It was just one year ago that I posted a few entries about the Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh. Beth and I have been to every one of these annual events (save one when I was really, really sick) and have helped plan more than most of ’em. To say it is important to us is an understatement. Go here and browse through the February 21, 06 entry for a good overview.
We invited you to visit the Coalition for Christian Outreach’s JUBILEE conference link and mess around, seeing how this faithful and relevant campus ministry does it’s flagship event. Bringing in speakers to help students relate faith and their experience in higher education and serving it up in an experience that is life transforming—and with a giant-sized book table, wow. What an event! There will be mature and thoughtful followers of Jesus speaking about the difference their faith makes in the way they work in media, the arts, politics, health care, law, engineering, science, business, education. And there are workshops which are more generally about cultural engagement and whole-life discipleship, even if not exactly about career and calling (stuff on resisting pornography, for instance, or The theology of ethnic diversity, or, working on the third world debt crisis, and, of course, Biblical study—-Gideon Strauss will talk about “creation-fall-redemption” (I think) by using Brueggeman’s book on the Psalms, where he refers to Psalms of orientation, dis-orientation and re-orientation.) The band Anathello will perform this year, too, and we will have an advanced showing of Amazing Grace the William Wilberforce movie I blogged about the other day….you can see all of this for youself at the Juby website.
Can you guess how many different authors will be there? We’ve lost count, and it is our job to know!
The snow has wrecked havoc on our book pullin’ and box packin’. Beth has been outside shoveling most of the day, and UPS is fouled up, boxes missing, maybe their brown trucks having slide off into some icy mix. Who knows? It has been a stressful couple of days, and the fun hasn’t even started yet.
Why not take a look at how I described this event when I posted last year. And then pray for us, for the students, the speakers, the whole big gig. I know it can transform student’s lives. It happened to me when I heard Tom Skinner there in the early 70’s, whose Kingdom vision was vibrant, his justice commitments passionate, and his relationship with classic Christain faith solid. It is an honor that his wife, Barbara Williams-Skinner will be speaking at this year’s event. Besides the many workshops, the keynote speakers include my very good friend Steve Garber (Fabric of Faithfulness), Gary Haugen (from International Justice Mission, author of The Good News About Injustice and Terrify No More) and the merry Shanester himself, Shane Claiborne, of Irresistible Revolution fame, a book written out of his voluntary poverty and justice ministry with The Simple Way community in inner city Philly. I reviewed his good book (with some gentle critique) last March at the website. We e-mail a bit, but have never met, so that will be a highlight of our time there. If we can get our rented truck heading West.