A new way of 'being community' - Ron Martoia's ttTribe Manifesto
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 4:14PM 
I have been a fan of Ron Martoia's work for some time now. I devoured his recent book 'The Bible as Improv' (on my iPad no less!) and found it to be one of the most accessible, and clearly reasoned books on forming a Biblical faith in a world of competing truths. Ron's style is not to skirt around thorny issues, but to approach them head on, thoughtfully and meticulously deconstructing the facts from the fiction. His work is well researched, extremely well written, but what sets it apart from other such excellent texts are his ideas!
Ron has a passion for authentic faith and an authentic expression and experience of being in community with Jesus Christ. I find a great personal resonance in his passionate approach to knowing Christ and making him known. When I read Ron's books, and the posts on his blog, I get an image of someone who is not willing to live with a lie, or a half truth, or a denial of the difficulty of being in relationship with God in Christ in real world situations! There are far too many Christian authors and theologians who skim over the tough questions and real challenges for the sake of comfort; placing a higher value on appeasing the masses than on discovering and sharing expressions of truth.
Today Ron released his 'Transformational Trek Tribe Manifesto' - it is a challenging series of invitations for authentic Christian living. As I read it my perceptions of the Christian faith and Christian living were challenged and reshaped. It is only 12 pages long, but perhaps these are among the best 12 pages I've read this year. There are some points that I am still digesting, considering, and praying through. I guess that is the way it should be with challenging thoughts! You may not agree with everything that Ron writes in the ttTribe Manifesto, but it will certainly challenge you to seek a deeper, more sincere, and more authentic faith life in Christ and the world. I invite you to read it!
I will be making this required reading for my students! Once you've read it I would love to hear your feedback and comments!
Reader Comments (1)
I agree that the church and society has succesfully separated sacred from securlar. Sundays vs. Mondays.
Yet, I found that this is against the norm in countries where Christianity is not the main religion. I asked a man on the Ganges river, what do his gods do in his shop...and he simply replied that he is in constant conversation with them. And this was the case in all the cities we were in. There is no separation.
Christian business men and women have a sincere battle to merge their faith into their daily lives - never mind business, simply everything. A successful man once told us that he would loose business if he applied his faith to his job. "It simply does not work that way", he said. And often we hear the words "I got a brain too you know" - and so he succesfully works faith out of his equation, only to look for answers again on Sunday.
All involved in transformation are busy re-training and almost "re-programming" people to re-introduce Christ deeply into our lives - wholly owned by Him. But it starts with what we see as a "risk" - allowing our hearts and minds to be changed by Him, Monday to Sunday.