Among the other speakers are:

Philip Clayton, Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Bill Leonard, Keith Ward, Tripp Fuller, Gareth Higgins, Anthony Smith, Tim Conder, Terence Fretheim, Jo-Ann Badley, Jay Bakker, Brian Ammons, Tim King, Spencer Burke, and Tom Oord.

That is some impressive company!

So what is this conference about? The event planners explain it this way:

Numerous battles in the past produced the large number of denominations and separate churches within American Christianity today. Some of these battles were important. But many of the old battlelines no longer speak to Christians today, especially to the youth. Indeed, our divisions are driving some folks away from the church altogether.

In the old days revival tents were set up outside towns and cities across the South. The people of God would join together for celebration, community, and revival. The revival tent was a sign of Christian unity and Christian renewal — the ongoing and active work of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

What would happen if Christians came together from across the South to proclaim what unites us as followers of Jesus Christ and as His disciples in this modern world? Some two dozen leading Christian speakers from around the country will be assembling in Raleigh for this event. They will share with you new and innovative forms of church-based ministry and renewal — new ways of being and becoming the church. And they will inspire you with their vision for how we can speak even more powerfully in and to the world of the 21st century.

So there you have it. If this is your sort of thing, I hope you will plan to be there. If you do, make sure you come up and say hi to me, would ya?

“Ministry reaches homeless by listening”

News & Observer religion report Yonat Shimron came out to the benefit – here’s an excerpt from her article in Monday’s paper:

Zacharias, who grew up in a Georgia single-wide, is not out to debunk Christianity. She is a believer, and her book is laced with stories of people who, she thinks, best convey a genuine Christian message. Hugh Hollowell, who founded Love Wins, is one of them.

A former Marine who gave up a successful career as a financial planner, Hollowell now devotes his life to helping homeless people in Moore Square. He is one of the people featured in Zacharias’ book, a collection of 19 stories.

About 100 people – including four or five homeless people – showed up at the Meymandi Theatre at the Murphey School for a silent auction and raffle to benefit that ministry. They listened to Hollowell and Zacharias propound their view of the Christian message – one of neighborly love.

Read the full article here.

(Word on the street is that a second article focused primarily on Love Wins is in the works…so stay tuned!)

If you have access to a community bulletin board, church bulletin board, etc., we’d be much obliged if you would print up a copy or two of this LoveWinsFlyer and post it ASAP. Thanks!

(While you’re at it, why not invite your friends to the Facebook event?)

Without further ado, let’s get to the exciting stuff ~

Love Wins Benefit Party on 3/21
The Love Wins family invites YOU to celebrate with us the evening of Sunday, March 21! We are are becoming a self-standing, legal nonprofit, which will provide some perks we couldn’t receive before. Plus, Love Wins is featured in the newly released book, Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide?, by Karen Spears Zacharias (and she’s coming to the party!).

• What: Food, fellowship, live music, swag, raffle prizes…did we say party?!
• When: March 21, 7-10pm
• Where: 224 Polk Street in Raleigh (Meymandi Theatre at the Murphey School, a.k.a. Burning Coal Theater’s downtown performance space)
• More Details Here

(We are in need of some help with supplies, promotion, etc., so stay tuned for more info about that soon.)

Love Wins on Facebook
We’re finally on! You can now find us at www.facebook.com/LoveWinsMinistries. Thanks to the many of you who have already become a fan…tell your friends!

…And lastly, here’s an excerpt of a review of Karen’s new book, Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide?:

One of the most heart-wrenching stories was about a Marine who feeds the homeless, not so he can preach the gospel, but because it is the gospel. The poem “Being Homeless” by Hugh Hollowell will open your eyes as it speaks truth where assumptions run rampant.

Read the Review | Learn More About the Book

We received:

• 23 pairs of socks
• 53 tubes of toothpaste
• 57 toothbrushes
• 64 bars of soap or body wash bottles
• 18 sticks of deodorants
• 50 packages of hand warmers
• 52 shampoo bottles
• 36 bottles of lotion
• 18 bottles of conditioner
• 44 razors
• 5 bottles of mouthwash
• 7 bottles of liquid hand sanitizer
• 4 tubes of lip balm

• 5 cotton ball packets
• 5 cotton swab packets
• 4 25-packs of baby wipes
• 3-pack of Kleenex tissues
• 30 antibacterial moist towelettes
• 40-pack of Tampons

• 303 quart size plastic bags
• 20 quart size freezer bags
• 100 black trash bags

• 1 Net10 Phone
• 3 backpacks

• Gift certificates/cards ($150)
  • $55 McDonald’s (30 $1-certificates, 5 $5-cards)
  • $45 CVS (4 $5-cards and 1 $25-card)
  • $20 Kroger (2 $10-cards)
  • $30 Food Lion (3 $10-cards)
• A partridge in a pear tree (Not really, but it sounded good.)

(If you are wondering why these things, they came from this list and this list. These are things we always need.)

We are blessed beyond measure. Thank you so very much. You have helped make things better for a lot of people this winter.

If you are on twitter and wanted to thank them directly, they have a twitter account @ncsu_oit …

The rest of the story – Not an hour after I picked all the supplies up from John, I was able to use the CVS gift cards to help Jenifer get her antibiotics prescription filled.

She had a sever infection from a bad tooth. She pulled the tooth herself, but it got infected. The emergency room gave her a prescription for penicillin, but she didn’t have the $17 to get it filled. Thanks to the CVS gift cards our new friends at @ncsu_oit had just given us, she got the prescription filled and the swelling has gone down.

She cried when she thanked me for filling her prescription, but it was only possible because of their gift. I just got to be the guy in the middle.

If you thought you were a subscriber and did not get one, please email me and we will get it worked out.

If, however, you never have subscribed, perhaps now would be a good time! (Go here and sign up now)

Almost a year ago, I wrote a blog post about Evelyn, a person I met early on in my time in Raleigh, who would go on to die an unfortunate and premature death.  I often tell her story in churches, because her troubled life is quite stereotypical of what I see out here.

I published an article about Evelyn and what happened when I told her story at a church once at Jesus Manifesto.

I plan to talk more about what I talked about in that article later, but first go over to Jesus Manifesto and read the article. Over the next few days I will talk more about it here.

You can read the article here.

Well, no such luck. I have been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full o’ rocking chairs, but I managed to sneak in under the wire and get the newsletter out to your inbox.

In any event, if you did not receive the email, it means you are probably not subscribed… but you can go here and fix that.

As always, feel free to forward it to anyone you think may be interested.

Good News!

We have been successful in our search to find a location to do a weekly gathering. As things look right now (we are still working out the details of when), sometime in September we will begin meeting in the Tarboro Road Community Center, located just off New Bern Avenue.( Click the map to see the bigger map)

This location has a lot of advantages. We have friends who already live in the area, it is in a well lit, it is in a heavily trafficked location, there is plenty of parking for our friends with cars, there are lots of ministry possibilities in the neighborhood and they are willing to work with our very limited budget.

Stay tuned as we work out the details. Also, we will be looking for ministry opprotunities to impact our new friends in the area, so if you have any ideas, feel free to forward them to me.