to think of this book as a tool for the revolution—a collection of ideas, stories, and experiments that can awaken you to take new action to bring greater wholeness to our world.

We can’t forget that most often graffiti is a form of vandalism.  There is perhaps nothing more disruptive, scandalous, or criminal than the possibility that God might actually be speaking into our history and humanity, spraying a message of subversion onto the hard brick walls of our souls, disrupting our assumptions, guiding us toward a new way of being human and inviting us into the freedom we fear through the frailty of a messiah/prophet. This book is for people who recognized the enduring scandal of the life, message and sufferings of a 1st century rabbi called Yeshua.

Experts debate at what point graffiti crosses the line from art-crime to art work. Gradually the voice of dissent can become the voice of hope, generosity and beauty. It is my hope that we can move from being “haters” to creators—imagining and working towards a different and better future together. If we don’t like the way things are, we can collaborate with our Maker to seek the kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”  This book is for people who want to make beauty with their lives—expanding the boundaries of love in forgotten and unlikely places.

I’ve posted a new chapter sample from SOUL GRAFFITI here, called Darkness & Light: The Scandal of Eternity.

Last night I was sitting in our front room with my sons, Noah and Isaiah, when we heard 6 or 7 rapid gunshots fired right outside the window. We heard screeching tires, but by the time I had grabbed my phone and ran out the door there was nothing to see. The police arrived a few minutes later and found 9mm semi-automatic casings strewn about the street in front of our house. The curious thing is that last Saturday morning we were awakend by gunshots in the same place that wounded a young woman (a neighbor who was shot in the buttocks but recovering well). We watched her dad emerge from the house to find his daughter sprawled out in the alley screaming and surrounded by paramedics. We have a new neighbor who moved in three weeks ago who is getting quite a welcome to the neighborhood. (There are three bullet holes in the siding of her flat from last weeks shooting). We’ve been trying to assure her that it is a great neighborhood and that these events are seasonal and rare. And yet there have been 4 shootings within 4 blocks of our house in the last four days– plus last nights gunfire. The goodnews– when gunshots are fired everyone comes outside and it has given us an urgent reason to get to know each other. in a densely populated neighborhood like ours it is hard to tell who your neighbors are (there are always people walking down the side walk and you don’t know if they are visitors, tourists or if they live in the apartment building next to yours). We met our next door neighbors at 1 a.m. last week after the shooting. Last night Lisa and I passed around a sheet of paper and collected information and we hope to have a neighbors meeting this week.

I’ve been a little unsettled by the last week of gunfire for several reasons. One, is that last night was the first time that the kids have been so close to the gunfire (most often they are asleep in the back of the house). I saw how terrified and worried they looked. When we talked about it this morning they said they weren’t afraid for their own safety– just really concerned that someone was getting hurt outside.  Two, these are just kids shooting at each other– and I’m concerned that their lack of experience with guns combined with possible drug use and adolescent bravado makes it more likely that they will miss their intended target and hit someone else.
I find that I don ‘t sleep well after the gunfire, 911 calls, and conversations with neighbors and police.  I hope that our presence and prayers make a positive difference in our community. Our city neighborhoods is a complex mix of locals, vagrants tourists, families, older people– there are a few things that make it a challenge to live where we live– but we also find alot to love.

“What is the deal with ReIMAGINE’s crappy website?” is a question we often have to face from caring friends. My answer: “We are working on it!” We always put relationships first and in the grand scheme the website has been a lessor priority. Alas! A new shell has been designed and is awaiting build out– and the content has all been reworked and made current. Check out our slow remodel at www.reimagine.org

My friend Spencer Burke, founder of the ooze.com, could be described as the Kalle Lasn (founder of Adbusters) of the emerging church. Spencer is famous for throwing audacious learning parties. I helped create art experiences for several of his SOULARIZE parties (in Seattle & Minneapolis). Above all else Spencer is a dreamer and an optimist. “What if we do an intimate learning party with, say, N.T. Wright, Richard Rohr, Rita Brock and Brennan Manning– in the Bahamas AND swim with sharks.” Spencer thinks these things and then goes to work to make them happen– most often at his own expense and through the sacrifices of his friends. Spencer is not afraid to ruffle feathers and does so with a big smile and generous spirit.
I remember the first SOULARIZE I went to in Seattle and how it changed my life. I had never been around so many creative dedicated people in such a real world setting– and I left inspired to live a life of faith more fully submerged in the context of society and culture. SOULARIZE is not so much an event as it is an unpredictable adventure that is sure to spark new friendships and imagination.

Last fall I took a roadtrip with Spencer from Santa Fe to L.A. with greasy spoon stops along the old route 66– and he invited me into the planning for this event. You should consider going to this unconventional gathering in an exotic locale. Be prepared for the chaos of chance encounters on this adventure. Register ASAP to take advantage of discounts and cheap flights.