The Center for Progressive Christianity has produced something called “A Joyful Path,” but it seems more geared toward churches than homeschool families. (We’re actually going to start using “A Joyful Path” with the kids in Open Hearts Gathering.)

Chris Smith pointed me to Peter Enns’ book Telling God’s Story (with teaching and student guides) and, from the same publisher, The Story of the World series. Chris uploaded his review of Enns’ book to the Englewood website.

Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, from Seattle, replied: “When we homeschooled, we brewed our own. Godly Play + Howard Zinn + Paulo Freire + Gloria Anzáldua + bell hooks + unschooling. Our daughter has been in public school for six months now, after four years of homeschooling. She had some struggle with some of the way the school did the academics. However, her teachers and fellow classmates know her as a compassionate, cooperative, justice-seeking student. She could speak with pride and authority about her Puerto Rican/Latino heritage, and, better yet, out of a group of 50+ kids (3rd, 4th and 5th graders) she was the only one who knew and could speak about Bob Marley and reggae music.”

One person suggested Waldorf Schools homeschool material.

Chris Hill, from Albuquerque, replied: “I use a standardized form of academic curriculum, and the progressive Christian part is when I have real discussions about spirituality, religion and Christianity (including the philosophical, theological, and historical) with my kids. Believe it or not, we have several discussions a day that pretty much naturally occur. I do most of the initiating, and my oldest brings things up from time to time. I offer my input, others’ input in terms of possibilities, and encourage my kids to think deeply, but not to fret. Life is more about growing into a fuller sense of Self than it is ‘getting it right.’”

Does any of this help you? Do you know of other resources that you’d suggest adding to this list? Please post in the comments!

Here’s my attempt at curating the content coming out of #EVTC:

Doug invited me on to discuss a new report released last week from the Johns Hopkins Non-Profit Economic Data Project that shows how non-profit organizations have outpaced for-profit companies over the past decade (2000-2010) in terms of job creation. Here’s how the conversation went:

I was particularly interested in how this new data shows the success that the non-profit sector has had over the past 10 years, even during the three main years of recession (2007-2009), adding jobs at a rate of 1.9% per year while the for-profit world shrank by 3.7% year over year during the same period. Today, the non-profit sector is the third largest employer in the U.S., with 10.7 million workers.

As someone who has worked in the non-profit world for the past 15 years, I am not surprised to see the data reveal that non-profits are creating more jobs than for-profits. Recently a reliable source confirmed for me that more than 500 new U.S. non-profit (501c3) organizations focused (in some way, shape or form) on addressing sex trafficking were created in just one year alone (2010). Those new non-profits no doubt employ people, in order to do the good work they are setting out to do (locally, nationally, or internationally).

It’s worth noting that this kind of “cause d’jour” proliferation of non-profit work is actually leading some leaders to suggest we need fewer non-profit organizations rather than more — fewer organizations that collaborate more/better with each other.

Churches vs. Non-Profits
Related to this whole conversation is the parallel story that the most common organizational form/financial structure for Christian churches in the U.S. has become increasingly unsustainable. Going the way of the dinosaur are churches of 50-100 people with full-time paid staff and large, inefficient buildings to maintain.

At the upcoming Funding the Missional Church conference in Minneapolis, speakers such as Bob Carlton will be discussing what churches can learn from successful non-profits about telling a compelling story, casting an inspiring vision, and engaging people in participation in the work of the ministry.

Where Are the Church Jobs?
A third conversation related to all this is being generated by people like Ryan Kemp-Pappan around holding denominational systems accountable for convincing women and men (especially young adults) to rack up enormous financial debt for going through seminary, doing unpaid internships, etc. — in order to attain the prize of a full-time paid ministry job at the end of the rainbow.

The argument is that the institutional church has made a promise to these folks and that promise includes gainful employment that will allow them to get out of debt, if not right away at least eventually. But the reality is the cost of higher education is putting everyone deeper and deeper into the hole, and the church ministry jobs that were supposed to be there when they got out of seminary (and through all the hoops) simply aren’t there.

