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ysmarko

life, faith, youth ministry, emerging church, leadership, whimsy

home alone/i am legend mashupSeptember 13

fantastic mashup of home alone and i am legend…

omg, this cracked me up:

i’m really tempted to get myself a little vest, and sew a bunch of these fake merit badges all over it. could be randomly fun! there are tons of them, but here’s one i’d get for sure.

non-voting as violenceSeptember 10

i don’t do politics on this blog very often (and, whenever i write that, people tell me i should stay away from it more!). but i’ve heard the occasional christian, or read the occasional blog or comment, where someone says they’re not going to vote because (a) they can’t decide, or (b) they can’t support either candidate, or (c) they don’t believe in the whole process. these lines of reasoning really bug me.

now, as is obvious, i’m not a black man. but anthony smith is, and he has a brilliant post over at the emergent village blog about why non-voting is an act of violence. so good. here’s a tease…

I have this habit of being suspicious whenever white Christians tell me what to do. I think it has something to do with history. Not sure. Pray for me. But the history doesn’t look too good, for the most part. Yet I am a part of the emerging church postmodern conversation. Here I am, and I am hearing more and more voices say things that leave me in a state of tension. When I hear them say, “I am not voting because I am a Christian,” I also hear the guttural cry of slaves in the cotton fields of Alabama praying for freedom from oppression. When I hear them say, “Voting is one more means to be about the business of Empire,” I also hear the voice of an assassinated prophet s

lucas did a claiborne/leap of faith mashupSeptember 9

our convention in argentina ended well sunday night. the spirit of the event was as joyous and electric as usual. youth workers in the states are often (certainly not always) a bit jaded and skeptical. but this is not the case here in latin america — they are, 100%, expectant and engaged. this makes every aspect of the event a total blast.

the event had a handful of behind-the-scenes problems this year — nothing the participants would have known about. but it had lucas and the organizers a bit stressed. earlier in the week, during a time of prayer, lucas had felt god impress on his heart that he should speak in the closing session, that he should have german ortiz (pronounced “herman”, or “hair-mon” in spanish) speak. german and lucas started a grass-roots youth organization called lagram when they were 17 years old, and german still leads this organization.

then there was the high maintanance worship leader.

a super-popular spanish worship leader was one of the “big deal” presenters this year. he was set to give a general session talk sunday morning, then lead worship sunday night. his people called early sunday and said he didn’t want to take the flight we’d arranged from buenos aires, and that someone had arranged to bring him and his band over to mendoza on a private jet. problem was: the jet wasn’t available exactly when we needed him there. we pushed back that we have the schedule all arranged, and we need him the