Posts tagged "Mockingbird Conference"
2012 NYC Conference Recordings: Honesty, Humility and the Grace of God
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2012 NYC Conference Recordings: Honesty, Humility and the Grace of God

by Mockingbird on Apr 26, 2012 • 6 Comments

A major thank you to everyone who helped put on this past weekend’s conference in New York! We could not be happier or more grateful for how it all went. We are offering the recordings free of charge again this year; we only ask that those who were not able to attend this year *consider* making a donation to Mockingbird to help cover the cost of the event. Download links are followed by an in-line player for each recording.

Thursday April 19th

Devotion 1 – Jacob Smith

“The Zoolander Antidote: Telling the Truth (About You)” – Aaron Zimmerman

Friday April 20th

Devotion 2 – Jacob…

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My Heart Would Poison You, But God Wants My Poison Heart
Addiction / Conferences / Poetry / Suffering

My Heart Would Poison You, But God Wants My Poison Heart

by Matt Schneider on Apr 26, 2012 • 2 Comments

Yitzhak Zuckerman

I just came across this quote from Yitzhak Zuckerman, who was a Jewish resistance movement leader in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II:

If you could lick my heart, it would poison you.

Wow! You see, although a hero of the resistance movement, plagued by survivor guilt, he became an uncontrollable alcoholic later in life. So despite rightly being celebrated for his wartime heroism, Zuckerman was in touch with the darkest parts of himself. (This quote, by the way, is originally from the French documentary Shoah, which—full disclosure—I have not seen.)

While allowing Zuckerman’s words to stew in my…

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Mockingbird (Conference) at the Movies: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Love
Conferences / Film / Theology / TV

Mockingbird (Conference) at the Movies: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Love

by Nick Lannon on Apr 3, 2012 • 11 Comments

C.S. Lewis described four kinds of love (based on the four Greek words): affection, friendship, romance, and charity (unconditional love). Since I’m about half as smart as him, I’ll say that, at the root, there are two kinds of love: love that requires something, and love that requires nothing. In this break-out session at the upcoming Mockingbird Conference (Friday, April 20th at 2:30pm), we’ll look at these two loves through the celluloid eyes of Hollywood.

In their effort to get us to put cash on the barrelhead at theaters across the country, the movies often tempt us with stories of love.…

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Subway Mayhem and the Lostness of Identity
Identity / Testimony / Theology

Subway Mayhem and the Lostness of Identity

by Jeff Hual on Apr 4, 2011 • 4 Comments

On my way to JFK after leaving the Mockingbird Conference I ended up on the wrong train. Not knowing that there are two trains that share a track, instead of ending up at the airport I ended up in Queens.

Standing on the platform feeling a little lost and very alone, I noticed something relevant. I noticed these men in their twenties, and some definitely in their thirties, who were what the world would definitely identify as “hoodlums” or “gangsters”. And I couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness for these men, a sadness which stemmed from…

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Conference Preview: Gracious Apologetics: Building Bridges to the Human Heart Through Similar Interests
Conferences / Religion / Theology

Conference Preview: Gracious Apologetics: Building Bridges to the Human Heart Through Similar Interests

by Jacob on Mar 24, 2011 • 6 Comments

I personally was really hoping that the 4th Annual Mockingbird Conference would finally be all about end time prophecy, and my break out session was going to be entitled “Are You Rapture Ready?” Alas, that is not the case so instead I will be leading a session on apologetics. I am a firm believer in the apologetic task; however this session will not be a fact seminar where one is given a bunch of proofs for Jesus’ resurrection, and the validity of the New Testament (although believe me the facts and the evidence exist).Instead this session on apologetics will…

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Why I Am Coming to NYC
Conferences / Testimony / Theology

Why I Am Coming to NYC

by Jeff Hual on Mar 14, 2011 • 3 Comments

Each year it seems like such an undertaking: spending money on travel for myself that could have been used for a family vacation; enduring crowded flights and dreary layovers; trudging to and fro on subway lines and unfamiliar avenues, a stranger in a strange land – all to spend a few fleeting days at a religious conference. Is it worth it, you may ask? Well, I wrote what follows after last year’s conference, and it sums up the reason why I intend to make this annual pilgrimage to New York City as long as there is a Mockingbird…

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Conference Preview: Grace for Single Moms
Children / Church / Conferences / Gender

Conference Preview: Grace for Single Moms

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Mar 8, 2011 • 1 Comment

From Andrea Zimmerman, who, with her husband Aaron, will lead one of our breakout sessions on Friday morning at the upcoming 2011 Mockingbird Conference.

“Am I allowed to come to Christmas services at your church with my boys?”

