It had been a long time since we updated our constituency on what was going on at MSA, so we devoted an entire issue to what we've been up to.

1. Believing God is changing the world through mustard seeds
the seemingly insignificant MSA seeks to unleash the crea-
tive potential of ordinary people to make a difference in their
communities and a world of urgent need.
July 2007 Seed Sampler
What’s Happening At MSA?
Staff Bios sion service. She has worked in Africa, Asia, Central
America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific.
Tom Sine
Founder and Visioncaster
Tom has worked for many years as a consultant
in futures, research and planning for both Christian
and secular organizations. He was not a natural
student, yet he still earned a Ph.D. at the University
of Washington. Tom has the “gift of disorientation”
and has had adventures being lost all over the world
when traveling without Christine. Tom headed up a
development project in Haiti for World Concern,
taught at the University of Washington, Seattle Pa‐
cific University and now teaches part‐time at Fuller
Seminary in Seattle. Tom also speaks at colleges,
churches, and mission conferences around the
world. Tom has written nine books including The
Mustard Seed Conspiracy, Live It Up and Mustard Seed
Christine Sine
vs McWorld.
Executive Director Tom and Christine were married in 1992 and to‐
Since assuming the leadership of MSA in Janu‐ gether they have grown Mustard Seed Associates
ary 2006, Christine has used her organizational gifts into a unique organization with an international
to develop the Seed Sampler and broaden the scope reputation. Tom’s vision and understanding of the
of MSA’s programs. She loves to write and is pas‐ future guides MSA activities and planning. If you
sionate about issues of poverty and justice. Chris‐ visit Tom and Christine in Seattle you will probably
tine is the author of three books: GodSpace: Time for find Tom in the kitchen experimenting with some
Peace in the Rhythms of Life, Travel Well and Tales of a Haitian dishes for friends, or you could find him
Seasick Doctor (Zondervan 1996). Christine and her ripping through a stack of magazines and newspa‐
husband Tom also co‐authored Living on Purpose: pers to try and make sense of our changing world.
Finding God’s Best for Your Life (Baker Books 2002). Christine and Tom and their golden retriever Bonnie
She speaks on issues relating to changing our love practicing hospitality and cooking food from all
timestyle and lifestyle to develop a more spiritual over the world. They particularly enjoy teaching
rhythm for life. She also teaches a course on mis‐ people how to party in the kingdom 24/7.
sions to the urban poor at Fuller Theological Semi‐
nary in Seattle.
Eliacin Rosario‐Cruz
Web Manager and Future Program Director
In a former life, Christine trained as a physician
Eliacín is a husband, father, artist, provocateur
in Australia and developed and directed the health‐
and former missionary who recently moved to the
care ministry for Mercy Ships. She still conducts
Pacific Northwest from Puerto Rico. In 2005, he
seminars to help prepare people for overseas mis‐
joined the staff of Mustard Seed Associates.
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2. Eliacín brings the gifts of speaking, web design, events. Currently, she is planning a children’s pro‐
program planning and networking to MSA, for gram for our Celtic retreat.
which we are grateful. He is also a gifted photogra‐
pher. He and his family are part of The Mustard Judy Naegeli
Seed House, a neo‐monastic/ intentional community Admin assistant and Seed Sampler coordinator
expression in Seattle. Eliacín is an International As‐ Judy graduated from SPU in 2005, after which
sociate of the Northumbria Community. she spent a year as a manuscript editor in Vietnam
with the Mennonite Central Committee. She brings
Ricci Kilmer her experience with writing and editing to MSA,
Program Assistant using it to help Tom with his upcoming book and to
Ricci is originally from the Bremerton area and coordinate the monthly e‐zine, the Seed Sampler. In
taught in Bremerton School District after graduating addition, she works in the office as an assistant to
from Seattle Pacific University in 1995. She met Eli‐ Tom and Christine, trying to keep them organized.
acín when he was training at her church. He invited Outside of MSA, Judy keeps herself busy work‐
her to spend a summer at the youth camp in Puerto ing part‐time at the flagship REI store. She is also
Rico, and the rest is history. They are now married involved at Taproot Theatre as a dramaturg, and as
with two children, Catie (4 ½) and Gabriel (6 a volunteer editor for The Other Journal
months). Ricci helps co‐ordinate various MSA (www.theotherjournal.com).
MSA – From a Small Beginning
by Tom Sine
In my first book, Mustard Seed Conspiracy (1981), I invited read‐
ers to discover what God might do with their ordinary lives to
make a little difference in the world. “What shall we say that
the kingdom of God is like?” Jesus asked. “It is like a mustard
seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet
when it was planted, it becomes it grows and becomes the larg‐
est of all the garden plants, with such big branches that the
birds of the air can perch in its shade” (Mark 4:30‐32 NIV). I
argued that God is conspiring through our ordinary lives to quietly change our world.
