Howdy.
I'm far too tired to report details of this weekend's events at this time.
For accurate accounts that were blogged live by friends G13 (aka disability resourcer), the doctor, and several others I've met, go to The Gathering's blog site.
Many good quotes, questions, discussions and lessons have been given. I hope I can remember them later on.
My basic take on this whole "God For People Who Hate Church" conference (a title that surprisingly doesn't offend people up here like it did back home) is summed up here:
How can we love people?
Really. That's it.
I've been most impressed with Jim Henderson, who is one of the main speakers (and strangely reminds me of The Shaman of Chickisha, OK).
Besides publicly stating his extreme lack of enthusiasm for debates (finally, someone else who sees the flaws of people of faith debating with non-believers or anybody), Jim made a brief statement that pinned it all for me in regard to christian's behavior throughout the world:
"If christians cannot have it all, then they want none of it."
This was stated during a story of an Indian friend of his who had led hundreds of people to Jesus during some political rally that also promoted Hinduism and another regional religion. Jim was stating that in our christian culture, church leaders wouldn't have bothered to join in with a rally like that because it also promoted other religions.
It reminded me of the fair mother city's "National Prayer Day" nonsense (which thankfully I missed last Thursday) involving two prayer rallys: one with an exclusively christian group and another with an inter-faith group.
I'm rambling here, it's late, and that's all I got.
I am extremely thankful for this travel opportunity. Many, many friendships and alliances have been formed and reinforced.
I will share photos when I return home next week.
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2 comments:
Great thoughts. They certainly speak for me as well.
Glad to have met you at the conference! New friends is one of the things that most blessed me during my time here. It's encouraging to connect with people in the blogosphere who are on the same page with thinking, but its especially nice to do so in person like at this conference.
I am one of those people who have no clue what "emergent" means but I have been hearing a lot about it lately. It seems so true about the whole "If christians can't have it all, they don't want none of it." thing.
Word.
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