connected to the release of the book “” (which i just finished reading, loved, and will post about in the next week), zondervan is hosting three very cool regional gatherings. man, i wish one of these were in san diego or los angeles, because i love listening to this kind of dialogue from divergent views. for me, what make a fantastic dialogue panel goes beyond having interesting, thoughtful panelists who don’t always agree with each other. that’s important, sure. but i’ve found that even a fantastic panel with a lousy moderator (or no moderator) can quickly become boring or tangental. what really stokes me about this “national conversation on the emerging church” is the quality of the moderators! seriously: scot mcknight, andrew jones, and krista tippett (host of npr’s ‘on religion’)? if i could fly to any of them, it would be really hard to choose, as i expect they will each be unique (especially the seattle location, with driscoll’s impossible-to-predict presence).

here’s the website
here’s the downloadable brochure

cities and dates (all of this is on the site) are:

april 27-28 in austin, TX
panelists: John Burke, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, and Danielle Shroyer
moderator: Scot McKnight

may 18-19 in minneapolis, MN
panelists: John Burke, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, and Karen Ward
moderator: Andrew Jones

june 1-2 in seattle, WA
panelists: Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Karen Ward
moderator: Krista Tippett