giving away $10,000

 Shane Claiborne , in Practicing Jubilee, pp.36-38 in Schools for Conversion, edited by The Rutba House :

“A couple of years ago we had two things happen. First, we won a lawsuit for police misconduct in New York City. The police had been arresting homeless people for sleeping in public, and charging them with disorderly conduct. I was arrested one night as I slept out in protest. Through a long legal process, I was found not guilty and filed a civil suit of wrongful arrest, wrongful prosecution, and police misconduct. And we won, in addition to a legal precedent, around $10,000. We knew it did not belong to me or to The Simple Way, but to the homeless in New York for all they endure. It was their victory. The second thing that happened was that after our study of biblical economics, we had an anonymous gift of $10,000 which had been invested in the Stock Market and now was being returned to the poor. A bunch of us started conspiring, and before long we said: It is time for a celebration of God's Jubilee.’ And where else should we have it but on Wall Street, in the face of the world's economy? This was not a one-time celebration, but an ancient celebration going back to Leviticus 25 and an eternal celebration of the New Jerusalem. We decided to send 100 dollars to 100 different communities that incarnate the spirit of Jubilee and the economics of love. Each $100 bill had ‘love’ written on it. And we invited everyone to Wall Street for the Jubilee.

After months of laughter and dreaming, it really happened.

About 40 people had all the change they could carry over 30,000 coins in bags, coffee mugs, briefcases, backpacks. Another 50 people would be meeting us on Wall Street. A dozen ‘secret stashers’ ran ahead, hiding hundreds of two-dollar bills all over lower Manhattan in parks, napkin holders, and phone booths. At 8:15 we started trickling into the public square in front of the main entrance to the New York Stock Exchange. Word of the redistribution had spread throughout New York, and nearly 100 folks from the alleys and projects were gathered. We had choreographed the celebration like a play production, making Wall Street the stage of our theatrics of counter-terror. At 8:20, Sister Margaret and I stepped forward to proclaim the Jubilee:

—

‘Some of us have worked on Wall Street and some of us have slept on Wall Street. We are a community of struggle.

Some of us are rich people trying to escape our loneliness.

Some of us are poor folks trying to escape the cold. Some of us are addicted to drugs and others are addicted to money.

We are a broken people who need each other and God, for we have come to recognize the mess that we have created of our world and how deeply we suffer from that mess.

Now we are working together to give birth to a new society within the shell of the old. Another world is possible. Another world is necessary. Another world is already here The money for this Jubilee Celebration was formerly invested in the Stock Market. Over $10,000 has been set free, poured out to be shared with our sisters and brothers in need. This money belongs to the poor, the workers, the refugees, the homeless... to all those who have suffered most from the wreckage of the current system. May we return it with joy, with our heads bowed in repentance, and with our hearts lifted in Jubilee.’

——

Then Sister Margaret blew the ram's horn (like our Jewish ancestors used to), and we announced: ‘Let the celebration begin!’ Ten people stationed on balconies above the crowd threw hundreds of dollars in paper money, covering the sky. Then they dropped banners which read,

‘STOP TERRORISM... SHARE.’

‘love,’ and ‘THERE IS ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE'S NEED BUT NOT ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE'S GREED.’

The streets turned silver. Our ‘pedestrians,’ ‘tourists,’ ‘homeless’ and ‘business people ’began pouring out their change. We decorated the place with sidewalk chalk and filled the air with bubbles. Joy was contagious. Someone bought bagels and started giving them out. People started sharing their winter clothes. One of the street-sweepers winked at us as he flashed a dustpan full of money. Another guy hugged someone and said, ‘Now I can get my prescription filled.’

It worked. We had no idea what would happen. We knew it was dangerous, intentionally bringing God and Mammon face to face. But this is precisely what we have committed our lives to. It is risky, and yet we are people of faith, believing that giving is more contagious than hoarding, that love can convert hatred, light can overcome darkness, and grass can pierce concrete.,,even on Wall Street."

on the pope's first year

• The First Year of the Pope’s Revolution  by Shane Claiborne
• The Secret Pope Francis Haters
• Pope Francis Asks On One Year Anniversary: 'Please Pray For Me'

• Highlights From Pope Francis’ First Year (spoof)

"Why I Don’t Go to Church Very Often" by Donald Miller

worth a careful read:

 Why I Don’t Go to Church Very Often"  by Donald Miller

Sample below, Reason #7:
Your church likely looks nothing like the church in the book of Acts, which, was not much of a prescription on how to do church anyway. There are some marching orders in the book, but there aren’t many. Mostly those direct instructions are about choosing elders and deacons and dividing up each others money so that it’s shared. But that’s mostly it.
The modern traditional church sticks to the part about the elders, very loosely nods towards the financial stuff, but is basically a large school system. The modern evangelical church is an adaptation of an ancient institution led by scholars after the invention of the printing press. It is also an evolution of a government-run institution dating back centuries. And it continues to evolve today into something else.

