Alleluia!  The Lord is Risen!

During Holy Week, the exercise Acts8 proposed around has produced several responses.  Click on the links to the blogs to get fuller explanations of why they chose those ten items.  Stay tuned to our site for future BLOGFORCE challenges.

David Simmons, BLOGFORCE Wing Commander

Steve Pankey :

Top 10 Signs of Resurrection in The Episcopal Church (In somewhat no particular order)

1. 

2.  is growing, hiring staff, and generally rocking the pamphlet publishing world

3. 

4. Embracing Generous Orthodoxy at, among other places, 

5. The School of Theology at Sewanee approved  on William Reed Huntington and Brian McLaren

6.  voice on Executive Council

7. Nativity Church brings Dothan their .

8. 

9. People are engaging with  and they seem to be listening

10. 

Adam Trambley :

10. Alcoholics and addicts being saved in the sanctuary as well as in the basement.

9. Social media being used competently to spread the good news and strengthen the Body of Christ.

8. Senior ladies who, in the midst of change, still love each other, care for the poor, work hard, and go to their closets regularly to pray in secret as they were taught.

7. .

6. The numerous outdoor Palm Sunday processions taking the church in all its quirky splendor to the community.

5. .

4. A full Catholic Holy Week lineup (with smells and bells), evangelical life transformation groups (with Bible study and accountability), and charismatic healing prayer (with speaking in tongues) all offered in the same congregation.

3. The Rev. Ben Campbell and .

2. St. John’s Family Kitchen. (For a video about it, go to our  and click “Launch Media Player” at the bottom of the page)

1. The Easter Alleluia boldly and joyfully proclaimed!

David Simmons :

3. The
4. The of Omaha
6. Our Full Communion agreements with the ELCA and Moravian churches.
8. Ashes to go
9. The clergy coming out of our seminaries today.
10. and others who are illustrating the dynamic interplay between science and religion.

Kyle Oliver for VTS’ Center for the Ministry of Teaching:

10. Fresh Expressions movement
9. Episcopal podcasters
8. Camping ministries
7. Lent Madness
6. Web wisdom from SSJE
5. Forma
4. Episcopal Youth Event
3. Ashes to Go
2. Episcopal Service Corps
1. Renewed emphasis on discipleship

 Connor Gwin :

10. This list and the Acts 8 Blogforce

9. Church leaders who are not shrinking from the challenges of the 21st century, but are walking toward them full of hope for the future. Folks who aren’t trying to maintain a church model that worked in 1950, but are working to build the Church in 2014.

8. Churches that are offering unique and inventive new ways to be the Church, like The Gathering at St. John’s, Roanoke, VA, and the Come as You Are Service at St. Anne’s, Reston, VA.

7. Ashes to Go, Palms to Go, and Prayers to Go – happening across the Episcopal Church.

6. Folks recognizing that the way to reach young adults is not by adding a guitar to your evening service or dressing your priest in jeans, but by actually talking to young adults about what they want and need from church (Hint: its probably a lot more similar to what you want from church than you think).

5. EYE () and other vibrant youth ministries across the church.

4. Episcopal Summer Camps.

3. Episcopal Seminaries that are (just now) starting to shake off the dust and realize that they need to do to train priests for 2014.

2. A small, but growing, group of Episcopalians who believe that the arrogance, pessimism, and cynicism that we have inherited from our church elders is not only unhelpful, but is downright destructive.

1. Easter Sunday, where we see that the Body of Christ has been killed and raised once before, so it cannot die again.

Brendan O’Sullivan Hale :

1. Reconciliation of a Penitent
2. The Easter People Podcast
3. The Restoration Project.
4. Media Coverage of Things that aren’t about Sex
5. The Liturgy. No Really, the Liturgy.