Day 2 of our first event happened in Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. Please note that Day 2 fits in the context of what happened on Day 1 which I blogged about here and the banquet for the homeless which kicked things off. Day 1 had several options for people to participate in (here is the list of what happened).
Club Nokia was quite a fantastic space and was fitting that we launched Origins with a banquet to the homeless and then the first event-meeting was smack in the epicenter of downtown Los Angeles. Had some interesting things at Club Nokia happen, as the Nokia staff still did security and all and treated it like a normal band event. So this was the first event I have ever been where you had to go through a security check and scan. But it was an incredibly cool space to be in.
Go here to Renee Johnson's blog to see photos of Day 2 that she took. Renee is an author and has a blog that I regularly read.
We had three themes on Day 2 - based out of our statement of "serving on the mission of Jesus through creativity, activism and equipping others". Erwin McManus led the "Create" part. Dave Gibbons led the "Activate" part. And I led off the "Equip" part. It was a mix of ways things were presented from film, to panels with people sharing to somewhat quick presentations. We had 2 break out times where people met in groups of 4 with all the various speakers as well as other leaders. I had wonderful discussions with people, which I wish could have gone on a long time and really wish we had more of that on Day 2. Josh Fox led a band combined of people from 3 different churches which was cool seeing the multi-church band.
Renee wrote a pretty great summary of the various sections and what happened you can read here.
Here's another review from Tim Morey at Fuller Seminary.
There were such great moments, Amena Brown was incredible. Erwin interviewed Blake Mycoskie from Tom's Shoe's. The panel Dave Gibbons had and the stories shared were so inspiring with Tara Varga Russell and others doing incredible things. Rick McKinley had great insight on never forgetting all we are doing is as worshipers. I could have listened to Alan and Debra Hirsch for 3 hours. Eric Bryant's new book "Not Like Me" was released. It is hard to list everyone here without leaving others out, as it was a blitz of so many ideas and encouragements. Very difficult to get it all in a single day like this and glad next year will be a 3 day event with evenings as part of it too.
For my session which was the third part of the day on "Equip", I focused on how if we are passionate about activism and creativity for the mission of Jesus... and if we care about justice and serving those in need - that we also need to be very strategic about making new disciples of Jesus. Because if we aren't, if you play things out in 10 years, 20 years, 50 years - as the current church dies out (and I mean literally dying) and we aren't seeing new generations of Christians made, then we won't have as many people out there serving on justice in the name of Jesus. So the church must be "equipping" people for evangelism. But we need to redeem what "evangelism" is. It is not weird, funky, awkward things to do out of guilt. But simply a sharing of life and caring and being invited into the lives of people. As we are invited into their lives, it then comes naturally that we share the wonderful grace of Jesus with them.
I then gave a little challenge that I am feeling more concerned about lately. Francis of Assisi supposedly said "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” I shared how I feel the evangelical church mainly used a lot of words more about the gospel only being about getting to heaven when we die. So we didn't focus as much as involvement in compassion and action on injustice. But now we focus so much on injustice and action, that we aren't using words and training for evangelism as much anymore. When you study St. Francis's life, he did use a lot of words too. And poetry. And preached. So we have to never forget that most of us came to faith in Jesus through the proclamation of words and dialog and talking. But, how we go about that is what we need to reclaim and re-vision as evangelism was turned into primarily a sharing of a reductionist gospel. So we need to re-envision what healthy evangelism is as well as equip the church for it.
I tried to show a visual of of this as I spoke. I brought up 12 seats and had people come up on the stage and a smaller group representing the church came out and gave them heart balloons which represented acts of love and compassion in the name of Jesus. But then I had one by one the representatives of the church disappear. And as they did, they would take a heart from someone in need to show that as Christians die off, the amount of people the church helps then dies off. So it was a bit chaotic, but hopefully made a point. I then had everyone on the stage join in together as people receiving acts of love and compassion then join in the mission of Jesus as followers of His.
Overall, it was a fun kick-off event for us. The biggest thing I wish was different about Day 2 of the event, was ironically as cool as the space was we met in, it lacked the ability to really have good conversations and break-outs. I so wish we had more interaction time, and back and forth discussion. Times of breaking into smaller groups to meet and get to really know others. So that is what I wish was different. I know in all our future planning for events and the spaces we meet in, that will be a major priority to make happen. A major, major goal of Origins will be connecting people and building relationships. So the symbol of being downtown like this in that club was wonderful to launch. But in future events we will surely be having a lot more interaction, group discussions and the space to do so.
What is next for Origins:
-Connecting on the Origins Web Site: the Origins website is there to start discussions, ask questions, tell stories, start regional groups and get signed up for the email updates
- Regional Events: we will be having regional events in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011. Right now it looks like we will have them in cities including Houston, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco Bay Area and if you are interested in hosting a regional gathering, please contact Eric Bryant at eric@mosaic.org In many ways, this Origins event was more of a southern CA regional one. As one day events make it more a local one than a national one. So what we want to do is set up environments where people can come to, meet, connect, share and learn. The regionals will have a mix of things happening and be probably half day or maybe full day. We'll announce those soon.
- Origins Festival - July 28-30, 2011 in Pasadena, CA: this will be a 3 day event which will be more festival-like on what was a college campus, so the whole feel of the gathering will be much more conducive to having multiple venues, can set up artistic areas, dialog sessions, and highlight a wide variety of different kinds of artists. We will be announcing details as we get them. This event is not just for church leaders, but for all those who resonate with the community being formed, college ministries, youth ministries, leaders and people in churches etc.
So that is a summary of Origins Day 2. It is difficult to be back and jumping right into the flurry of activity in church here. Speaking this Wednesday at Compassion Unleashed in San Jose (with Alan and Deb Hirsch and Jim Belcher). Then on Thursday I am heading off to Memphis to speak at Connect Conference for college leaders. And while in Memphis will certainly pay a visit to Graceland and Sun Studio. Then speaking at a camp up at Lake Tahoe (Becky and Katie and Claire are coming to this) and then a week of vacation in the mountains on another lake - and no internet, Facebook and my cell phone will be shut off.
I am so thrilled about Origins, and it felt like I got a little bit of getting to meet some people, but I can't wait till our next meetings where we absolutely have time to talk, and hang out, and listen and learn from each other. And until then, head to the Origins web site in the "Community" area and start conversations, ask questions, connect with others in your region or start a regional discussion. I will be going on the web site a couple times a week, so always feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for being interested in this and help us create the future of it!