Unless you are Shane Claiborne, your church probably doesn’t look anything like the church in the book of Acts, so lets not get self righteous.

As a side note, many thinkers in America credit the growth of the American church with supply and demand principals. They say the reason the church in England is struggling is because it was so influenced by the government it didn’t adapt with culture, where in America churches had to compete with each other and so adapted, evolved, grew in style, shared best practices at conferences and adopted marketing and branding strategies they learned from business leaders.
The church in America, in other words, is a product of a school-like system mingled with best business practices and is quickly moving toward entertainment-like institutions. And to be honest, that amazing adaptation and evolution has worked fantastically. I think it’s great. These practices reach tons of people who want Jesus, community and wisdom from an ancient trustworthy text. That said, to say traditional church is Biblical is a stretch because of two false presuppositions.

Those two false presuppositions are:

1. The Bible has specific, robust and complete instructions on building and running a church community. It doesn’t. As I said earlier, the book of Acts has a few marching orders, but as a writer I assure you, that’s not the authors intent in that book. It’s a history of the early church and an encouragement for us.

2. The church you are attending is a Biblical church. If you mean it’s a church that is centered around Jesus and takes the eucharist, perhaps. But, again, your church likely doesn’t look like the church in Acts. And I think that’s fine. God wanted the orthodox theology to stay the same, but the church can, should and has evolved in style, language, customs and so forth.
It’s a hard thing for some people to get their heads around, but God shares agency with us in creating the church and we get to use our creativity and heart and passion to incorporate these loose instructions. Actually, big business could learn a thing or two from churches. And so could education reformers. Because of the passion pastors have for the gospel, their willingness to share best practices and the economic competition they face with neighboring churches, they often adapt faster than business. When I was a kid, our church looked like a school mixed with an anglican-style high church.

Today, many churches look like night clubs complete with pastors being piped in on video. It’s quite brilliant and I’ve no problem with it, it’s just not my thing. I don’t like night clubs. And I don’t like lectures and I don’t emote to worship music. And I still love Jesus. It’s shocking, but it’s true. That said, lets stop using the word “Biblical” as some sort of ace card when it comes to how church should be done.   link

"They Will Know Us By Our Theological Arrogance"

Four words of wisdom from Tim Neufeld's post "They Will Know Us By Our Theological Arrogance":

1. Believers who want a serious study of their faith need to read broadly and need to read beyond popular books often marketed through sensationalism.
2. Learn about traditions outside of your own.
3. Talk to Christians from other cultures.
4. Don't discuss theology without doing ministry.  Link, full article

"because Christians fight too much, let me post something that will make pacifists fight": Jesus will kill pacifists

Jonathan Merritt's post entitled
Mark Driscoll makes pacifists fighting mad
begins with:

The same week Mark Driscoll declared via a press release that “[Christians] spend too much time lobbing e-bombs at each other in cyberspace,” he published an internet article confronting Christian pacifism.
“Jesus is not a pansy or a pacifist; he’s patient. He has a long wick, but the anger of his wrath is burning,” the Seattle-based pastor wrote. “Once the wick is burned up, he is saddling up on a white horse and coming to slaughter his enemies and usher in his kingdom. Blood will flow.”
The more than 1,200-word article titled, “Is God a Pacifist?” argued that Exodus 20:13 (“You shall not murder”) does not teach non-violence, but the conclusion was especially pointed:
“Some of those whose blood will flow as high as the bit in a horse’s mouth for 184 miles will be those who did not repent of their sin but did wrongly teach that Jesus was a pacifist. Jesus is no one to mess with.”
Predictably, Twitter erupted with Christian pacifists who felt misrepresented..
- See more 

and includes responses by Shane Claiborne, Scot McKight et al

when the veil was split

Shane Claiborne:

"As Jesus was dying on the cross, the veil of the temple was split open,  setting all that was sacred free into the world."  -Shane Claiborne, back cover blurb for "How to Become a Saint: A Beginner's Guide," by Jack Bernard

Shane Claiborne, in what he confesses is his most important conversation ever, called me an ass (audio to prove it)

If you have never heard Shane Claiborne's reckless, contagious, self-effacing laugh, it won't take long as you eavesdrop on  the first few minutes of his 2009 interview with us to hear it ...embedded below, or click here).

