Follow Me: Sharing the Gospel

Shrimp here, watching yet another riveting webcast performance by ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. This one was held last Saturday, August 14, concluding Follow Me: Sharing the Gospel in a 2.0 World, "an ELCA conference for communicators, campus ministry staff and chaplains, and college/university students" held Aug. 11-14 at the Chicago Marriott.


Courtesy the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
You'll want a high speed connection to view this.
The Presiding Bishop responds to a wide variety of questions, such as how the church should transform culture while embracing being post-Christian servants of culture and humanity, is it okay to question religion, how to deal with the debt load of graduating seminarians, what is the place of students and campus ministry in the ELCA, and describe a powerful grace moment in your life. Shrimp always marvels at Bishop Hanson's engaging and energetic presence in these sorts of presentations.

"The son of a Lutheran evangelist, Hanson is by reputation an advocate for social justice, especially issues that impact people living in poverty, including racial justice, housing, welfare rights and immigration rights," reads his biographical note as one of the conferences featured speakers. The other featured speakers were:

• Eboo Patel, the American Muslim founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, "a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement;"
• the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, an ELCA mission church in Denver that describes itself as "a group of folks figuring out how to be a liturgical, Christo-centric, social justice oriented, queer inclusive, incarnational, contemplative, irreverent, ancient - future church with a progressive but deeply rooted theological imagination;"
• Michael Organ, "the first full-time Director of Internet Advertising for a presidential campaign (one of Obama for America’s many New Media innovations, which helped raise over $500 million online);"
• Andrew Bleeker, who "helped build Change.gov, and most recently served as the New Media Director for the Presidential Inaugural Committee;"
• Yvonne Gilmore-Essig, "a pastor, poet and lecturer" serving as pastor at New Song Community Church in Columbus, Ohio, and a poet/vocalist member of The Cornel West Theory.

There were also several workshops led largely by ELCA communicators; workshop materials are available at that link for review.

Welcome to the 2.0 World! Shrimp out.