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Erwin [McManus] did a really great job hosting this and kept things moving well and I didn't sense any lulls or people losing connection to what was happening. I loved hearing spontaneous thoughts from people. Nancy Beach, Nancy Ortberg, Mark Batterson and so many others that had great things to say about real life ministry. Erwin's closing words of the conference were the strong reminder how he repeated "it's all about Jesus, it's all about Jesus, it's all about Jesus" and stressed the importance of the centrality of the cross. Erwin was one of the people I emailed Kevin about (see last post) in the book he wrote "Why We're Not Emergent".
They mentioned Erwin in the book a few times and I shared with them that they took some quotes of Erwin and assumed things which weren't really accurate. When you know Erwin, listen to his messages, learn about all that is happening at his church throughout the week, and actually read his books through (not just read quotes taken out of the books) you discover pretty quickly that Erwin takes Scripture extremely seriously and takes evangelism extremely seriously. He definitely uses creative metaphors and encourages followers of Jesus to understand the fullness of life that Jesus tells them they have in Him (John10:10) and to be on the mission and dream big dreams sort of a thing. It is odd to hear from some critics that dreaming missional dreams is seen as humanistic or not God-centered, when the point of the dreams he encourages us to have are ones that are all pointing to making a difference in this world for the gospel of Jesus. He constantly stresses it isn't about us, it is about Jesus and reaching and serving others for Jesus. You can't hang around Erwin or Eric Bryant or other Mosaic staff and not almost feel like you are back in the book of Acts going into new cultures and being on this unpredictable mission for the gospel taking risks, facing all kinds of unusual situations that naturally arise because of the adventure - but committed to the gospel and seeing the Spirit lead people to their need of a Savior. That is why I love hanging out with them and like I blogged about St. Patrick a few weeks ago, how risk-taking missional Christians will probably get criticized as St. Patrick did and Hudson Taylor etc.
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