It  also shows up when he wishes his critics would read his group's doctrinal statement, and then moves into a subtle critique of their/our obsession with statements of faith (" doctrines are hard things to love" at the 25 min mark).

Among other highlights, he calls me an ass,
and he confesses  (deadpan, straight up, no laugh) that the most important conversation he's ever had was the one he had with  Ken and me (26:45ff).  I think he was serious! (:

Having heard all that makes it easy to imagine Shane's literal laugh when you read him in print.  The jokes and wry/sly slams  tucked away in his books are classic,  Below, he sneaks in a footnote upon quoting a Scripture including the word "eunuch":

If you don't know what a eunuch is, see the diagram in the appendix. Just kidding. Check the phone book and call up a pastor and ask her or him.  It should make for an interesting conversation.  ("Irresistible Revolution," p.110)

Reborn on the 4th of July: A Conflicted Soldier

Video below of Logan Mehl-Laituri (different version and transcript here) :
Red Letter Christianity TV Interview - Logan from Centurion's Guild on Vimeo.

Shane Claiborne at Asbury: Sermon on the Mount/ Bad Theology Kills

Sermon on the Mount:


Bad Theology Kills (reminds me what Shane once told Ken and me: "Doctrines are hard things to love"):


Living as a Red Letter Christian:

"What better than prayer and party together?" COMMON PRAYER release party

Find a prayer party near you:

http://commonprayer.net/parties

Including two in Fresno!!:

Fresno, CA Common Prayer Release Party
Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 3:30 PM (PT)
Fresno, CA | Woodward Park

Fresno, CA Common Prayer Release Party
Friday, December 03, 2010 at 8:00 PM (PT)
Fresno, CA | Wells House

Shane, Ray, and Rob: subverting empire, surveying 666

It is debated whether

• Shane Claiborne (see his reading of emperor coronation process into the crucixion timeline...PS, our audio interview with Shane is here).
  

• Ray Van Der Laan (see this, for one) and
  

• Rob Bell (see this sermon on Revelation, for example)

go too far (the first two draw heavily on Thomas Schmidt) in reading subversive satire of emperor/empire into the NT.

some thing seems clear:

saying "Jesus is Lord" in the old days meant two things..
the first is obvious.
The second is killer: "Ceasar is not."

and

"666"'s fundamemtal meaning is "Nero Ceaser"


ON A LIGHTER NOTE:
Shane, Ray and Rob..

Maybe those three could sing as a trio...the three Empire-Subverting Guys could even record with the three Catholic girls from my previous post... (:

so what's all the controversy? (: mewithoutYou, Jesus and Allah

The singer is friends with Shane Claiborne, so he can't be a heretic, right (: ?

Jerry Bolton (check out his blog) offers a helpful review of the
mewithoutYou album,
"it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright."

It's found on Phantom Tollbooth here,

and deals well with the obviously most controversial song for some Christian listeners..
and for a band whose CDs are sometimes sold in Christian stores (on the cut-out rack anyway),,

See also, on same hot topic:

"mewithoutYou: Using 'Allah' to Praise God?" and "Allah=Olé?".

That song, by the way, is fast turning into a model of audience participation...all it takes to get it kiskstarted is placing the drummer amongst the people(...which we do at church, btw). See first video below!

If the band as new to you, you might want to read a previous post ("I didn't buy cigarettes at Berean, but I did find this.." )first, before diving in deep below(:

I didn't buy cigarettes at Berean, but I did find this..

What an amazing day at Berean Christian Stores. The chain is under new management, and for the first time I am aware of since 1984, they are stocking...U2!!

I even snapped a quick stealth photo of the remastered "Joshua Tree" CD on the rack, flanked on both sides by a Chris Tomlin CD...but I was afraid some kind of alarm would go off (:

I remember they stocked "War" when it was new.

