When I started H.E.L.P. a few years ago, I never would have imagined what is about to take place in Austin, TX next week.

1000 people gathering from all over the world to talk about the global orphan crisis, and nothing else! (well, and the gospel of course, and this guy named Jesus)

Let the heavens rejoice, and may this conference be a catalyst for change.

My prayer is simple and my conviction is deep, if the church does not fulfill it’s James 1:27 role, kids will continue to suffer and widows will continue to hurt. If we don’t care for these most vulnerable people, we’ve already allowed the world to “stain us” through our disobedience to scripture.

We can’t allow this to happen! We must dig deep and call the church to be the church that Jesus asked us to be…there are simply no other biblical options!

As we gather to learn, discuss, and pray, my hope runs deep that much action will be connected to these conversations, more churches will be involved in the global orphan crisis, more Christians will be connected to the story and will do something to effect change.

The church has the greatest resources (people), the best global networks (movement), plenty of funding (1000 cattle on the hills), the purest motivation (love), and the highest calling (scripture -Isaiah 1:17).

The big question is this, “Do we have the compassion to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly?”

Do we have the courage to go the darkest places on the earth, shine the light of the gospel, and bring tangible hope to the orphan and widow?

One of the biggest reasons the global orphan crisis exists, in my humble opinion, is because the modern church has failed to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. I hope and pray that the Together for Adoption Conference will continue to shift this reality, and over time the world will know that Christians take James 1:27 seriously, and are willing to do something about it tangibly.

If you have not signed up yet, you still have time. Also, please pray for this two-day event. Pray that God moves deeply on his people.

FYI: I would love to connect with you in Austin. Here’s some great opportunities:

Blogger Meetup.

Breakout Session: I will be leading a breakout session: Option 8 – The Benefits of Child Sponsorship for Churches and Families.

Interest Groups:

If you’re passionate about Haiti, I will be leading an informal discussion about Haiti. Here’s the info:

Friday Dinner (October 1, 5:30pm – 6:30pm)

Haiti (Orphan Care & Adoption) – Room: 4.11

And, H.E.L.P. will have a booth set-up up, swing by and say hello.

Yesterday, after service at Soma, a group of us were eating at Torchy’s Tacos, one of their members said this:

Sunday, is basically an after-thought to us, it’s the rest of the week that counts.

Now, I’m not saying don’t do Sunday’s well, matter-of-fact, the service was well done and thoughtful. Yet, it’s not the high-point of the week for this church community.

Also, much of the Sunday gathering had to do with what was going on outside of the gathering, such as serving the local homeless community, building a water-well with Living Waters International, and serve orphans in Zimbabwe, etc!

Just a reminder, that yes Sunday is important, but yet, it’s only one day of the week, and the mission is accomplished on those other six days!

Also, I will be there representing HELP as well. Should be a great few days.

Honestly, Austin Stone is one of m favorite faith communities. Of course Mangum is one of my best friends, Ivey Band and the word missional go hand-in-hand, Stew is a great thinker who is really encouraging the global church to grasp a legitimate missional DNA. I could go on and on.

All that to say, you won’t want to miss this conference, it’s going to be really good as we wrestle with what it means to be a legitimate missional church in N. America!

A few things:

1. If you’re planning on attending, let’s connect. Leave a comment!
2. Go here to follow Verge on Twitter.
3. Go here to register.

It’s gonna be fun!

We came here with literally nothing, no jobs, no friends, no money, and a lot of questions…three years later we have everything we could have asked for. A new house, thriving business, non-profit that is moving forward. Austin has been good to us…We love this city, we love our family, we love our friends and we love what God is doing in Austin.

Some thoughts:

To my friends at Vista: What a journey, If you think about what we accomplished is such a short time. We help plant another church that runs close to a 1000 people, that church helped plant another church in downtown Austin, we launched a non-profit that will forever fight on behalf of the poor, widow and orphan. We served E. Austin, served Houston as they suffered through a natural disaster, sent teams to Africa and China. Even through change, the fruit of our labor continue to grow, six months after we became quasi-merged with Austin Stone, multiple COM groups still meet as we speak, many of you are in community at the Austin Stone, doing your part to change the world. I could go on…Through our mistakes and brokenness, God did something amazing! Thanks for the journey, it was grand!

To my ministry friends who serve Austin, you know who you are. Together we will still take the gospel to the ends-of-the-earth. You’ve all been such great example of what it looks like to start missional churches that are passionate about the gospel, the city and the world. I implore you yo keep moving forward, God is doing something great here in this city, a city that for decades was know as the “church planters graveyard.” But God is on the move in the ATX…I’ll be with you in spirit as you continue to lead the local church here in Austin!

My friends: Stop crying…what the heck! I’ll be back to visit…OK, kidding! I’m totally going to miss you…Thank you for standing by the Marlow family, we are forever grateful. You always have a home in Raleigh…Please come visit, and bring some Shiner, Tex-mex, BBQ Sauce while your at it.

