It’s Monday morning and I’m a bit hungover from my weekend in Minneapolis.  Not from drinking too much, but from overindulging in new relationships and cool ideas.  You’ve probably had this post-conference “drinking from a fire hose” experience before.  I’ll be ok in a day or two.

So the Off The Map team produced the Conversational Evangelism Conference for the first time this weekend. Todd Hunter (former president of Alpha USA and now of Three Is Enough) created this conference a year or so ago and asked Jim Henderson if he would be willing to bring his expertise to the table in producing the event at Hosanna! Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.  The featured speakers were the icons of modern evangelism:  Becky Pippert, Mark Mittelberg, Garry Poole, Dan Kimball, Rick Richardson, and of course, Todd Hunter.  If there was a Mount Rushmore of Evangelism, these people would be carved in stone there.  They represent (pretty close to) every respected idea or program about evangelism for the past three decades.  Jim Henderson and Matt Casper were added to the mix for a little spice this time, too (and they got rave reviews).  

If you’ve ever been to an Off The Map Live event, you know what the feel was of this conference. Three different venues, workshops, 20-25 minute speaking segments with interactive “5-minute meetings”.  Lots of great music and no scheduled bathroom breaks (turns out people are ok with just going without permission).  High energy, lots of connecting (our green aproned “concierge” team helps with this in the hallways), and a stable of presenters that represented the best of what we know about evangelism today made for a memorable experience for most.

The cool parts for me?  Getting to know Garry Poole a little better.  Yucking it up with Mark Mittelberg (I need to hang out with that guy).  Getting hugged by “Mrs. Pipppert” (I told her I had a hard time calling her Becky to her face…she’s such a hero to me).  Introducing Becky as “Mrs. Pippert” in her last session (she told me I better not…so of course I had to).  Meeting and hanging out with Hosanna! pastor Derek Rust and his two amazing sons Saturday night (and breakfast with Derek Sunday morning).  Meeting Rick Richardson (author, “Reimagining Evangelism”, Director of the MA program in Evangelism and Leadership, and Intercultural Studies at Wheaton College)…what a passionate, brilliant and humble guy (he even came to my DE workshop!).  Hanging with Todd Hunter over gourmet pizza and five layer carrot cake at The Roasted Pear.  Oh, and doing a DE workshop with Jim as part of this event.  Just to have Doable Evangelism on the same shelf as everything else there was such an honor.  We had over 50 people come to the workshop despite having no mention of it from up front (we were listed in the program).  And we got some really glowing reviews from those who attended.  You can listen to it here if you want:

I met so many wonderful people, and was even taken to dinner by a team from Incarnation Lutheran Church who wanted to talk about bringing the DE Seminar to their church (what warm, passionate folks…really had fun with them all weekend!).  I met another pastor who drove 20 miles to come talk with me about bringing the Seminar to his neck of the woods.  So it looks like I may be going back to the Twin Cities in the fall and again in the winter.  

I had put up a little table with a new banner (thanks, Josh Brown!) and some information about DE. People seemed to be fascinated and took most of my stuff.  We’ll see what happens with that.

My impression is that the face of evangelism is changing.  We’re learning how to connect with the changing (and already changed) culture we live in. We have to change the way we do business or we will simply become an irrelevant voice screaming in the dark.  The good news is that this changing culture is desperately wanting to talk about spiritual things.  The bad news is that they are having trouble finding any Christians who will shut up long enough to listen to them (Rick Richardson said something like this, but probably said it more diplomatically).  I think the CEC can help us with that. I’m really glad, and very honored, to have been part of it.  

Next stop for the CEC:  Phoenix, AZ.  Stay tuned.