But the story about the last time I spotted U2 at Berean is hilarious:

The last time I remember seeing a U2 record in a Christian store was so long ago that it WAS literally a record (the "Wide in America" EP, an import version), and the price tag was strategically placed over the cigarette hanging out of Adam’s mouth!
-LINK, "Is there such a thing as Christian music?"

But on this same trip to Berean...and even more controversial to some, I was able to buy (on the cut-out rack, of course...shhh, don't tell Jesus! What will they sell next!? See last year's post,"Lifehouse skit, and cigarettes on sale at Berean Christian Store") "Brothers/Sisters," the much-acclaimed (everywhere but in Christian circles! (See the amazon reviews, for example) 2006 release by MewithoutYou.

Some are wondering, "Are they a Christian band?"

Even though the only real answer to that question is "no,"
whether it's Gaithers or King's X (the only thing that can be "Christian" is a non-thing: a person)....



The enigmatic and autistic (or ADD, depending on who you ask)lead singer, who spent some time living in inner city Philly with Shane Claiborne's intentional, incarnational, missional community, The Simple Way (he talks about it in the video here) answers this way:

"It’s not like I’m offended if someone says we’re a Christian band. I just don’t think it’s true. I don’t think we live up to that calling, so I’d be reluctant to go saying that."
link, the Wikipedia page on the band

Wonder what he'd think if he knew his Cds were at Berean (Probably wouldn't be as colorful a response as was Ben Moody on finding out Evanesence was in Christian stores)...if he has heard of Berean. (:

But isn't it amazing to find lyrics liken this at Berean?:

"I'm still (...eeeh, technically) a virgin after 27 years/which has never bothered me before/what's maybe 50 more" (from "C Minor")

The music and vibe?

Fascinating. Much better than "Gaithers and Benny Hinn on crack." (Though some might place them in that league").

If you like the Psalters (who have played with them), 16 Horsepower/Woven Hand, The Danielson, The Flaming Lips, the Pixies, or Arcade Fire, you might like them...

Or not.

Suffice to say they are from Philly, not Kansas.
I don't know if I'll ever acclimate fully to them.




Maybe that would be a bad thing anyway (:

A few article excerpts..

Note the unapologetic assumption of the first sentence in this one (it would never appear in an openly Christian magazine):

An openly Christian band that frequently tackles religious themes, mewithoutYou has also accomplished the rare feat of creating music that transcends religious and social boundaries..
The Weiss brothers -- vocalist Aaron Weiss and guitarist Mike Weiss -- were raised in a Sufi Islamic household with a mother who had converted from Christianity and a father who had converted from Judaism. As a result, they were well-versed in multiple religions from an early age, and the influence has played a part in their lives as well as their music. The band members are indubitably Christian and believe that Jesus Christ leads the path to God; nonetheless, this disc heavily explores the idea that perhaps all of the world's religions
hold significance -- that perhaps all can lead to one coming face-to-face with an ultimate truth or higher power...
"Whenever you point a finger at somebody else, saying [he] is not a true Christian because [he] has a song called "Allah, Allah, Allah," on [his] record, you have three fingers pointing back at you. If you want to bring Christianity and Jesus into it, I don't think Jesus would ever put somebody on the chopping block for writing a song like that, honestly," Weiss states. "[The record is] meant to do nothing but glorify our Creator." Even with their faith in Christianity, though, mewithoutYou is really just a rock band when it comes down to it...

"I don't think we're up there putting on a ministry. We're not up there trying to come to your city to have church," says Weiss. "We're trying to be a band and are expressing ourselves as artists. That's what every band does."
-Redefine magazine

How about this:

SING TO THE LORD A NEW SONG: Swami-like and pedagogical in skullcap, glasses, corduroy blazer, and striped tie, with the first Beatitude (“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”) tattooed on his wrists, Aaron Weiss steps into the street after his band’s sound check and is promptly cornered by a young man wearing a homemade Aaron Weiss T-shirt. The young man has questions, questions; Weiss nods, smiles, radiates. The world is looking very worldly this evening, in Philadelphia’s Chinatown—the dazed conventioneers issuing from the nearby 1,400-room Marriott; the seamed faces of the homeless—but here outside the Trocadero Theatre, we’re running a slight spiritual temperature. Local theophile band mewithoutYou is playing a sold-out show, and the air holds the possibility that the kingdom of God, if it doesn’t descend to Earth tonight, will at least lower itself by a couple of inches.... http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/christian-rock

Or this from MTV:


>Mewithoutyou: Not Your Average Christian, Vegetable-Oil-Fueled, Flower-Flinging Rockers:Philadelphia band's eccentricity has worked in its favor.

