Mark Yaconelli Pt3

by | Sep 8, 2008 | Everything Else

Notes from Mark Yaconelli’s last message at the NYA2008.

  • Acts 17 – “to an unknown God”
  • This God wants to free you to love.
  • We live with blankets wrapped around our hearts to muffle them.
  • Most of us have not been loved well, so we don’t know how to love well.
  • How can we love well?
    • See people – when was the last time someone took you in with their eyes? Allow yourself to be seen too.
    • Hear people – we pay people to listen to us now! Truly caring, not just the ‘professional face’.
  • The real sin in this world is that people are losing the ability to feel, they’re becoming numb.
  • Be gentle with yourself.

Social Media at NYA2008

by | Sep 7, 2008 | Everything Else

One of the four streams of conversation this weekend at the NYA is the issue of social media and how it impacts us. We looked briefly at seven different spaces:

  1. Secret spaces (text, IM)
  2. Group spaces (Facebook, Bebo)
  3. Publishing spaces (blog, flickr)
  4. Performing spaces (Second Life)
  5. Participating spaces (marches, meetings)
  6. Watching spaces (TV, theatre, gigs)

We talked a lot about what the future of media looks like, and about the need to find appropriate filters for the media, otherwise we will be bombarded with an information overload. We also discussed whether the immediacy of news was a good or a bad thing.

Loved these quotes:

“Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future.”
[James Bertrand]

“It was the end of something. It was the beginning of everything.”
[From a Nokia ad campaign – see below]

“Tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”
[Clay Shirkey]

“If it’s worth creating, it’s worth sharing.”
[Stewart Cutler]

Mark Yaconelli Pt2

by | Sep 7, 2008 | Everything Else

Notes from Mark Yaconelli’s Sunday morning message at the NYA2008.

  • People kept telling him about how they felt tears during his talk yesterday, but held them back. Why? Because we view it as a sign of weakness.
  • In the Christian faith, only the wounded go free.
  • In Christian tradition, tears were seen as a sign of the Spirit, as a thin place.
  • Story of the prodigal son – that’s how God treats our weaknesses.
  • There is a reason so many of is try to avoid our weaknesses. The reason is we don’t trust God. We don’t trust that he really loves us.
  • Story of the surprise wedding: the parents – who have caused their kids so much pain – want to bless their kid, but they dont know how.
  • “All the ways you [God] seek to love us into new life…”

Mark Yaconelli Pt1

by | Sep 7, 2008 | Everything Else

Mark Yaconelli is the keynote speaker this weekend at NYA2008, and I have to say it’s the first time that I’ve actually heard any of his thinking. I’ve been aware of books by both him and his late father Mike for a while now, but haven’t quite managed to get round to reading any of them. Mark is an absolute master storyteller – I could sit and listen to him for hours, the way he draws you into the narrative and makes you feel invested in it.

Anyway, here are some notes from his message yesterday morning.

  • Have a feeling that if Jesus were here, he wouldn’t use so many words. He would look & really see you. And he would listen.
  • The invitation in the first part of the passage (Acts 1): that we would be good receivers.
  • After Jesus’ baptism, when he is told he is beloved: the difference between Jesus & us is that Jesus believes it!
  • The work of the Christian faith is to be a good receiver, to learn to be loved.
  • How many of us are driven by this anxiety about what we’re going to “do”?
  • We need to slow down long enough to receive, to notice.
  • We’re scared to leave the prisons of our mind, because we know their systems, it’s secure. But Jesus wants us to be free! The prisons aren’t real.
  • Who would you be if you were free?