When Philip Scriber and I began zoecarnate.com in March 2003, we had no idea how much it would grow and how widely-used it would become. We were two college students who wanted to show people that there was another side to life in Jesus than the one that the American Christian subculture seemed to be broadcasting through cookie-cutter chain stores, bad radio and even worse TV. When we got online, we saw an alternative potential for the Christian web: an interconnected network of the Body of Christ on earth, animated by the Holy Spirit and living lives of faith, hope, and love.

Our hand-edited online links page has become the hub for connecting over 5,000 churches, people and movements united in an authentic, Biblically-rooted, progressively Christ-centered faith. It has become a trusted source for friends of Jesus, spiritual seekers and journalists alike.

So far this has been a spare-time, 100% volunteer effort. But “spare time” has become a bit harder to come by for both of us; Philip is wrapping up one postgraduate degree and preparing for another, while I am working my own writing and editing business--I'm now married with a child on the way, to boot! We are still completely committed to keeping zoecarnate.com up and running—and free for all—but we need your help to continue.

It’s like this: Maintaining zoecarnate.com costs us money, both out-pocket and a heavy time investment. We’ve long outgrown the single gaudy, massive page format, and need better design and programming to make this site more useful and intuitive. We have big dreams and a concrete plan. We need equipment and we’d like to re-launch with a bang, so that we can share this resource with even more people who would benefit from it. The grant we’ve received is presently being employed to begin these sweeping changes; we’d like to go ahead and raise the remaining funds so that we can do everything as a whole.

We need $6,000 more. That seems like a lot, but it’s not when we have friends like you. I’m asking for 2,000 friends of zoecarnate.com to pony up and donate $3. Unfortunately I can’t give you a mug, a t-shirt, or anything like that. But what I will give you is a more integrated, beautiful alt.Christian experience—you will be able to connect to more counter-cultural friends of Jesus in your area, and navigate even more edifying listening, reading, and conversation. Networking the Body is what zoecarnate.com is all about, and I’m looking forward to the next phase!

Thank you,

Mike Morrell

PS: While we’re asking for three bucks, we’ll certainly receive more if you’re so inclined! We’re also asking churches, foundations, and ministries to partner with us in a sponsorship role; if you’re interested, email me and I will send you more details.

PPS: Finally, we could use a laptop. A nice laptop, with wireless internet capability, for our site editing needs. (Our 1998 model just isn’t cutting it anymore) If you have one you’d like to donate, that would be just fabulous. Drop me a line for this as well.

Your librarians in simpler times

Here’s what some friends of zoecarnate.com are saying:

“I sometimes refer to Mike Morrell as ‘Dr Linkage’. He is a historian of the emerging church. Mike has put together a list of Jesus/ministry links that is now numbering about 5000. Happy surfing!”

—Andrew Jones, writer/practitioner, Tallskinnykiwi.com

“Thank you for the good things you are doing with your website. Keep up the good work. We need guys like you speaking out and saying what needs to be said.”

—Tony Campolo, bestselling author; Professor Emeritus, Eastern College; President, The Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education

"Holy cow –zoecarnate.com is a massive list of links to everything alt.Christian. Emerging church, neo-monasticism, justice, left and right political commentary, blog-heaven, and clearly a special love for the house church movement. I am appreciative for the hosts' labor of love."

—Mark Oestreicher, President, Youth Specialties

“Mike Morrell is the tie that binds ‘emergent’ church.”

—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Sites Unseen is an amazing collection of links to house, cell, emergent and other alternative congregations and movements.”

—The Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary

“Zoecarnate.com is a central site on emerging church… [one] of the most influential sites.”

—Religion Newswriter’s Association

“Zoecarnate.com is an amazing resource. For finding Christian content from many different streams of the Church, check this site out. Especially for a wide range of content within the emerging church, this site's a gem.”

—Alan Hartung, Actor; Editor, TheOoze.com

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