Martin Kelley

All around me, I saw Quaker churches dwindling down to fewer than a dozen participants, low on energy, enthusiasm and hope. But that did not have to be the end! This story taught me that one faithful person, resolute in trust and commitment, could hold the space and encourage the restoration of the community. - Martin Kelley

"Yes, it is an extremely different relationship to live within a mile of a meeting and to live further out. For awhile I was attending a meeting an hour away and I just couldn't participate in most of the mid-week events because of the extra time of the commute." - Martin Kelley

"There's much that can be said on the topic. I suspect that one of the greatest block for many Friends would be a resistance to scaling up. If even one percent of the people in the small farm town I live in joined Friends and built a meeting, we'd be one of the largest in the yearly meeting. Our urban meetings would need to grow into the thousands. Space and finances aside, I suspect a lot of Friends have been drawn to the intimate scale of our small meetings. They provide communities at a more human scale than often found in modern US society. Dunbar's Number proposes that human networks tend to maximize at around 150 individuals. I don't think it's a coincidence that Quaker meetings seem to be top off there. There's certainly ways to build larger communities with intimacy (both Micah and Bill have experiences with evangelical cell models) but I don't see Quakers doing that. How many active meeting members would be truly comfortable changing the scale of the community? Everything from..." - Martin Kelley

Do media paywalls exacerbate a reader generation gap? "While paywalls for the moment seem to be doing a generally good job of extracting higher fees from loyal readers, the pay schemes that keep existing readers inside the wall are, for the most part, also keeping potential new customers out." - Martin Kelley

It turns out that it’s not that simple. Those who have studied the issue have found that negative feedback isn’t always bad and positive feedback isn’t always good. Too often, they say, we forget the purpose of feedback — it’s not to make people feel better, it’s to help them do better. - Martin Kelley

Video of the 2013 William Penn Lecture in Philadelphia. - Martin Kelley

In any case, there are precious few Quaker relics that might inspire a pilgrim. It follows that the Quaker manner of seeking Truth is accessible and does not require much: an open mind, a few people prepared to sit together, an ardency, a sprinkling of hope, a dash of faith. - Martin Kelley

In this brief, online conversation, fellow ministers who live in different cities reminded me of two important things: faithfulness in delivering the message and asking for the support I need. - Martin Kelley

I am convicted that God loves and blesses gay people and gay marriages. But if the best we can do as the Church is to back up some secular agenda (whether pro- or anti-gay equality), speaking in rights language and arguing legalities, we fall short of the Kingdom of God. - Martin Kelley

Eden Grace believes in the mission of FUM and has been and will be committed to seeing it faithfully expressed in all we do. Because of her institutional knowledge and existing relationships across FUM, she will be able to step in and function at a high level pretty quickly. At the same time, she recognizes and desires to work alongside the board and staff in this time of transition within FUM to see what new opportunities are emerging and what changes we need to make to more faithfully and sustainably carry out our mission. - Martin Kelley

Bridge Film Festival 2013 Official Trailer The Bridge Film Festival provides a forum for dialog, learning, and exchange of ideas of commonality and diversity. - Martin Kelley

We were trying to set up guidelines for a sensitive discussion the congregation wants to have about human sexuality. In the course of the discussion, several people expressed concern that we not refer directly to the Bible as a guide in the conversation... But the idea of minimizing reference to the written word of God alarmed me, and I’ve been tossing and turning every night since. - Martin Kelley

Here you will find a variety of basic materials to help you as you consider starting a new Quaker worship group or meeting. Some of these are very practical in nature while others will help you think through various issues as you approach this spiritual enterprise. - Martin Kelley

A religious ideology that seeks to guide or even control only individual human behavior fails almost utterly to address these more important sources of our problems, which are collective. It fails to deal with collective sin. - Martin Kelley