Jason Clark

This week we have the pleasure of Marc, Molly and Adele sharing with us, please make them feel welcome and enjoy the different perspectives and articles they are kindly serving us.

So we can get to know them some mire, here’s some interesting things about them…

Marc Alton-Cooper

Hi Marc, please could you tell me a little bit about Who are you/what are you doing/being at the mo?

My name is Marc Alton-Cooper. I’m 40, married with a little girl. I work in IT and live in London, England…well nearly!

Thanks bro, Jason is co-ordinator of Emergent-UK so could you please tell me how/why you are interested/involved in/with emergent/emerging church?

I run the emergent uk media arts blog and the ex-voto resources pages

Very creative! will that be reflected in your dreams, please could you tell me if you could be anything you wanted to be, other than what you are now, what would it be?

I would like to be an author, pastor, speaker, musician, director and editor!

You can’t keep a creative man down. I am nosey so please could you tell me one thing that most people would be surprised to discover about you?

I have a small collection of lilliputt lane churches…I like the snow ones the best

I am surprised! Theology is [always/sometimes/never] fun so please could you tell me how would you creatively describe the Kingdom of God in 5 words or less?

Paper, computer, beard, knees, silence!

Molly Aley

hi Molls, please could you tell me a little bit about Who are you/what are you doing/being at the mo?

If you were to come to my house right NOW, you would find a fat 18-month-old sleeping upstairs and four wirey children in snowsuits busily working on projects in the Alaskan forest outside my little home (my 8 year old building an intricate snow fort, the 6 and 5 year old sledding down a Kamakaze hill, and the 3 year old chasing—with good intentions–”Lemme hold you!”—a very patient longsuffering cat).

I’m inside, typing answers to this interview as I nurse my cup of chocolate-laced coffee (I’m a health food nut, but sugared coffee is my pharisaical release), and my husband, a youth/worship minister for a fundamentalist church, is upstairs napping because he was out past midnight with the youth last night (who are on a holiday from school right now).

So I’m currently 31, a minister’s wife (and thus help out in various ways at our gathering) and stay-home homeschooling mother to five stair-stepper children. I love my family and would go through a meat-grinder if that’s what they needed.

In my spare time, I enjoy beating up on my best friend in racketball (haha), reading (massive amounts of non-fiction, usually, as I’m a huge snob when it comes to fiction), and blogging over at adventures in mercy. I’m also working on a book about the place of women (coming from a former patriarchal perspective), though I have no publisher and wonder if I’m just wasting my time writing sometimes, but it’s still absolutely fascinating and a lot of fun.

My husband has resigned from his position at our church after 8 years of working for them full-time, effective at the end of this school year, so this summer we’ll possibly be moving out of Alaska…to do or go who knows where. Our entire life is sort of up for grabs right now, and we’re just trying to figure out what to do next.

Wow, remind me to come and see all of you in action, wonderwoman eat your heart out, lol. I like your book, so could you please tell me how/why you are interested/involved in/with emergent/emerging church?

Disocvering the emerging movement made me feel like I wasn’t crazy after all, that there were more people like me who were asking questions of the “church system” that the system couldn’t answer.

I listen to Mike Frost share (via Resonate’s podcasts) and practically get whiplash from nodding my head excitedly—someone putting in words my vague thoughts. I read McLaren’s books and appreciate the freedom to ask questions–even if I don’t always agree with his conclusions, just the open space to ASK is invigorating (and who says we have to agree on everything in order to respect eachother?). I ate Rob Bell’s, Velvet Elvis like chocolate, finding his analogy of a brick wall vs. a trampoline to be a 100% accurate description of my own journey out of fundamentalism. I don’t even know how to describe Donald Miller’s, Searching for God Knows What, which was one of the first books I ever read that was somewhat “emergingish,” because even though it sounds way too over the top to say it like this, I think God used that book to unlock my chains and set me free in a major way.

