At the end of the evening, Brian McLaren brought a few guys (I must use the word in a gender specific way.) up front to highlight some of the things happening in emergent around the globe. Doug Pagitt, Jason Clark and Mark Pierson (of Cityside) covered the US, UK/Europe and Australia/New Zealand respectively. All had similar things to say about the conversation growing.

Of local interest (to me, at least) is the focus on regional cohorts. Lilly Lewin and I, quite independently, thought, “We need one in southwest Ohio.” There are a few attendees preparing a church plant in Columbus who seem to have interest, so the critical mass may form quickly. I’d gladly welcome a regular dialogue in my neck of the woods. The Blogdom is great, but so is flesh and blood.

Of even greater interest, particularly to those who don’t live near southwest Ohio, is the conversation developing in Africa and Asia. Claude Nikondeha, who will be giving tomorrow morning’s plenary, is from Burundi. In the last year he oversaw the first “emergent” gathering in Africa which involved participants from five or six sub-Saharan countries. In addition, McLaren mentioned Sivin Kit in Malaysia, who is taking a lead in Asia.

Finally, emergent will be debuting a new international website in the near future. Wonderfully, it will not be under the emergent name, but rather under an African name. (Here I show my true nature as a rookie conference blogger: I didn’t write the name down, so I’ll have to add it later. Grace, please.)

[UPDATE: I jotted down the name: www. amahoro.info. It doesn't appear to be live,yet; I'll add the link when I can.]