Merge to Echo The Story
A few years ago Sonlife developed a learning experience for HS students called Merge. Merge was designed to help students merge with God’s story, way of life and mission.
There was a bunch of people involved in the development of Merge. Mike Novelli (now of Echo The Story, LLC and Imago Media) led the development process and was the creative genius behind it.
Before I hired Mike to work at Sonlife he had been exploring Chronological Bible Story and was developing a set of narratives to use within the context of the youth ministry that he was leading at
the time. Mike brought to Sonlife the narratives and the dream of an experience that would inspire, equip and challenge students towards God’s ways.
As Sonlife transitioned through the creation of new training content and resources, we felt like it was a great time to experiment with facilitating an event in the realm of what Mike had been dreaming about. Although Merge was a Sonlife event it was really born out of the passion, mission and creativity of Mike Novelli.
When Sonlife merged with Youthfront last fall, we (Youthfront) decided that we would continue to facilitate Merge especially for youth ministries who had made it a regular part of their summer routine. So, this past summer we had a wonderful time facilitating Merge at Youthfront Camp South. One youth worker said it was the best community-wide formation experience his ministry had ever been a part of. That is really cool…
Recently at Youthfront we have decided to concentrate our ongoing efforts on what we do best which is (1) Creating environments of spiritual transformation (currently camp, Croc, etc.) (2) Developing and delivering theologically and philosophically attentive training for youth workers that is inspiring, thoughtful and practical and (3) Provide resources that assist youth workers in their efforts to lead
transformational youth ministries — through partnerships with publishing companies.
We love many of the ideas found within Merge and we had a blast facilitating it this past summer. We have decided, however, that we will no longer facilitate Merge. Instead, we have released the rights of Merge to Echo The Story, LLC. So, be looking for Merge to be facilitated by Mike Novelli and the partners he brings around Echo to make it an even greater event.
We are working directly with Barefoot Publishing to create an affordable resource developed around narrative theology, fixed hours of prayer, interactive and experiential learning methods and fundamental practices for spiritual formation.
We think that with the growing economic stress that churches are under these days a resource might be more helpful than an event – especially with the rising costs of renting facilities, traveling costs, etc.
This resource is scheduled to be available the the spring of 09 just in time for those of you who want to use it within the context of your youth ministry (camp, retreats, learning series’, etc.) during the summer months. Next month will be working some of the early kinks out with 60 or so camp directors and youth workers in Orlando, in partnership with NYI. We are looking forward to serving you and your ministry via this new resource.