Friday Goodness: Pre-Unco11 Edition

Sunday morning, I will grab my motley hat, my ultilikilt, several of my rpg books, my Bible, my Nook, a six-pack of Magner’s cider and a cup of dirt from my yard. I will get in a car with people – some of whom I’ve only met face-to-face once or twice and some of whom I know only via Twitter, and we will drive to Stony Point, New York.

When we arrive, we will mingle for two days with about eighty other people to plot and scheme about the future of the Church, among other things … actually, you know what, I’ve never been there, so I’m gonna let some of my friends who know what they’re talking about:

“The basic ‘schedule’ is something like gather, eat together, worship together, hang out around a campfire, sing some, talk a lot, sleep a little, run or walk, eat together, pray together, share gifts and conversations, eat together, more sharing of ourselves and our gifts, open space to do or nap or be, cookout together, sing some more, hang out around a campfire some more, talk a lot more, sleep a little more or less, walk or run, eat together, pray together, break out from the larger group to smaller groups, worship together, eat one more time together or to go, scatter.” – MB McCandless, from her blog 1000 Thoughts per Second. Read the rest of the post here.

Or, you could check out this post and watch the nifty video: http://unco.us/204/at-unco-you-are-the-rock-star/

I’ll be in touch via Twitter and Facebook during the trip, as will most of the other attendees. Follow the #unco11 hashtag on Twitter or the UNCO page on Facebook.

 

Friday Goodness: April 29, 2011

This week, we’ll start off with a Youtube video of an ensemble performance of Sara Kay’s “Not Just Another Math Problem”. Sara is a well-regarded spoken-word poet who can pack quite a punch with words that’ll hook you deep. Here, a collection of young people share a poem written by Sara about the thoughts & aspirations of young people today. Although this video is not explicitly faith-based, it tells the truth, and anyone in the Church who wants to make real connections with younger generations should pay attention.

My favorite line: “We are not scared of dying for a cause, we are scared of not finding a cause worth dying for.”

Is following in Jesus’ steps and bringing about the Commonwealth of God a cause worth dying for? I think it is. Maybe you think it is. But it’s clear we’re doing a pretty terrible job of helping young people realize it.

More Stuff that’s Worth Your Time & Attention:

  • Next week, Rachel Held Evans is hosting The Rally to Restore Unity, a synchroblogging event that celebrates, well, Christian unity. The Motley Evangelist is getting in on this, and if you’ve got a blog that’s related to walking The Way with Jesus, then you should join in, too. I also want to point out the very worthy cause that this event supports: Rally to Restore Unity Charity:Water. Please consider donating and sharing the link with your friends & families.
  • From Darkwood Brew, Doubtful,  a very engaging post on faith & doubt.
  • One of my favorite Easter posts, from J.R. Daniel Kirk: He Shouldn’t Have Done It
  • Although I tend to think highly of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins, I  REALLY got into Aric Clark’s recent  in-depth exploration of one of Rob’s stories from one of his previous works, Sex God. Aric, in true Two Friars & a Fool style, pulls the guts out of Bell’s dance floor metaphor and Tells the Truth in the process: Christ on the Dance Floor
  • And while I’m at it, a long-overdue blanket shout-out to the gang over at Unvirtuous Abbey, who consistently play the wise fool with incisive, potent, and usually hilarious tweets and posts about the absurdities of religion and church life.

That’s all for this week. I’ve actually got several more things that I’d like to share, but I’m still working out how to best collect all the stuff I wanna share over the course of a week so that it doesn’t take 3 hours to get it into a post every Friday. Anybody got any good ideas or processes relative to that issue?

 

Friday Goodness: April 29, 2011

This week, we’ll start off with a Youtube video of an ensemble performance of Sara Kay’s “Not Just Another Math Problem”. Sara is a well-regarded spoken-word poet who can pack quite a punch with words that’ll hook you deep. Here, a collection of young people share a poem written by Sara about the thoughts & aspirations of young people today. Although this video is not explicitly faith-based, it tells the truth, and anyone in the Church who wants to make real connections with younger generations should pay attention.

My favorite line: “We are not scared of dying for a cause, we are scared of not finding a cause worth dying for.”

Is following in Jesus’ steps and bringing about the Commonwealth of God a cause worth dying for? I think it is. Maybe you think it is. But it’s clear we’re doing a pretty terrible job of helping young people realize it.

More Stuff that’s Worth Your Time & Attention:

  • Next week, Rachel Held Evans is hosting The Rally to Restore Unity, a synchroblogging event that celebrates, well, Christian unity. The Motley Evangelist is getting in on this, and if you’ve got a blog that’s related to walking The Way with Jesus, then you should join in, too. I also want to point out the very worthy cause that this event supports: Rally to Restore Unity Charity:Water. Please consider donating and sharing the link with your friends & families.
  • From Darkwood Brew, Doubtful,  a very engaging post on faith & doubt.
  • One of my favorite Easter posts, from J.R. Daniel Kirk: He Shouldn’t Have Done It
  • Although I tend to think highly of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins, I  REALLY got into Aric Clark’s recent  in-depth exploration of one of Rob’s stories from one of his previous works, Sex God. Aric, in true Two Friars & a Fool style, pulls the guts out of Bell’s dance floor metaphor and Tells the Truth in the process: Christ on the Dance Floor
  • And while I’m at it, a long-overdue blanket shout-out to the gang over at Unvirtuous Abbey, who consistently play the wise fool with incisive, potent, and usually hilarious tweets and posts about the absurdities of religion and church life.

That’s all for this week. I’ve actually got several more things that I’d like to share, but I’m still working out how to best collect all the stuff I wanna share over the course of a week so that it doesn’t take 3 hours to get it into a post every Friday. Anybody got any good ideas or processes relative to that issue?