I returned this week from a wonderfully-received series of 14 hours of public lectures and discussions in Minneapolis-St. Paul October 2-5. The evening I flew in, Bethel University welcomed me for a Public Lecture on, “Is the Bible Complementarian?” The PowerPoints worked beautifully for all the lecture sessions of the weekend. Professor Long asked me to give a shortened form of the same lecture to his class on Women in the Bible the following morning. This was followed at noon by an amazing two hour public talk and wide-ranging discussion at Christians for Biblical Equality. I was then joined by old friends, Bruce and Joy Fleming, until a delicious reception dinner at Mimi Hadad’s home followed by a delightful time of Q & A for about two hours. Saturday was a six hour conference at Messiah Episcopal Church with talks on Genesis 1-3, Galatians 2-3, and 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, each interspersed with Q & A. Bruce Fleming joined me again for fellowship that afternoon, and then I celebrated a birthday party at Mimi and Dale Hadad’s home with mutual friends. Sunday I preached at both services at Messiah Episcopal Church on “Paul’s Grand Positive for Marriage: Be Equally Yoked” and taught the Adult Education class on 1 Timothy 2-3. After a delicious dinner together with the Rector, John Newton, and his wife I flew back to Seattle. the following email snippets give a sense of how special the time was:
Debbie Reynolds
“Thank you for a great class this past Saturday and for one of the best sermons ever on Sunday morning! Your use of your own story to make the egalitarian point of view known was brilliant and a great way to get the message across. My son Dwight and I thoroughly enjoyed the time. Your boyish youthfulness and obvious energy from relating your subject was infectious. Thanks and blessings to you!”
Mark Brown
“It was a joy to study the Bible with you this weekend at Messiah’s conference on Saturday and at Sunday school and church! Thank you for taking time to meet my boys. It was memorable for Daniel especially, who enjoyed his 30 minutes of your lecture on Saturday and also your sermon on Sunday. Thank you not only for the impact your study has had on my life, but also on my family!”
Mimi Hadad
“Thank you again for ALL you did to serve Jesus and the mission of CBE throughout last weekend! We were amazed at your stamina, godly wisdom and engagement of so many people, questions and biblical texts.”
Hello Philip,
Your visit to Minneapolis appears thoroughly satisfying to you as well as the other participants. My congrats. I do hope your event in Washington went as well…I’m quite certain it did, given the “advice” to go casual. I look forward to speaking with you.
Best,
Robert