Hello all! Just to let you know, we have recordings of most workshops and plenary session for sale at lulu.com. Click here to go to our storefront and browse the titles.

As a follow-up to our great gathering on February 28, 29 and March 1, we are hosting a New Conspirators after-party. Come and share how you have started to live creatively and put into practice the plans you created with other conspirators at the festival of imagination.

Bring your ideas, struggles, questions and examples about the ways God wants to use your mustard seeds to make a difference in the world.

Originally, we had scheduled the after-party for March 29th, but Tom and Christine are going to Australia. The new date for the After-Party is Saturday, May 17th.

When | May 17, 2008 | 3:00 – 5:00 PM

Where | The Mustard Seed House

Please RSVP at mail@msainfo.org by May 12.

Follow the Festival of Imagination through the eyes, mind and heart of the following bloggers -

• Mark Van Steenwyk - Blogging at Jesus Manifesto

• Jonathan Brink - blogging at his blog Mission Dei

• Steve Lewis will try to be faithful at blogging at Spirit Farmer

• Eliacin will be posting updates and hopefully photos at Kingdom Praxis.

More will be added to the list during the weekend.

Update: You can see some photos of the event here.

Announcement!

There will be registrations at the door for the full conference, day only and Friday evening only!

The registration table will be open (in the foyer of the sanctuary) at these times:

Thursday 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Friday 8:00 am - 9:00 am; 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Saturday 8:00 am - 9:00 am

Prices will be the same as posted on this blog.

The New Conspirators…What in the World is God Doing?

What in the world is God doing? God is conspiring through a new generation to re-imagine and create new expressions of discipleship, community, church and mission to make a difference in our rapidly changing world. While God is indeed conspiring through a new generation, this gathering is an invitation for those from all generations to become much more a part of God’s conspiracy of compassion and creativity.

We are racing into an increasingly uncertain global future, in which the middle class, our poorest neighbors and our planet will face daunting new challenges. In this festival of imagination, we will invite you to create innovative ways to engage these challenges that reflect something of God’s new order…with the new conspirators.

Join us for this festival of imagination and spend time with those on the innovative edge who are creating new forms of life, church, mission and celebration. We will bring together leaders from the emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic streams of renewal to explore new models, discuss tough questions and create new ways we can be a difference and make a difference in our own churches, communities and God’s world. To preview what God is doing through these four streams, go to mustardseedjourney.wordpress.com and search for “The New Conspirators.”

As far as we know, this is the first time that such a broad range of new conspirators from these four streams have come together to communicate, connect and create with one another and with the friends who join us.

We have three very clear goals for this festival of imagination:

1. to communicate creative models of what new conspirators are doing to address the new challenges;

2. to connect leaders from all four streams in order to share lives, stories and concerns;

3. to create new ways to advance God’s new order in our world, in our lives and in our churches, in response to the growing challenges facing the poor and the planet.

This event is sponsored by Mustard Seed Associates. Our partners include: Emergent Village, Mars Hill Graduate School, Northwest Hot House and Trinity Lutheran Church. Course credit is available from George Fox Evangelical Seminary and Northwest University.

Come imagine new ways to give expression to God’s kingdom in a changing world:

· Experience the creativity of Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution and co-author of Jesus for President, and his companions at The Simple Way as they help their Philadelphia community rebuild after a destructive fire

· Join Karen Ward and her friends as they celebrate their faith at the Church of the Apostles in Seattle and the Fremont Abbey Arts Center

· Learn how Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multicultural congregation led by Efrem Smith, co-author of The Hip Hop Church, is making a difference in Minneapolis

· Join Mark Scandrette, author of Soul Graffiti, in re-imagining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in San Francisco

· Discover with Julie Clawson how God is raising up emerging women to re-invent the church

· Celebrate with Tomas Yaccino what God is doing through a new generation of missional leaders in Latin America

· Learn how to create more missional churches with Tim Morey from Life Covenant in Torrance, CA

· Imagine with Mark Pierson, co-author of The Prodigal Project, how to create ancient/future forms of celebrations and worship for both traditional churches and new expressions

· Imagine new forms of social entrepreneurship with Devin Erhardt of Pura Vida Coffee

· Meet those who are fashioning emerging expressions of church with Dwight Friesen of Mars Hill Graduate School

· Travel with Romanita Hairston, from World Vision, to visit urban churches that are finding a way to make a difference in tough places

· Join Mark Van Steenwyk in creating a monastic community of Jesus Radicals in Minneapolis

· Learn with pastor Eugene Cho about the flourishing of Quest here in Seattle

· Discover with Andrew McLeod how to create economic coops in uncertain times

· Explore with Lisa Domke how to make choices as we race into the 2008 US presidential election

· Learn with Eileen Hansen how to grow new mustard expressions in a traditional Church

· Learn how to find resources to fund creative new ventures with Tom Balke

· Imagine how to be friars in the 21^st century with Mike Morris from Britain

· Create spiritual practices for those in emerging and traditional churches with Bruce Bishop

· Imagine with Melanie and Jonathan Neufeld innovative ways churches can provide leadership in urban transformation

· Join Ricci Kilmer and Eliacin Rosario-Cruz in beginning the revolution at home

· Discover with Christine Sine, author of Godspace and co-author of Living On Purpose, how to create a liturgy of life

· Imagine with Tom Sine, author of The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time, how to create missional whole-life faith and whole-life communities for uncertain times

Join new friends at this festival imagination to communicate, connect and create to what God is doing through this quiet conspiracy. REGISTER TODAY!!! LIMITED SPACE

Hello fellow conspirators!

