Final day at Willow Creek

Friday morning at the conference was incredibly great. I can't say enough about the exellence of what took place. First, a couple who are worship leaders at WCCC shared very openly about how they learned to surrender to God while going through great sorrow (a baby with numerous defects) and struggling with their faith. They shared in testimony and song. It was powerful stuff.

Then we heard from Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz. He spoke about the effect of The Enlightenment on Christianity, which effectivly removed the mysticism from it, using Romeo and Juliet to illustrate his point. He then made an appeal to the Christian artists (me?) to get back what we've "lost" in the last 500 or so years. Not only was this guy obviously very intelligent, he was also able to speak at a level even I could understand. And the fact that he has a great sense of humor didn't hurt, either.

Finally, The Urban Poets from Mosaic in LA demonstrated one of their worship "services". Through dance, music, comedy, poetry and the teaching of Erwin McManus they were phenomenal. It works so well for them in their context, which is the arts community of LA. Not so sure how it would be perceived/received in the surf community that is Nags Head!

I also was able to finish two books while on the trip: Why Men Hate Going to Church and The Barbarian Way. Both highly recommended, the first for women in the church, the second for men.

As good as the conference was, it's great to be home!