Reclaiming Paul, days two and three
October 24th, 2008 | 
I dug the list format of the day one post, so I’m going to do it again here.
1) The first workshop I went to yesterday was with John Franke (pictured above), in which he explained the basic themes of his forthcoming book Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth. I actually recorded the whole thing using my phone, but I can’t get the audio from the phone to my computer (yet). I took lots of notes, though. If you’d like them let me know. For now, I’ll just post this juicy quote:
Affirming plurality [of truth] is not an excuse for “anything goes.” There are still things that are wrong. Plurality doesn’t say everything goes, but in the framework of what “goes”, we should expect plurality — so that the body of Christ will fill the earth.
2) During a break I had a great conversation with Mike Crawford about his album, songwriting process, etc. He even gave me a tour of the sound studio in the basement of Jacob’s Well. Just as a teaser, I think his album is one of the best worship albums in the past 5 years, if not the best. Tim Keel, the pastor of Jacob’s Well, has a great writeup about the album here. Anyway, I’ll be reconnecting with Mike soon for an interview on this blog, so stay tuned.
3) The second workshop I attended yesterday was with Tim Keel, author of Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos. He’s a smart dude, and provided a few really good metaphors to aid in thinking about the state and structure of the church and its leaders.
4) Erik and I had an extended dinner at Chili’s, where we engaged in a potentially life-altering conversation. Afterward we met up with Danielle Shroyer and some other folks at Harry’s Country Club.
5) This morning, Kathy Grieb referenced a suh-weet poem that many people found really helpful when thinking about our theologies.
6) I ate lunch today with Troy Bronsink, Mike Stavlund, and others at Jack Stack BBQ. Good food and good people. It’s impossible to overstate the greatness of the conversations I had with these and other people over the course of the last three days.
7) After publishing this post, I’m heading back to Des Moines. If I had to sum up my experience during the last three days in two words: So good.
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I didn’t realize Arli$$ was a presenter at the convention!
Regarding the bubble in the picture. Doesn’t it take the Bible to tell us what the Gospel is?
Shane: Sure, but I think you’re misunderstanding Franke, which is understandable given the fact that the quote in the bubble is entirely out of context.
What Franke is getting at (as I understand) is that the gospel is lived out by churches (around the world) in myriad ways, and not one of those iterations of the embodied gospel can claim ownership of the “true” gospel. It takes the whole church — in its plurality of iterations — to point to the truth of the gospel in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Hey, Jake, it was great to meet you. You’re the hippest tweeter I ever ate lunch with. Hope to see you again soon.