The conference is over, I'll be reflecting over the next few days on all of it. Met some really cool people and no doubt we'll be partnering in various ways. Nothing wild happened until the meeting was over. We wound up sitting with one of the leaders at the Brookings Institute, the head of the Alliance for World Civilizations at the U.N., Ron Sider, Chris Seiple, myself, and Joel Hunter. The Brookings guy and the UN guy both began to ask us what we got from the conference and, as evangelicals, how was it that we came to our various positions. We explained to him that not all evangelicals are on TV or even agree on the same views. They began to ask how they could partner more with "evangelicals" who were more open on things like the environment, the Arab-Isreali crisis, etc. Some pretty cool stuff came up. It was just incredible. We'll see where it goes, but, for everyone present, the UN Muslim guy and the Brookings Institute guy want a lot more dialogue and interaction.
It's sad to me that we have basically taken ourselves out of key conversations in which God would have us involved. In the New Testament, we are warned not to lord our leadership over others like the world does. Yet, that seems the very thing we've done. What are we missing? What doors have we closed? What opportunities are ignored, unknown, or unavailable because of our understanding and positioning ourselves out of being salt and light. While we argue and debate the nature of the church, which matters, we are forgetting to be the church in the moment in which we find ourselves.
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