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Big Tent Christianity – Phoenix: A Review

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Feb 23 14

About two weeks ago, I got to hang out with a lot of friends at Big Tent Christianity in Phoenix. I convinced my wife to come along and join me, and we ended up spending a beautiful post-conference weekend in Sedona. I wasn’t sure what I expected from the Big Tent event, but I had heard great things about the first event in Raleigh and so I had high hopes.

First things first. I really like the folks who planned this event – and their desire to try new things, try new formats and be open to a new way of doing conferences. For the most part it worked really well; other times there were some miscommunications that ended up being a little awkward (like when Richard Rohr thought he had an hour to speak, but really had 10 minutes). But overall – it was well-organized and you could tell there was a lot of thought put into the planning of it – and I have to give them kudos.

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Future of Mainline Protestantism

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Jul 26 0

Patheos is running a “Future of Religion“ series this summer that includes essays by people of a wide range of diverse faith traditions. I’m honored to have been asked to write an article for the “Future of Mainline Protestantism” section of this series. Here is the full list of contributors writing about the future of the mainline church: Sam Alexander, Jim Burklo, Rev. Jerry. D. Campbell, Philip Clayton, Adam Walker Cleaveland, Monica A. Coleman, James Calvin Davis, Kenda Creasy Dean, Bruce G. Epperly, Greg Garrett, Anne Howard, James J. Kang, J. Ryan Parker, Brian McLaren, David LaMotte, Anthony B. Pinn, Robert John Russell, Josef Sorett, and Peter Wallace.

Because of my involvement with Presbymergent, and my belief that Presbymergent has the ability to help the PC(USA) forge a new way forward, I highlighted Presbymergent in my essay, “Presbymergent: A Reforming Spirit from the Inside.”

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A Brief History of Presbymergent: Part 3

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May 19 7

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This is Part 3 of “A Brief History of Presbymergent.” You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Where does Presbymergent go now?

But I don’t think that means people have stopped rethinking what it means to be church in the PC(USA) this past year. I continue to have folks contact me and ask questions about Presbymergent this year. Mike Clawson’s paper is probably the most thorough, but I’ve done a couple email interviews with folks doing papers or research on emergent Christianity in the mainline. Folks are continuing to try new things, be creative with their theologies and liturgies and think outside the box. And even a self-proclaimed techie like myself can’t quite grasp the type of outside-the-box ministry that Neal Locke and others have been doing with Second Life.

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A Brief History of Presbymergent: Part 2

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May 17 2

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This is Part 2 of “A Brief History of Presbymergent.” You can find Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

Presbymergent’s Momentum Slows

And then…well, I can’t really say. Ryan Kemp-Pappan walked away and went to the Disciples of Christ. Karen Sloan became Prior at Formation House. And me…? Well, I was having some ordination issues and wondered about my future with the PC(USA). People started to wonder what Presbymergent was up to. The blog got quiet. Like, really quiet. Like, dead. There was some conversation happening on our Facebook page, but while we had a fair amount of followers on Twitter, I wasn’t posting much. So what was going on…? What was happening?

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