The Lecture

Our time with Pete last night was excellent. About twenty people showed up for the lecture. My lack of advertising made me not really expect any more than that. Some of the faces were repeats from our evening at Charlie Brown's, but we also had a few new faces, including a professor whom I didn't recognize.

Pete's 45-50 minute lecture was followed by about 20-30 minutes of questions from the audience. He told us more about Ikon while discussing many of the ideas from his book. I cannot say how highly I recommend his book. Even if you do not think you are in line with emergent thought in any way, it is interesting and well-written.

Throughout the lecture the fact of Pete's relative youth was impressed upon me. That is not to say I consider him any less brilliant, but it is interesting to realize how young the emergent movement is, both those who identify with it and its very existence. Youth is wonderful, but experience is also good. Pete talked about how Ikon has a good relationship with many of the churches in Belfast. I hope that the emergent movement as a whole continues to seek to change the church from the inside out rather than becoming another institution. Pete described a conversation he had with an individual at his Benedictine publishing house as a five year old (him) talking to a 1000 year old. It is essential for emergent to continually be informed by the wisdom of "the church."

Having Pete here has been wonderful. He had a lot more to say and I'm sure I will blog more of it later. Hopefully, he won't be the last speaker that the Princeton Emergent Cohort gets to campus.