Posted 209 days ago
about Mustard Seed Associates
Mustard Seed Associates (MSA) is a community of Jesus’ followers all over the world striving to create the future one mustard seed at a time. MSA provides resources and a network for committed followers of Jesus to anticipate the future, decode the culture, convey the Kingdom of God , and create new ways of being a difference and make a difference.
We work to inspire (plant), connect (cross-pollinate) and create (harvest). Believing God is changing the world through mustard seeds – the seemingly insignificant – MSA seeks to unleash the creative potential of ordinary people to make a difference in their communities and a world of urgent need.
MSA subscribes to the Nicene Creed, we hold a high view of scripture. We are passionate followers of Jesus Christ and are committed to working tirelessly, by God’s grace, to see something of the in breaking of God’s new order in our rapidly changing and desperately needy world.
MSA is a 501c3 located in Seattle, Washington and bridges into a wide ecumenical landscape. Our International Core includes people from Australia, New Zealand, UK, US, and Canada.
MSA Team
Christine Sine – Executive Director, liturgist and chief gardener.
Christine Sine was born in Sydney Australia but now lives in the Mustard Seed House with her husband Tom and their golden retriever Bonnie. She runs the small MSA office from her dining room table which has a great view of Greenlake. She is passionate about helping Christians to connect their faith to everyday life and writes and speaks on issues relating to changing our timestyle and lifestyle to develop a more spiritual rhythm for life.
In a former life Christine trained as a physician in Australia and developed and directed the healthcare ministry for Mercy Ships. She loved shipboard life in spite of the fact that she is one of those lucky people who can get seasick sitting on the wharf looking at the sea. She still works as a consultant in international healthcare and travel medicine as well as conducting seminars to help prepare people for overseas mission service. She has worked in Africa, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. She is the author of three books GodSpace: Time for Peace in the Rhythms of Life (Barclay Press 2006), Travel Well (World Vision Resources 2005) and Tales of a Seasick Doctor (Zondervan 1996). Christine and Tom also co-authored Living on Purpose: Finding God’s Best for Your Life. (Baker Books 2002) and they are still friends.
Christine is an enthusiastic organic gardener. In the spring her front porch sprouts an assortment of tomatoes, peppers, squash, and other vegetables awaiting the warmer weather. If you visit Tom and Christine in Seattle you might find her out in her garden harvesting luscious tomatoes. Or you might find her inside knitting a sweater or working on a new book on creating a liturgy of life. Christine and Tom and Bonnie love practicing hospitality and cooking food from all over the world. They particularly enjoy teaching people how to party the kingdom 24/7
Christine blogs at Godspace
Tom Sine – Research guy at MSA, Hospitality guy at the Mustard Seed House
Tom Sine has many gifts including the gift of disorientation. When he travels without Christine he often winds up in places he never planned to go. But we all enjoy the stories that come from these unplanned ventures.
He and Christine live with a growing community of friends in the Mustard Seed House in Seattle. They grow 50% of their vegetables on an urban lot and specialize in hospitality for the creative and disaffected.
Tom and Christine love to go on hikes with their golden retriever Bonnie. One of Tom’s favorite things is to cook large quantities of food from different countries for friends and strangers from the UK to OZ…most have survived.
If you meet Tom it will become apparent that he has been hanging around for awhile. He has, over many years, worked as a social worker, educator and headed up a community development project in Haiti for World Concern. These days he spends a lot of time trying to learn what God is doing through a new generation of innovators. That is what led him to write The New Conspirators.
Tom also currently teaches as an adjunct at Fuller Theological Seminary in Seattle, and is on our small team at Mustard Seed Associates. It seems as though he is always working on a book. His previous book was Mustard Seed Vs McWorld. He and Christine wrote Living on Purpose three months before the Purpose Driven Life but they haven’t been troubled by 22 million sales…yet.
Tom and Christine try to help everyone from college students to mission executives get ready to serve God in our rapidly changing new global neighborhood. The way they do this is by enabling people to both identify some of the new challenges rushing at us from the future and imagine new ways to respond to these challenges.
In fact they conduct a workshop called Imagine That to enable followers of Jesus to create imaginative new ways to not only address the new global challenges but also advance something of God’s new order in uncertain times.
Tom is not only intrigued by what God is doing through a new generation of conspirators but is determined to influence us all to join them… creating the future one mustard seed at a time. Read this book at your own risk. He might just persuade you to join this quiet conspiracy.
Eliacín Rosario-Cruz – Community & Program Catalyst (Rabble-Rouser)
Born in Puerto Rico moved to the Pacific Northwest. Husband and Father/ artist/ communitarian/ provocatuer/ and organic intellectual. He and his family are part of The Mustard Seed House, a neo-monastic/intentional community in Seattle, where they eat, play, work, garden, pray and conspire for a new reality. Eliacín has the natural gift of networking, so one of his major roles at MSA is of connector. He enjoys meeting new people and listening to their stories. He is known by some to be a holy mischievous prankster. Eliacín and his wife Ricci enjoy hosting conversations about alternative living, intentional community, new monasticism and subversive Christianity.
Eliacín blogs at Kingdom Praxis
Ricci Kilmer – Community & Program Catalyst
Ricci is originally from the Bremerton area and taught in Bremerton School District after graduating from Seattle Pacific University in 1995. She met Eliacín when he was training at her church. He invited her to spend a summer at the youth camp in Puerto Rico, and the rest is history. They are now married with two children, Catie (4 ½) and Gabriel (6 months). Ricci helps co-ordinate various MSA events including, but not limited to, children’s program for our Celtic retreat, community hospitality and involvement in other projects.
Judy Naegeli – Seed Sampler Coordinator
Judy graduated from SPU in 2005, after which she spent a year as a manuscript editor in Vietnam with the Mennonite Central Committee. She brings her experience with writing and editing to MSA, using it to help Tom with his upcoming book and to coordinate the monthly e-zine, the Seed Sampler. Outside of MSA, Judy keeps herself busy working part-time at the flagship REI store. She is also involved at Taproot Theatre as a dramaturg, and as a volunteer editor for The Other Journal.
Contact us
PO Box 45867
Seattle, Washington 98145
T: (+1) 206-524-2112
E-Mail MSA
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