Transforming “SHOULD”
Lately my family and community have been talking a lot about shame and should. I define shame as a deep worthlessness because of one’s lack of power. This is differnet from guilt which is deep worthlessness because of power wrongly applied. For example, you use powerful words with someone you love and feel guilt because you see…
Launching the Dojo
I’ve been working with grassroots community development for a while (like 25+ years). While it’s been a life-passion, it has also been my greatest challenge. One of the hardest things is navigating the first group transition (called Commitment on The Journey Map): Will we move from talking about the reality we want to actually creating it? There…
ChatGPT Gets SOF Concepts Better Than My Friends
After hearing a lot of chatter about the ChatGPT language model, I decided to try it out. To give it a real work out, I decided to talk to it about a pretty technical field I like to work in: systems thinking, specifically the field of philosophical cybernetics using the Semantic Ontology Framework. After it totally nailed…
Matt Markins: Making Child Disciples in a Secular Culture
One of our biggest initiatives coming into this year has to do with children and youth. We really feel that the timing is right to develop Missional Community for and among children. Partly, this has to do with the rate and complexity with which young people are encountering challenges in their lives. Like Harry Potter, the real…
The 4 S’s of Showing Up
I’m doing a lot of research right now into being present in parenting, specifically as a way of practicing the Presence of God. My wife and I are really torn up by our lack of Christianity when it comes to parenting. This makes parenting the perfect place to confront my always-future-looking habit of anticipation which is the…
Attachment (with God)
Lately, as part of my fasting, I’ve been listening to The Presence Project with Summer Joy Gross — a podcast that merges ancient Christian contemplative practices and modern brain science and psychology so that people can experience a life abiding in God, even if they suffer from depression and anxiety. While both those things show up in…
Gospel Movements (Part 1): District Conference Call
What is a Gospel Movement? Why did Christianity grow explosively at first, but not now? By looking at two key dynamics, the LMC District Conference Call on 11/29/21 explored how the common approach to church isn’t well aligned to discipleship and how the climate of our church is limiting how people express the DNA of the Gospel….
Fasting 2021: Spiritual Preparation for A Move of God
Right now people across the NYC metro area (and beyond) are connecting in some new ways because they sense God is about to do a new thing in his people and in this region. Some of those people are connecting in a group on this site called “The Wave & The Way”. The Wave is the move…
Prayer, Fasting and the Power of God
The final module in an online course I’m taking featured video of Shodankeh Johnson, founding pastor of New Harvest Global Ministries, a discipleship and church planting movement in Sierra Leone. He spoke powerfully of how his movement has been built on prayer and fasting, expanding despite civil war, poverty, and massive violent opposition to the message. The…
Disciplemaking Dimension of Multiplication Course: Module 5 Notes
Lately I’ve been taking online courses as part of Exponential’s Multipliers Learning Communities which I’m completing as part of my work with Lancaster Mennonite Conference’s NYC District. You can see the first post in the series here which explains more about the process and framework of this experience. I’m on to the second course required before our…
Disciplemaking Dimension of Multiplication Course: Module 4 Notes
Lately I’ve been taking online courses as part of Exponential’s Multipliers Learning Communities which I’m completing as part of my work with Lancaster Mennonite Conference’s NYC District. You can see the first post in the series here which explains more about the process and framework of this experience. I’m on to the second course required before our…
Disciplemaking Dimension of Multiplication Course: Module 3 Notes
Lately I’ve been taking online courses as part of Exponential’s Multipliers Learning Communities which I’m completing as part of my work with Lancaster Mennonite Conference’s NYC District. You can see the first post in the series here which explains more about the process and framework of this experience. I’m on to the second course required before our…