The Church Basement Roadshow Review

Posted by Jonathan Brink

June 22, 2008

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of seeing The Church Basement Roadshow in Oakland. The CBR is much more than a 32 city book tour for Tony, Doug, and Mark. It’s a rollicking roadshow filled with unexpected fun, some exceptional storytelling that can almost hide the deeply serious message that sits just beneath the surface. These are three guys who want Jesus to be front and center.

To be honest, I didn’t have a clue what it was going to entail and went hoping for the best. And I wasn’t disappointed. My hope in this review is to give you a flavor of what to expect so that you will choose to go. More photos can be found here.

The evening opened up with a short film documenting the incredible change taking place in 1908. It was really interesting to see how the guys captured the tension of 100 years ago. In each stage you could have easily placed 2008 in the film and the message would have been exactly the same. This gave way to three great-grandfathers who are out on a revival tour. Preacher A.L. Withee (Scandrette), Professor A.B. Hawthorne (Jones), and Big Brother Duke (Pagitt). They led the crowd in a song that felt just like a revival. (And I can’t get that song out of my head – Thanks Tony) It kind of felt like being at a fair.

Doug Pagitt went first and shared the second chapter from his book, A Christianity Worth Believing. Doug chronicled his entry into following Jesus, which got derailed by well meaning people who tried to fit him into a boxed faith. It was easy to resonate with Doug’s words, having personally felt much of the tension he experienced. He asked a brilliant question, “How do we allow God into our world?”

The three revivalists came back into song and sold us the Balm of Gilead. It was a healing oil designed to calm the soul. Nice touch guys.

Tony Jones went second and shared a video with Trucker Frank, a pivotal part of his book, The New Christians. He then shared a testimony that was essentially from his book about being indoctrinated into a belief system, and opposed to a practice of following Jesus. Only when he found himself, post-seminary, in South Dakota, struggling to love in an impoverished world did he realize that it was the practice that changed lives.

Mark Scandrette went third and shared his “Experiments in truth” from his book, Soul Graffiti. It was a raw, yet passionate account of trying to love in a world that is not always receptive to “Christian” love. This part of the show begged us to consider the deeper practices of following Jesus.

Each book seemed to share a different side of the emergent church. Doug shared the heart of the personal journey and what it meant to shed the systematic baggage we’ve picked up. Tony shared the journey of walking away from Platonic Christianity, one that focuses on what we believe and absent of how we believe. Mark shared the poetic side of the journey of practicing love.

What was ironic about the journey that each had experienced led them to this moment. This was a group of men fighting for the soul of Christianity, for something more wholistic and real than what they had grown up with. It was to me, the heart of the emerging church.

If you want to really, really take a deeper look into what the emerging church is, this is the place to do that. Don’t miss it.

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