Learning Conversation with Shane Claiborne on November 9

I first met Shane about six years ago when we spoke at a conference together in Seattle.  All the speakers gathered at Q CAFE for some coffee and chat.  He's since grown to be an immensely important and prophetic voice to the church and beyond.  One reason why is because there's substance to his lifestyle and choices underlying the talk.  Agree or disagree or somewhere in between, it's challenging, refreshing, and thought/heart provoking.

Long story short, I'm excited to welcome Shane to Quest on Sunday, November 9 [7-9.30pm].  I'm glad Shane agreed to come join us at Quest at an ideal time...the Sunday after the presidential elections.  Some of you will be overjoyed and others will be despondent.  While I care about this country and the elections, I also...don't care.  The work of the Church will remain the same before the election and after the election.  The call and hope of the Church will remain the same.  Our hope will still rest on Jesus.

That night, we'll worship God, Jesus, Spirit together.  We'll hear from Shane as he shares some from his book, Jesus for President, and I'll also be hosting some probing Q/A with him.  My goal is to get him to cry and jump up and down on the stage couch.

While we'd love to host these sort of events for free, our commitment is to make them as accessible as possible.  Admission is $7/person and $5/students with valid ID.  Our capacity is 300max so if you're interested in coming, you'll want to purchase your tickets ASAP.

His bio via Wikipedia:

Shane Claiborne is one of the founding members of a New Monastic community called The Simple Way in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This organization was featured on the cover of Christianity Today. Claiborne is also a prominent activist for nonviolence and the redistribution of resources to the poor.

A graduate of Eastern University, where he studied sociology and youth ministry, Claiborne did his final academic work for Eastern University at Wheaton College in Illinois. While at Wheaton, Shane did an internship at Willow Creek Community Church. He has done some graduate work at Princeton Theological Seminary, but took a leave of absence, and now is a part of The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia.

Claiborne's outlook on ministry to the poor is often compared to Mother Teresa, whom he worked alongside with during a 10-week term in Calcutta. He spent 3 weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams). He was witness to the military bombardment of Baghdad as well as the militarized areas between Baghdad and Amman. As a member of IPT, Claiborne took daily trips to sites where there had been bombings, visited hospitals and families, and attended worship services during the war. He also continues to serve as a board member for the nation-wide Christian Community Development Association which was founded by the authors and community developers, John Perkins and Wayne Gordon.