Origins Event Speaker Highlight: Amena Brown

Posted on May 28, 2010

We are so thrilled to have Amena Brown join us for our inaugural Origins Event!

As a poet, speaker, journalist, and event host Amena Brown’s words excite, ignite and inspire. Whether in front of audiences as intimate as 50 or as sprawling as 20,000, she has something to say that matters. The author of a chapbook and two spoken word CDs, Amena has performed and spoken at events all over the country such as The RightNow Conference, Thirsty Conference, National Youth Workers Convention, Catalyst Conference, Atlantis Music Conference, and the 2008 National Poetry Slam Competition. She hosts a regular open mic in Atlanta every fifth Thursday at Urban Grind Coffee as well as hosting other poetry and music events. Along with her spoken word recordings, Amena has participated in numerous professional and live recordings including the Caring Communities documentary, 97.1 JAMZ spoken word ads and a collection of video poems with Bluefish TV and Big Stuf Productions.

As a freelance journalist Amena has been published in Southeast Performer Magazine, Charlotte Creative Loafing, Atlanta Creative Loafing, and Atlanta INtown Newspaper. She also speaks at conferences and events for high school and college students, young adults, and women, where she has facilitated several workshops and breakout sessions on creativity, singleness, writing, and building artistic community.

As a part of a generation that is searching for the real and the genuine in an age of constant carbon copy, Amena is both regal and dramatic in her creative interpretation on the stage, and in her candid and expressive conversation one on one. This nonconformist lends her voice to finding inspiration, truth, and purpose and encourages those she encounters to do the same.

Check out some of the following videos of her work and be sure to join us July 23-24 at the Origins Event!

Origins Event Speaker Highlight: Rick McKinley

Posted on May 26, 2010

The Origins Event is less than 2 months away!

We’re excited to announce that Rick McKinley will be joining us . Rick is the author of Jesus in the Margins and This Beautiful Mess. He planted Imago Dei Community in October of 2000. Since that time Imago has been voted one of the top 25 most innovative churches in the country by Outreach Magazine. Rick is also the co-creator of Advent Conspiracy a global initiative with the goal of recovering the meaning of the incarnation by calling the church to be a leading voice in the global water crisis. That being said, the best part of Rick’s life is his wife Jeanne and their four children.

Please take a look at the following video from Advent Conspiracy and be sure to join us for the Origins Event July 23-24 in Los Angeles, CA:

Reasons to Come to the Origins Event (Eric Bryant)

Posted on May 17, 2010

Invitation to Origins Event by Eric Bryant from Origins Project on Vimeo.

Find out more about the event on July 23-24 in downtown L.A. here!

Register here!

Margaret Feinberg on the Origins Event

Posted on May 14, 2010

Why Origins? by Margaret Feinberg from Origins Project on Vimeo.

Find out more about the event on July 23-24 in downtown L.A. here!

Register here!

The Origins Event and Network (Dave Gibbons)

Posted on May 7, 2010

Origins Project Event: Dave Gibbons from Story of Yellow on Vimeo.

Following God Rather Than Fads (Dave Gibbons)

Posted on May 3, 2010

In an interview with the Christian Post, Dave Gibbons emphasized the importance of following God’s leading rather than the next fad.  In the Christian Post article, Audrey Barrick writes:

“From “megachurch” to “multi-site” and now to “movements,” the nomenclature in the church world has shifted over the last 20 years, said a Southern California pastor.

And amid the shifts, Pastor Dave Gibbons wants fellow church leaders and planters to think Holy Spirit movement, not movement of the masses.

“Movement of the masses equates to diffused processes, strategies and it’s a one-size-fits-all motto,” he told pastors at the 2010 Exponential Conference in Orlando Wednesday.

“When you think ‘big’ you … just start copycatting and kind of make something big when really, it’s not about that; it’s about what’s God doing in your life, what’s the Holy Spirit doing around you, and that’s where you start.”

Pastor of NewSong Church and author of The Monkey and the Fish, Gibbons said many church planters think “movement” and feel pressured to adopt certain strategies and grow something big.

Some end up executing business strategies from the secular world while adding spiritual principles to it. But by taking the world’s idea of success, church planters ultimately become stressed out and burned out, Gibbons noted.

“We get stupid. We think ‘movement’ – okay I got to do this because it’s going to reach all these people.”

“Release your stress as a church planter,” he said. “What needs to change is I don’t have to make it happen. … Capture where God’s working right now and then flow there.”

The job of the church planter isn’t to initiate a movement. Rather, pastors are called to follow and respond and ask “Holy Spirit, where are you working?” he said.

For the rest of the article, go here.