You’ve all been great, we are deeply going to miss seeing you on a regular basis, miss the smiles, laughter, arguments and tears. But, we will still journey together, serve our world, fight against injustice and their will be moments where heaven and earth meet, and we will be together, remembering old-times, creating new memories.

But, more importantly, we have a task to accomplish, a life to live and a calling to follow. As we pursue Jesus, serve the local church and fight on behalf of the poor, one day it will all come to an end, and we will celebrate our lives together in heaven, for eternity.

Austin! What can I say? Such a great city, filled with amazing people! I Love the culture, the food, and the progress that is being made. Austin is a one-of-a-kind city, filled with energy, passion and activism. Sure, I’ve whined about the weather and we’ve cried about being stuck deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas, along with your brown-watered oceans. But, Austin…you are a great city! . I can’t wait to come back and visit. I always feel at home when I return.

Till the next time, with love from the Marlow’s-Cheers!

Well, this past week, their new CD became available. Click the banner below or go here for more info. Do yourself a favor a GET the CD and rock it.

If you’re a missional thinker/church planter type, please feel free to come out to this event, it will be a blessing to learn from Hugh, hear the story of Adullam, and find ways to also make Austin a better place through organic/missional/intentional leadership.

Info:

Thurs June 25th.
Time: 10:00-11:30AM
Place: ABA Building- Here is a map.

- Enjoyed hanging with folks at the Q Conference Tweetup @ Spider House Sunday night.
- Lots of fun conversations with Erick, Dan and Charles, they crashed at my place for the Q Conference. We also saw The Soloist at Alamo Draft House, very good movie.
- Spent 3 days attending the Q Conference.
– Great lunch with the Trinity Grace dudes at Chuys.
– Got to meet Armando Fullwood and Mel Mcgowan over lunch at Moonshine. Really cool dudes.
- Tuesday I saw Over The Rhine at The Paramount Theatre with other Q attendees.
- Thursday I went down to UT to see TWLOHA. Really love what they are doing.
- Friday John and I saw Death Cab for Cutie. Great show and it was FREE.
- Saturday, Necole and I saw Over The Rhine @ UT. (twice in one week-awesome)

I love these kinda weeks, lots of new friends, inspiration, music, food, dreaming about what it means to live missional and learning from one another.

When someone attends a conference, usually the content/experience is only half the desire. The best part is getting to know some new folks. In the age of social media, it’s usually getting to know friends in real-life as opposed to the online version. Which is what happened! I picked up Erick from NYC, and Charles and Dan from LA. It was good to get to know these dudes, and it was also great to see them connect with each other. Social media has a lot of power to truly create real community and inspire action.

The conference kicked off Sunday night with an informal Tweet-up @Spider House. It was a last-second shindig, but I thought It was a great time to connect, get to know some new friends and give those from outside Austin a true Austin experience-which was my goal and I thought it went well.

Without going into great detail, I did enjoy the actual conference experience. The conference was held at The Paramount Theatre, which is a great place, but at times I wished we had some tables as I felt a bit cramped and confined. Anyhow, the goal of Q is to discuss ideas. It’s not necessarily a place for answers but discussions on new trends and ideas in all aspects of missional living, not just the traditional church conversations that most conferences tend to focus on.

To me the main themes seem to fall within the categories of justice, living fully human, creating culture and the gospel, I’ve decided not to do a run-down of each session or themes. Instead, I would encourage you to read John’s post. I will say this, Ted and Gayle Haggard did a session on their story and it was simply amazing. Go here for further details.

I was encouraged by the amount of female presenters, maybe its just me, but I feel like the female voice is losing ground in the church and I think if we are not careful we are going to only see God through an alpha-male lens, and that is not a good for the church. I know many have a theological issue, which is fine with me, I get that, but I think we still need to make sure that the female leaders/servants have a significant voice at the table and Q did a good job doing just that.

I was disappointed that there was a TOTAL lack of global voices. (Alan Hirsch is the exception) I’m hoping that Q will address this next year as I think more global voices will add so much value to the overall conversation, especially in our ever-shifting world!

I was also disappointed that the music was led by non-Austinites. I think a local musician would have added great value as Q tried to connect with Austin. That said, I throughly enjoyed Zach Williams, so much that I bought both of his albums on iTunes and I think you should too.

Moving forward…Q seems to create a total-package-experience. There was the actual conference, with thirty (ish) 18 minute presentations, (a few were longer) there was also talk-backs, which is a time to interact with the presenters and ask questions, etc. After each day, they had an after party at Buffalo Billiards and they even decided to throw in a concert with one of my all time favorite bands Over The Rhine, which was amazing.

I was really leery about the cost of Q. It’s really pricy, but I had to remind myself that this is not just a traditional pastor/leadership conference. We heard from thirty people on a wide variety of subjects, So all-in-all I was happy with the experience. You appreciate Q more, after you attend than before. They do their best to stay under-the-radar and build intentional community.

I did want to add some links that I think are important:

Two Futures Project deals with the current nuclear issue we are facing.

Cobblestone Project: Practical ways to confront domestic poverty.

A Land of a Thousand Hills: Drink Coffee, Do Good!

Tom Shoes: Buy a pair, Tom gives a pair.