Convergent Friends - Gathering In Light

Yoda on Renewing the Tradition

I was re-watching The Last Jedi with the family yesterday and the scene with Yoda and Luke at the Sacred Tree with all the old texts hit me like a ton of bricks. Yoda is totally convergent, wanting to see the tradition renewed and remixed, while Luke is seen here

Convergent Friends

As The Seed Falls: Building a Generative, Convergent Quakerism

This is the opening excerpt from a longer post on my Medium Blog about convergent Friends and the Renewal of the Quaker tradition. A Seed Falls Jesus, in speaking about his looming death, talks to his disciples in a metaphor that I want to draw on as we explore the

Convergent Friends

Convergent Model of Renewal: A Sketchnote Companion and Discussion Guide (Complete)

Last night we finished up a six-week discussion at Camas Friends Church on my book. You can purchase “A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing the Quaker Tradition in a Participatory Culture” through my publisher Wipf and Stock or on Amazon (it’s more expensive there): “A Convergent Model of Renewal.

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A Remixed Church: Adaptation, Legos and Renewal (Isaiah 43:18-19)

“Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of

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Convergent Model of Renewal: Discussion Guide and Sketchnotes (Chp. 2)

We are doing a discussion at Camas Friends Church on my book, “A Convergent Model of Renewal.” I am posting the sketchnotes and discussion questions here each week for anyone who would like to download them and use them. Feel free to share and dispense however that makes sense as

Convergent Friends

Convergent Friends: A Handbook Part 2 – Starting Your Own Convergent Friends Worship Group

Three years ago we started a monthly convergent Friends worship gathering in the Camas/Portland Metro area. The goal of the meeting was to bring those Friends who desire to worship together, build relationships and create an open and flexible worship liturgy that can be adapted according to those who

Convergent Friends

Convergent Friends: A Handbook – An Introduction to Convergence (Pt. 1)

In this online handbook you will find a variety of articles written by convergent Friends. This is by no means an exhaustive collection of writings but rather it is meant to function as an introduction to the concept of convergent Friends and part two of the handbook is meant to

Convergent Friends

Write the Vision: Quakers, Zines and Participatory Culture

This is a synchroblog written for Quaker Voluntary Service, of which I am a board member. The theme is “Quakers and new media.” (Twitter Link #qvssynchroblog) “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed

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Getting Found in Translation: Reflecting on Issues of Theological Translation

Whenever Quakers from various streams get together, similarities and differences quickly arise. This is the current state of our tradition; it’s not something we should fight against. Instead, we need to learn how to move within it by being clear about who we are while “moving towards sympathy,” as

Church in Mission

The Possibilities and Challenges of Building a Participatory Church

I love the word participation. It’s stem means “taking part” or to “partner.” The Quaker meeting of which I am the ‘released minister,’ Camas Friends, strives to be a participatory church. A partnering church. A church that welcomes the contributions, leadership, insights, resources, personalities and concerns of those who

Convergent Friends

Nursery of Truth: A New Convergent Friends Project

For almost a year now Quakers from 8-10 different meetings in the Northwest have been getting together once a month for a “convergent worship gathering.” We move around to different meetinghouses and enjoy a time of bible reading, silence and worship sharing. Programmed and unprogrammed Friends alike enjoy the space

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Remix Culture and the Church

During Quaker Heritage Day one of the key themes I discussed was the idea of remix culture recently written about by Lawrence Lessig in his book with the same title. ((You can download Remix for free from here)) Remix culture has a long history that began back with the advent

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Follow-Up Materials From Quaker Heritage Day

For now, I’d like to share the materials that were requested by those there at the Quaker Heritage Day event in Berkeley, CA this past weekend. A number of folks hoped I’d share the slides, and other documents. You can find those things below. Hopefully these things can

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Book Giveaway: Three Copies of Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices

I don’t know about you but I love free books! So, in the spirit of Christmas I wanted to gift three people with a copy of the book I helped edit and love to share around. The book was published this year by Quaker Press and has been well

Church in Mission

Modest Proposal .pdf Version Available

Because I’ve been posting about Brent Bill’s recent series of posts about the revitalization of Friends I wanted to alert all of you to the fact that he’s edited all the blog posts down into a .pdf. I was excited to learn he was going to organize

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More Detailed Information for Quaker Heritage Day

February 12-13 I will be in Berkeley (at Berkeley Friends Church) discussing some of my favorite topics with anyone who wants to join us. The series of talks is currently being called “Heralding The New Creation: Mission as Participation in the Quaker Tradition” and in it investigate the renewal of

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Brent Bill: A Modest Proposal – For the Revitalization of the Quaker Message in the United Staes

Brent Bill, Quaker, author, convergent Friend, and all around good guy, is beginning a series on his blog that I am really looking forward to. In it he’s going to be looking at what the Quaker message is for today. I admitted that I had some interest in the

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The Testimony of Witness

This is my sermon from Sunday. If you’d like a little background to this, you can check out yesterday’s post “In Search of a New Frame for Evangelism and Mission.” This is my attempt at an initial response to the questions I raised there. Opening Queries For Discussion:

Blog Entries

Quaker Youth Pilgrimage 2010 Epistle

Micah Bales, one of the leaders of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage, just posted their Epistle from the trip on his blog. Here’s one section that particularly stands out to me, especially after my recent post on the subject. As a gathered youth, we are empowered to speak of one

Convergent Friends

Quaker Youth Pilgrimage Stops by Camas

This past weekend 29 youth and 3 adult leaders who have been traveling on a month long spiritual pilgrimage through the Pacific Northwest took a (planned) detour through Camas Washington and spent a few days with those of us at Camas Friends. They all slept and ate in our meeting

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The Convergence of Quakerism – Ephesians 2:11ff

The text from my message given to Camas Friends Church June 6, 2010 Personal Histories In the last couple weeks, I have been reflecting a lot on my own history, my own personal narratives that have shaped my life. With having recently gone home this probably doesnt come as

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Lady Wisdom as Mid-Wife (Proverbs 8)

While I was at Pendle Hill a couple weeks back I mentioned there was a lot of talk about meeting houses closing, there was a lot of talk about death, some literal death, some the death of our meetings and with it a (big) piece of our own stories. But

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Movements and Common Language of the Spirit – Acts 2

Last week I wrote a little about our experience of visiting another Quaker meeting in Portland last Sunday. During that time of open worship I thought some about Acts 2 and Pentecost. It was obvious that there is much that these two communities have in common and can learn from

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Building Networks of Support and Eldering

There’s a lot to say about this past weekend retreat on Convergent Friends and New Monasticism and it’s going to take me some time to unpack all the various experiences, ideas and thoughts that came out of it. However, one thing is for sure it was a learning

Blog Entries

New Monastics and Convergent Friends Retreat Outline

Martin Kelley and I will be leading a weekend retreat at Pendle Hill in just a couple weeks (May 14-16) and I’m starting to get really excited about it! Martin and I have been collaborating a lot together over the past few months in preparation for this weekend and