Mark Scandrette

Here’s a repost of my ReIMAGINE poem from my book SOUL GRAFFITI. I’ve been performing it for a long time, but it still seems to connect with a lot of people.

In my mind’s

I am flying high across the sky

Swooping in and out and dropping low,

Touching the ground of city streets

Like a spirit of God hovering over primordial waters

Of lump clay earth.

I am waking up

I am daring to dream again

I hear the voice

I hear the voice

I hear the voice over the waters saying to you and to me:

“I am here.

The hidden whisper of love.

That beautiful and terrible story you hunger to hear.

Be still!

Be still sacred scared child.

Awake!

Awake from your stubborn numb slumber

Open those sleepy eyes to my morning daylight

It will not burn away any good it finds in that hungry cracked heart.

ReIMAGINE!

Life with me

Taste and see the splendor of

my blooming spring garden rest weary home

Weep while you can.

While you still feel

While the pain is still real

While my love still heals’

ReIMAGINE!

Nonfiction in full color

Humanity and divinity live in concert together.

The “I” and the “we” making sweet synergy.

It’s the song we all long to hear

Let the aria resound, may the earth shake with the reverberation of your ancient apocalyptic prodigious creativity.

ReIMAGINE! All our voices in harmony with yours, Lord.

Samba, Romba, Rhimba

Afro-Cuban beats

Italian Opera

Salsa Latina

Tai-Chi Mariachi

Three Chord Punk Rock bleats and the symphony

The Trance, Trip Hop, Hip Hop, Do wop, Swing

Big Band Bleeding Heart Acoustic Folk Middle Eastern Dirge

Zeideco, Howling Blues and the Salvation songs of plantation slave spirituals singing:

“We shall overcome.” “We shall overcome.”

ReIMAGINE!

A spiral, whirling miracle, of you and me and us swept up in the creator’s remaking.

ReIMAGINE!

Creator Recreate

Here. Now. Instigate.

A revolution of faith, hope and love.

Spring comes to the California coast, it seems,  in January, as the winter rains turn parched hillsides to verdant green. The new year often awakens a desire for newness to come to our lives. Experiments in Truth is a Learning Lab we offer starting next week that is about seeking healing change and a new rhythm of life. Belowyou will find a short description, along with a longer narrative excerpt from my new book, Practicing the Way of Jesus, to be released by IVP in June.

You can sign up to participate in Experiments in Truth here.

David sat at the table with his head down, telling his small group that he had gone on yet another drunken weekend bender. “I feel like I’ve been struggling with the same issues for so long– I can’t tell if I’m making any progress.” The “accountability” David got from his group focused primarily on his mistakes and failures. But being aware of our problems and confessing our missteps can only take us so far. To really get momentum we need support and a plan for what we can do to pursue life in the kingdom of love. Transformation requires intentional new choices that translate our vision and ambitions into bodily actions. This is a spiritual secret that has largely been lost in recent times.

We all have things in our lives we wish to change. The solidarity of a group experiment can provide the resolve to make the changes we haven’t been able to make on our own. Several years ago we began a series of shared practices to address the disparity we often feel between how we want to live and how we actually live. Through a learning lab we call Experiments in Truth we invite one other to make simple but dramatic changes to our normal habits over thirty or forty days. Out of all the experiments we’ve done, participants say this is the one that has brought about the most transformation in their lives.

The first session begins with a provocative question, “Name one thing you could do over the next 30 or 40  days that could change your life forever?”  Each person, through a careful process of discernment, identifies an area where change is needed and then commits to a dramatic shift– something they will stop and something they will start to address this area of concern. After we’ve committed to our experiments, we meet once a week to check-in on our progress. Here are a couple of examples of personal experiments in truth:

As a young professional, Kyle was used to working hard and playing hard. Part of his office culture was going out after work for a late dinner and drinks nearly every night of the week.  Over time this habit made Kyle feel unfocused, distracted from God and guilty about how much he regularly overspent on entertainment. For his forty-day experiment he decided to abstain from drinking alcohol or dining out and vowed to go to bed every night at a specific time. Over time, Kyle realized that the absence of alcohol made it easier for him to pray and the money he saved by not eating out allowed him to give a full 10% of his income away– and he generally felt more freedom and at peace.

