This weekend I was super, major, crazy blessed to be with a wonderful little segment of the Body in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Christians for Biblical Equality conference.  It was so humbling to be with so many intellectuals, pastors and practitioners of Biblical Equality and to learn from them.  So, so blessed. Slightly overwhelmed. Look for some major, major blogging on the horizon.

If you want to read more about the conference right now, I live tweeted all weekend long, you can check that out at @mwestramke.

The Reads…

The Big Ask: How Can I Help Fight Human Trafficking and Slavery
“‘It’s hard to walk away when you have an idea of what could happen to them, but you could pull boys and girls out of brothels all day long and there will be 10 more to take their place.’ And then he talked about the importance of getting to the root of the problem and the need to prosecute the pedophiles who create the demand for children and the traffickers who supply them.”

Seeds of Incarnation
“The Incarnational Life requires of us to not only drink from the cup of His new covenant but also the cup of suffering for the purpose of accomplishing what work God has called us to. Acts of downward mobility are seeds of the incarnational life. They invite us into an entirely different genre of life; one of surprise and wonder.” 

Beauty from Broken Things
“While aid agencies provided basic shelter, food, and health care throughout Ishinomaki, Be One found that there was tremendous need among single mothers for employment. Thus, a creative spark brought to life the Nozomi Project, launched in 2012.”

Pregnant Women Gather to Protest Sufi Thinker Who Urged them not to ‘Stroll in Public’
“‘After seven or eight months of pregnancy, future mothers go out with their husbands by car to get some fresh air. And they go out in the evening hours. But now, they are all on television. It’s disgraceful. It is not realism, it is immorality,’ he added.”

(I would like to personally high-five each of these women and their pillow-stuffed husbands)

Why Millennials are Leaving the Church
“What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.
We want an end to the culture wars.
We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.
We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.
We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation…
You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.”

Stepping Up However Shaky or Unsteady
“I want to be a woman who stands. Not just for myself, but for my daughter and for our sisters and for His Church. Let us see how our strength lifts others. May we show up when it’s easier to back away. May we be found faithful and may our stance be one of loyalty, grace and truth.”

I Wonder if Sunday School is Destroying our Kids
“Let’s teach the wonder of the gospel. Let’s show our kids that God loves us … simply because he loves us. In our beastliness. That he loves us before we are good.”

Also Please Pray…
For peace in Cambodia after a charged election came to a close over the weekend.
There were Cambodian brothers and sisters in Pennsylvania at the Christians for Biblical Equality conference who asked us to join them in praying for peace in Cambodia.
You can read a little more about elections in Cambodia here.