Posted by Helen on: 09.14.2008 /
This was the best CEC yet, according to Garry Poole, who has been at all four.
I think a big reason for this was that the local people hosting the conference were so friendly and enthusiastic.
My role at the conference was leading the Green Apron Team. We’re there to make attendees feel welcome and answer their questions. It’s the first time I’ve led the team. I was feeling nervous and underqualified Thursday evening when the thirty or so volunteers showed up for their training meeting.
The volunteers were wonderful and made up for my lack of experience by being cheerful and self-directed. They had great ideas like registering people outside instead of trying to do it all in the small foyer. Since it was a beautiful warm September morning in Phoenix, it was more pleasant to be outside anyway until the worship started.
I know by now that I’m restless at conferences and rarely sit all the way through sessions. It works well for me to have a role where I go back and forth. My favorite part is meeting people and chatting with them, whether they’re speakers, helpers or attendees. I appreciated Garry Poole, Elisa Morgan and David Kinnaman being available rather than disappearing when they weren’t speaking. I was able to speak with them and enjoyed each of them.
I heard bits and pieces of their talks. It hit me listening to Garry how neat it is that his seeker small groups reverse the usual dynamic and make the Christian members the outsiders (because the groups are almost all people who aren’t Christians). I loved his answer when someone asked “What if one of the non-Christians starts into some Jesus-bashing and others jump on the bandwagon?” Garry said “I enjoy it when that happens because I know they’ve started to be honest”. Wow, what a great answer. Not at all defensive!
As Randy mentioned in his write-up of the conference, Elisa is very much on the same track as him, helping people move from being afraid and stuck to taking doable steps. I’ve had several disappointing experiences with Christians who do well in front of a crowd but one on one are socially inept. Elisa was refreshingly different: one on one she was every bit as friendly and engaged as when she was leading sessions. And not in a “this is what I’m supposed to do” but in a genuinely warm, authentic “it’s fun to be with you” way. I wish more Christian speakers could be like Elisa one on one.
David describes himself as a nerd but I think he’s miscategorizing himself because he’s too funny and engaging for that label to really fit. Albeit in a cool low key way. In his talks he did a great job of tieing in what he’d heard from the other speakers with his own material.
I also heard about half of Todd’s workshop about Three Is Enough. I liked what he did with Bible themes in his talk. He’s great at presenting a vision of Christianity that will make the world a better place.
I was glad to see a big turnout at Randy’s session, also at Jim and Casper’s – who were as funny as ever. Casper got the biggest laugh I heard during the conference when he said “I don’t know if Jesus has a dental plan. He definitely has a vision one!”
Jim took a few minutes in his session with Casper to ‘out’ me and announce that I’m not actually a Christian. I was happy for him to do it and curious to see what that might lead to even though I hadn’t been volunteering the information myself. I have the dilemma around Christians that I’d like to be honest but I also am afraid of how it might affect our relationship if I admit I’m a “them” not an “us”.
After the session I told Annette, who had recruited the Green Apron volunteers for me, that I was sorry I hadn’t told her. She said “If you had, it wouldn’t have made any difference” and hugged me. Working with Annette and her step daughters (and granddaughters on Saturday) was a real joy. Kevin, another of my favorite volunteers (there were a lot of those) teased me with “You sneaky almost atheist!”
A few people wanted to talk to me about being almost an atheist. They were all kind and respectful but even so those conversations were less fun than leading the Green Apron Team or talking with people about what they were enjoying at the conference. But they did help me condense my story down to two key reasons I left:
Saying these generally leads to several follow up questions from Christians but it’s still helpful for me to be able to briefly summarize the key reasons.
Garry and Elisa weren’t in the session where Jim outed me but I wanted them to know so I told them one on one. They were kind about it, which I appreciated.
I seemed to be the only one at the conference with a camera, so I took some photos in my spare time.
There are lots of Green Apron Team details I could have done better. Hopefully I will do them better in Denver, where I’m leading the team again. I had a great time, thanks largely to the wonderful volunteers helping me. I’m so glad I was invited to have that role at the Phoenix conference. I hope I helped it be the best CEC ever!
Comment by: Matt
1Helen,
Thank you so much for the behind the scenes work you did at the conference. The Green Apron team was great and very helpful. As a preacher’s kid who grew up around Christians that hurt my family all the time, I am so sorry that our behavior as “Christians” hasn’t measured up to what Christ taught. That dissonance between belief and action is what most troubles me about the faith I hold so dear. Sometimes I just wish people would have the courage to say, “you know what, I don’t really want to live like Christ taught, so I’ll stop associating my name with his and screwing it up for all those who really do desire to love God and love others.” My goal as a pastor is to lead people into a relationship with Christ that removes all the masks and forces them to get real with who they are, with who God made them to be, and what He created them to do. Who knows if that will ever happen, but it keeps me plugging along in the desert wasteland we call “church.”
Thanks again for all the selfless service.