But let me add that I do NOT ascribe to hero-worship…in that I’ve been burned by enough church leaders to know that no person is perfect, has it all together or somehow has the “magic” answer/program/theology/group, so I don’t mean to say that I am worshiping the guys mentioned above. Just that I’ve really appreciated their contribution to my life and the way they’ve helped me re-examine my thoughts, or put my own questions into words and make me feel like I’m not the only person on the planet wondering the same things.

thanks Molly, I bet you have plenty of dreams so please could you tell me if you could be anything you wanted to be, other than what you are now, what would it be?

I can’t decide, as I have so many different things I’m passionate about, and enough energy for five women. Ha!

I could see myself happily sitting in my professor’s office at a seminary buried in theology books and writing some of my own, or traveling the world speaking and teaching (my top-secret passion–a love of stage combined with the unquenchable love of storytelling/teaching), or running an orphanage for refugee children somewhere in the world where no one would ever know my name and yet it wouldn’t matter.

I think I’d probably want to do numbers one and two the most, and yet I bet I’d end up doing number three and being totally satisfied. I know we have five children of our own, but I hope to adopt a sibling group or a special needs child someday or somehow work with adoption and/or orphanages. I can’t explain it, but its just something down there in my bones that I can’t shake…I won’t be surprised if it happens someday.

Awesome dreams, so what/who inspires you, who are your heroes and heroines and why?
I am inspired by Jesus, which I know sounds corny, but it really is true. I am buried in the gospels right now and am just being blown away by Him in a whole new way.

As far as other folks, I am inspired by too many to count. Probably the most inspiring are those who are faithful to their calling because they Love, even when it hurts, even when it demands turning the other cheek. Most of those people will never have a moment in the spotlight, or have anyone else (including themselves—did you ever notice how the sheep, in the sheep and goats parable, were surprised to hear how they loved?) ever realize the depth of their love for God and their love for others, yet I think in the grand scheme of things, these are the front line warriors that have the angels of heaven watching in awe.

Yes that’s a beautiful inspiring image… so finally theology is [always/sometimes/never] fun so please could you tell me how would you describe the Kingdom of God in 5 words or less?

Theology is always fun, but that’s because I find it much easier to pontificate *about* God with words, rather than actually walk in Him in the real day-to-day stuff of life when the glamour is gone and the theoretical demands flesh and blood application, which actually is the *real* theology, isn’t it?

But, oh, yeah, five words or less to describe the Kingdom of God.

How about: The Government of Love — Emmanuel

Thanks for letting me be a part of this “guest blogging” experiment. I look forward to good conversations with all of you. :)

Thanks for being part of it and sharing with us

And not least: Adele Sakler

Hi Adele, pease could you tell me a little bit about Who are you/what are you doing/being at the mo?

I am currently going through long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme Disease, which is acquired from a tick bite. I have had it since i was a kid and went undetected/misdiagnosed until about a year and a half ago. It wreaks havoc on the immune system, neurological system, joints, muscles, cognitive and energy. It is like having Chronic Fatigue, Lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, etc. I am unable to work for this season and i was attending grad school last year. But, my memory and comprehension have grown worse and i am unable to keep up.

I’m gladwe have you on boar here. Can please tell me how/why you are interested/involved in/with emergent/emerging church?

i have been interested/involved with emerging church for about 4 years. I am interested in seeing how our faith/theology/praxis/dogmas are rethought in a postmodern context.

please could you tell me if you could be anything you wanted to be, other than what you are now, what would it be?

I would be a stand up comedian or an actress in a sitcom as i am very goofy!

Yeah me too! I am nosey so please could you tell me one thing that most people would be surprised to discover about you?

i am pro-life but believe a woman has the right to choose, I am against the death penalty, and i am pro-gay everything (marriage, rights, it’s not a sin, etc.)

I love your honesty so please could you tell me who inspires you, who are your heroes and heroines and why?

Moby is my hero and inspires me b/c he is a very genuine and honest person. I have had the pleasure of meeting him and experiencing this personally. Bono is another hero with his music and tenacious heart for the poor and AIDS afflicted!

Moby and Bono, they are musical leg-ends! Theology is [always/sometimes/never] fun so please could you tell me how would you describe the Kingdom of God in 5 words or less?

Loving everybody with no expectations!!!!