How am I doing these days? I have no idea why I feel so busy all the time, so I decided to list all my current (faith-based) projects.
1.Intellectual Faith Movement
The intellectual faith movement (#intellectualfaith) is the focus of just about everything I do. The three big areas of my life are faith, music, and technology/academia. #intellectualfaith is a bridge between the areas of the intellectual communities and faith communities. I made a presentation about this a couple weeks ago (will post it eventually). In any case, of all my projects the first and most inclusive is #intellectualfaith. Updates can be found at this blog (www.intellectualfaith.com). This project involves a lot of networking, connecting, and planning.
2. Passion Talks
Passion Talks (passiontalks.org) is an academic-style conference that is meeting ground for the #intellectualfaith movement. I’ve been pushing for this for about five years now. In (probably August of) 2015, we will be having our third official conference at Stanford University. I would say this is my biggest contribution to the world so far in life. We are currently locking down the keynote and finalizing the vision/mission statement.
3. Google ✝alks and Worship
I just randomly made this logo, so I’d have an image to share. This is a quarterly talks and worship large gathering. We had the first one a couple weeks ago. It’s blogged about here. Before that, while I was still an intern, we also had a worship night. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for these micro-talks and gatherings.
4. #GDCpray
This has been an ongoing thing for about 4 or 5 years. It’s a prayer meeting for the video game industry and the Game Developers Conference every year. The updates can be found via the #GDCpray hashtag, and a website (gdcpray.wordpress.com). This one is coming up again next week for GDC 2015.
5. Stanford InterVarsity Grad and Worship Nights
I’ve been on volunteer staff for InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries at Stanford University for this school year. I’ve been helping to plan things, mostly Passion Talks and #intellectualfaith related, but also meeting with students and going to small groups. I’ve also been working with students to get together to do worship jams. We have a facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stanfordworship/
6. Other Worship, Gatherings, and Upcoming
I’ve been playing a lot of church music. Mostly, bass for Convergence House of Prayer. I was also part of the Stanford Gospel Choir, but I got too busy with family stuff in the last few weeks. My friend, Greg, started a blog and ministry aggregate called, Revival Valley, where you will also find some of intellectualfaith.com. I went to a prayer meeting for Silicon Valley with him and his wife this past weekend.
In addition to all that, I decided to go with a group of Stanford PhD students to the Q Commons meeting in San Francisco. I’m going to a prayer meeting tomorrow morning at Google, and possibly a prayer breakfast in some hotel, for the tech industry in March. http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2015-silicon-valley-prayer-breakfast-featuring-google-exec-kirk-perry-tickets-14142228787. #GDCpray (and GDC) is the following week in San Francisco. Oh, and just to throw this out there, I’m giving a talk about my research at Stanford on Friday as well: http://mediax.stanford.edu/events/Intelligent-Narratives-the-Stories-We-Tell-Ourselves-through-Digital-Media
So, in conclusion, maybe I am doing too much. I’m learning how to say no to things this season, but I also feel like it’s important for me to find some career mentors. If you are still reading this, send up some prayers for that 😛