a deafening roar of applause

well it's almost over...

be heading back to the uk later today - looking forward to seeing the london skyline, family, friends, home!

one of the most hopeful moments here was the emerging women leaders breakfast. there was a good turnout. there are five women who are leading the emerging women leaders project all of whom seem wonderful. what was good about the breakfast wasn't just that there was space to discuss honestly peoples experience of being women in the church and thinking about the road ahead. the way the whole thing was set up and led was wonderful - there were 5 stations around the edge of the room with amazing pictures of women over the years who have been pioneers. and then there were cards with a series of questions. after some intro and breakfast we discussed these questions in groups around the table. men were asked to listen and wait before saying anything - for some women this in itself was a liberating thing! feedback was then given and heard - and it was just real, refreshing, honest, from the heart. and then the team gave a huge encouragement to the women there. i finally got to meet jenlemen. she gave some concluding remarks with lots of tears - it was like a blessing of empowerment for the women there to embrace their call. then grace maclaren said some things. she was also amazing - a kind of honesty and strength that was compelling. there was a lot of emotion in the room. i had tears in my eyes. i pray that this venture will give a voice, and hope and permission to talk and share stories for the women in the emerging church in the usa (and beyond). what was so striking about this breakfast was how different the tone of it was to any other sessions i have been to at the convention. i can't put my finger on exactly why but this felt more conversational, more real, less hyped, more passionate, and it was grown up/adult. shame they weren't running the main sessions!!! thank you to the women who put it on - courage to you... thanks for letting us men be there to listen in and cheer you quietly in our hearts. i'm sure i could hear the sound of a deafening roar of applause that was exploding in peoples hearts and in the throngs of angels watching with bated breath to see how the future unfolds

i have spent most of my time at the emergent convention chatting with people which has been great. we had a bloggers dinner the other evening which was fun. there are quite a few bloggers here and it was fun to meet some new people. if i try and list the people i am sure i will forget some which i don't want to do... if i have left you out please forgive me and leave a comment....

adam cleveland | lillylewin | gareth powell | jen lemen | michael toy | cheryl glenn | harpstrings | dj chuang | sailor and a scholar | jvoorhees | radical congruency | the:shiverian | holly Z's happy day deadfish | willzhead | spencer burke | bob carlton | mark riddle

as in berkley we found a cafe with free wireless access and the best food in nashville as far as i am concerned - provence. whenever you went there the chances were you would catch up with some bloggers. i have had countless conversations with people here. i'll reflect on my take on emergent at a later date probably but people is where it is at. tim left a comment on my last post asking if there were fellow liminal travellers. one that i met was geoff and sherry maddock from lexington, kentucky. they are doing the long term incarnational mission stuff in a tough part of town just being in the community, working with the porr, openng up their homes etc. i'm hoping they will write their story for the emergingchurch.info site. i also felt a real kindred spirit with spencer whose story is quite something... was great to catch up with dan kimball last night too who is really helping push worship in a creative direction with his writing here inspired by alt worship in the uk. talking of alt worship, the second part of the seminar seemed to go pretty well and i hope sparked peoples imagination to get creating...

these pics are adam (baby face) cleaveland, lilly lewin (great to catch up with her and rob again), and josh (forgotten the surname?!). i haven't taken many pics in nashville but have added about four to the photo album USA pics 2004. adam has taken a bunch of photos and has an emergent album including this photo of me and a few others...

Comments

[Mykel]

Jonny, when Kim and I visit England again we need to hook up.

[Steve K.]

Jonny, it was great to chat with you last night up in Marko's room. What can I say? You're an inspiration. Thanks.

[maggi]

thanks for blogging thru EC - i really wanted to be ther and it just wasn't possible

[Cleave]

hmmm. i don't know about this...baby face? come on bro...

[cheryl]

i never introduced myself this past week, but thoroughly enjoyed your alt worship seminars. i'm now kicking myself for not having visited your gathering while i was living in surrey. i just moved back from the uk, having lived there for 2 years. and never came to grace! oh well.... but i did want to thank you for your presence at the ec. i appreciated it!

[rob lewin]

OK! Here I am. You're already in the rack, but I promised to get back in the blogosphere by the end of the weekend. Done. I'll post something small today as well. Are you missin barbeque yet?
Blessings to all the Bakers,
Rob