Conversations with Al

Thursday November 13, 2008 ~ 12 Comments

If you have been following my Twitter feed (or Al's for that matter), the you know we met this morning in California to make an attempt at reconciliation. (I am here to speak at Biola and present a research paper on understanding younger evangelical views of justice and the Kingdom of God.) Al is here, it appears, to meet with important pastors in Southern California to tell them that he's kinda' a big deal.

For those of you new to the conversation, you can watch the first part first to see how the split began. As you can tell, Al is opinionated, arrogant, a know-it-all, and clearly misunderstands all things missional. Hmmm...

Check out the first video here:

Here is the video from our talk today. Seems to me things have gone from bad to worse:

I am not sure we are making much progress getting reconnected to God's mission and am hoping Al learns his lesson and can't build his ministry around his ego.

Posted on November 13, 2008 at 11:30 AM ~ 12 Comments

Tagged with: al, california, missional

Subscribe via RSS or Follow us on Twitter

Share This Post

12 Comments

By irreverend fox on November 13, 2008 12:45 PM

I wonder what would happen if Ed's hands were bound behind his back...would he be able to pronounce words properly or would he stutter...or would he become confused and dazed, unable to think clearly...

hmmmmm...

By Rick Duncan on November 13, 2008 1:54 PM

Sweet conflict resolution, Ed. Keep the conversation going!

By Eric Hendrickson on November 13, 2008 3:07 PM

I think this whole topic is amazingly well represented. Right down to the line between what Acts 29 is and what mission-AL is? My wife and I have talked about "the cool, cutting edge church" for a while and I think this perfectly speaks to the distinctions between being edgy/attractional and missional/incarnational. Love these videos!

By adam herod on November 13, 2008 3:17 PM

Ed...thanks for keeping us "al" on mission. I know...that was horrible, but I couldn't resist.

By Danny Gilliam on November 13, 2008 3:46 PM

Ed,
Some of us long to see our churches become truly missional, but we are still fighting our own AL - traditionAL (and I'm not talking about style of worship).

By Tim Wade on November 13, 2008 7:07 PM

Ed, this is very enlightening. You've made me think. Thanks for continuing the conversation.

By Jay on November 13, 2008 7:32 PM

At Biola?......cool.

By Rick Boyne on November 14, 2008 10:43 AM

I love using humor to make a point! What great truths you are sharing! PLEASE keep it up!

By The AL on November 14, 2008 12:45 PM

Glad to see everyone finds Al's life so funny...but Al will have the last laugh. AL is a big deal. Al is a big deal. Al is a big deal.

Al would leave a longer comment about his future domination, but the agent's on the phone again...the Hybels thing is coming together Al thinks!!

By Ed Stetzer

on November 14, 2008 1:44 PM

Al,

Give it a try... you will be disappointed. Without mission, the cultural relevance does not matter.

By smurrell on November 15, 2008 8:43 AM

i say forget the al and bring on the ed - "mission-ed" has a nice cool feel

"i missioned at starbuk last week, how about you?"

you could trademark it and maybe make some money on the side (to be used missionally, of course). imagine piles of royalty checks just waiting to be cashed:
EDucation
EDit
EDitor
EDinborough

By Bennett on November 15, 2008 10:02 PM

"My neighbor came over to ask to borrow my ladder. So, I missioned him."

"I asked these two guys on bikes for directions, but then I got missioned."

I could work.

Comment Policy

Comments are welcome on discussion posts. Comments are not moderated but do require a keyword to avoid spam. If this is your first time commenting, please review the comment policy.