My Presbyterian Church (USA) friends Landon Whitsitt and Carol Howard Merritt have already addressed this question to some degree already. I was slightly encouraged to hear Craig Van Gelder from Luther Seminary in the Twin Cities confess last week: “We’ve done a lot to address student debt, mostly by blaming the student. The problem is not the student, the problem is us.”

Much more has been said and will need to be said about this. Seminaries are an industry in the midst of deep change too.

At the risk of being accused of promoting a “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” philosophy, I will say that seminary graduates (and others) will need to become a lot more entrepreneurial and create opportunities for themselves, rather than wait for opportunities to be handed to them. My advice: Create a position for yourself rather than waiting for someone else to hire you. Or, to put it another way: Spend less time searching the employment listings and more time creating your own business ministry plan.

Back in December, the conversation was around the terms “incarnational” vs. “missional” for the type of ministry we’re talking about in the emerging church. I had the privilege of doing that first experimental #missionalchat with Kathy Escobar, co-pastor of The Refuge and author of Down We Go: Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus.

Afterward, Kathy was kind enough to join me for a short Skype videochat interview, to continue the conversation from our online Twitter chat and to talk more about the themes in her book and the kind of ministry she is committed to modeling for others. One of my favorite quotes from Kathy in this interview is this: “To me, downward mobility is not really about money. It’s about this attitude of the heart.”

Here’s my interview with Kathy Escobar (the lighting wasn’t great on Kathy’s end, but the conversation was enlightening!):

I’m going to be doing another #missionalchat tonight at 9pm ET with Anthony Smith, a.k.a. Postmodernegro. There’s no one I can think of who most embodies the ongoing spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his prophetic speech and pastoral ministry, than Anthony.

Anthony, Rod Garvin, and I did a podcast together several years ago entitled “Practicing Pentecost” for the Wired Parish network. Anthony’s writing has developed a faithful audience on his own blog, as well as through his contributions to several Emergent books, including An Emergent Manifesto of Hope and The Justice Project.

Anthony and his wife Toni are lead organizers of the Mission House community in Salisbury, NC, and I’m grateful to Anthony for his ongoing role on the Leadership Team for TransFORM Network.

I’m excited to focus our #missionalchat tonight on what the missional church must learn from the teaching and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Please join us on Twitter tonight from 9-10pm!

Have thoughts to share on Dr. King and the missional church? Have questions for Anthony Smith (@postmodernegro)? Please tweet using hashtag #missionalchat!

cross-posted from Emergent Village Voice

I won’t bore you or disgust you with all the gory details, but suffice it to say that my son Hayden and I have now been resurrected from a near-death bout of the flu mixed with strep throat. I’ve lost 10+ pounds (basically from not eating for four days), and it feels like a total reset.

But thankfully I’m on the rebound just in time to tell you about some of the things I have coming up, places I’ll be speaking and opportunities to perhaps cross paths with some of you around the country:

January 17-18 — Re-Mind and Re-New Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma — I’m excited to participate in this conference on renewal in North American Christianity with speakers from across the emerging missional church: Diana Butler Bass, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Chris Haw, and Craig Van Gelder. If you’re in the Tulsa area, please consider coming out and being a part of this fascinating conference.

January 20-22 — Wild Goose Festival planning retreat — I don’t know who all will be there, but I’m looking forward to participating in the planning process for this year’s festival. If you have thoughts/ideas/questions that I can help bring to festival organizers, please let me know!

January 28-29 — “DARE to Lead” events in North Carolina — This is our first opportunity, in partnership with the North Carolina region, to share what Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation is about and what we have to offer Disciples churches. I’m excited for this to finally be happening, and I hope many Disciples churches in NC will come out to this free event.

February 6-9 — Minister’s Week at Brite Divinity School — I’m honored to be able to give my workshop on “Missional Transformation” during the conference, and I’m also looking forward to co-preaching with Suzanne Castle at The Search in Fort Worth on Super Bowl Sunday. There are plans to do a theology pub that week, as well, so keep an eye open for that. It should be a fun week in Dallas/Fort Worth!

March 27-30 — Mission Planting Base Camp in San Diego — This new training event for progressive missional church planters is one I can’t wait to see get started! Spencer Burke is at the helm, with the support of Rich McCullen and the entire Missiongathering Christian Church community. These are some of the most creative, innovative church ministry people I know, and I’m thrilled to be able to help this new venture get launched.

