Press Release for the Origins Event

Thought you might like to see the press release for the Origins Event!  Should be a great weekend!

Get info. on the event here.

Connect with the network here.

See the Future Face of the Church & Activism at Origins

The Church in America is changing, and Origins is at the forefront.

Origins is a worldwide network of leaders who follow Jesus thriving on the diversity and creativity growing in the Church. It’s an externally-focused network of creatives, business leaders, activists, educators, and leaders that exist to love humanity and serve the mission of Jesus.

If you want to understand and experience the evolving face of Christianity, one that represents the diversity, passion, and creativity found in the ways of Jesus, Origins’ inaugural event is the place to find it. It is an active- not passive-event.

On Friday, July 23, attendees will serve residents of Los Angeles through practical service projects. They will partner with leading organizations in the city to serve the poor on Skid Row and learn how to facilitate community care from city leaders in a tour of Los Angeles.

On Saturday, July 24, in Club Nokia at L.A. Live, Origins will gather at its inaugural event to be insprired, renewed, and moved toward collaboration by leading thinkers in numerous fields of thought. Just a few of them include:

Erwin McManus is the catalyst behind Awaken, McManus Studios, and Mosaic and is widely known as an author, speaker, activist, filmmaker, and innovator who specializes in the field of developing and unleashing personal and organizational creativity, uniqueness, innovation and diversity.

Margaret Feinberg was recently named one of the ’30 Emerging Voices’ who will help lead the church in the next decade by Charisma magazine and one of the ’40 under 40’ who will shape Christian publishing by Christian Retailing. She has written more than two dozen books and Bible studies including the critically-acclaimed “The Organic God”

Scott Harrison is the founder of charity: water, an organization committed to bringing clean and safe water to over 1 billion people in the world. His work has been featured in over 300 media outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX news.

The Origins Project is a network meant to spur activity, love and service. The inaugural event is an essential primer for anyone trying to understand the current Christian generation and an invitation to join in a movement changing the world.

Contact: Charles Lee—310-9951445—originsprojectmedia@gmail.com

The Origins Project & The Mosaic Alliance: FAQ

Partnerships and networking remain essential to accomplish more in our world.  We have enjoyed some relationships for decades whereas some relationships may have begun more recently.

“To go fast, go alone.  To go far, go together.” – African proverb.  This proverb is true of individuals as well as for a local church or an organization.

Our two main networks include The Origins Project with Dave Gibbons, Dan Kimball, Margaret Feinberg, and many others along with those connecting with the Mosaic Alliance.  Here are some responses to some of the most frequently asked questions:

1.  What is the difference between The Origins Project and the Mosaic Alliance?

Origins shares the same passions whereas the Mosaic Alliance shares the same passions and the same values.

2.  Who makes up Origins?

Anyone who shares the same passion for Jesus, Humanity, and Innovation can connect and contribute!

The core and creative teams are made up of friends who have wanted to work more together and invite others to join us in serving, loving, and influencing our world.  Some of our names may be familiar and others may not.  These are people of influence from business, ministry, the arts, and academia.

3.  What is next for Origins?

Currently we are interacting online in forums, publishing online articles, sending out a monthly newsletter, meeting in different places for Listening Sessions, and partnering locally towards different initiatives. To register and contribute, go to www.originsproject.org.

We are looking at having a big event in July 2010 in Southern California. (More details to come…)

4. Who makes up the Mosaic Alliance?

The Mosaic Alliance is made up of church planters and church leaders from across the world with churches in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and North America.

There are three ways to connect with the Mosaic Alliance. Level one remains free and includes a newsletter, podcasts, and events such as The Mosaic Global Initiative, Ethos, and Yelo. Level two includes Immersion events, an online community, access to more resources, and discounts. Level three churches contribute 5% of their budget towards church planting through any organization or denomination. Levels two and three require an application and administrative fee.

For more details on how to connect with us to create the future go to www.mosaicalliance.com.

Origins Update (via Dan Kimball)

“Origins planning meeting update” by Dan Kimball

“Got back tonight from 2 fun days in Los Angeles where some of the Origins Project leadership team met together to put some ideas into planning.

Origins is a network/community being birthed for those who are passionate about Jesus, Humanity and Innovation. So this means it is for anyone who desires to join in on the hopeful mission of people experiencing and knowing the love, and saving grace of Jesus. And using our God-given creativity and innovative thinking in this mission. You can read more on the Origins website here. As well as sign up for email updates and ongoing news and join in on the discussions already happening.

Origins Project Meeting You can see who is on the full Origins leadership team here.

(Dave Gibbons left before we took this photo here from one of the meeting times), but in these meetings were with Erwin,and Dave Gibbons and April Diaz and  Margaret Feinberg (and Leif and their toy poodle Hershey) and Josh Fox and Amena Brown and Eric Bryant and Marc McCartney and some of the NewSong and Mosaic staff joined us for one of the dinners. I was texting during the meeting with Scot McKnight who couldn’t be there because of teaching class and Mark Batterson is over in Germany.  Getting this group together is one of the craziest experiences due to everyone’s nutty schedules and travel. But we are moving ahead and got a lot done and talked about.

Some basic updates are:

Margaret and amena at Origins Project meeting – Origins festival-event – July 2010: We will be doing an event next summer (most likely in July). It will have a festival-like feel to it with lots of break out groups for connecting, music, art creating, poetry and spoken word creating and inspiration of stories and various sized meetings. Part of the event will be actual serving the community – so it will be about the gospel of Jesus being both proclamation and in deeds. We are choosing summer as we most likely will be using a college campus when school is out and there is dorm rooms, lots of open space as well as meeting areas. But as soon as we lock in our actual place we will announce dates and more details. But had such great input and ideas so this will not be just another usual type of “conference” but a festival and taking words to action. And this is not only for church “leaders” but for all those interested in this mission. Because of the nature of this “festival” vs. conference – I can envision many in the community of Vintage Faith Church going down to LA for this.

– “Listening” tour – Fall and Spring 2009-2010: We are taking the development of this seriously as we want to be listening to people who have ideas and how they envision Origins to be. It is already happening in the “community” section of the website. But this Fall we will have meetings all across the country where we will be asking questions and listening. Questions like “What would you envision this network to be like? How can it be beneficial to you? What are the issues you face on mission you would love to hear how others are facing them? We will post the schedule very soon and all we want is for you to show up, share ideas, and share together. What you share will help give further direction as this network/community develops.

– Origins at Outreach Convention in San Diego – November 3, 2009 Myself, Eric Bryant and Marlon Hall will be leading a one day workshop on evangelism as part of the Outreach Convention. But we will also be doing a “listening” meeting that same night or the next in San Diego. But if you’d like to register for this day long workshop go here.  We’ll post about the listening meeting soon and time and place.

– Regional Groups: part of this will be forming regional groups around the country who can connect for inspiration, discussion and encouragement and learning from one another. On the Origins Project website there are some regional discussions happening already. But we will be formally establishing point leaders and meeting people this Fall and Spring as we are around the country on the “listening” tour.

– A kick-off book: We discussed some really great ideas for a kick-off book which will hopefully be an inspiring one and a different approach to what a book like this normally would be. So I am writing up a basic outline for this based on our meeting and discussion.

Being in meetings like this are so incredibly invigorating and because it is what I believe the church should be about. Serving others in the world. Passionate about seeing emerging generations know the grace of God through Jesus. Not being afraid of risk and change – and so many things. Better stop. My posts are always so incredibly long. But for those that want to know that’s an update!”

For Dan’s entire post, go here.

For thoughts on Origin from sociologist, Davidson professor, and author Gerardo Marti, go here.