Back at last…

Alright…Just got back from the New Conspirators Conference featuring Tom and Christine Sine, Shane Claiborne, Efrem Smith, Mark Scandrette, Mark Van Steenwik, Karen Ward, etc…

Too many folks have already blogged into meaninglessness at this point…that having been said: it was awesome!!!

There was such a sense of conversation, open and honest sharing, participation, challenge, inspiration, realism…etc…

Highlights for me were: Dwight Friesen, professor at Mars Hill Seminary in Seattle.  As he was leading a break out session called “The Dance Between Emergent and Established Churches” he gets to this one part where he gets incredibly choked up and he says: “I just want to know how to honor my father and my mother ecumenically speaking.  Because if this is about carving out a new thing and racing past them then I don’t want any part of it. But if this is about joining hands together in God’s kingdom then that’s where I want to be.”  It was incredibly touching.

And it resonated, at least with me.  I’m tired of living in reaction.  I’m tired of standing on my esoteric high horse and preaching at people who have loved Jesus longer and harder than I can imagine.  The truth is that we’re all heretics and we’re all orthodox…and I’m not able to say the one who meets in a house is somehow more holy or closer to Christ like simplicity than the one who meets in a school or in an auditorium or in a cathedral.  Anyhow…it resonated.  I like what Shane said in a different breakout session: “People used to ask me if I was Protestant or Catholic and I would answer, ‘NO!’ because I was so fed up with the system.  Now people ask me and I say ‘YES!’ because they are my brothers and sisters and I am one with them.  It’s a subtle difference but its there.”  Once again that resonated.

Efrem Smith  delivered an amazing message on the Beloved Community of Christ. Jessie and I found it deeply challenging and moving…there is much work to be done in the mission of God which Paul said was reconciliation…wow!!! What a message…what a call to arms in God’s kingdom.

The final workshop I attended was “Enter the Jesus Dojo” with Mark Scandrette.  This guy was a riot, a revolutionary, and a lyrical beat poet wrapped up into one dynamic and challenging session calling Christians to cease being simply believers and start being disciples (apprenctices of Jesus in the 21st century).  It was a great time.  His work in San Fransisco with Re-Imagine and Seven is intruiging and similar to the path the Lord seems to have Jessie and I on…hope to learn from them in some way.

But right now…listening to the National. and loving it…