ec05: day one

today started with the culmination of "the embracing church" and finished with a conversation with jay. it feels like two maybe three days and my feet still feel like they are walking. here's some highlights from my day.

• we finished our examination of the embracing church. props for the crew who put this concern course for a nice balance of lecture thought, small group & large group conversation, worship, & reflection. here are my notes. brian mclaren lead an inciteful examination of homosexuality as one "mess" the community of Christ has to deal with. we closed with communion, which i was greatful for and thought a great ending to our group focus.
• i ran into some friends, see the ec bloggers, and went to the opening session. we broke into our learning communities, which i was somewhat confused how that was going to work but i am a big fan of them and they were well done. we were asked to just experience the community, so i put away the notes/computer and just listened and talked. doug pagitt and alan roxburgh lead our community on "church." i was priviledged to be in a small discussion group that doug sat in on so we got to talk about the word church and what that means to people. alan had some great thoughts, one being that we are transformed by the community/family that we experience the kingdom in, or something to that effect. if i can get audio of the session i probably will do that.
• after the community i ran into some more folks and then continued my quest to be a mclaren whore. i went to his pluralism revisited session. i knew it would be a bit over my head, but i knew he'd give me a nugget of something i could grasp. he continued on some of his empire, colonialism stuff we talked about in the embracing church (so i was able to keep up). he got into some philosophers, which other than their names, i was a bit lost. but i got the gist in what he shared from n.t. wright in that we need to move past pluralism & relevantism into "an eschatology love."
• before dinner helped to put out the freebies for the evening session. we realized that we were seriously in-efficient.
• the evenging session we were truly blessed with phylis tickle. sharing a narrative story in the spirit of the torah ending in the death of Jesus on the cross. it was awesome. took a stroll up to the presbyterian church for a worship with ikon, an alt worship community out of belfast. now the good friday service is not a new piece, having been with phylis and her story just an hour before it all fit together so well. i like alt worship, they seem to be more liturgical and i take great nourishment from that.
• took a quick tour through the conference set-up, bookstore, prayerroom, and messageboards. then headed home. looking forward to tomorrow although i have to cut out for about three hours to cover for someone at my office.