We went to a book tour thing at a local Unitarian church tonight to hear Jim Wallis speak about his new book, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America.
It was pretty sweet. He talked a lot about cool stuff, particularly the Justice Revival that is going to take place in Columbus OH. The questions were good, and it was generally a pretty great time.
But the craziest part happened at the end (oddly during the eclipse when I was texted and called twice to remind me to look at the moon). Josh went up to get his book signed and I went with him just to talk to Jim. When we got up there Josh asked him more about the thing in Columbus, and I asked if it was at the Vineyard there.
Turns out it was, and we told him we were from the Vineyard and he told us we should talk to one of his staff guys if we were interested in it. So we chat with that guy, who told us to talk to a guy who organized the thing who was here. And the organizer guy, Aaron, is gauging interest in Minneapolis for doing one here. So we got hooked up with that guys info and we are going to be touching base with some of our local friends and pastors to see what churches want to get involved in this.
But the funny part was when we were still talking with Aaron in the back of the room and Jim was walking out and says in our direction “You better watch out for those radical Vineyard guys.” It was a funny, and nice, joke / comment, not anything derogatory, but I felt obligated to respond anyway.
So I said “If you want to see radical Vineyard guys, why don’t you let us pray for you before you leave.” And Aaron responded “yeah, the Vineyard guys will lay hands on you and start speaking in tongues.” And I followed up with “Yeah, you want to see some of that.”
And he stopped walking out the back and walked over, so I thought Josh and I were going to get to pray for him. But he instead just chatted with us briefly and took a look a the flier for the Justice Revival in Columbus which we were holding, because he hadn’t seen it yet.
I was a little bummed. But it was still really nice to chat with all these Sojourners people, and Jim Wallis seems like a super guy. Very warm and charismatic personality. It was a fun time, and the eclipse hadn’t ended when I went outside, so it was a win-win for me.