The book got off to a slow start. But much to my surprise, not only did the book start selling, but a surprising
number of people in different countries actually started taking the risk of discovering what God could do with
their lives to impact the lives of others.
In fact, I received over 300 letters from all over the world. Most of those who wrote reported that they had cre‐
ated an array of ways to reach out to poor in their communities with small mustard seed groups on college cam‐
puses and to serve those at the margins by building houses with Habitat for Humanity. These are only a couple of
examples. Frankly, I was taken aback by the number of people who took risks initiating new ways to make a dif‐
ference.
I still have letter from Ray Bakke stating that his brother Dennis and his wife Eileen responded by starting a small
family foundation while he was still a graduate student at Harvard. Since that small beginning, the Mustard Seed
Foundation has given nearly $50 million to help start small ministries all over the world.
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3. During the eighties, as the letters kept coming, I just thanked God for each small seed, but it never occurred to me
to try and join what God was doing through these many small seeds. Finally, in 1989 someone suggested that we
try and fashion an informal network of those who are joining God’s conspiracy of the insignificant and Mustard
Seed Associates was launched.
Our mission statement is: “Believing that God is changing the world through mustard seeds—the seemingly in‐
significant—MSA seeks to unleash the creative potential of ordinary people to make a difference in their commu‐
nities and a world of urgent need.” This broadly captures what we are attempting to accomplish.
We have three goals to put wheels under our statement of mission: 1) to raise awareness; 2) to connect those on
the creative edge; and 3) to enable people to imagine and create new ways to be a difference and make a differ‐
ence.
We seek to raise awareness in four areas that we call our pillars:
1. To make people aware of how both the global society and the church are changing and of new and crea‐
tive ways we can respond to new challenges before they fully arrive.
2. To offer people a much more robust critique of the ways in which modern culture, as magnified though
the global mall, are influencing our lives, values and even our religious institutions in order that we can
reduce their influences.
3. To present a much more compelling vision of God’s loving purposes for a people and a world and imagi‐
native new ways we can be a part of that vision.
4. To enable both individuals and communities of faith to give birth to new ways to advance God’s pur‐
poses in response to the challenges today and tomorrow.
We seek to connect those on the creative edge through our website, our monthly e‐zine, our conferences, conver‐
sations, books and speaking.
We seek to enable people to imagine and create new ways to be a difference and make a difference by:
‐ Offering creativity workshops called “Imagine That!: Creating New Possibilities For Our Lives, Commu‐
nities and Mission.”
‐ Creating a site on our web page called Imagine That where we invite people all over the world will be in‐
vited to imagine and create new ways God might use their mustard seeds to address some of the new
challenges of our needy world.
‐ Sponsoring a conference every two years where participants are invited to imagine and create new possi‐
bilities for their lives and communities of faith.
Our small association got off to a struggling start in the early ‘90s. Under Christine’s leadership in the last couple
years, our small plant is finally flourishing as we try to connect with those on the creative edge. Our small team
is comprised of Judy Naegeli, Eliacín Rosario‐Cruz and Ricci Kilmer, Christine and I, plus some great student in‐
terns and volunteers from Seattle Pacific University and Whitworth College. In addition, for the last year Melissa
Cairns and Hannah O’Brien have done an incredible job coordinating the Seed Sampler long‐distance from Boul‐
der, Colorado. That job has now passed on to Judy Naegeli.
We have a very able board of directors and a network of friends in different countries that offer us advice and
council, including Mike Morris, who works with the Evangelical Alliance in the UK; Mark Pierson, who is a con‐
sultant in the curation of worship in New Zealand; Gary and Evelyn Heard, who pastor an experimental church
in Melbourne, Australia; and Tom Balke, who lives in British Columbia and works for an international missions
organization
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4. God has given us the opportunity to work with followers of Jesus in many different countries. We have learned
much from leaders in new expressions and traditional churches. We try to encourage followers of Jesus to put
God’s kingdom purposes more at the center to their lives and churches. In fact, our book Living On Purpose is de‐
signed to enable the readers to discover God’s kingdom call on their lives. We encourage them, in small groups,
to reinvent how they use their time and resources in order to actually implement their creative mustard seed min‐
istry.
Christine’s newest book GodSpace is being used by a number of churches to help participants escape “hurry sick‐
ness” and create a liturgy of life that that changes the focus and the pace of daily life.