An unwed mother with two small children asked me this question a few days before Christmas. Her church did not allow her to participate in services because she had children out of wedlock. Even though she had already visited our church twice, she couldn’t believe that we would actually allow her to participate, much less at a “special” service. She is not alone.…

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Conferences / Film / Theology / TV

Conference Preview: Bride of Mockingbird at the Movies!

by Nick Lannon on Feb 18, 2011 • 1 Comment

How do we go from “I don’t even believe in Jebus” to “Save me Jebus!”? We need to be impacted. Whether you’re looking for new insight about faith and the Gospel for yourself, or looking for new ways to share it with others, come to the “Bride of Mockingbird at the Movies” breakout session at the upcoming Mockingbird Conference (March 31 to April 2 in NYC). In our time, and really, since the Lumiere brothers invented the moving picture in 1895, movies and television have had a special access to us. Drama can bring us to tears,…

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Dorothy Martyn on Responsible Irresponsibility
Books / Children / Psychology

Dorothy Martyn on Responsible Irresponsibility

by David Zahl on Feb 8, 2011 • No Comments

From Dorothy Martyn’s masterful treatise on child psychology Beyond Deserving. A few of these lines have appeared on here before, but the longer quote is terrific, especially in conjunction with the Milosz poem below. From pages 155-156:

’I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul’ has remained for some who learned the lines in high school a stirring and inspirational thought. It was quoted by Timothy McVeigh, the condemned Oklahoma terrorist, just before his execution. What utter illusion in this person clearly enslaved to the invisible forces working within him! His belief that he had been in…

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Galli: God’s Favor to Miserable Little Disciples
Christmas / Conferences / Theology

Galli: God’s Favor to Miserable Little Disciples

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Dec 22, 2010 • 1 Comment

A new article from Christianity Today‘s Mark Galli, keynote speaker at the upcoming 2011 Mockingbird Conference, has this typically scorching humdinger on the annunciation and what it says about God’s grace to us:

“This announcement to Mary comes completely out of the blue, as if it were an act of sheer grace. Indeed, an act of grace to Mary and to us. Before we could decide for or against God, before we could show him how religious we are, before we could ask forgiveness for our first sin, before we were the apple of our parents’ eyes, before the foundation of…

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Conferences

SAVE THE DATE! 2011 Mockingbird Conference in NYC 3/31-4/2

by Mockingbird on Sep 22, 2010 • No Comments
We are super excited to announce that this year’s keynote speaker will be Mark Galli, Senior Managing Editor of Christianity Today. All other details still being finalized. To receive the special pre-registration materials, please…:

O Lost, And By The Winds Grieved
Literature / News / Suffering / Testimony / Theology

O Lost, And By The Winds Grieved

by Jeff Hual on Jun 29, 2010 • 1 Comment

Human suffering is an important touchstone for much of what is discussed here at Mockingbird. And as a native Pensacolian watching oil wash up on our shores every day, I am seeing suffering in my own life and in the lives of my family and friends on a scale that I had never before imagined.

As a result of this daily assault, my mind keeps turning back to some points that Steven Paulson made at the 2009 Mockingbird Conference which touch on the source of human suffering.

Dr. Paulson pointed out that long ago, Saint Augustine observed that we are more where…

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Debbie Downer
Suffering / Theology / TV

Debbie Downer

by Kate Norris on Jun 4, 2010 • 51 Comments

I’ve been asked why do we, who like the Reformation and support a Law/Gospel paradigm in theology, always focus on ourselves as sinners? Aren’t we like Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live who litters every fun conversation with sad and depressing news? When people want to talk about living out a life of love for the glory of God, we talk about our weakness, our need, and our inability. What about intimacy, healing, and fruit in a relationship with Jesus? Intimacy is wonderful; healing is great, and fruit is awesome! The question is not “what” is good (that’s God’s holy…

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Freezing Repetitions and the Spirit of Play in Thornton Wilder’s Theophilus North
Books / Conferences / Literature / Theology

Freezing Repetitions and the Spirit of Play in Thornton Wilder’s Theophilus North

by SZ on May 4, 2010 • 20 Comments

A number of people have asked about the quotes from Thornton Wilder’s novel Theophilus North that I used in my talk at the 2009 Mockingbird Conference in New York [embedded at the bottom of the post]. The first comes at the end of the chapter ‘Diana Bell’, in which a woman who is trying to elope slowly realizes she is not really in love with the man whom she is trying to marry. She discovers instead that she is playing out once again an old story in her life, without realizing it; one which has repeated itself before and has…

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Thornton Wilder’s "Theophilus North"
Books / Conferences / Literature / Suffering

Thornton Wilder’s "Theophilus North"

by Todd Brewer on Apr 28, 2010 • 8 Comments

If, for some reason, Simeon’s talk at the recent Mockingbird Conference wasn’t enough to convince you to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Thornton Wilder’s book Theophilus North, then maybe this will entice you.

The following comes from Wilder’s unfinished preface to Theophilus North and gives an insight into the overriding themes which dominate this intuitive account of life in “old” New England. (Spaces are left blank where words are missing).

Wilder mutually affirms both a pessimistic realism and an idealistic optimism, taking into account a low anthropology and the intermittent spark of creativity. He says:

“All men aspire to excellence. All men…

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