Monday, February 12, 2007

Re:create Day three

Day Three was great!

I'm tryping this in Schipol (Amsterdam) airport where I have a nine hour wait for my flight back home to Cairo. I flew from Nashville to Minneapolis, but the flight was of course delayed, and made the connection to Amsterdam by the skin of my teeth. I was the last one on to the plane, and I bet you my luggage didn't make it. Grrrr.

Anyway, back to the subject.

The third day started with Third Day. Was this deliberate? Anyway, Mac Powell and Mark Lee gave us an acoustic worship set, and they were fantastic. Here are these guys whose music has been a total inspiration for about six years sitting ten feet away leading us in worship. And biffing it in places! Best quote - "You see, we're not actually that good!" after both guitarists looking at each other and realising neither of them is going to play the keyboard solo. They talked about life in a band and how they stay connected to God and avoid some of the pitfalls of life on the road. Maybe that road will bring them to Cairo some day.

Louis Markos did the morning and afternoon sessions. This guy blew my mind. I don't have my notes with me as they are probably 4,000 miles away in Minneapolis, and so you'll have to wait for the details, but he took us on this amazing journey through literature, history, theology and philosophy, examining how the modernist movement (or structuralists) influenced our perception of God to such a massive degree that now we are in a post-modern era, many Christians feel really threatened by different expressions of worship to God because they don't fit into the traditional "structure" of what is Christian and what is not.

Lunch was at Franklin's old jail house, beautifully restored as a four storey restaurant, and we were served traditional Southern food - finger lickin good (more pork!) and I had a wonderful time sharing stories with Dean from Integrity Music, and Bethany and Nathan Gaddis from a church in Florida - thanks for the great conversation.

And then back to Louis Markos for more incredible thought. The most amazing thing about this guy is his energy. And his delivery. OK - the two most amazing things about this guy are his energy, his delivery, his humour, his intellect, his energy, his comprehensive understanding of the subject, his knowledge of the Bible and his energy. Wow.

Dinner that night was provided by the Southern Baptists publishing arm, Lifeway. The food was good, but the presentation was decidedly lacklustre. It wasn't that it was bad, I think we had seen and heard so much already of the highest quality that anything less than a 10/10 was going to disappoint. They were doomed!

Still the evening was redeemed with lots of beer later with all my new friends.

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