I’ve been asked to host (emcee) an emerging event about what emerging Christians believe this October 19 and 20. Here’s a link to that event and then I have some nutty tongue-in-cheek humor for you about emerging events. Emerging Event in Austin Texas.
And I do hope you come.
Can you add to my list (and don’t get too serious)…
10. No matter which emerging event you attend, you can say hello to Tony and Doug.
9. If you are lucky, you will see Dan Kimball and his awesome hair style.
8. You will probably see lots of people there to whom, in a bathroom or something, you can say, “I can’t believe YOU are here! Are you emerging too?” You will here the same people say, “Me, no not me. I’m not emerging. I just like some of their ideas … sorry, I wanted to hear some of these people first hand.”
7. If someone gets the crazy idea of a footwashing, you can listen to a 30-minute conversation about whose Birks are whose.
6. The emcee announces the agenda for the meetings fifteen minutes after the event was supposed to begin and everyone on the speaking schedule says, “O, that’s what we are supposed to talk about here.”
5. You can see the biggest collection of 30something males with soul patches, shirts not tucked in, blue jeans with nice shoes, and thin sporty glasses that you will find in the USA. You might think the place is somewhere in Italy.
4. You might hear McKnight tell you that he goes to a mega-seeker-friendly church, reads evangelical theologians, wears creased pants with a tucked-in shirt and sports no facial hair — or head hair — and still calls himself emerging — and he goes to bed way too early and gets up way too early.
3. Rarely will you hear Tom Wright, Walter Brueggemann, Miroslav Volf, John Franke, Stan Grenz, and LeRon Shults mentioned by every person who makes a presentation. (Tony adds Moltmann — always.)
2. Politics is not discussed intelligently, but everyone has a strong opinion.
1. When you are done, it is likely you will be more confused than when you arrived. You can come to find out what it is like and walk away still wondering what it is like.
I should add that you may never meet a better group of people to hang out with.
Welcome to an emerging event! And, when the sessions are over, go to the closest pub and you might witness an emerging event up close and personal.