The 2014 Annual Fall Conference will be held September 26-28.
Official Schedule
Friday Night 7:00 pm Musical guest Cynthia Clawson and Ragan Courtney followed by the presentation of the Peggy Campolo Carrier Pigeon Award by Peggy to Brian McLaren who will speak after the presentation. Details of the award history and information on Brian may be found below. There will be a meal provided afterwards.
Saturday Morning 10:30 am – Brian McLaren will speak.
Lunch Provided
Saturday Afternoon 1:15 pm – Jay Bakker will speak
Saturday Afternoon 2:15 pm – Workshop 1 – Being the Love of Christ to LGBTQ, Even When We Disagree: It’s Not That Complicated SUSAN COTTRELL is a nationally known speaker, teacher, and counselor with years of Biblical study and discipleship experience. Through her nonprofit organization, FreedHearts, Susan speaks out for the LGBTQ community and their families.
The “Gay vs. Christian Debate” is splitting our churches — but it doesn’t need to. The “Gay Issue” is not nearly as complicated as we have made it, even if we disagree. The church’s role is to be the love of Christ in the community, regardless of the issue (LGBTQ, gender roles or other hot‐button topics). Join Susan Cottrell, author of “Mom, I’m Gay” — Loving Your LGBTQ Child Without Sacrificing Your Faith, as she provides profound insight into how the church is called to respond to the LGBTQ community, how this informs our understanding of the church’s larger role in embracing all who are marginalized, oppressed, and otherwise disenfranchised. Susan Cottrell is a Christian, a mom of an LGBTQ child, the founder of FreedHearts, and the Vice‐President of PFLAG Austin.
Saturday Afternoon 2:15 pm – Workshop 2 – Saints and Art by Connie Waters a discussion of the spiritual discipline of art.
Saturday Night 7:00 pm – Please note: due to a last minute scheduling conflict, Chip Davis will not be in concert. Rev Vince will provide music followed by Frank Schaeffer. There will be a meal provided afterwards.
Sunday Morning 10:45 Worship Service Musical guest Rev Vince Anderson. Frank Schaeffer will deliver the message.
Church Wide Potluck To Follow
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Peggy Campolo, who we lovingly refer to as our Patron Saint, was the inspiring force behind the creation of Open Door Community Church. As a friend of Pastor Randy, she counseled him when he was fired from his job as an associate pastor at a local church because he chose to be honest about his long time loving relationship with his spouse, Gary. At the time, Pastor Randy felt he had nowhere to go where he would be welcomed in to worship. Peggy told him that if he felt that way, there must be many more people who felt that way as well. She suggested the idea of founding a church where everyone would be welcome, and the seed for Open Door Community Church was planted.
Peggy has long preached her ministry of inclusiveness, and she has worked hard to bridge the gap between the misunderstood and the misinformed.
As Open Door Community Church approached its 2007 Annual Fall Conference, we decided to honor Peggy’s work with an award that would not only honor her, but would, in her name, honor the work of someone every year who exemplifies her ideals of inclusiveness and equality.
You can read more about Peggy and the Award by clicking here.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is an ecumenical global networker among innovative Christian leaders.
Born in 1956, he graduated from University of Maryland with degrees in English (BA, summa cum laude, 1978, and MA, in 1981). His academic interests included Medieval drama, Romantic poets, modern philosophical literature, and the novels of Dr. Walker Percy. In 2004, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree (honoris causa) from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and in 2010, he received a second honorary doctorate, this one from Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal).
From 1978 to 1986, McLaren taught college English, and in 1982, he helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region (crcc.org). He left higher education in 1986 to serve as the church’s founding pastor and served in that capacity until 2006. During that time, Cedar Ridge earned a reputation as a leader among emerging missional congregations.
Brian has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors since the mid 1980’s, and has assisted in the development of several new churches. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings – across the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. His public speaking covers a broad range of topics including postmodern thought and culture, Biblical studies, evangelism, leadership, global mission, spiritual formation, worship, pastoral survival and burnout, inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and social justice.
He is primarily known, however, as a thinker and writer. His first book, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix, (Zondervan, 1998, rev. ed. 2000) has been recognized as a primary portal into the current conversation about postmodern ministry. His second book, Finding Faith (Zondervan, 1999), is a contemporary apologetic, written for thoughtful seekers and skeptics. (It was later re-released as two short books, “A Search for What Makes Sense” and “A Search for What is Real.”) “More Ready Than You Realize” (Zondervan, 2002) presents a refreshing approach to spiritual friendship. “Adventures in Missing the Point” (coauthored with Dr. Anthony Campolo, Zondervan, 2003) explores theological reform in a postmodern context. “A Generous Orthodoxy” (Zondervan, 2004), is a personal confession and has been called a “manifesto of the emerging church conversation.”
His first work of teaching fiction (or creative-nonfiction), “A New Kind of Christian” (Jossey-Bass, 2001), won Christianity Today’s “Award of Merit” in 2002, and has become one of the pivotal texts for what is increasingly called “Emergence Christianity.” It was followed by “The Story We Find Ourselves In” (Jossey-Bass, 2003), which seeks to tell the Biblical story in a fresh way. Brian concluded this trilogy with “The Last Word and the Word After That” (Jossey-Bass, 2005), a book that reopened the question of hell and final judgment.
