Surly's Soap Box

Dear Friends,

I have several different ministry roles. My two main ministry roles are with Missio Dei and InterVarsity, but I do other things like teaching a course on applied ecclesiology at Bethel Seminary, facilitating the Twin Cities Emergent Cohort, and various speaking engagements. I am also in the process of editing a “public” version of the Missio Dei Book of Prayer and writing a book (the Jesus Manifesto : Allegiance to Jesus in the Empire). I love all of my ministry opportunities, but right now I’m making precisely $0–though I receive the occasional honorarium for a speaking engagement. Why am I getting paid $0? Because Missio Dei has no money and because I’m still raising funds to be a staffer at InterVarsity. Eventually InterVarsity will pay me for 30 hrs/week, but for now, I’m struggling to get by. Amy loves her work (teaching English to residents of Riverside Plaza ), but she makes a modest income.

I think of myself as a “mendicant” for the 21st Century. Mendicants are what religious orders like the Franciscans or Dominicans are called. In the Middle Ages, they relied upon begging for their livelihood. As they wandered from village to village, they’d preach and beg—for their own needs and the needs of others. I too must beg for my own well-being, as well as for those to whom we minister.

I am a mobile guy. I rely upon my laptop (a refurbished Dell Inspiron 5160 that I bought over two years ago) more than a human being should ever rely upon a machine. I use Outlook to schedule my life (and I need the help). I manage the Missio Dei website and my blogs. Email is my primary way of contact. I use Excel to manage my fundraising. I use Word to write. You get the idea–my ministry is profoundly intertwined with my laptop. Sadly, my laptop has become a lazy servant. It is almost out of storage, has a battery that lasts 6 minutes, is often unable to receive a power draw when it is plugged in, and has crashed twice in the last 6 months (thank goodness I had a back-up). Since it is no longer under warranty, I don’t think it is feasible to try to repair these problems. I know it isn’t particularly satisfying to donate money towards the purchase of a laptop. But my laptop is an indespensible part of how I do ministry. I need a replacement and I can’t afford one.

Would you join the “Help Mark Buy a Laptop” Campaign?

With its adapter, my current laptop weights about 10 lbs. Since I basically bus and walk everywhere, I’m looking to replace it with a smaller laptop with a long battery life–I can get a refurbished Dell XPS M1200 for less than $1000. So, my campaign goal is about $1000.

A while back, a blogging friend from UK named Graham who is also a struggling urban minister asked his blog-readers to help him buy a laptop. He asked each of his readers to donate £1 towards his Macbook fund (read his rationale here). £1 isn’t very much money (what is that, like 2 bucks?). It seemed to work fairly well for him. I’m hoping the same approach will work for me as well.

So in the spirit of Graham’s experiment (and in light of the fact that I have fewer readers) I’m letting folks know of my laptop campaign via email as well as through my blog. I’m asking you to help out the “Help Mark Buy a Laptop” Campaign by donating $3 (though you may certainly give more). To help, go to the “Help Mark Buy a Laptop” form at the top right of my blog (www.JesusManifesto.com), put your donation amount in the box, and click “donate.” You will be brought to a paypal donation page. For the price of a Grande Latte from Starbucks, you can help me out, big time.

Donations will be received by Missio Dei. Since Missio Dei is a church, your gift is tax-deductible. A receipt is available upon request. In the unlikely event that I get more donations than needed to pay for the laptop, the extra will be absorbed into the regular Missio Dei budget, to be used for ministry expenses.

Happy 2007,

Mark Van Steenwyk