Staff
The staff of Triptykos is a group of friends committed to a life of contemplation, creativity, and engaged compassion. We lead retreats, write novels, befriend hurting people, lead storytelling nights, facilitate seminary classes, play harmonica, raise money for charities, drink coffee with neuroscientists, dance the hustle, sit in silence with strangers, and try to help persons develop true compassion toward whatever they experience as ‘enemy’ in themselves and in others.
We serve within seminaries, churches, art festivals, community centers, youth organizations, retreat centers, and living rooms. We work with any soul interested in growing in compassion, including youth workers from Northern Ireland, prison chaplains from Michigan, church folks in southern Oregon, pastors from Zimbabwe, and street kids in downtown Los Angeles.
Andrew Dreitcer
An aspiring harmonica player, Andy occasionally morphs into a Blues Brother. He daydreams of moving to a cottage on the southern Oregon coast to paint full-time. Andy has directed a seminary program in spiritual guidance, spent 15 years as a Presbyterian pastor, and re-shaped his spiritual life during a year spent in the French community of Taizé. Co-author of Beyond the Ordinary: Spirituality for Church Leaders (Eerdmans) and co-builder of Habitat-style homes, he is currently exploring spiritual practices in light of neuroscience (http://neurospirituality.blogspot.com/).
Andy serves as a professor of spirituality and academic director of the Center for Engaged Compassion at Claremont School of Theology and as a professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University. He lives in the San Francisco area with his wife, Steffani, and daughters Hannah and Monica.
Frank Rogers
Frank has directed plays, written a novel, starred in a low-budget Indie film, organized young people through political theater, and impersonated Bruce Springsteen, John Belushi, and his patron saint, James Taylor. A trained spiritual director and experienced retreat leader, he currently serves as professor of spiritual formation and program director of the Center for Engaged Compassion. In addition to his novel, The God of Shattered Glass, he has written a number of articles on spirituality, peace-making, and formation.
His current writing project, Finding God in the Graffiti: Narrative Pedagogy with Young People, explores the role of the narrative arts (storytelling, drama, creative writing, and autobiography) in the spiritual formation of abused and marginalized youth. He lives in southern California with his wife, Dr. Alane Daugherty, and their three sons.
Mark Yaconelli
Mark Yaconelli is a writer, retreat leader, spiritual director, youth worker, community activist, speaker, storyteller, disco dancer, husband, and father. He is the program director for the Center for Engaged Compassion at Claremont School of Theology. Mark is the founder and director of The Hearth: Real Stories by Regular Folks, a storytelling series produced in Ashland, Oregon, in which a diverse group of community members tell true stories around a particular theme. Storytelling events are held four times a year and all proceeds are given to local charities.
In 1996, Mark co-founded the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project at San Francisco Theological Seminary, a grant funded project that sought to test the integration of contemplative practice and awareness within congregational youth ministry programs. He directed that project from 1996 to 2006. Mark is the author of Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus (2006 Youth Specialties), Growing Souls: Experiments in Contemplative Youth Ministry (2007 Zondervan), Downtime:Helping Teens Pray (Zondervan 2008), and Wonder, Fear, and Longing (Zondervan 2009). Mark is the editor of Getting Fired for the Glory of God: Collected Writings of Mike Yaconelli (Zondervan 2008). He has recently completed a new book entitled Surprise Wedding and Other Tales of Compassion.
Mark is a popular speaker and retreat leader throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. See his calendar (markyaconelli.com) for upcoming events or contacts for booking information. Mark lives in southern Oregon with his wife, Jill, and three kids, Noah, Joseph, and Grace.