We particularly attempt to support what God is doing through the experimental edge in the emerging, missional,
mosaic (multi‐cultural church plants seeking to reach a younger generation) and the monastic movement. While
the other three streams are focused in planting churches that are more outwardly focused in mission, most of
those in the monastic stream have no interest in church planting. Those, like Shane Claiborne at the Simple Way
community in Philadelphia, are moving into the cities, living in community, developing serious prayer practices
and working with the poor while often living at the same economic level.
I have a book coming out with Intervarsity Press in February 2008 that describes the ways in which God is con‐
spiring through these four streams to give new expressions of God’s kingdom. I also share what we can learn
from the important questions the young and innovative raise about what it means to be disciples of Jesus, to be
the church, and to do the mission of the church in a changing world.
You are invited to join us in Seattle on February 28 – March 1, 2008 at our conference called “The Conspiracy
Lives! What in the World is God Doing?” You can spend time with leaders in all four streams and create new
ways you can join God’s conspiracy in your own lives and communities.
We are eager to share with others the creative edge of God’s work all over the world. To do that, we need to hear
from you! Could your write us and tell us about creative ways you are making a difference in your life or com‐
munity of faith? We try to share the best of what we receive from you and others on our website, in our monthly
e‐zine The Seed Sampler, at Mustard Seed conversations and in our books.
Join us and followers of Jesus all over the world in creating the future, one mustard seed at a time.
The Celtic Connection and an incredible belief in the all‐encompassing
By Christine Sine presence of Christ.
Since Tom Sine first visited the island of Iona off the In 1989, Tom purchased 40 acres on Camano Island
West Coast of Scotland in the mid 1980s, he has felt just north of Seattle, intending to create a Celtic Re‐
a strong connection to this ancient Christian tradi‐ treat Site. The flame has been kept alive as Mustard
tion. All of us at Mustard Seed Associates are at‐ Seed Associates has held their annual Celtic Prayer
tracted to a form of Christianity that permeated retreat on the island, first at the Washington State
every part of a believer’s life. For Celtic Christians, Park and then on the land itself. Our next retreat
faith impacted every part of life, and not surpris‐ will be August 17–19.
ingly believers developed prayers for every activity
from lighting the fire to milking the cows. This Now the vision is starting to take shape, and a small
Christian tradition was evangelistic and charismatic planning group is meeting regularly to pray and
in expression. It also showed a deep love of creation flesh out the vision. We are also visiting the land
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5. each month to work, pray and get a sense of God’s 3. We also intend to design both land use and struc‐
presence on the land. If you are interested in ways tures to achieve a high level of sustainability and
that you could be a part of this group please let us make possible highly sustainable lifestyles for those
know. who live at the site.
Outlined below 4. We intend to design a 3‐month, community based,
are the founding educational process for college and post‐college Chris‐
principles of tians to enable them to explore a broad range of
how Tom and I Christian prayer traditions in order to develop their
would like to see own spiritual practices and discern God’s call for
the site next steps.
developed.
Please 5. We intend that the Cascade Center host directed
understand these prayer retreats on the weekends for all generations
principles do not and Christian traditions led by the monastic commu‐
rule out other nity and the students.
dreams and uses
for the site: 6. We intend the Center also serve as a birthing site
involving students and others in giving imaginative
1. We intend to create a monastic order that follows a expression to God’s new order in arts, design, inno‐
Christian rule of life and creates a rhythm of life for vation and social entrepreneurship to give imagina‐
the permanent occupants of the center. tive expression to God’s new order.
2. We intend to design and construct a residential mo‐ 7. We intend the Center become an integral part of the
nastic village in which elements of Celtic art and ar‐ community on Camano Island and to explore ways to
chitecture are reflected in the physical and interior collaborate with our neighbors.
design of the structures.
The Web Connection
By Eliacin Rosario Cruz
As communitarians, we at MSA are always looking for
ways to inspire and create new ways to connect with
others across generations, denominations and cultures
and encourage them to become culturally creative and
contemplative activists.
While proximity is still very important for us, we now
live in world of hyperlinks, RSS (Real Simple Syndica‐
tion) and social media, in which we can engage in new
ways to grow in relationship and kinship.
With that in mind, we at MSA want to share with you
some other ways in which are connecting and sharing
our mustard seeds through cyberspace.
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6. We recently hired the services of Tim Bednar ‐ www.turtleinteractive.com ‐ to develop and re‐design our website
– www.msainfo.org. The new site will go live early next fall, so stay tuned. In the mean time our newsletter, the
Seed Sampler, has morphed into a more sophisticated e‐zine.
MSA also has made it into the blogsphere with its official blog: The Mustard Seed Journey, now 100% organic.
You can also find us on Facebook ‐ Mustard Seed Associates Group.
Be inspired and challenged by Christine at her blog Godspace.
