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| ©2013 Scott Griessel/Creatista |
My Wild Goose journey
began last year at the festival where I spent most of my time quite
intentionally seeking encounters with Evangelical and Charismatic
Christians in order to begin the healing of my past where I had
rejected my connection to each of those streams of Christianity. The
experience was powerful and transformative. It was also the point I
started my personal journey into Convergence Christianity since it
was there that I “met” Eric Elnes, Scott Griessel and Dinah Gomez
of Darkwood Brew three dimensionally (they having been
two-dimensional acquaintances previously). It has been liberating tojump into the flow of the wild spirit of God moving among people
moving beyond labels. My deepening involvement in Darkwood Brew
(including a sabbatical trip to Omaha to peek behind the curtain) has
helped to frame that exploration and at this year's Wild Goose
Festival opened avenues for conversation.
One gift of
experiencing a second Wild Goose Festival is the hindsight to see how
the Wild Goose spirit has been alive in my journey between festivals.
One prime example is seeing my friend Kimberly Knight bravely
encounter a theological foe in Billy Humphrey and come away with a
personal encounter that didn't change either one's position but left
both of them genuinely loving the other. The day before I left for
this year's festival I received my copy of the new Daniel Amos CD
that includes a song with the lyrics, “Could take an eye for an
eye, drown in a big blood bath; That fast (Crash!) and baby, we’re
a sad aftermath, but we thought better of it. Our love had mercy on
us. We got dressed in our New Testament best and thought better of
it.” Looking forward to seeing Kimberly and the author of those
words, Terry Scott Taylor, I set off for North Carolina expecting to
meet lots of folks dressed up in their New Testament best.
I met Kimberly just as
she was arriving with a group of folks who had traveled with her from
Atlanta. When I commended (OK, shilled) the Darkwood Brew DVD on homosexuality and the Bible I had the odd experience of having push
back from her friends fearing I was part of a group who might use the
Bible to bash. They clearly didn't see that I was dressed in my New
Testament best and forgot the over-the-top warm greeting Kimberly and
I had exchanged (they can be forgiven for not knowing that I was the
officiant at Kimberly and LeAnn's wedding in Second Life). By the
time I had this encounter I was already well into my experience of
this year's festival, which had a different tone to it for me. I was
a wandering ambassador for Darkwood Brew in particular and
Convergence Christianity in general. This year, as I encountered
post-Evangelicals I was enthusiastically sharing the story of my
journey from Evangelical-attacking-Liberals to
Liberal-attacking-Evangelicals to
post-Liberal-big-tent-joyful-Convergent-Christian. As much as this
was a counterpoint to the healing that began a year before, it was
also a good news gift I was able to offer to those who cared to
listen.
Thankfully, many did
care to listen, and that's saying something since my come on was an
infomercial-worthy pitch for a punch card for coffee at the Darkwood
Brew tent (complete with a “but wait, there's more!”). Even
though I sold a good number of the cards, I was a pretty big failure
as a salesman since after I sealed the deal I would launch into
marvelous conversations with my new found friends. There was not one
of these conversations that was negative, a fact that filled me with
great hope for the future of the church. Sadly, not everyone got the
memo, as evidenced by the attack piece written by the Institute on Religion & Democracy in the American Spectator. It reminded me that
there is a price to be paid when exploring changes or possibly
leaving one's tradition. It gave me a deeper respect for those
coming to the Wild Goose from the right, knowing that it may be
costing them something.
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| Will, Brandan & Troy |
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| Terry Scott Taylor |
Throughout the
festival, my Darkwood Brew shirt gave me the confidence to feel
qualified to approach speakers and leaders (my problem, not theirs,
as the festival is truly a great equalizer). Still, I committed one
act of unadulterated fanboy stalking. I brought my copy of that
Daniel Amos CD I had just received as well as the liner notes from my
1981 Alarma! cassette (Google it youngins) for Terry Scott Taylor to
sign. When I saw him arrive prior to the Lost Dogs performance I
didn't let the semi-secluded “green room” stop me from sitting
next to him for a 20 minute talk about his career. Listening again
to his music that I had listened to in college, I realized that he
had been preaching a message of God as love instead of God as judge
during his entire career. Songs like I Love You #19 and Hit Them (I hit them too hard. I did it with a book. He had to take another look when I hit them with love) were swimming upstream against the Christian Music message of
the time. Talking with Terry I learned that he faced opposition from
the Evangelical mega-church establishment of the 80's when he
resisted being simply a tool for evangelism (he was kind enough not
to call it proselytizing) instead choosing to be an artist giving his
best for God. That conversation helped me to realize that the seeds
of my current belief system were planted way back then as part of his
musical witness.
The Wild Goose of the
Holy Spirit has been honking in the distance for a long time. I'm so
happy to now be among the many who have been chasing the call. Won't
you put on your New Testament best and join us?
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