April 23-25 — The River Gathering in Albuquerque, New Mexico — I’m really humbled by the opportunity to co-lead this missional retreat with my good friend Rev. Phil Shepherd (The Eucatastrophe), organized by the Tres Rios and Hi-Plains areas for Disciples pastors in those areas (and beyond). The setting is breathtaking. It’s going to be a relaxing, refreshing few days on the bosque, experiencing this sacred ground. I can’t wait!

May 1-5 — Funding the Missional Church and Church Planters Academy — Two back-to-back events in my hometown of Minneapolis, where the Disciples are on the verge of doing some exciting new church planting work? Yes, I’ll be there!

Will I get to see you at any of these upcoming events? Let me know where you’re going to be by leaving me a note in the comments! I’d love to connect with you while I’m visiting these areas, especially if you’re interested in church planting/missional community formation.

Shaun’s new project is called HopeMob, and the idea is simple: Connect people in need (who have limited social networks for reaching out) with generous strangers who are already networked and ready to be mobilized to meet those needs. It’s like a flash mob for philanthropy.

Mobilizing the Masses
Over the past few years, we’ve seen all kinds of wonderful stories about people finding help from masses of strangers online when their stories went viral. Remember Ted Williams, the man with the golden voice who was homeless and begging on a street corner, because he lost his career and everything to his addiction to crack cocaine? His video spread like wildfire across the Web, which led him to opportunities to work again and, most importantly, get into rehab where he appears to be doing well one year later!

These things really do happen, but up until now they’ve been random, uncoordinated, unpredictable. There’s still a real element of unpredictability with HopeMob, but there’s also a sense of coordination and focus and, with those things in place, greater possibility. HopeMob will connect masses of people ready to be mobilized to do social good, which means quicker response times and larger impact leveraged from even greater participation.

Sparked by Stories
There’s also going to be a fun social gaming aspect to the HopeMob website, which is what led Mashable to make its Reddit comparison. Stories will be shared, and HopeMobbers (HopeMobsters?) will be able to vote the stories up or down in the “cause queue,” by using what will be called “story points.” You’ll get 50 story points for joining HopeMob, more if you donate generously to the Kickstarter campaign right now to help get HopeMob off the ground.

I’m proud to say I’m a part of it (along with hundreds of others from all over the country and around the world) — and I’ve pledged to help financially support the project, as well. Shaun’s vision is that 100% of the money donated through HopeMob will go to the projects we take on together, a la Charity Water’s 100% commitment.

Shaun has raised over $5 million for other causes in the past. So far HopeMob has raised over $25,000 toward the goal of $125,000 in startup funds. He believes HopeMob has the potential to impact many more lives than the work he’s done with his previous projects. His passion and vision is infectious, and I can’t help but believe the best is yet to come from Shaun and from all of us as we work together to make a difference in this world, one story and one HopeMob at a time.

Call me a Hope junkie, here are just a few other Hope-y organizations I’m proud to be affiliated with:
Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation (where I work full-time)
Children’s HopeChest (fantastic orphan care and anti-trafficking organization)
HOPE for AIDS (international HIV and AIDS projects of SIM)

Earlier this week, Christianity Today published an article by Chris Smith, from Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis, entitled “Before ‘Transforming’ Your Neighborhood, Talk to Your Neighbors.” It shares a little bit of the story of this urban church and how the practice of dialogue and conversation transformed their congregation and, as a result, is transforming the broader community.

Chris shared with me an advance draft of the forthcoming e-book that goes further into telling Englewood’s story, which will be published soon by Patheos Press. It’s a beautiful and inspiring story, and one which I hope many faith leaders will read and consider.

On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to actually visit Englewood and join them for their community dinner, and it was a treat to sit and talk with Chris about what is happening in and through the church and meet some of the men, women, and children from the community (many of whom live right around the church and in the Englewood neighborhood). Englewood is an old independent Christian church (who are cousins to the Disciples of Christ, my tribe), with a long history … a “turnaround church” story … a success story of “revitalization.” And Chris credits conversation — and (I would add) open, honest theological conversation — for that revitalization.

