The Origins Project Online!

Our new network has been born!

The Origins Project

Ancient Text. Present Context. Future Textures.

“For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God…” (Acts 5:38-39 NIV)

We are a community of followers of Jesus who are passionate about seeing people know God and experience life as He intended. As we are guided by the Scriptures, we will inspire one another to embrace innovation and creativity as a means to fulfill this mission.

Join the community and the conversation here.

Live Teleminar with Catalyst’s Brad Lomenick!

phone200Our next LIVE teleseminar will take place on Tuesday, April 14 at 1:30pm – 2:00pm PST (4:30pm – 5:00pm EST).

I will interview Brad Lomenick, the Executive Director of Catalyst. During the call we’ll talk about leadership, some of the things Brad and his team are learning, and the evolution of Catalyst growing from one event to a multi-impact organization. We’ll also dive into what it’s like, from Brad’s perspective, to be mentioned in Seth Godin’s popular book, Tribes.

Make plans to join us for this LIVE teleseminar event. Time permitting we will open the lines up to allow you to ask questions and interact. You can also submit questions in advance of the LIVE call via email that we’ll try to address.

SIGN UP NOW — CLICK HERE

You can listen to audio recordings from previous teleseminars at https://ericbryant.org/teleseminar/, including our most recent conversation with TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) and Urban Youth Workers.

Join us next week in Orange County for Origins and Catalyst West Coast!

Exponential’s Interview with Erwin

Erwin McManus was interviewed by Dave Ferguson and Todd Wilson from the Exponential Church Network concerning topics such as:

LISTEN HERE

Chris Duran’s “Life Could Be Beautiful”

I am excited for my friend Chris Duran. I have seen him creating music since he was 15 years old with Cynthia Vasquez as part of The Eclectics. Then he toured with Pax 217 as one of their percussionists (Big brother Bobby was their DJ). Now he serves our musicians at Mosaic Pasadena.   (Every once in a while, the band at Mosaic Pasadena includes Chris on guitar, his wife Alisah on lead vocals, and his dad on percussion, so we get to have Duran Duran Duran in our gatherings!)

Now, you can get Chris Duran’s songs on your iPod through iTunes!

TWLOHA and UYWI Teleseminar Tomorrow!

Our next LIVE teleseminar will be tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 from 1:30pm PST until 2:30pm PST.

During this special multi-guest teleseminar, I will be interviewing Jamie Tworkowski (To Write Love on Her Arms) for the first 1/2 hour and Larry Acosta (Urban Youth Workers Institute) for the second 1/2 hour.

“To Write Love on Her Arms” is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.

Urban Youth Workers Institute exists to strengthen a new generation of global urban leaders for transformational ministry.

Register at www.ericbryant.org/teleseminar and submit questions you’d like to ask Jamie or Larry.

Origins Event April 22nd!

Join us for a convergence of leaders from around the world to interact about breaking trends, creative thinking, and progressive ideas.

Speakers include: Erwin McManus, Dan Kimball, Margaret Feinberg, Mark Batterson, Dave Gibbons, Alan & Debra Hirsch, leaders from Mosaic, as well as several other entrepreneurs, pioneers, activists, and innovators. For more details go here.

Special events before or after include:

Mosaic Immersion for Mosaic Alliance Level 2 & 3 – Talent Spelunking, The 10 traits of a Missional Community, etc.. For more details email chrisc@mosaic.org.

Catalyst West Coast with Erwin, Hillsong United, Andy Stanley and more on April 23-24

Connect to a new network rooted in the Scriptures who have a high level of urgency for innovative evangelism at www.theoriginsproject.org.

Poetry Lounge

Some of our friends from Mosaic Inland were recently featured in an article in the Inland Empire Weekly written by Lee Ballinger.  Some highlights:

“A poetry venue can be about more than just poetry. Just ask LionLike MindState emcee David M. Oliver (aka Judah 1), a nationally known poet who says, ‘I wanted an open mic but I wanted it different. I wanted a literacy program. I wanted to get into the prisons, to do writing workshops there to get the violence out, the anger out. People come to LionLike more for the community than for the poetry.’”

“Underneath everything is a philosophy…. As Nathan says, it’s ‘about living a life completely wide awake and striving to make the world around you better in the process.’”

According to Judah 1, “We’re not just a hip-hop venue,” he says. “We’re not a Black venue, we’re not a Caucasian venue, we’re not a Christian or a Muslim venue. Anybody can come, everybody’s respected. Our faces are all different, our thoughts are all different, our beliefs are all different, but yet we have this common bond called poetry. We use that and we just build it. I think that’s pretty revolutionary.”

Getting Crowded!

According to a recent United Nations report on population growth:

“The world population is projected to top nine billion in 2050, up from 6.8 billion this year and seven billion early in 2012, according to UN estimates released Wednesday.Most of the additional 2.3 billion people will swell the population of the developing world, estimated to soar from 5.6 billion this year to 7.9 billion in 2050, and to spread among the 15-59 age group (1.2 billion) and those 60 or over (1.1 billion), the data showed.”

With the most drastic growth among people in the developing world, we need to consider plans and strategies to empower and embolden indigenous leaders from the developing world.

Sandstorm & Skyscraper

I have been to Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Egypt, but these pictures from Saudi Arabia and Dubai seem like they are from a different planet! Check out these images from the Middle East:
Can you imagine this type of weather?!?!

This sandstorm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia caused “more than 70 accidents… during the first three hours due to near-zero visibility.”  As you can imagine, even the schools were closed.

Rather than snow closures, they have sand closures!

The Burj Dubai is already the world’s tallest skyscraper. When completed by the end of the year, the tower will be 818 meters and 162 floors.

To put this in perspective, the other world’s tallest buildings include:

The CN Tower in Toronto is 553.3 meters tall.

The Freedom Tower in New York City will be 541 meters when completed in 2011.

Taipei 101 in Taiwan is 509 meters tall.

The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are 452 meters tall.

The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago is 442 meters tall.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is 300 meters tall.