When webcasts fail...

Last night a few of us gathered to watch Brian McLaren's live webcast but we couldn't get the technology to work (nor, it seems, could a friendly fellow in Miami who called to ask if Kristen could get it to work). We did, however, end up having a great conversation with two of Kristen's and Noel's friends. Both of these guys were great, and it was a thrill for me to see two people so fired up about God. The conversation larger revolved around what does it mean to be emergent, which, indivudally at least, we all were pretty much incapable of answering. Luckily there were five of us there and we were really able to bounce ideas off of each other. A.J. and Kevin (the friends) also had some very good points and have really given me a lot to think about.

Overall, I can say I learned two important things last night. First of all, when you get a group of people together that are generally interested in following God and getting to know each other better, it really doesn't matter when technology lets you down - and it might actually be better. Secondly, even though some of us in the discussion had different beliefs about certain theological issues, we have all experienced the love of God and we were able to have a loving, civil conversation on all ends.