Over the years that Brandon and Rebecca had been married they struggled to make physical intimacy and time together a priority. Their needs for emotional support and sexual closeness often went unsatisfied. They decided that for their forty day experiment they would commit to having sex at least three times a week. What they discovered was that pursuing more regular sexual intimacy required them to communicate better, which had positive effects in many other areas of their relationship. By the end of the forty days they were experiencing more unity, romance, trust and fun than at any other time in during the seven years they had been together.

Kristin recognized that she masked a deep sense of insecurity through an obsession with fashion, shopping and meticulous grooming. For her experiment she made a vow not to shop or wear jewelry or make-up for two months.  Shifting her attention away from her appearance and clothes helped her focus on developing peace and inner beauty. People immediately began to notice a dramatic change in her disposition and affirmed her natural radiance. (Note: Other participants have struggled with the opposite issue, a lack of self-care, and have experimented with giving more attention to their physical appearance).

The first step to designing an Experiment in Truth is to examine your life.  Spend some time in solitude asking God to reveal where transformation is most needed. A second step is to explore the pattern and root causes for the issues you’ve identified. A third step is to decide what new practices to adopt to address the issues you’ve identified. Once you’ve identified what to start and what to stop, a fourth step is to commit to your plan.   This is where the ancient wisdom of vows is instructive. I might want to love God and people and feel a strong desire to do so, but without a commitment to specific practices these are just sentiments.   We show what we really believe and value by what we are committed to actually do.

One of the reasons we call these “experiments” is that we are testing what changes actually make a positive difference. The goal is never to create an extra layer of rules that we use to judge ourselves or others by. We need practices of abstinence and engagement that are specific to the places where reinvention is most needed in our lives.

Spirit of the Creator,

we surrender

To the reign of love

In every currency of being

Body, mind, feelings, time,

in purpose, possessions and belonging

Make us alive to the power

that is making all things new.

It is with deep gratefulness that we wish you a Merry Christmas. With a quickly growing family and ministry, we are in the fullness of life.

Lisa continues to teach our children and helps manage a very complex calendar of lessons and classes, play practices and social engagements for three active teenagers. She also works part-time with ReIMAGINE helping prepare and lead Learning Labs and special events and by doing important administrative tasks.  In her spare moments she loves to read, knit and watch English period films.

Mark had a very full year leading local programs for ReIMAGINE, training leaders, speaking in various places and writing his second book, Practicing the Way of Jesus (to be released by IVP summer 2011).  In spare moments he enjoys exercising, going on dates with Lisa, watching movies with the kids and eating insane amounts of popcorn.

One of the rewarding surprises of the year has been getting involved at Bernal Dwellings, a government housing project a block from our house. Mark and Lisa volunteer together at a food program, participate in public meetings and help organize projects that serve the community and neighborhood, including being founding members of the Friends of Garfield Park. It’s been fun for us to have a way to serve together that takes us back to our roots working with kids in low-income neighborhoods in Minnesota.

Hailey (16) …continues to be dedicated to her work in the theater.  This year she was the assistant director for a production of the Magic flute and played a challenging role in a debut production of The Wave,  which she also did soundtrack recording for with producer/guitarist David Denny, (formerly of the Steve Miller band). She was featured in a SF Chronicle story and performed a segment of the show at the American Association of Theater Educators.  During the holidays she will appear in 26 performances of Siddhartha.  Hailey also went to her first prom with her boyfriend, Jonah, won a film society essay contest and carried 1/3 of her weight on a 5 day backpacking trip in Lassen Nat’l Park. She overcame whooping cough and began voice training at Community Music Center.

Noah (15)…continues to enjoy photography and this year cultivated his interest in astro- physics, reading Stephen Hawking in his spare time. The big news of the year is that Noah started a job at the Exploratorium (a hands on science museum) where his official title is Explainer. He rotates to various stations where he performs card tricks, dissects cow eyeballs, demonstrates a Van de graaff generator and helps lost children find their parents. He works three days a week and bikes 5 miles each way.  Noah enjoyed the trip to Yellowstone and time in D.C. & New York with his dad and best friend. You can visit his blog at: http://noahsphotographs.blogspot.com

Isaiah (14) … often mistaken for the pop star Justin Bieber, discovered a new level of passion in his music this year, taking up guitar, melodica and ukelele in addition to violin. He won a music scholarship and was invited to participate in the Comprehensive Musicianship Program at CMC. Isaiah also performed in a musical production of the Magic Flute. Isaiah went on a cruise to the Mexican Caribbean with his grandparents, where he enjoyed snorkeling. He also made his first solo flight to Seattle to visit his cousins and to the San Juan Islands to spend a week with his best friend’s family.  With a deepening voice he is almost 6 ft tall. After years of patient anticipation, he was allowed to purchase his first gaming system.