“The Conversation”
For quite a while now, the emerging missional church movement has been referred to as “the emerging church conversation.” I think this was initially just part of the nature of something that was seeking to earnestly embrace and embody epistemic humility, because to call this thing a “movement” might be to over-inflate the status or importance of it. And besides, that would jinx it, right?

So “the conversation” has been, for many us, shorthand for “the emerging missional church.” And indeed, it has been within this movement that the practice of conversation has been reclaimed and space for robust theological discussion has been created and nurtured. Emergent Village launched “cohorts” as local expressions of the movement where self-organizing groups could engage in conversation.

I still believe there is a great opportunity and need for Emergent “cohorts,” because there are still not very many churches engaging in theological conversation and creating safe(r) spaces for that to happen.

Church or Cohort?
As we talked over pork and beans in the Englewood basement hall, I shared this analogy of Emergent cohort with Chris, and he reminded me that churches (like Englewood) have advantages over Emergent cohorts in that they offer place (a sense of history and community), commitment (to a local body and shared ministry values/goals), and accountability (to move from talk to action).

I think he’s absolutely right, which is why I’m dedicated to lighting a fire under people to start churches, to form new missional communities of practice, to organize experiments in kingdom living. We will still need cohorts, but we also need churches and courageous leaders to open up those spaces for conversation that leads to action — for the good of the broader community and the world.

Conversations and Communities
Last summer, I had the privilege of meeting Meg Wheatley and Juanita Brown, the founders of the Berkana Institute and World Cafe, respectively. Meg’s writing on emergence theory went viral a few years ago (in Emergent circles, anyway), and her thinking has become very influential for many of us.

I was only vaguely familiar with World Cafe, and I was not aware at all of Juanita’s work with the Art of Hosting, as well. Core to both of those networks is “harvesting conversations that matter.” And Berkana Institute’s mantra is, “Whatever the problem, community is the answer.”

I think our religious/faith communities have much to learn from these two brilliant women and from all the participants in the networks they’ve started. We desperately need more faith communities (like Englewood) that recognize the power of conversations and are willing to do the hard work of cultivating and harvesting the riches that can come from them.

Bruce Reyes-Chow recently proposed this on Facebook (slightly edited by me): “In social media, as in church, worth should not be solely measured by the number of followers, friends or members but by the quality of the relationships that are built through each.”

Reggie McNeal has been talking for a while about “changing the scorecard” for how church ministry “success” is measured — moving from the old traditional BBB model (Butts in the pews, Buildings, and Budgets) to a missional model that prioritizes discipleship and relationship.

Measurability (Or Lack Thereof)
The challenge to Bruce’s proposition, of course, is the difficulty in which to actually measure “the quality of relationships.” McNeal has helpfully suggested three missional shifts in how we measure “success” for our religious/faith communities:

1) from internal focus to external focus — how much time/energy/resources are spent on maintaining the structure? and how much is actually used for “blessing” the broader community? making the world a better place?

2) from program development to people development — this is where we talk about “discipleship” and ask, how well are we “making disciples” of Jesus? (instead of the McDonald’s question: how many billions served?)

3) from church-based to Kingdom-based leadership — what are the leaders of our religious/faith communities focused on: maintaining the current religious system (which there’s a lot of built-in incentive to do)? or embodying/enacting God’s dream for the world?

I think there’s much more work that needs to be done on McNeal’s missional shift item 2: people development. The old language of “discipleship” and “disciple-making” has been well documented (especially by the evangelical movement), but the truth is that there’s a real need for the notion of “disciple” to be re-imagined and re-thought for a new era. Per McNeal’s own argument, “disciple” has become more synonymous with “consumer of religious goods and services” than it has with “follower of Jesus.”

But then how to do measure how much someone is a “disciple”? Or, if you’re thinking in exclusive terms, how many people are “true disciples”? Alex Absalom, of 3DM, is working with a megachurch in Ohio to help move them toward a missional communities model. He shares their measurement for ROI in this video: “How many people do we have in discipling relationships with us?” or, in other words, “How many people do we have actively wanting to follow Jesus?”