His 2006 release, “The Secret Message of Jesus” (Thomas Nelson), explores the theme of the kingdom of God in the teachings of Jesus. “Everything Must Change (Thomas Nelson, 2007) traces critical ways in which Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God confronts contemporary global crises. In “Finding Our Way Again” (Thomas Nelson, 2008), Brian draws resources from ancient traditions and practices to enrich spiritual formation today.
In “A New Kind of Christianity” (HarperOne, 2010), Brian articulated ten questions that are central to the emergence of a postmodern, post-colonial Christian faith. His 2011 HarperOne release, “Naked Spirituality,” offers “simple, doable, and durable” practices to help people deepen their life with God.
Brian’s “Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World)” is the premier release of Jericho Books (September 2012). It explores the intersection of religious identity, inter-religious hostility, and human solidarity.
Brian’s books have been translated into many languages, including Korean, Chinese, French, Swedish, Norwegian, German, and Spanish. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations. He is an active and popular blogger, a musician, and a songwriter, offering a variety of resources through his website, www.brianmclaren.net.
A frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time (where he was listed as one of American’s 25 most influential evangelicals), Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print media.
He has taught or lectured at many seminaries and has served on a number of boards, including Emergent Village (emergentvillage.com), Sojourners (sojo.net), Mars Hill Graduate School (mhgs.edu), International Teams (iteams.org), and Off The Map (off-the-map.org), and he is a founding member of Red Letter Christians (redletterchristians.org).
Brian is married to Grace, and they have four adult children and four grandchildren. His personal interests include wildlife, ecology, fishing, hiking, music, art, and literature. www.brianmclaren.net/
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author. His books include Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics–and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway. Frank is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed novelist of 4 novels including Portofino who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as “pretty terrible.” Frank’s nonfiction includes “Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps” and AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country.” Of Frank’s writing Jeff Sharlet (The New Statesman October 25, 2007 ) writes, “‘Crazy For God’ is a brilliant book, a portrait of fundamentalism painted in broad strokes with streaks of nuance, the twinned coming-of-age story of Frank and the Christian right.” Jane Smiley (The Nation October 15, 2007) writes: “‘Crazy For God’ offers considerable insight into several issues that have bedeviled American life in the past thirty years, and… when taken in conjunction with [Frank Schaeffer’s] other works (notably the Calvin Becker Trilogy, [‘Portofino,’ ‘Zermatt’ and ‘Saving Grandma’]), it gives us not only a handle on the mess we are in but also quite a few laughs…” Frank’s three semi-biographical novels about growing up in a fundamentalist mission: “Portofino,” “Zermatt,” “Saving Grandma” have been translated into 9 languages. “BABY JACK,” a novel about the class division between who serves and who does not, was published in 2006. USA TODAY said, “The reader marvels at how Schaeffer makes this concise chorus of social conviction moving and memorable…” Frank can be contacted at frankschaeffer.com. His newest book is “Why I am an atheist who believes in God”
Cynthia Clawson
Cynthia was spotted by a CBS television producer who signed her to headline a summer replacement for The Carol Burnett Show called the CBS Newcomers. That show led her to a recording contract with record producer Buryl Red. Around that time, Buryl was writing a new musical with Ragan Courtney titled Celebrate Life; Cynthia was invited to record the solos for the original cast album.
Ragan Courtney and Cynthia Clawson were married within six months and began a creative collaboration.
In 1981, her recording of “The Lord’s Prayer” with Andrae Crouch, The Archers (Janice Archer, Steve Archer, Tim Archer), B.J. Thomas, Dony McGuire, Reba Rambo, Tramaine Hawkins & Walter Hawkins won the Grammy Award for the Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary Or Inspirational category. She performed on the Grammy show that year.
In 1985, Cynthia’s rendition of “Softly and Tenderly” was included in the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning movie The Trip to Bountiful.
In later years, Cynthia became closely associated with Bill and Gloria Gaither, and frequently sang with them. She has sung in a variety of prestigious venues, including a concert at London’s Wembley Stadium.
She was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Houston Baptist University in 1995.
Jay Bakker
Jay has become an integral part of our church since his first visit with us.
Jamie Charles (Jay) Bakker (born December 18, 1975) is an American pastor, author, speaker and theologian. He is the younger of two children born to televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner.
During his young adult years Bakker became disillusioned with mainstream Christianity, becoming particularly critical of Christian fundamentalism and the Christian right.[2] He later adopted a much more progressive, radical form of Christianity and became a co-founder of Revolution Church, which was created in 1994 in Phoenix, Arizona.[3] Bakker then preached at Revolution’s Atlanta location before pastoring the New York City branch of Revolution Church, which holds services at the bar and venue Pete’s Candy Store, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Much of Bakker’s story was retold in a documentary on Sundance Channel called One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of Jim and Tammy Faye. His story has also been chronicled in Time Magazine. Jay has since become pastor of Revolution Church in Minneapolis.
More information is available on Jay at “www.Jaybakker.com”
Rev Vince Anderson is the founding pastor of Barstool Tabernacle in Brooklyn NY. Reverend Vince is a New York City based musician. He has had a regular show at Union Pool for decades, which Time Out describes as “somewhere between Wesley Willis and Tammy Faye Messner”. “His music is described as “dirty gospel”. He has been described as a Brooklyn institution. Barstool Tabernacle is a newly planted church community in meeting in Pete’s Candy Store, a bar in NYC. It is the successor organization of Revolution NYC.
Rev Vince wrote our church hymn :A Heaping Portion of God’s Grace
Susan Cottrell is a Christian, a mom of an LGBTQ child, the founder of FreedHearts, and the Vice‐President of PFLAG Austin.