Find Christine’s liturgical prayer videos on YouTube.
View Eliacín’s collected quotes, news and occasional rants in his blog Commonplace.
Follow the adventures of our new monastic/intentional community at The Mustard Seed House.
Check out events hosted by Mustard Seed Associates on the MSA Events Online Registration Page.
The Seed Sampler ‐ A Growing Plant
By Christine Sine
diverse perspectives from different cultures and
Christian worldviews. We also want to connect you
to new creative models of life, faith and ministry
while stirring your own creativity and imagination
in response.
We frequently hear from readers who have con‐
nected to new resources, organizations and fellow
activists through this medium. We appreciate your
feedback. This is a wonderful way for us to interact
with each other, and we hope that in the future there
will be many opportunities for you to interact
through our magazine. We are recruiting a growing
The MSA Seed Sampler is about to celebrate its 4th team of writers from around the world to assist our
birthday. It is hard to believe that what began as a efforts. We are also looking for people who would
periodic update on the events we held in the Pacific like to contribute book reviews, videos, liturgies and
Northwest has become a substantial and sometimes photos. If you would like to join the Seed Sampler
provocative online magazine. It does far more than team and write articles, or help us identify creative
raise awareness of topics as diverse as Human Traf‐ ministries and online resources to highlight, we
ficking, Ethical Investing and Spiritual Disciplines. would love to hear from you.
In the Seed Sampler, our goal is to connect readers to
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7.
Meet our Board of Directors!
Coe Hutchison, Chair
Coe Hutchison, the Chair of the Board, brings gifts of administration and public
speaking to MSA. He believes he is called to use the gifts and blessings God has given
him to bring about the Kingdom described in Isaiah 58:5‐9: “Is this the fast I have cho‐
sen?” Currently, he is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Regent College in Van‐
couver, Canada.
Rebecca Patterson
Rebecca Patterson, our newest board member and the production stage manager at
Taproot Theatre in Seattle, brings her gifts of communication, organization and event
planning to the MSA board. Originally from California, she has worked in theatre
since childhood and received a BA in Theater at San Diego State University. Rebecca
has a deep desire act out her faith and is most excited about planning the 2008 confer‐
ence and other events, such as the annual Celtic Prayer Retreat.
Mark Mayhle
Mark started his career as a Boeing engineer before studying radiology at UW Medi‐
cal School. Due in part to books by Tom Sine and John Howard Yoder, Mark is a
member of the Mennonite Church and the Seattle chapter of Evangelicals for Social
Action. He believes that the distressing things Jesus has to say about poverty, justice
and non‐violence have serious implications for the lives of his followers. In addition
to his radiology work, he is the proprietor of the Shafer‐Baillie Mansion Bed and
Breakfast in Seattle.
Christine Sine
As a board member and the general director of MSA, Christine is the motivator of the
entire organization. As a trained physician, she worked on the YWAM Mercy Ship
Anastasis for many years, traveling the world and performing medical procedures
otherwise unavailable to people in developing countries. Christine is a keen organic
gardener and takes pride in the fact that her garden produces 50% of the produce for
her household.
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8. David Vandervort
David Vandervort is a residential and commercial architect and a native of Seattle. He
received his BA in architecture from University of Washington in 1981. As a member
of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild, he exercises his imagination and skills for sus‐
tainable housing models and creation care. He is part of the team planning and devel‐
oping the Celtic Community Center that MSA hopes to open on Camano Island in the
next few years.
Jill Aylard
Jill, currently pursuing a Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary,
taught high school English in California for four years. She has gifts in writing, edit‐
ing, mentoring and mediating, and has a passion for international college students.
This summer, she is getting married to her boyfriend, Matthew, and working in the
MSA office.
Shonnie Scott
Shonnie currently serves as the Director of Small Groups and Equipping at Sherwood
Presbyterian Church in Sherwood, Oregon. As a Doctor of Ministry student at George
Fox University, Shonnie brings a spiritual maturity and depth to MSA through gifts of
preaching and group discernment. She resonates with the parable of the mustard
seed, at times feeling insignificant and unsure that God can actually do significant
things through her. She finds her strength in the Holy Spirit and her faith community.
Paul Stephenson
Paul currently works with World Vision International as Director of Children in De‐
velopment, improving the impact of World Visionʹs work in the lives of the poorest
and most vulnerable children. Paul has worked and lived on every continent. He
spent 14 years with a UK‐based NGO called Tearfund, working mostly in Latin Amer‐
ica and Africa on community‐based development and relief. Paul is married to Lisa,
an accomplished singer, actor and director, and they live in Bothell, Washington, with
their two wonderful children, Frank and Ava.
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