I think these are helpful questions, but a cynic might say, “You’re still counting butts (‘in discipling relationships with us’)!” That’s not enough of a shift. In his book Practicing the Way of Jesus, Mark Scandrette talks a lot about “experiments” in life-change and gives (in the supremely helpful second half of the book) suggestions for how to evaluate the success of these experiments: “A good experiment is specific, measurable and realistic, and includes asking when, where, and how often it will be performed. It’s important to have a place where you track and record your daily progress, like a spreadsheet.”

It may sound cold and analytical, but Scandrette’s 40-day “Experiments in Truth” (and others like it), which are usually done in community, as part of a group for accountability and support, have shown proven results.

Don’t Believe?
This is where I have to invoke social media marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk once again. (Seriously, go watch his keynote here — again — now, for the first time!) Gary V. has taken to routinely mocking those who ask him, “What is the ROI of social media?” His response: “That’s basically like asking, ‘What’s the ROI of the Internet?’ When you hear someone saying, ‘I don’t believe in social media.’ That’s like someone saying, ‘I don’t believe in the Internet.’ … And if you bet against the Internet in 2012, you’re going to lose.”

I have my disagreements with Gary on his assertion that social media is completely synonymous with the Internet, but playing off his thoughts in this video, I’d suggest that asking “How do you measure ‘discipleship’?” is like asking “How do you measure spirituality?” or “How do you measure Christ-likeness?” There’s no definitive way to measure it, but we all know it when we see it. A true believer is a true believer, and a Christ-like soul is a Christ-like soul.

And Gary’s point about ROI is also key to this discussion. To wit: If you bet against the missional shift in 2012, you’re going to lose.

Is it really best if we just say, “There is no measurement”? Or are there measurements for “discipleship” that are worth keeping/recovering/re-imagining? What can our religious/faith communities learn from the shift from ROI to #RonR (return on relationship)?

Introduced in September 2011 by Facebook to its 800 million users worldwide, the idea of frictionless sharing is to make sharing — what you’re reading, watching (TV, movies, or online videos), or listening to (via Spotify, for example) — automatic and effortless. Facebook wants to be the king of social sharing, because it’s a smart business decision — as user growth slows, sharing will continue to increase (at least doubling every year, according to Zuckerberg’s Law), especially if Facebook continues to make it easier and easier for its existing users to do so.

One of the interesting byproducts of this new innovation is that old news stories are becoming fresh fodder for online readers. As the Poynter Institute’s Jeff Sonderman astutely points out, “Sometimes a good story is just a good story, as long as it is new to you.”

I’m tempted to say something clever/deep here about the Gospel being the “old, old story,” but I’ll refrain. (If you want to share something in the comments, go for it!)

Instead, I’ll just suggest that it would also be a smart decision for our religious/faith communities to promote “frictionless sharing,” encouraging participation from the whole community — in storytelling, in worship, in decision-making, etc.

What do you think about frictionless sharing and religious/faith communities? What needs to happen to reduce/remove the friction? What others areas of church/community life could benefit from some friction reduction?

“A movement is afoot, in the church and society, to reestablish organic participatory systems where we can band together to create local communities of shared values and practices.”

Examples of this movement may not be what we consider “the mainstream,” but if we are looking, there are many out there. One example that I’ve been keenly investigating recently is unschooling. I also understand there’s an increasing interest in an alternative economy based on the old-school idea of bartering. I haven’t engaged in that much, but I have had some experience with the free economy, supported by online networks such as Freecycle and BookCrossing. There’s also some exciting models being developed by Relational Tithe and HopeMob.

In terms of the church, what I think Scandrette is alluding to (if I may attempt to read into his book a little bit) are experiments in Christian community such as neo-monasticism, house churches, and “tribes” (to name just a few).

“Tribes” are what Scandrette calls the learning labs he’s been involved with developing through his work with Re:Imagine. Scandrette’s book is a great guide to how these communities have been developed and how anyone can organize similar experiments in their local context, wherever that may be.

I find it interesting that Mark writes, “Although we think a tribe is a basic form of church, we don’t necessarily call it that.” As we think about reimagining religious/faith communities in a way that moves toward greater participation (participatoriness?), we are going to have to grapple with the baggage that some of our language has acquired over the years — including terms like “church” and “Christian.”