Jason Clark

Just back from Geneva, and the first leg of the trip around europe I’ve organized for Brian McLaren. Quick round up of highlights then I’ll be posting resources and notes over the next week or so.

Joshua Case and his team did an amazing job organizing the event. We were hosted in the Auditoire de Calvin, now a Church of Scotland building, and former home of John Knox. We also used the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Geneva’s building for an evening worship reflection/service. Being in the context of these buildings, and the reformation history was an amazing experience. We also had a superb tour of the city on foot.

It was great to see so many of the delegates and participants were female, for this conversation. It was great see Brian Doyle and a group from Stopsley Baptist Church, the church I became a christian in.

Some of the well known people involved I had heard/read of but not met:

- Dave Fleming, whose books I have enjoyed. It was great to meet him, what a gentle kind and wise man.

- J K A Smith the well known theologian, who I thought must be about 60 years old, but was younger than me! So glad to have connected with him.

- Pete Rollins, of Ikon Belfast. Pete was hilarious, and told some jokes I must remember, as well as being the fastest talking human being I have ever met. He’s also super sharp on theology, and I got a signed copy of his new book (more on that later). Pete walks as fast as he talk, I loved some conversations with him whilst I struggled to keep up with him.

Some older friends, were there, Andrew Perriman, Lammert Vrieling, and Matt Glock. I was bummed to find out Matt has just had surgery for cancer, and I hadn’t known. After meeting briefly at many meetings over the last few years, and reading and commenting on each others blogs, I got a couple of hours alone with Andrew Jones, aka Tall Skinny Kiwi, and admire him more than ever.