There is only one week until our Festival of Imagination! If you haven’t registered yet, register online here. (You can also register at the door with cash or check.)

For those of you who cannot attend, look for an announcement on mp3s and CDs of the plenaries and workshops. They will become available for purchase the week after (we hope).

In addition, visit the conference online discussion board during the conference to see what people are talking about and join the conversation.

Hope to see you there!

Missio, a ministry of Christian Resource Ministries (CRM), has come on as another sponsor for The New Conspirators conference.

Missio is “apprenticing a global network of missional leaders and their communities to transform the world’s culture, inform the greater church, and empower a new era of spiritual leaders who are culturally savvy, deep in character, and clear in calling.” Their major program is MCAP (Missional Church Apprenticeship Practicum), a 7-month online, collaborative learning environment for missional leaders, church planters and pastors.

Check out the creative ways Missio is changing the church and the world.

One of MSA team members, Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, is showing his photography at the Q Cafe through the end of February. Q Cafe is a ministry of Quest Church, pastored by Eugene Cho, one of our workshop speakers. If you have time before, during or after the conference, feel free to go down there and check it out!

Here’s the link to the Q Cafe Art Gallery: http://qcafe.wordpress.com/art-gallery/

In the last few weeks, several people have asked, “What’s different about The New Conspirators conference?” It is a fair question. One might be tempted to think it will be exactly like all the other emerging church conferences that are happening now. Let us try to explain some elements of our conference that we hope are not only new, but valued by those that come to this gathering on February 28, 29 and March 1 at Bethany Community Church here in Seattle.

Distinctive 1: Hearing From Four Streams Instead of One

In the last five years, there has been an array of conferences and “learning parties” on the emerging church. Since we at MSA believe that God is at work through the innovators and risk-takers of more movements than just the emerging church, we will bring together the leaders of four streams of renewal: Missional, Mosaic, Monastic and, of course, Emerging. To read about the streams, click here.

Distinctive 2: Bringing New Expressions and Established Congregations Together

At many emerging gatherings, a few older people are in attendance, but they often seem to be looking in from the outside, pressing their noses to the window, trying to make sense of the emerging edge. They rarely seem to be brought into the conversation as full participants. We want these more mature Christians to participate by sharing their experience and insights, and also by being open to learn from younger risk-takers.

Distinctive 3: Exploring Questions Important For the Entire Church

Younger leaders in all four streams are not only creating new models from which we can all learn, but they are also raising important questions that the entire church needs to re-examine. We hope to struggle with these two questions at our gathering:

1. What does authentic faith look like?

2. How can we make mission more central to our gathered lives?

Distinctive 4: Taking the Future of God Seriously

One of the major characteristics of young leaders in all four streams is that they tend to spend much more time discussing the kingdom of God and exploring how to fully embody it in their lives and communities. In the life, death and resurrection of Christ, another world has broken into this one! Justice is coming for the poor, the disabled are being healed, creation is being restored and shalom is coming to the nations! Throughout our time together, we hope and pray that you will hear the clear invitation to live into, serve and celebrate the new world that is breaking into this one.

Distinctive 5: Taking the Future of the World Seriously

Most of the conferences I have attended, and most of the leaders with whom I have worked, tend to unconsciously work from the unstated assumption that the future will pretty much be an extension of the present. In a world changing as rapidly as ours, it is absurd to operate as though the future is static–as though we are frozen in a time warp. At the beginning of this gathering, we will provide a brief outline of some of the new ways we can respond to the challenges likely to confront those in both established and experimental churches.

Distinctive 6: Taking Our Imagination Seriously

One of the most compelling characteristics of young leaders in all four streams is the unusual level of imagination, innovation and entrepreneurship that these young leaders demonstrate. In that spirit, we are calling our gathering “a festival of imagination.” Essentially, we want participants to imagine new forms of life, community, worship, advocacy, mission and celebration that 1) more fully give expression to that world that is already here, and 2) more effectively engage the new challenges of our increasingly uncertain future.

Distinctive 7: Taking Connections Seriously

We really want the conference space to be a place of learning, discussing and creating, but we hope it will also be a place of connecting, especially with other participants. To meet this end, we will have an informal hangout space with abundant coffee, wireless internet and places to meet up with new friends. Speakers will be available to chat in the gathering place after the Thursday evening session and throughout the conference.

We hope this will be a worthwhile gathering in which to communicate, create and connect. Consider joining us for “The New Conspirators: What in the World Is God Doing?” and let us know if we succeed in creating a different kind of gathering.

The unexpected monks - The Boston Globe
New Monasticism is part of a broader movement stirring at the margins of American evangelicalism: Evangelicals disillusioned with a church they view as captive to consumerism, sectarian theological debates, and social conservatism. Calling themselves the “emerging church” or “post-evangelicals,” these Christians represent only a small proportion of the approximate 60 million evangelical Americans. Yet their criticisms may resonate with more mainstream believers. A recent study by Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois - one of the most influential megachurches in the nation - discovered that many churchgoers felt stalled in their faith, alienated by slick, program-driven pastors who focus more on niche marketing than cultivating contemplation. The study suggested that megachurch members know how to belt out jazzy pop hymns from their stadium seats, but they dont always know how to talk to God alone.Read more…

Our friend Mark Van Steenwyck from the Missio Dei community in Minneapolis, is quoted in the article. Mark will be one of the conspirators at The New Conspirators: Festival of the Imagination in Seattle, later this month. Check it out.