This year we finished a major renovation project on the exterior of our house: repairing windows and doors, replacing weather damaged bits, building permanent storage spaces and having the house prepared and painted in Victorian detail. Its fun to see the old lady shine! With an abundance of fresh fruits available to us this year, we also did an amazing amount of canning and preserving.While Mark worked on his new book this summer, the rest of the family did a cross country road trip through Yellowstone and other parks on the way to a family reunion in Minnesota.

We have been reflecting this Advent on the abundance that we have.  We are grateful for kids who are growing into the people they were created to be, grateful for nearly 20 years of marriage partnership, grateful for meaningful work and for activities we enjoy when we are not working.  During this time of the year, we are also particularly grateful for warmth and light in our home.  We savor time together in front of our Christmas tree each night, reading and singing carols together and enjoying the quiet moments of the day in a full time of life.  May your family, too, have a wonderful Christmas season filled with gratitude and awareness for the gifts that Christ brings.

Our work with ReIMAGINE continues to grow and develop. The vision of ReIMAGINE is to invite people to be revolutionized by the life and teachings of Jesus and to equip leaders who can revolutionize their communities. We do this by (1) communicating vision, (2) inviting people into transformational experiments and (3) developing leaders. Our particular focus is emerging leaders in emerging multi-cultural contexts.

Training Leaders. This year ReIMAGINE did intensive spiritual leadership training and coaching with 35 leaders across the Bay Area through four different initiatives.

Engaging Experiments. We designed and led 7 multi-week Learning Labs (action-based group discipleship modules) with a total of 150 participants. Twenty-five people are currently active in two ReIMAGINE neighborhood Tribes, (a year-long commitment to be part of an intentional Christian community). We also facilitated intensives for 8 visiting groups.– one-day to one-week city-based learning and serving opportunities.

Communicating Vision. In 2010 Mark had the opportunity to teach 32 groups in nineteen different cities. This year leaders in five cities have adopted our approach and curriculum.

ReIMAGINE is a grassroots Christian religious nonprofit, organized by a host of volunteers and a small staff team, and governed by a local board of directors. Our budget is funded by a combination of private donations, program fees and speaking & coaching honorariums. The vast majority of our funding comes from small individual donations. We are grateful to those who faithfully support our work month after month and year after year!

Consider giving a year end gift to ReIMAGINE to help us offer transforming learning experiences at a reasonable cost, allow us to organize projects to serve urban neighborhoods and fuel our efforts to develop and empower emerging leaders.  This support allows us to have an enduring role in developing paths of faith for people in the dynamic emerging culture of San Francisco and beyond.

All donations are tax deductible. ReIMAGINE P.O. Box 411601 SF, CA 94141. You can also donate online here: https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=31-1783556

Here’s an elevator pitch I’ve been working on for my new book project, Practicing the Way of Jesus:

Through the life and message of Jesus, we’ve been invited into the freedom of the kingdom of love and to participate in God’s healing for our world. And yet, a tremendous gap exists between the revolutionary way of love, embodied and taught by Jesus, and the reputation and experience of the average Christian. We simply aren’t experiencing the kind of transformation that we instinctively long for–and that a watching world expects to see.

So many of us want change, to live in the Way of Jesus, pursuing a life that is deeply soulful, connected to real needs and good news to our world. But we wonder, “how do we change?” Many of our current methods of spiritual formation are passive, individualistic, information-driven or disconnected from the details of our lives.

“What if instead of studying about prayer we actually prayed? Or if instead of merely discussing issues of injustice we actually took steps to care for “the least of these”? What we need is a like Jesus Dojo, a space where we can work out the teachings of Jesus together in real life– with an active and reflective group method for discipleship that is more like a karate studio than a college lecture. Practicing the way of Jesus is a resource that comes from years of experience and presents a rationale, examples, stories and exercises for an approach to spiritual formation that is serious about scripture, action-focused, creative, communal and connected to real world needs and opportunities. This is way disciples to Jesus have always been made.

Merton’s Chapter on Being and Doing really speaks to me about the invitation to Simplicity:

“We do not live more fully merely by doing more, seeing more, tasting more, and experiencing more than we ever have before. On the contrary, some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do and see and taste and experience much less than usual.” –No Man Is An Island.