Alright TV fans, the moment of truth (and consequence) has arrived:
You may download the recording of this session by clicking here. Also, by way of update, The Mockingbird Devotional, from which Ethan reads in his session, will be out next week! Watch this space for an announcement.
Changing things up a little, here’s one of the breakout sessions from the NYC conference, Matthew Schneider’s discussion of grace as it relates parenting and adoption in the fourth season of NBC’s Parenthood. Highly recommended, regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of the show. Just be sure to have some tissues handy. Quick note: the first three clips can be heard but not seen. All the others should be fine. You can view the missing footage in episode two of the fourth season, “Left Field” (22:51-24:40, 27:20-18:05, 34:40-36:25).
You may download the audio of this recording by clicking here.
Here comes another video from our NYC conference, this time from John Zahl. In addition to some deep wisdom, it features what was hands-down the best joke of the conference.
You may download the recording of this talk by clicking here. And you may order a copy of the book that the talk is based on by clicking here.
What an absolute delight and honor it was to meet and listen to the one and only Mary Karr at last week’s conference in NYC. Buckle your seat-belts indeed – just don’t leave the cake out in the rain:
You may download this recording by clicking here.
Each morning this week we’ll be posting a different video from our recent conference in New York City. A major, major thank you goes out to David and Mark Babikow for making these clips possible. We begin at the beginning:
You may download this recording by clicking here.
Another heartfelt thank-you to everyone who helped put on this year’s Mockingbird Conference in NYC, especially our friends at Calvary St. George’s Church. It’s a good thing most of the presentations below have to do with grace, as the very thought of trying to top it is incredibly scary…! Speaking of freebies, though, we are once again making the recordings available at no charge; we only ask that those who were not able to attend this year *consider* making a donation to help cover the cost of the event. Download links are followed by an in-line player for each recording.…
A major thank you goes out to all who helped put on this past weekend’s conference in New York! We honestly could not be more pleased with how it all went. Recordings and video should be available soon — hopefully by the end of the week. Until then, here’s this year’s book table, with a couple of embarrassing omissions and logistical impossibilities rectified. Every year it’s a little different, depending on speaker and theme, but overall, it’s safe to say that it doubles as something of a “Mockingbird Reading List.”
NON-FICTION
Alcoholics Anonymous – Big Book (little version)
Aronson, Elliot, and Tavris, Carol…
In two short days (4/18-20), Mockingbird is hosting its Sixth Annual Conference in New York City! The event has come together beautifully, and the full schedule is below (click on any of the talk titles for more information). Although pre-registration is now closed, last minute walk-ins are still more than welcome. To reserve a spot, email us at info@mbird.com.
4:30pm Registration Opens
6:30pm One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World – Tullian Tchividjian
7:30pm Dinner
Get your pre-release copy at the conference! Won’t be widely available til June.
8:15am Coffee and Registration
9:00am Morning Mini-Talks (20 minutes each)
10:45am Morning Breakouts
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Afternoon Mini-Talks
2:30pm Afternoon Breakouts
7:00pm The Unlikely Believer: How a Smart-Assed Intellectual Crossed the Secular/Religious Divide – Mary Karr
7:40pm Q&A with Mary
8:00pm Dinner
8:15am Coffee
9:00am Grace for Today: The End of To-Do List Christianity – Tullian Tchividjian
10:00am I’ve Just Gotta Get A Message To Me – David Zahl
10:45am Q&A with Tullian and others
11:30am Closing Remarks and Service
12:30pm Conference Ends
*Sally’s talk will not be taped or recorded.
One of the most moving moments for me at the 2012 Mockingbird conference in NYC was when the Reverend Aaron Zimmerman pointed out that most preachers are telling one legged people to run and win a two legged race. This breakout session is for those of us who have ever been frustrated by, extremely angry at, and even hated the people in the ministries we serve; those who have thought that the people we minister to (or the people doing the ministering!) are actually standing on two feet.
In this breakout session on Friday morning we will explore the glory story that has defined many of our ministries and/or experiences in church. Then we will look at how that glory story has been translated into our lives and why the Gospel is truly the word that can set us all free (or at least bring momentary relief as we hop along hoping for a finish line).
We asked those who are giving “mini-talks” this Friday (4/19) at our 6th Annual Mockingbird NYC Conference to provide short teasers of what they’ll be speaking about, and they did not disappoint! If you’re looking six and a half more reasons to cancel what you have going on this weekend (or six and a half more reasons to feel silly about not doing so), look no further:
Just Watched — Up There With the Most Grace-Centered Films of the Last Few Years, If Not THE Most
1. What Does Salvation Feel Like? Protestantism and the Problem of Emotion — Simeon Zahl.…
Here is the latest installment of our breakout session previews for the upcoming 2013 Mockingbird Conference this month!
For the session I’m hosting—“Thou Art my Beloved Child: Parenthood for Prodigals”—we will be looking at instances of surprisingly unconditional grace, mercy, and compassion (i.e., love) in the family context as seen in the TV show Parenthood. My emphasis will be more on parenthood-the-topic than Parenthood-the-show so that anyone, whether a regular Parenthood viewer or someone who has never even heard of it, may follow and enjoy the discussion. That said, I will use Parenthood for my illustrations because I myself am…
Our next preview of the breakout sessions at our upcoming NYC Conference comes from Daniel Siedell:
In Dead Man (1995), a Native-American guide named “Nobody” confronts an accountant from Cleveland (played by Johnny Depp) about his own name. When Depp’s character affirms that, indeed, his name is “William Blake,” Nobody exclaims:
Then you are a dead man!
Each artist suffers to learn in her own way what William Blake must learn. Whether it is Anselm Kiefer making gigantic paintings in a huge studio in the south of France or a student in grad school in the Midwest sharing a refurbished office with three…
You think you know me? Well, I know you Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens. I know you like to shoot bad people…I heard about you shooting that gun thug in Miami, but you know? At any point, when you were looking at that gun thug, did you see your daddy’s face?
These are the words of Boyd Crowder, longtime friend and archenemy of Raylan Givens, in the show’s pilot episode. In the modern carriage of the Western Sheriff trope, Givens represents the unbending, truth-toting hand of justice. And with this trope—of law and order and “shooting bad people”—comes the necessary prospect any…
Kicking off our series of previews of the breakout sessions at the upcoming NYC conference, this one comes from the inestimable Brad Davis, an established poet himself, who will be leading his breakout on Friday afternoon, April 19th.
Some of us have believed since we awoke into sentience. Others of us started out with our confidence invested elsewhere and only later were (or have yet to be) won over to the faith. Maybe because I am of the latter group, I think that, in a volleyball game, the johnny-come-latelies would crush the goody two-shoes. In any case, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction,…
John Zahl: Congrats to everyone involved! What a huge accomplishment! I know Eth...
Charles: "full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction" ...
Paul Walker: Amazing post! Thank you....
David Morton: Thanks! Ummm... yeah... that was probably the most dead-on, jam p...
Mark Salomon: How am I only discovering this... today? Best to you and your future e...