In Minneapolis drinking Caribou Coffee

I am sitting in a Caribou Coffee house in Minneapolis as I type this. Minneapolis is a very beautiful place - but it gets so incredibly cold in the winters. Whenever I am here I listen to The Replacements while I am driving, as they are from Minneapolis and are probably one of the great bands which never really made it to the extent they seemed to deserve in terms of music.

My plane leaves in a few hours to go back home. This morning I went to the 11 AM Sanctuary Church worship gathering. Efrem Smith is the lead pastor and was preaching from 1 Corinthians 6 this morning. I have been part of several conferences together with Efrem over the years and it was fun finally being able to worship with the Sanctuary church community. Erfem and the team planted Sanctuary Church in 2003. They meet at a rented Junior High School auditoreum - a 1,100 seat golden brick interior sort of building with a theater stage. There had to be a 1,000 people here the 11 AM this morning and they also had an earliler 9 AM one. So it was quite a thrill to see how God has been using Efrem and the Sanctuary community  here in Minneapolis.

They had the friendliest parking greeters I have ever seen who helped me figure out where to go when I got there. The worship gathering was a mix of hip-hop music, even a special performance dance number which was about the resurrection. The dance number even had children in it, and it was not hokey by any means but quite professional and had the whole zoot suit garb going for it.  

I had seen Efrem speak in worship settings and been on a panel with him and seen him host the National Pastors Convention before - but he was definetly in his element and gifting as he preached.                                                    I was sitting in the very last row and everyone was paying attention and responding to some of the cues he while preaching. I didn't know he had a quite a singing voice too - and wrapped up the sermon leading into a worship song and praying for people as they came up to the front.  Efrem's sermon was about our bodies being "God's property" and spoke about what we do with our bodies is God-honoring or not. 

I've been here in Minneapolis speaking at the Conversational Evangelism conference which is something I am passionate about in terms of seeing the topic of evangelism talked about. The conference had Todd Hunter, Jim Henderson and "Jim and Casper" were here. Got to meet "Casper" who is the atheist who was part of the book Jim wrote in his observations and experiences of going to several churches. Becky Pippert, Rick Richardson from Wheaton College, Garry Poolle from Willow Creek and Mark Mittleberg were here. I could easily write pages about the fascinating conversations we got to have about evangelism in our culture today. About the way the word "missional" is used today and so many things. I am very interested in listening to how or how aren't churches, speakers, authors who use the word "missional" seeing actual conversion growth and multiplication or is it just theory (good theory) but what have we seen as the fruit so far.

Also got to hang out with Tony Jones for a while got to see his "headquarters" and had a nice catch-up chat in the beautiful Minnesota sunshine sitting outside under a cherry blossom tree I think it was. Then last night went out to dinner with my friends Doug Pagitt and Kurt Vickman. Kurt leads The Upper Room here in Minneapolis and we have been in touch for several years since they launched The Upper Room at Christ Presbyterian Church. We have a lot in common with the way we both have been part of launching a Sunday night worship gathering at megachurches and having to navigate through all the joys and tensions of figuring out how that can work or not work within the context of the whole church.

  I drove Doug home and we stayed up till 1:40 AM having our late night chat and discussion about life, books and theology. I think we have known each other now for 11 years and has been an important person in my life through the years. His new book came out this week "A Christianity Worth Believing In" which is a book where Doug shares his theological viewpoints and story. Doug and I definitely have differing theological viewpoints, but if you want to read a book to learn about Doug's theology and story - this is the book to read. Tony, Doug and Mark Scandrette are doing a summer tour based around their latest books which sounds like it will be truly a carnival-like experience called "The Church Basement Road Show".

On the airplane I am going to now continue to lay out our summer teaching series at Vintage Faith Church. We are teaching through 1 Corinthians on Sundays this summer. We have our creative planning meeting tomorrow about it, so I am wrapping up the week to week layout for the meeting. My time in Minneapolis has now drawn to a close and I now go back to the loving arms of Becky and and can't wait to see Katie and Claire. I am going to Orcas Island in 2 weeks for the last week long advance for the Doctor of Ministry degree I am getting and Becky and Katie and Claire are coming on that trip so that I am happy about.