Sabbatical week 7 - part 2

Next stop, San Diego, for the National Pastors Convention.

The convention opened with comedian Bob Stromberg.

This very good worship team is called Ashmont Hill from Boston.

It’s hard to see, but Andy Crouch (left), author of the book Culture Making, is interviewing David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, the two guys who researched and wrote the book unChristian.

Efrem Smith, author and pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis gave a great opening message for the convention.

I attended a packed workshop with Brian McLaren entitled Christian Faith as Way of Life. I ran into him in the courtyard the next day and chatted a bit with him.

This guy is funny. He is comedian Michael J. and he reminds me a lot of a cleaned up version of Dave Chappelle.

Andy Crouch (left) interviewing A.J. Jacobs (right), author of The Year of Living Biblically. The next day I ran into Jacobs in the courtyard and told him I thought his book was very good and he jokingly said he was falling into the sin of pride. It was fun chatting with him.

Shane Claiborne was the general speaker for one session. He is an author, speaker, and activist calling the church back to the heart of compassion. He talked about his time serving with Mother Teresa. He also took the honorarium he received for his appearance at the convention and had it converted entirely to one dollar bills and poured it out on the floor of the platform and asked us to take a dollar and use it to somehow help the poor.

And many came and picked up a dollar with the purpose of finding ways to bless the less fortunate.

This very funny comedian is Nazareth who is from Nazareth, Israel.

This is a remarkable band out of Australia called Sons of Korah whose music focuses entirely on the biblical psalms. Their first set was somber as they reflected on the deaths in their homeland due to the recent fires.

Andy Crouch (left), interviewing Emmanuel Katongole (middle), professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke Divinity and Catholic priest of the Kampala Archdiocese in Uganda, and Catherine Claire Larson (right), senior writer and editor of Prison Fellowship and author of the book As We Forgive, talking about what’s happening now in Rwanda after the genocide of 1994.

Rob Bell, author and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, gave an excellent message for those of us in ministry.

This was a pretty impressive line up in this workshop on Jesus and Empire featuring (from left to right) Brian McLaren, Don Golden (coauthor with Rob Bell of Jesus Wants to Save Christians), Efrem Smith, Shane Claiborne, and Scot McKnight (professor of religious studies at North Park University in Chicago).

The lady in the middle at this workshop is author Ruth Haley Barton who writes on spiritual formation. I referenced her book Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence in my doctoral thesis I completed last year.

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan is traveling to 90 cities and getting 31,173 people to each handwrite a verse of the Bible that will be complied and placed in the Smithsonian.

The verse I wrote is from John 12:17.

Tommy Walker and his team provided great worship times for a couple of sessions.

Rob Bell (right) interviewing Shane Hipps (left) about his very interesting book entitled Flickering Pixels.

Will Willimon was the Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University before he was elected a bishop in the United Methodist Church. He gave the kind of message one night as the general speaker that only a pastor can truly appreciate.

I attended this worship on preaching and spiritual formation by Skye Jethani who is a pastor, managing editor for Leadership Journal, and author of The Divine Commodity.

Andy Crouch (left) interviewing Paul Young (right) author of The Shack. He wrote the book as a story for his children and is astonished that it has impacted as many people as it has.

The gal on the piano is Kendall Payne whose music has appeared on Grey’s Anatomy.

It’s a bit hard to see, but the speaker for this session was Bill Hybels, founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois. I’d heard him speak in person once before in Canada. He gave an excellent message from John 10:27.

This was another workshop I attended that dealt with hermeneutical and eschatological issues in the church today. From left to right are: Skye Jethani, Randy Frazee (author and pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio where Max Lucado was most recently pastor), William Webb (professor of New Testament at Heritage Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario), and Christopher Wright (theologian specializing in the Old Testament).

This is comedian Taylor Mason and his buddy Romeo, you may have seen him (them) on Last Comic Standing. This guy was completely hilarious and gifted on many different levels.

Efrem Smith (right) with Lee Strobel (left), author of The Case for Christ and other books. He gave us an advance copy of his latest book The Unexpected Adventure due out in May 2009.

Andy Crouch (left) interviewing Andrew Marin (right) about his forthcoming book entitled Love is an Orientation.

Christopher Wright was the general speaker one night and gave a strong message on Christ, the cross, and the mission of God in the world. Dr. Wright is an author, theologian, and international director of the Langham Partnership International. He’s not related to theologian N.T. Wright although they are collaborating colleagues.

This workshop was with Leighton Ford, a couple of his books were required reading for me back in college. He is also brother in law to Billy Graham and has been involved with the Billy Graham Association for over 30 years. He shared with us that he had just spoken to George Beverly Shea who recently turned 100 years old. Ford’s latest book is entitled The Attentative Life.

The National Pastors Convention concluded with Efrem Smith preaching another excellent message and with us receiving Holy Communion. I met pastors from all over the country and appreciate the bond I share with those who are also called into the ministry.

San Diego one late afternoon

This place serves a pretty good burger and fries.

My time in San Diego was quite refreshing

Saturday evening I attended Medford First Church of the Nazarene. I had been there before for District Missions Conventions, but never for a worship service. They just started Saturday evening services a couple of weeks ago. My friend Pastor Grinder preached a very good message from one of my favorite passages, Matthew 5:6, and the worship was just as good if not better than any of the mega churches I’ve visited during sabbatical.

That’s the worship team practicing before the service. My friend Michele is in the pink pants. It was nice seeing her and her husband Brad again. If you live in Medford, you’ve got to check out the Saturday evening service at Medford First Church.

Sunday morning I attended Albany GracePoint Church of the Nazarene. I’d never been there before, and found the people to be very friendly, and the worship really touched my heart.

My friend Pastor Bergland was away on a family emergency, but associate pastor Lauren Willis stepped in and preached an encouraging message on encouragement from Philippians chapter 2.