Just got back from being part of the Awaken Conference in Pasadena which was held at Mosaic Church for the past 3 days. It was quite fun and quite relaxing as the format of this conference was primarily panel discussions led by Erwin McManus. Bill Hybels and Wayne Cordeiro gave 30 minute messages, but the rest was panel discussions of different sorts. I was on three different panels, two were focused on evangelism and one was on leadership. One of the evangelism panels was myself, Lee Strobel, Mark Mittleberg, Rick McKinley and Eric Bryant and of course apologetics came up with Mark and Lee there. I always really enjoy being with Lee and Mark and I love how they are apologists who have such a healthy balance apologetics in a relational and conversational context. I hope that apologists see this need as Lee and Mark do, in how apologetics is used in culture with people today.
Erwin did a really great job hosting this and kept things moving well and I didn't sense any lulls or people losing connection to what was happening. I loved hearing spontaneous thoughts from people. Nancy Beach, Nancy Ortberg, Mark Batterson and so many others that had great things to say about real life ministry. Erwin's closing words of the conference were the strong reminder how he repeated "it's all about Jesus, it's all about Jesus, it's all about Jesus" and stressed the importance of the centrality of the cross. Erwin was one of the people I emailed Kevin about (see last post) in the book he wrote "Why We're Not Emergent".
They mentioned Erwin in the book a few times and I shared with them that they took some quotes of Erwin and assumed things which weren't really accurate. When you know Erwin, listen to his messages, learn about all that is happening at his church throughout the week, and actually read his books through (not just read quotes taken out of the books) you discover pretty quickly that Erwin takes Scripture extremely seriously and takes evangelism extremely seriously. He definitely uses creative metaphors and encourages followers of Jesus to understand the fullness of life that Jesus tells them they have in Him (John10:10) and to be on the mission and dream big dreams sort of a thing. It is odd to hear from some critics that dreaming missional dreams is seen as humanistic or not God-centered, when the point of the dreams he encourages us to have are ones that are all pointing to making a difference in this world for the gospel of Jesus. He constantly stresses it isn't about us, it is about Jesus and reaching and serving others for Jesus. You can't hang around Erwin or Eric Bryant or other Mosaic staff and not almost feel like you are back in the book of Acts going into new cultures and being on this unpredictable mission for the gospel taking risks, facing all kinds of unusual situations that naturally arise because of the adventure - but committed to the gospel and seeing the Spirit lead people to their need of a Savior. That is why I love hanging out with them and like I blogged about St. Patrick a few weeks ago, how risk-taking missional Christians will probably get criticized as St. Patrick did and Hudson Taylor etc.
One of the speakers on the panel was Phil Cooke, who was a pretty ingenious thinker from what I picked up on media and culture. He made a comment that if we don't define ourselves, others will define us for us. He was speaking about the Christian sub-culture and how we are known in our culture. But I see this also as a reason why I find myself consistently trying to clarify things. Because the loudest voices (or loudest typists) can end up defining people or things if there are no other voices out there. So reluctantly it seems, I keep trying to give some counter-definitions if there are some or parts of some that aren't accurate. As I shared in the last post, if there is criticism that is true - that is great and if it is of concern and we see it as correct, then we should be able to admit when we are wrong and change. I have done that many times. But when it is more stretched and not true to what is the actual reality, then I find myself wanting to clear it up. Paul seemed to want to clear up misperceptions hat developed of him and his ministry in 2 Corinthians chapters 10 and 11 and wrote a defense to clarify things. So I hope it is profitable when taking the time to do so.
Anyway ----- at Awaken I got to meet so many new people and reconnect with friends. Went to a dinner at Erwin's house Tuesday night and got to meet and chat with Ben Arment who was a pastor and now puts on events and is part of the Catalyst team with Brad Lomenick who was also there. Hung out quite a bit with my friend Rick McKinley and Ken from Imago Dei. Rick has the ability to make me laugh maybe more than anyone else I know apart from Josh Fox. We went to the original Roscoe's House of Chicken'n Waffles in Hollywood last night. Very odd mixture for a meal. Rick bought Ken a Roscoe's beany hat which I am sure Ken is wearing today.
Chatted with DJ Chuang from Leadership Network and I had to take a photo of him. DJ was wearing an amazing outfit of a bright orange shirt, with bright orange crocs, holding a bright orange Bible that IBS gave us and had a bright orange Blackberry (which you can't see in this photo). I admired his incredible orange courage and boldness. I also love reading DJ's blog and observations.
One person I got to hang out with and am getting to know is Eric Bryant from Mosaic. We went out today for lunch with his wife Debbie and two children. Eric is a fellow Zondervan-author and has written Peppermint Filled Pinatas:Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love. It's a really great book which gives hope and how love is the strongest apologetic. It is not theory in this book, but birthed and written about from real life and real people and real experience. So books like this are far more interesting to me than theoretical ones. Eric will be speaking at our church this summer and I look forward to him coming up to Santa Cruz. Also we have been dreaming and meeting about forging a relational and intentional network/alliance of those very serious about evangelism and mission - very serious about the authority of Scripture and theological orthodoxy - and very serious about experimentation and missional risk-taking for the sake of the gospel. I will blog more on this as it develops.
It is interesting typing this late night (2:40 AM) reflection on the past couple of days. What I keep realizing about why I love being at conferences is the relationships and hearing stories of the joys and heartaches of missional church leadership from people attending them. The content hopefully is good as speakers do pour themselves into hopefully being encouraging and helpful. But it is the relationships and stories I know that I cherish and remember long after the conference is over. We come from all across America (and at this event there were many from across the globe) and we are here for Jesus and the mission of the gospel. To be around others who are passionate about the gospel and evangelism and taking risks and experimenting and not afraid of culture but to be in culture, yet avoiding evil (John 17:15). At conferences like this one and others - they help carry me onward seeing we are not alone in this.
The Vintage Faith Church staff was at this conference and I left my computer bag with Kristin when I was on the panels. As I was just pulling photos off my camera, I discovered that Kristin must have grabbed my camera from inside the bag and taken some photos while I was on the panels. So here is the Vintage Faith staff Liz, Sarah, Amy, Lee, Sarah, Josh, Kristin, Travis and Bennett (who is in leadership) in some self-taken- photos in all their bea
uty and glory. 
