Friday, April 30, 2010

A Good Sign (Sine)

Tom Sine is a name I have known for nearly thirty years, so I am looking forward to hearing him speak, and to meeting him, this evening (Apr. 30). Dr. Sine is the guest speaker/leader at the special event called “Re-Imagine 2010-2020: Re-Imagining Life, Church and Mission,” which Second Baptist Church, of which June and I are members, is having this evening and tomorrow.

Sine (b. 1936) first became widely known after the publication of his book The Mustard Seed Conspiracy: You Can Make a Difference in Tomorrow’s Troubled World in 1981. He has written several other significant books since then, including Mustard Seed vs. McWorld: Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future (1999) and his latest book, The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time (2008).

Tom Sine and his wife, Christine, live in the Mustard Seed House (MSH) in Seattle. Their website says that MSH is “an inter-generational neo-monastic, intentional Christian community” made up of people who want to live “the values of God’s Kingdom.” The Sines are also founders of Mustard Seed Associates (MSA), “a community of Jesus’ followers all over the world striving to create the future one mustard seed at a time.”

I was very favorable impressed with my recent reading of The New Conspirators, and I especially thought the last part of the book was good. That last section includes chapters titled “Reimagining Whole-Life Stewardship,” “Reimagining Whole-Life Community,” and “Reimagining Whole-Life Mission.”

In the latter chapter Dr. Sine contends that in response to the challenges Christians are now facing, “we must resolve, by the power of God, to become whole-life disciples and whole-life communities committed to placing God’s mission purposes at the center of our lives and churches, giving compassionate, creative and celebrative expression to that world [God’s kingdom] that is already here” (p. 277).

I earnestly hope that more and more of us 2BC church members, as well as more and more Christians across the country and around the world, will resolutely make such a resolve.

For our church, which celebrates its 167th anniversary in May, to be having this “Re-Imagine 2010-2020” activity and to be listening to an outstanding guest speaker/leader today and tomorrow is truly, I think, a good sign (Sine). 

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1 comment:

  1. LKSeatMay 2, 2010 at 5:39 PM

    I have been a bit disappointed not to have received more response about this posting regarding Dr. Sine. I did receive an e-mail from my good friend Glen Davis, who teaches in the Vancouver School of Theology. He wrote,

    "Thanks for this reminder of the work and writings of Tom Sine. I will get his latest book."

    ReplyDelete

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