Nope, this is no photoshopped photo. This is a photo taken on July 25, 2006 at the Atlanta Emergent Cohort at the Rock Bottom Brewery. What you see is Jake Myers giving a synopsis of Shane Hipps’ book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, and you also see North Point Community Church pastor Andy Stanley sitting and listening to Jake. At the Atlanta Emergent Cohort. Huh…?
My connection with Andy Stanley goes back to this blog post. I had visited North Point with Sarah and Mark, and wrote a little post. It wasn’t harsh – just my thoughts. For some reason, it became one of the most-referenced and most-commented-on blog-posts I’ve ever written.
And it was enough to get Andy to jump online (it was the first blog he had ever been to) and leave a hilarious comment. So we interacted a bit on the blog, through email every couple months, and then a month ago, Andy and I got together and had coffee at Lenox Square Mall in Buckhead. We had a great conversation and I found Andy to be a very humble man, willing and eager to learn from others and incredibly supportive of young people getting into the ministry. Andy expressed some interest in learning more about Emergent and I invited him to the cohort.
And that was that. We had a great conversation – I think this is just a perfect example of two people from very different backgrounds and theological trajectories coming together through friendship, with an eagerness to know the Other more and learn from each other. I know the conversation is not over, and that’s exciting…
like your new header. photoshop must be treating you good.
I am really impressed that Mr. Stanley sat in during an Emergent Cohort, and I think it speaks highly on his part to show an interest in the ways of others. I’m currently an intern with North Point, and I can definitely attest to the incredible humility this man embodies. I don’t know if you can find another person of his stature, so to speak, that genuinely cares more about others than he does about himself.
Whether you agree or disagree with his ministry philosophy, I think that’s one of the greatest qualities you can find in a pastor.
Yeah, last night was a blast. I think the conversation (about multi-site churching, et al) would have been way more one-sided and un-nuanced had he not been there. Not that he and his friend said much, but their presence tempered the conversation. I’ll be interested to see if he’ll be back next month!
Some things are so ironic. About seven months ago I left a youth pastor position because I gave my lead pastor the Mclaren Trilogy. I say “left” but it was either I left or I would be forced to leave. Many can resonate with that story I know.
The ironic part is that the lead pastor I worked for was/is a total North Point & Andy Stanley fan. I recall one conversation with my lead pastor about the “Seven Practices of Effective Ministry” Book, (A wonderful read by Andy Stanley) where my lead pastor was adament that anything emergent was about ran contrary to what Andy Stanley was doing at North Point, the church which my lead pastor was attempting to re-create in California.
I read the conversation that started in 2005 with Andy and to see that Andy attended the Atlanta cohort brings a smile to my face. Andy way to go, If only my lead pastor was as open as you. He (my former boss) put Andy in a box. I continue to have a deep respect for Andy Stanley because regardless that North Point has so many people, I know from reading a lot of his stuff that he is absolutely committed to making his large church as small as possible through community groups. It is great to see Andy’s humility in coming to a cohort meeting.
Adam,
I’m glad that friendship can trancend boundaries. I think we need more of this in inter-church and inter-religious dialogue. I respect your critiques on churches like North Point and I respect that you can sit down with the man in charge and be friends. Show a lot of humility on both sides.
That is so cool! I’m a North Point member and it’s wonderful to see everyone freely invited in to the conversation. We are united under the same God and all desire the name and fame of Jesus Christ.
Thanks for the update, Adam! Very cool, indeed.
At some point the Atlanta Cohort and the Charlotte Cohort need to have a Southeast regional gathering of some sort somewhere. I’ve been talking with John O’Keefe (at 247Connection Church in Hickory, NC) about organizing such a gathering. We’d love to connect with ya’ll and others connected with Emergent Village in the Southeast.
Shalom,
Steve Knight
http://indieallies.meetup.com/27/
I actually discovered your blog through the previous Andy Stanley post…I’ve been a mildly faithful reader ever since
good stuff, adam. thanks for posting this. stanley’s stock just went up quite a bit in my book after reading this and Jake’s thoughts. Stanley had to be squirming a little bit while hearing about Shane’s book.
For whatever reason, I cannot access any of your links. Is it my browser or your links? The picture doesn’t show up either. I would love to read a bit more about the discussion as I have a couple of Andy’s books and have been impressed with him as a leader.
@Micah – this was one of the older posts I hadn’t fulled edited when I made the move from Typepad to WordPress. I’ve updated the image and the links now so you should be able to find what you need.