Sam Warren, a former pastor and now the national director of Christian nurture in the Advent Christian Church invited me to give two workshops and be a plenary speaker at the Triennial meetings of the denomination. So, Saturday morning I drove down to Naperville and had a wonderful time … meeting Sam and speaking and listening.
I’ve said this before, but it deserves to be said often: invitations to speak often give more to the speaker than to the audiences. This was especially so for me. They were as interested and provoked as anyone else about the emerging movement; they had great questions for me as I laid out a few ideas from our forthcoming book, The Blue Parakeet. And I felt a special unction in speaking Saturday evening about a Jesus Creed that leads to a missional lifestyle. The music and worship was rich.
So many little things happen … a great conversation with Gordon Isaac, a church history professor at Gordon Conwell; the many who told me that our explanation of the emerging movement helped them understand their teenagers or 20 somethings; the very kind remarks of the many who asked me to sign copies of my books.