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The MSA team has just been on a 2 day retreat. It was wonderful to get away to relax, refresh and to refocus our lives. The main purpose of the retreat was to brainstorm about developing an MSA rule of life. Here are some of our thoughts on where we are at in the process. I would appreciate any comments that you might have. We recognize that this will always be a rather fluid document that is still very much in its infancy so it will continue to change and develop over the next few months.

Why a rule of life you might ask? We sense that God’s spirit is currently speaking through many voices about the need for a more embodied, incarnational faith and we want to join in what God is doing. Developing a rule of life seems to be an important step in that process. According to the Northumbria Community, “a Rule of life expresses ‘who we are, this is our story’ and reminds us of those things God has put on our heart, and calls us back to the story that God has written as foundational.”

Read mure at Mustard Seed Associates » Why a rule of life you might ask? »

Thomas Knoll will create a fringe collaborative publishing house if 20 people commit to writing a book on the platform.

Check this out - emerging stories

Believe me, you want to download this poster.

The DIY Liberation Guide

This prayer book is one of the ways in which Missio Dei support themselves to provide hospitality and work in their neighborhood. The design of the book is awesome and the prayers are meaningful. This book is well crafted with the heart of the community in mind, a good alternative to the many mass publications produced with the sole intent on making the big bucks.

If you are looking for a way to support a creative, grassroot and incarnational ministry – I strongly encourage you to support Missio Dei by buying not one, but many copies of the breviary. Read more and buy it here.

There’s a man on the corner and his clothes are worn
And he’s holding out his hand
You can see in his eyes as the people walk by
He knows they don’t understandSee, they just think he’s gonna take their money
And go and spend it all on dope
Then a man stopped by him and I saw a smile inside him
As he gently whispered hope

Well the tramp started to cry, just kept saying,
“Why? why? why?
Can’t you see I’m a down and out
I’m 32 and I’ve got this one pair of shoes
And a bad taste in my mouth
I think it’s clear to see that even God don’t love me
Or else why would He leave me this way.”

Then Gabriel just smiled and said be peaced my child
Salvation is here today

He got up to his feet and he sang Hallelujah
People were turning around in the street
He looked them in the eyes and he sang,
“Hallelujah
There’s someone here that you gotta meet
Someone you just gotta meet.”

When the vagabond turned around well without a sound
Gabriel just smiled and disappeared
Then he looked to the crowd and they were laughing out loud
But he could not see them for tears
When his vision came round
There was a young girl on the ground
And he knew she was finding it hard to cope
She never was a fighter until he lay beside her
And gently whispered hope

They got up to their feet and they sang Hallelujah
People in the street were turning around
They looked them in the eyes and they sang,
“Hallelujah
There’s someone here we have found”
They sang,
“Hallelujah, Hallelujah
We are the voices crying in the wilderness
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.”
The people in the street started their sins to confess
in a chorus of,
“Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Every knee will bow and every tongue confess
I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness
Crying out
Hallelujah, Hallelujah”

The day was started by a contemplative and challenging morning prayers lead by Mark Pierson, with the theme of Conspiring in the City.

The first part of the day was divided between a short interview, Conspiracy Session 1 and a short panel discussion. In the morning Tom Sine interviewed Mark Scandrette, Tomas Yaccino, Kathy Escobar and Tim Morey. Each share some about their communities and experience. Kathy shared a bit of the horizontal structure of her church – The Refuge. She explained how the faith community is intentionally set up to be horizontal in which every person have a voice. One of the questions to her from one of the other participats was, how do you then keep orthodoxy in a place where everyone can speak with the same authority. Kathy gave a very good answer – if orthodoxy is about right teaching and if  people experience Jesus is different ways, then there are different orthodoxies (at least that was my take on it). Mark shared about the way of living him and his wife Lisa have been practicing for the last 17 years. He shared how the Jesus Dojo, came a some sort of experimental school to learn the way of Jesus, but not in your traditional way, but in an incarnational way in their local community. Thomas shared about churches in the Dominican Republic in which members do not wait for the church to give the stamp of approval or to have lots of money and resources to start meeting the needs of others. Because the context of those churches is relational and communal, the problems of the community are the problems of the church, and it is there resposibility to meet needs and bring restoration.  Tim gave us a brief profile of his church as a church of small groups in which 80 % of the people are involve in ministry in their community with a 1/3 of the budget going outside building for ministry in the community.

Roy Soto from La Red del Camino is here beside me skyping his wife in Costa Rica. The man is crazy and I’m loving hanging out with him and Tomas Yaccino. It was a must for me to participate in their workshop about missional church in Latin America. As a frustrated church planter in Puerto Rico, I wished I’ve known of the network earlier. Their approach to the mission of the church is about justice, restoration, love in the context of the local neighborhood and barrios. Because of the cultural and political history of colonialism in Latin America, christians are used to a very patriarchal and imperial model of church. La Red is challenging that paradigm with a horizontal and relational one.

During lunch I joined part of the Submergent conversation. The group is exploring the emerging church conversation in the context of non-violence and peace in the anabaptist tradition.

In the afternoon Ricci and I lead our creative session about radical living in the heart of the home. The conversation went well, people got the chance to create new rhythms and celebrations for the family.

It is 4:32 p.m. and most of the people are exploring the city – the group self-organized into 4 groups to visit 4 different neighborhood in Seattle. They will be engaging with the people of those neighbors and exploring what it means to conspire in the city.

In the afternoon I had a blast with Roy and Tomas – again the locos from La Red del Camino . Roy was in the mood to eat rice and beans and meat, so I took them to La Casa del Mojito. The guys there are just amazing. The place is small, the salsa and merengue music was blasting and they really know how to make you feel welcome. After a delicious meal and a couple mojitos, we were given a a flan on the house. After a couple bites, Roy asked for another one which was given to us on the house. And then before we left our friend at the restaurant once again came with a small box with yet another flan for Roy.

In the evening Shane Claiborne shared stories about Philadelphia. Christine then led us in evening prayers.

Now I am at home sharing some of our Mustard Seed House homebrew with Mark Pierson and Mark Van Steenwyk. Just unwiding before heading out to bed.

There are another folks blogging, doing a great job reporting from the conference, check them out.

Mark Van Steenwyk

Steve Lewis

Jonathan Brink

Also check out the photos from the conference at Flickr.