NAME DROPPING AT MIDWEST EMERGENT…

Back…Saturday am with Hemant Mehta author of I SOLD MY SOUL ON EBAY.   Several “overt atheists” like Hemant are trolling the event.   Interesting…they are the only ones not wearing flip flops.  Hemant is actually in a tie and shirt tucked in style.   Hummmm.

Hemant is talking about his experience in visiting churches.   He liked churches where there the preacher told good stories that challenged him to live better.   Not excited about churches that did heavy bible teaching.   He kept calling himself a “friendly atheist” and thought some churches were friendly and helpful.   Others seemed angry or upset.    He reported one pastor invited Hemant on stage and was very open and not threatened.   Another church featured a faith healer….that really wacked him out.  

On deck…Spencer Burke from theooze.   Spencer is talking to anyone who will listen about his  conference in October in the Bahamas.   He is like doing a sales pitch comparing a similar experience in OC at twice the price.    Go with Spencer and you can hang with Brennan Manning and NT Wright…heavyweights for sure…but the Bahama thing feels a bit self indulgent in this strong missional culture.   Maybe this is adding in the cross cultural thing.   Hummmm      Other luminaries are sprinkled around the crowd…..Doug Pagitt….Tony Jones.    I talked with some average Joe church people who are here to check this thing out.   They are really taken by the vision of the movement…but not so much so by the name dropping.     OK….more buzz below on prior blog entry.