Hello all,
Well, so much for the promise of “hope” and “change you can believe in,” right? When I won the recent election for cohort president, I promised you an era of bold new leadership. I assured you that at the very least you would receive timely updates to this blog, including notification of meeting topics, etc., but already, just a few short months into my stint as your cohort leader, I’ve already failed to live up to this ideal.
Okay, I’m kidding, kind of. The historic results of our recent Presidential election notwithstanding, I do want to apologize for not posting about this Friday’s meeting until now. I could offer lots of well-reasoned and therefore reason-able excuses, but I’ll save us all the trouble. So- on to the point. We are meeting this Friday, November 14th, 7pm at our now usual place- the TGI Friday’s near Arlington Rd at 1039 Interstate Parkway, Akron, OH 44312. In another example of failed leadership (ahh….election season!), I believe that last time we spoke about changing our meeting time to a different Friday of the month, though I didn’t follow up adequately enough for that to happen for this month. Also, some of our regulars weren’t there to confirm that the proposed new time worked for them; so- along with our usual discussion- let’s confirm those details for future meetings when we get together this Friday.
As for our topic, are we burned out on politics? If not, the recent election of Barack Obama presents many opportunities to discuss the intersection of faith and politics from an Emergent point of view. I’m particularly interested in the reaction of many conservative would-be Christians, which I know from personal experience has been all too often “mean-spirited,” to put it mildly. I know some (conservative Christians) probably see his election as yet another sign that the “end is near,” but I wonder, is it? On what basis are such claims made? What do such claims mean for proclamation of the gospel and for all the hard work I know many of us are passionate about regarding our love/service to our neighbor? Hopefully this gives us a good starting point for some good conversation; if not, I’m sure we’ll come up with something else.
I look forward to seeing you there!
