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May 4, 2007

I don’t feel like I’m a braggart. But I just can’t help but boast about the week I’ve had here on relevintage. It has been the highlight of my short-lived blog ‘life’…

Within the week, two of my biggest heroes stopped by my blog - without any coercion :) - and commented on two separate posts.

This is the power of the blogosphere. Making the world and the distance between the pundit and the pupil smaller…

Stopping by first was Bob Roberts, pastor of NorthWood church in Dallas, author of books Glocalization and Transformation, and blogger at The Glocal Trekker.

Roberts is a leading practitioner and writer on glocal—local and global—transformation of individuals, churches, communities and nations. Roberts’ unique principles have transformed the people and ministry at NorthWood and its 80 (and counting) church plants and impacted “adopted” nations - like Vietnam - throughout the world. He is the founder of GlocalNet , a network of like-minded leaders who are advancing a glocal church multiplication movement that connects the body of Christ worldwide.

It was an honor to have Bob - I feel like I can call him Bob now - comment on my entry in which I responded to a great quote from him on ‘the real emerging church.’ Particularly, it seemed he was responding to my question, “Why am I so cynical about their [other ethnicities] contribution to the American evangelical landscape?”

Here is what he said:

Not hard to understand - we don’t think they know anything that will really help us. They had to learn English - we’ll have to learn Chinglish. We fill up buildings - they fill up lives with Jesus. They get what we want - it’s too hard - we’d have to pray and really know God.

Wow…they get what we want.

The next day, none other than one of my biggest heroes stopped by: Sally Morgenthaler. Yes, that Sally. Of Worship Evangelism and the former Sacramentis fame.

Morganthaler is an on-site worship consultant for Denver Seminary and Pathways Church–an urban Denver congregation committed to reaching the unchurched under 35. Her recent article in Rev! Magazine, “Worship as Evangelism” in which she rethinks her own paradigm is a must read for any ministry leader.

I was handed Morgenthaler’s Worship Evangelism on the sly as a sophomore in college. I read it in its entirety on the white beaches of Florida. And I was never the same.

I saw Sally - I guess I can call her that now - in 2004 at a worship conference in St. Louis and she signed that worn copy of WE that I had read as a sophomore. In it she wrote, “Stay out of the box…”

Sally joined my virtual memorial to Robert Webber. She pined:

I join the Church global to celebrate the life of Robert Webber and to mourn his death. If ever the people of God needed focus - for their faith, their kingdom work, and their worship - it has been the last thirty years. It was his undaunted, relentless message of Jesus Christ’s saving, sanctifying, all-sufficient work that set Robert Webber apart. Nothing could draw him away from this message…not the gravitational pull of career advancement, cultural relevance, or popularity. We miss you already, Robert. Your gifts to us are only made exponential in your passing.

How cool is that. Thanks Bob and Sally for making my week! I hope this is the beginning of a cool friendship…

Posted in blogging, quotes of note, worship