See their MySpace for more.

our interview with Shane Claiborne : "doctrines are hard things to love"

Here below is the unedited audio (meaning we didn't have to bleep out his word "ass," the amazing question Jeff Bryant requested...and you get a little extra over the broadcast half hour) of the interview Keltic Ken and I had with Shane Claiborne, mostly about the new ledaership (and followership)book he wrote with John Perkins, "Follow Me to Freedom"
...though he wasn't hard to get going on several topics! One of my favorite lines of the day was "doctrines are hard things to love":

Click here to play
NOTE: If the player above is not visible or not working, use one of the following to hear:

• On the very bottom of this page linked below, there is a tiny orange box that says "MP3" I...f you click that, you can download the mp3 yourself..let me know:
  http://www.gcast.com/user/KelticKen/podcast/www_thesimpleway_org
  ALSO:Our media man posted it here, too. Near the top, under the survey:
  http://3dff.weebly.com/index.html
• http://3dff.weebly.com/illegal-eavesdropping.html

Other Shane posts, click his name below.

Shane Claiborne "Letter to Nonbelievers" in Esquire

Shane Claiborne wrote this "Letter to Nonbelievers" for Esquire..


..he obviously borrowed the idea from my letter to the Fresno Bee several months ago! (:

Reminds me of the times NT Wright borrowed my phrase and Bono preached my sermon.

Yes, Steve...I saw that look on your face. I am kiddinggggggg!

Shane Juggles about community

“Community is about surrounding ourselves with people who look like
the person we want to become." -Shane Claiborne

simulacra-kklesia (part 10): Subvert it by being really fake or falsely real?

simulacra-kklesia (part 10):



Perhaps the only ways and means of
breaking the back of the spirit of Simulacra is to
(mixing the metaphor here)
enter the belly of the beast,
and convert/subvert it;
plundering it asunder.

No incarnation without redemption;
no buying back without going back..

back to Simulacra-city;
not back to Egypt
(or are they the same thing?).

I might have to risk putting on and pulling off an entire and entirely slick (seeker-sensitive, of course!) simulacra
"worship service"
to prove the point.

Not (just) to critique more institutional, programmed megachurches;
but (just?) to critique me:

the "really" fake one..

..like the real rest of us.

A new Christian magazine came (unsolicited) in the mail today.
The cover photo--of a female Christian celebrity---reminded me of a Playboy Magazine cover
(not that I have seen one....recently!);
the airbrushed and hairbrushed model had been posed and poised that way.

I still harken back to Tschetter's article about the "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue as a projection (in both senses of the term) and sexualization
of an image:

Aphrodite.

Maybe aka Simulacra.

Maybe I'll have to dress up in a speedo (I did preach in a swimsuit once) Sunday (:


I don't really want to sexualize and seduce/reduce the sheep.
I long to be a sheep-whisperer shepherd, but I don't want to whisper hyperreal sweet nothings of simulacrap in their ears.

I'd rather promise them that I promise that I will really try to try to be be really real...really.

The Alarm sang about "Absolute Reality,"
MacPhisto prophesied about our virtual plight,
and many have called us back into real reality,
which has been virtually, and really, hijacked.
The Matrix is even wrapped around us"when we go to church" (see 2:24ff below):



But I was pleasantly surprised to find an unexpected older (but newly relevant..again) source
speaking into this mess: E. Stanley Jones (not usually mentioned alongside The Alarm, MacPhisto, and The Matrix..just look at him..he'd never don a mullet or horns, and he would probably not have watched R -rated and (Holy) Ghost0 writtenfilms like the Matrix). But thank God that Mark Sayers, in his excellent new book, knows how much we need to read or re-read him:

E. Stanley Jones...noted that Jesus told his primary critis, the Pharisees,
that the Kingdom of God was within them. Jones said that Jesus was referring to the fact that he Kingdom of God was a reality that operated in our world just as concretely as the reality of gravity,....and that God's kingom was inside them. Therefore, if they acted in sin, the consequences would be felt in this life, not just the next.

