Saturday, November 03, 2007

An Evening with Spencer and Tod, and PresbYmergent and Karen Sloan

So, last night I did a session with The Oozy guy Spencer Burke. We were at the Cascade People's Center in Seattle. Wow, it was fun! The water reclamation pump kept making noise behind me, and it reminded me of coolness of the place. They were recycling their water for use in the sinks, and toilet. Each time I heard the pump, I thought, "I like this place." Tod Hunter spoke about his view of what's happening in church - he runs Alpha for the US, and use to be the president of the Vineyard Churches in the US. Those are some deep credentials. He and Spencer did a question/answer interview thingy for about 45 minutes, then I did the same thing with Spencer. Spencer is Mr. SoCal Cool, so it easy to do these kind of things with him, but it took an interesting turn, because people automatically began to jump in with questions, and from that point it was a question and answer thing going on for the next 45 minutes. Talking about Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft to Christians can be a lively discussion, and this was one in which people were seriously interested in learning to understand Neo-Paganism without being judgmental. What a cool group of people. Fun time. Before the event I was hanging out with PresbYmergent girl Karen Sloan, and her PresbYmergent gang at an Indian Restaurant run by a Greek guy - great edgy Indian food - I had pomegranate chicken - yeah that rocks, simply by the name. After the evening event we went to a Belgian pub with some of the same gang. Broward's in the Fremont District is a Belgian pub with 150 beers on tap. I think it may be Karen Ward's favorite pub.

10 comments:

cern said...

Fantastic stuff. :)

BB

Mike

Benjamin Ady said...

Hey Phil Your curly hair is awesome. You're awesome.

Thankyou for hanging out this weekend. You've joined the list of people who make Christianity palatable. You rock. I wanna move to Salem so I can hang out at the gathering--it sounds like *such* a rocking place.

Pastor Phil said...

Thanks Mike - you are fantastic too.

Pastor Phil said...

Hey Ben-jammin!

We would rock even more with you there.

Anonymous said...

And you didn't look me up? Wish I had known you were coming out here.

Steve Thorne

Pastor Phil said...

Soory bro - I am here for a few more hours. ;-) Headed to compline service at St. Mark's in Seattle in a bit.

Anonymous said...

Been there. Nice place. Have a good trip back. I will be back east next month. Starting a church in New Bedford.

Steve Thorne

Nate B said...

Phil, it was fun getting dinner with you and the Presbymergents. I was so extremely effected by hearing your stories about what you are doing in Salem. I have told so many people here in Bend about what you are up.

I'm glad you are blogging, as I have subscribed and will be able to follow up on what you are doing. That makes about 85 blog subscriptions now, so make sure to keep it interesting... I'm kidding... no pressure.

I have a feeling that I will be seeing you in the near future. Stay tuned in with Karen, as well. She is planning a trip to Burning Man, which will include many of us from Central Oregon.
Peace.

Adrenalin Tim said...

Hey Phil,

Good to meet you, and I'm happy to have shared Brouwer's with you. I'll definitely look you up if I'm ever in or near Salem. I agree with Benjamin's sentiment above that you are one of the few who make Christianity palatable.

It was great to be at a conference so full of tolerable Christians. People can be really beautiful (even Christians!).

I cherish our discussion of beer, the Goddess, Foursquare, dreams, and wherever else the Wild Goose led.

Thanks for hanging out with me.

Pastor Phil said...

It was cool getting to know you. Hopefully we'll cross paths again. You certainly are welcome to visit in Salem, and hang with us in Witch city.