Looking for stories and articles

In the January Seed Sampler we put out a call for stories, articles, and topic ideas for our website and newsletter. If you have some great examples of the church leaving the building we would love to share them. Please email them to mail[at]msainfo[dot]com.

Try to keep your stories around around 800 words, include a picture if you can and a brief bio.

Tom Sine's thoughts on the Church Has Left the Building Conference

First, responding to the question of age: I can remember listening to the live speech of Dr. King. I am so old I can remember "I have a dream" during the march on Washington that we are remembering today. With any luck at all I should hit the big 7-0 next month.

I learned from one of our staff, Jessica, that Elvis was the one who coined the expression: "Elvis has left the building." On April 28-29 we invite you come join us at our gathering The Church has left the building. This is going to be a very different type of gathering: very little presentational content, but much more focused on connecting with people who are finding creative ways to make a difference and will spend a lot of time actually creating new ways to get the church out of the building. We'll create new models of missional churches, new forms of cohousing communities that seek to provide kingdom alternative to the consumer addicted culture. We will give you an opportunity to create new forms of liturgy, new music that reminds us that Christ died for all the world not just middle-class folks that go to praise and worship.

Our goal is to have at least half of our participants be under 35 and we want to have a richly multi-cultural gathering to celebrate what Bono sings about, "when God's kingdom comes all the colors will blend into one." We want to celebrate the gift of the Africa-American, Latino, and Asian-American traditions. We are going to celebrate Seattle coffe. There will be heavy emphasis on celebration, hanging out with good people and learning to party the Kingdom 24/7.

Friday afternoon we are going to take you on a wander through the streets of Seattle writing poems, writing prayers, taking photos of life in the city. We really will leave the building! We will also focus on the urgent needs that our poorest neighbors in Africa, Asia, Latin America confront everyday and ways we can be advocates for the poor and care for God's creation.

Our hope is that people that come to our conference from all over the world will take home ideas they've created of how God can use their mustard seeds to be a difference and make a difference in the communities from which they come.

Join us as we in MSA seek to create the future one mustard seed at a time. Does this stir any questions or comments?

Announcing Tom Sine's Blogging Debut!!

Log on Monday, January 16th to chat with Tom Sine as he makes his blogging debut! Tom will be available to talk about the conference, and answer questions regarding his books, Haitian cuisine, and all things MSA.

He will be on-line January 16th, 1-2:00 pm US/PST
United Kingdom 9-10 p.m.
Australia 8-9 am Tuesday, Jan 17th

A Taste of Things to Come

Kingdom Come...Sample the Sounds
Friday, January 20th 7 PM @ Fremont Abbey, Seattle, WA.

Come find out for yourself what MSA is up to and put some faces to the name at our benefit concert. This will be a great opportunity to hear great music and ask MSA staff questions about the upcoming conference.

Download the flyer by clicking here.