It feels like February for the nth time this month here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Things have been unusually cool and damp for this time of year; rumor has it there is yet another layer of powdery white up in the Sierras. Come to think of it, the weather reminds me of Seattle, where several friends and I had the opportunity to visit at the end of last month. Matt and the rest of the Chapman family happened to be home visiting their families up in the land of grunge and java, and Jon Hall made it up as well to give Nieucommunities a solid showing for the centerpiece of our tour: the Inhabit Conference. Also along was Rebeca Elliott, a friend and former teamster of Plant With Purpose.
I’d met a kindred spirit on the TransForm Network (www.transformnetwork.org) a couple months before who shares my interest in permaculture and so on, and he informed me that he was going to be a presenter at Inhabit. A mere glance at the website (I mean, it said “calling all . . . permaculturists . . .”!) convinced me that this was the place to be, so I set a grand scheme in motion. In all humility, and surely with plenty of Divine assistance, it came together seamlessly.
Delegates from CRM, being Matt and Jon, were appointed and I was thus available to represent Plant With Purpose for the event. My heart brimmed with joy, save for the fact that I’d caught a cold right before my embarkation. Even so, Ricola and the will to live held up my head and I made it through.
The days that followed were a flurry of lectures, discussions, lunch dates and naps on the numerous couches so warmly provided by Mars Hill Graduate School, where the event was held. The funny thing was being around so many Christians that were so down on church – church the expensive building/bureaucratic institution, that is. Such counterintuition led me to laugh to myself a time or two and brought me great comfort; it was very satisfying to be around so many who took the faith so seriously and sought to live it with such integrity. One flyer promoting a book went so far as to print in large script the book’s title, “Don’t Invite Them To Church: Moving From a Come and See Church to a Go and Be Church.” “Don’t” was in red. There is a strong point to be made in this: if most of what church is about happens for an hour and a half on Sunday morning in the context of a choreographed (or not, even) event, what good is it? Not much, is the prevailing opinion, as made evident by the increasing atrophy of Christendom.
One of the things that inspired Rebeca and me to attend the conference was the event’s keynote speaker, Majora Carter (see one of her excellent TED Talks here). Ms. Carter is known worldwide for her profound understanding of and work in sustainable urban development, and her headlining the event demonstrated a certain philosophy held by the conference organizers that I found to be very meaningful. So imagine my thrill when, piggybacking off of Rebeca’s drawing of Majora’s attention after a lecture on ecovillages as a model for missional community, she (Majora) and I had a somewhat lengthy conversation about Plant With Purpose’s international, and aspiring domestic, programs! I was even able to give her a copy of Scott Sabin’s book, Tending to Eden. I’m, uh, sure she’ll email me soon.
After the conference, Rebeca and I headed up to Vancouver to visit the A Rocha Brooksdale Environmental Center, a place I’d wanted to see for a while. All seemed well as we boarded the northbound bus, but a harrowing interrogation at the Canadian border, rainstorms and missed connections awaited us. Undaunted, I led our band of two forth into the unknown and we were warmly received by the A Rocha crew. Did I mention that I neglected to announce that we would be visiting? Bah, it all worked splendidly in the end. It’d been a while since I had a good ol’ seat of the pants adventure, though I did feel for poor Rebeca once or twice. Maybe thrice.
But a great time . . . made tons of new friends that I look forward to keeping in touch with. It felt so good to be able to share Plant With Purpose’s work with so many people who had never heard of them before, and I even got to meet a great guy named Nathan who works with a kindred organization called Agros International. The hour or so we spent over coffee was a highlight of the trip for sure. Made it home without incident.
‘Tis all for now friends – be well and blessings!
