Upcoming Emerging Conference

There will be a major Emerging Church conference here in Albuquerque this March! Presenters include Brian McLaren, Fr. Richard Rohr, Phyllis Tickle, and Shane Claiborne. Here is the website http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/emer/ The cost is somewhat expensive, but there is a group rate, and being this early, we may be able to negotiate an even lower per-person cost. I plan to attend and hope to take along a couple people from Trinity (my congregation). Just a heads-up so we can start thinking and planning.

December Guests

I remember at our last meeting we discussed ways to make our next meeting come alive (even more alive than it was!). One suggestion was to bring in someone who lived on the street to be part of the gathering. While that may prove lively to us, my experience with many street folk around Trinity is that they have larger underlying issues, and a handout is usually just that, not a hand up.

As a result, I've searched for other ministries around Albuquerque, and I've had the privilege to meet and become involved with East Central Ministries. Check out their website at www.eastcentralministries.org. They are doing some innovative programs to build up the La Mesa through indigenous leadership including a housing co-op (sort of a cross between apartments and condominiums) for neighborhood families, a food co-op for families, neighborhood health care, and lots of kids' mentoring, tutoring, etc.. I'm also teaching piano lessons and leading worship at Escuela Luz del Mundo www.elmabq.org, a private school dedicated to high-quality education for kids from poor families at the corner of Pennsylvania and Chico NE.

While having lunch with a friend the other day, I ran into John Bulten, the leader of ECM, and
Rick Kitchen, the leader of ELM. I told them both about our emerging group, and they were very interested. So if their schedules are free, one or both of them will likely be joining us at our next meeting. They would undoubtedly provide us with some interesting conversations.

And in the meantime, if anyone in our group is interested in helping out with either organization please let me know or get in touch with John or Rick personally through the websites.

Freedom in Christ

Hello everyone. This weekend I was graced with the pleasure of hearing (and being deeply affected by) a wonderful message about what it means to be free in Christ. What is it about those three words being linked together that most significantly grips you?

I'm Lovin' It!

No, I'm not talking about McDonald's. I'm talking about our cohort gathering last night. It was awesome! I left feeling positive, uplifted, and spiritually nourished. I'm very much looking forward to the next one!

Meeting tomorrow!

Don't forget that we'll be meeting at the Flying Star on Central in Nob Hill round about 5 pm tomorrow! I'll be there by then but many will trickle in as work finishes up.

Hope to see you there!