Best Tour(s) of Conference and Salem in the Blogiverse!

Check out Agent B's tour of Salem, and the Conference God: for People Who Hate Church. It is so well done.

One more to add: Dustin did a great job catching the conference too, at Here's the Beef.

Pagan Discussion Panel is Up on Podcast

John Smulo and I led a discussion group with three Pagans from Salem. Teri Kalgren from the Witches' Education Bureau, solitary Wiccan practitioner Krista Grillo, and Druid Suzy Wade were the panelists. The podcast is up in two parts. Altogether it was almost an hour and a half of discussion and Q&A time. Check it out at the Salem Gathering Website.

Jay Bakker: for People Who Hate Conferences

So, I've got more podcasts up. There are only two more to do, but so far you can listen to Jay Bakker, Tony Jones, Jim Henderson's first session, and the Atheist Panel discussion.

Hendo's second session seems to have a strange radio show taped over the top of it. At the beginning of it, it says, "You got a problem with that Phil?" Dang, I was wondering where that come from in the conference at first. Anyway, I am going to see if I can find the show hidden somewhere in the audio. Jim and Barb Henderson spoke together during that session, and it was really cool to see and hear, so I am hoping we've got Barb under the radio theater show somewhere.

The Pagan Dialogue with myself and JJ the Smu (John Smulo) may take a bit of time to edit as well, but it's there, and will be up in a day or two.

You can find what we've got up now on The Gathering's website podcast list.

I'll add some color commentary in a day or so about my thoughts, my favs, my surprises, my agreements, and disagreements. (Hee-hee - Tony Jones did tell me that I had to be willing to smash his idols if I would be part of Emergent - dude I'm into iconoclasm!) ;-)

Saturday 2:30pm Neo-Pagan/Christian Panel Discussion

Welcome to the Saturday Pagan/Christian Discussion Panel.

There are three Pagan women who will be on the panel. It was tough to get this group at this time, because so many people are away, and involved with a Beltane event, but somehow we've got an unblelievably cool group of three on this panel:

Teri Kalgren is a long time Salem Witch, and the head of the Witches' Education Bureau - she is an herbalist, and a very knowledgeable one at that. She owns two stores in town - The Broom Closet, and Artemesia Botanicals.

Suzy Wade is an ADF Druid, and owns a Celtic Gift shop called Special Creations. She is the ritual director for the Eastern Massachusetts Pagan Pride event.

Krista Grillo is a solitary Witch who recently quit her job at Christian Book Distributors where she worked for about 6 years - can you imagine pimping Jesus product as a Witch!? :-)

Presenting the panel, and asking questions from a Christian Perspective are Pastor Phil Wyman of The Gathering, and JJ the Smu - John Smulo from Sacramento, CA. (see John's Blog here

So It Begins! Follow us here.

Hi Friends,

Our conference begins tonight. People are beginning to show up now. Karen Ward is in Town, Jim Henderson is here, Jay Bakker will be here in a couple hours. The Christian Science Monitor will be here today and tomorrow to talk to Jim Henderson and I. Of course, Tony Jones is too emergent to get here when everyone else does, he'll arrive at 11pm. ;-)

So, we are off and running. For those who will be here, see you soon. If you haven't registered and want to come, you can just come as you are, and register or any of the events tonight through Sunday morning.

View our flyer for the event at:
http://www.salemgathering.com/Gathering_Web/NewPages/Events/GFPWHC.BW.pdf

You can also follow live blogging of the event for those who can not make it, you can follow it right here on this Site

Gwyn eich byd, White your world!
Phil

Interview with JJ the Smu!

John Smulo is going to be joining us for the conference God for People Who Hate Church in a couple weeks. He will join me on a discussion panel as we talk with some local Neo-Pagans to discuss what they believe, and practice, and how they have been treated by Christians. There are not too many people as likeminded, and understanding toward developing relationships with the Neo-Pagan community as John. I can really track with this guy, and have been pleasantly surprised by his progressive, and intelligent thinking. I had you consider sending some support to JJ the Smu a few days back. If you like what you see, go here to support John Smulo. John also runs a site called Missional Apologetics.

So I asked John if he would do a quickie interview for me. Here it is:

PHIL: Give us a sense of your background in ministry. You've spent time in Australia, you've pastored, taught in Bible College, and worked with New Religious groups. Describe some of these experiences for us.

JOHN: I’ve taught at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. I was also the Founding Director of the School of Apologetics at the Centre For Evangelism and Global Mission at Morling College. I miss this a lot. I found it a supporting environment to explore creative evangelistic and apologetic approaches. I’m currently teaching at Capitol Bible College in Sacramento, California. It’s a very different environment compared to Morling, but I’m enjoying it and it’s a privilege to be able to teach.

I’ve been a pastor in Australia and the US. This has been a source of joy and pain for me. I’ve increasingly transitioned from traditional churches and pastoral ministry to more of a emerging missional church context. I’m currently at the initial stages of planting a church.

My work with new religious movements has especially focused on Pagans and Satanists, which are quite different from each other. This has involved the blessing of making a number of friends in both communities, and the opportunity to be involved in speaking at events such as Pagans in the Pub. I’ve also focused my writing in these areas, and sought to develop missional apologetic approaches that interact with Satanism and Paganism.

PHIL: Have you had any experience with severe misunderstanding, rejection, or mild persecution in your dealings with New Religious Movements, such as Neo-Pagans and Satanists?

JOHN: I’ve not only experienced severe misunderstanding, rejection and persecution from fellow Christians because of my friendships and involvement with Pagans and Satanists, I still continue to. The ironic thing is that overall I’ve experienced far more support, and very little criticism, from Pagans and Satanists. Some have even been kind enough to put up portions of my work on their websites. At times, they’ve done this even when its somewhat critical. I think that we’re able to have open and productive conversations when there’s mutual respect.

PHIL: What are your current hopes for evangelical Christianity in its relationship to New Religious Movements, and how do you see yourself helping make these changes come to pass?

JOHN: My hopes are somewhat low for evangelical Christianity in its relationship to New Religious Movements, and only mildly optimistic for those who associate with the emerging church. We have to overcome a significant part of church history that has been antagonistic to people of other faiths. We also have to overcome largely negative apologetic methodologies that typically create barriers instead of bridges. What I am optimistic about, however, is the fact that each of us can make a difference in this regard by loving people like Jesus did, using our ears more than our mouth, and seeing people through God’s eyes rather than our stereotypes.

As for how I see myself helping to make positive changes come to pass, I think that the best I can do is work with like-minded people such as yourself for change, while continuing to build healthy relationships with people of other faiths.