Jones says:

."...The laws of the Kingdom are not something imposed on the siuation, but are written into the very structure of our being, into our tissues, our blood cells..into the total organization of life.They are the way we were made to live...God has stamped within the structure of our being His Kingdom"
(Mark Sayers,

"The Trouble With Paris: Following Jesus in a World of Plastic Promises"

p. 172)

Real reality, Kingdomness, absoutute reality, unplugged from matrix-simulcara,
is fundamentally and wildly natural.

Jones often said that if we live Kingdomly, the universe will back us.

So maybe I don't have to do the full blown spoof Sunday.

Maybe I can subvert simulcara by merely modelling the real.

Nah, who knows where that might lead;
we might actually get honest in our gatherings. (;
Hand me the devil horns and the dress. (:
Can I comb my hair first?

the more deeply we attempt to engage our culture through the projected world, the more vulnerable we are ourselves to idolatry, because the essence of the projected world is made images. Both roots of idolatry are at work in the formation of images for the projected world. Our making of images to present our work in ministry is not invulnerable to idolatry
-Tschetter

.

There came a point in most U2 shows where MacPhisto showed up that Bono said,
(after blasting virtual simulacra with a sermon and crank phone call as in the intro of video below)
"Off with the (devil) horns, and on with the show.." ( see 8:13ff below):



The catch is he knew that even when he shunned the costume,
the rest of the concert was inevitably part show..

Even though it was also and always church.

Maybe if we just start by admitting that,
we can take off the horns.

On the Vertigo tour, a hornless Bono was heard to say:

"We got the show,
We do the business.
But this is not show business."
(4:48ff below):


Okay, If church has to be at least part "show,"
maybe I can sneak in a little simulacra this Sunday.

I might even be as radical as to use a microphone.

Just don't watch for me on TBN.
Or the Sports Illustrated, or Christianity Today, centerfold.
---

I'd rather read..and write... a really good book, like
the Mark Sayers book
we already quoted:

"These are great tools for everyone trying to find the Way, the Truth, and the Life in a world of shortcuts, deception, and death. Amid the noise and seductions of our culture, may Mark's work help us to be both relevant and peculiar to this chaotic world. May we raise up a generation of radical nonconformists with everything that is wrong in the world, a generation that turns the world upside down so that it aligns with the Kingdom of God”.

-Shane Claiborne, Author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.

“Mark Sayers is something of a spiritual genius who is able to both name and diagnose the angst of an entire generation caught up in the web of consumerism and hyperreality. This book is laced with the kind of wise and prophetic insights that take the reader to the heart of some of the most important issues of our age. Nothing less than a clue to the spiritual healing of a generation lies hidden in the pages of this book”.

-Alan Hirsch, Author of The Forgotten Ways and author (with Michael Frost) of The Shaping of Things To Come. Alan is founding director of Forge Mission Training Network.

Maybe it's ALWAYS about sex and politics

"Our sexuality is all the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God."
-Rob Bell

"In highly politicized times, prominent activist Shane Claiborne
and artist and theologian Chris Haw are awakening the political imagination of Christians with
Jesus for President (March 2008), redefining 'political' as 'simply how we relate to the world.'
-link, "Jesus for President"

Amazing panel on gay rights

Can you imagine these seven on a panel discussing homosexuality, gar rights and gay marriage?
Imagine no more here it is at Relevant.

Steve Brown
Professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fla., author and host of the nationally syndicated radio show Steve Brown Etc.

Shane Claiborne
Founder of the Simple Way Community, a New Monastic community in Philadelphia, Pa., and author of The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President (Zondervan).

Chuck Colson
Founder of Prison Fellowship and BreakPoint, renowned speaker and author of 25 books.

Cindy Jacobs
Co-founder of the prayer ministry Generals International, respected author and speaker.

Brian McLaren
Founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Md., author and a prominent voice in the Emerging Church movement.

Nancy Ortberg
Writer and speaker; served for eight years as a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill.

Jim Wallis
Writer, political activist and founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Sojourners, a group dedicated to political awareness.

N.T. Wright
Bishop of Durham, England, and one of the world’s foremost New Testament scholars. His most recent book is Surprised by Hope (Harper).

No separation of church and mafia

cla<