Theology in the Raw - Exiles in Babylon Conference Attendee Updates

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

Hey friends, we got a special Theology in the Raw Conference attendee podcast for you. Preston shares some info about the conference happening next week. If you are attending in person you are going to want to listen to this podcast! At the conference: Pre-Order Newman Family BBQ Follow Newman Family BBQ on Instagram Following the conference Conversations in the Raw Dig deeper into these important conversations with friends and thought leaders from the Exile in Babylon conference. Sign up for one or more of these cohorts and receive in depth webinars, curated resources, and an opportunity to connect with other like minded “exiles in Babylon” across the world.  Sign up for conversations in the raw at theologyintheraw.com/conversations –––––– PROMOS Save 10% on courses with Kairos Classroom using code TITR at kairosclassroom.com! –––––– Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out Dr. Sprinkle’s website prestonsprinkle.com Stay Up to Date with the Podcast Our Website | Theologyintheraw.com Twitter | @RawTheology Instagram | @TheologyintheRaw If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review.

Hello, friends. Oh, my word. We are just a little over a week away from the Theology in the Raw Conference, Theology in the Raw Exiles in Babylon Conference, and I could not be more excited. I'm so pumped. It's been, I mean, to be honest, it's taken a ton of work, a lot more work than I had anticipated that pulling off a conference would be. I didn't even know if anybody would show up, and we're pretty close to selling out. And I am just beyond thrilled with the speakers and artists we got, with the vibe, with the dozens and dozens of people who are helping out. I mean, there's like, as you'll see, there's a ton of volunteers. There's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes to make this a raw yet visually and audibly pleasing experience. So I'm not going to give away too many details on the

ins and outs with the conference. I mean, we're going to tackle some of the toughest subjects that the church is wrestling with. I've got a great lineup of people to do that. There's going to be audience Q&A. There's going to be a lot of discussions with the speakers. I'm going to sit on stage like I do my podcast. And I'm going to sit on stage like I do my podcast. I'm going to sit on stage and we're going to have conversations with the speakers. It's going to be awesome. If you still want to attend live, I know for most of you, you're not in Boise, so you'd have to book a plane ticket and hotel. That might be hard last minute, but if you can do that, there's still room. There's still, I would say, about 100 spots left, maybe. I'm pre-recording

this. So, I mean, by the time you're listening to this, it might be less than that. But if you want to attend virtually, 50 bucks for a virtual pass. And a lot of you have asked, if I can't watch it virtually, like in the moment, can I watch it the next day or two days later? And the answer is yes. If you sign up for the virtual pass, you will have seven days to access the recording. So yeah, if you're living in a different part of the world, different time zone, or just are busy or whatever, but still want to participate virtually, then please do do that. And if you attend virtually, if you do attend virtually live, you too can ask questions. We have a, it's hard to explain, but we have a text in Q&A platform that as long as you have an internet connection, you can be asking your question as

well. And you can vote on other questions that other people are asking. You'll see when you check it out. Other details. Let's see. If you are attending live in Boise, Other details. Let's see. If you are attending live in Boise, it's going to be a packed house. You're going to want to show up early. I mean, as early as you can. That first night, it starts at 6 p.m. here in Boise. Doors open at 5 p.m. I would try to get here as early as you can. I would try to get here as early as you can. Do not, it sounds too strong. Do not, do not, don't, don't get here right at six or even 5.50 or 5.45 even. Parking is, this is the one issue with this, the venue. It's a great venue. I love the venue. It's not an overly polished venue, which I actually like. But the parking can be an issue. There's only like 200 spots that are going to be close to the building. Then there's another lot that's about

a two, three minute walk away. And it's a little hard to kind of navigate. The church is in the middle of a bunch of used car lots and stuff. And it's just, it's just, it's not the most user friendly kind of first time guest parking space. Okay. So, um, you're going to want to show up early to find parking, to get your seat, um, to be able to check in. Um, so yeah, and you're going to get an email if you're attending the conference, like, and we're going to keep reminding you like show up early, show up early, show up early. Especially if you're going to want to get some food before or check out the merch or the book table or whatever, definitely get here way, way early. Earlier than you normally would at a church service or another conference. There is going to be a lot of goodies at the conference.

And goodies at the conference, meaning, well, first of all, and I won't, I won't, I don't want to give away too much, but the gift bag that y'all are getting that attend live is incredible. It really is. I'm just, I'm not gonna lie. Like, you're gonna be like, oh my word, all this is for free. So leave space in your suitcase because you're going to get a lot of just free stuff that I, we don't want to give away just crap. Like it's, I think it's high quality stuff. Um, and then we do have a, a merch table with lots of different merch. We've got a lot of book tables, a lot of publishers are, um, well, their publishers are sending in a lot of books that have to do with the topics, um, that we're addressing. And obviously a lot of the authors,

speakers, books that they have written. So leave room, leave, leave room in your suitcase or just leave room, or you can just plan on bringing stuff home in a bag or however you want to navigate that. Just, there's going to be a lot of cool stuff at the conference. What else? What else? Boise is a really cool town. Now I would say, you know, the suburbs of Boise is a really cool town. Now, I would say the suburbs of Boise are just kind of like, eh, it's suburbs. But the downtown area of Boise is really cool. It's got a cool vibe. It has a river that runs right through downtown that divides the downtown area from Boise State University. There is a 20-something mile long, it's called the Green Belt, like a walkway where people bike and run along the river. The weather should be really nice around this time. So if you have space in your schedule, I mean, if you're just showing up,

going to the conference and going home right after, you might not have a ton of time to explore Boise. But the conference is about 10 minutes from downtown. If you do at all want to explore Boise a little further, then head downtown. There's lots of cool stuff down there. Lots of really good coffee shops. Restaurants are pretty good. But I mean, if you've traveled around, I mean, it's not like Portland or New York or Chicago. We don't have that high quality restaurants, but we're getting better. There's some good, cool vibes downtown. Tons of good breweries here.

I mean, every week I feel like a new brewery pops up and there's a lot of really good options if that's your cup of tea. Okay. I also want to make an announcement for something that I'm super excited about. It's called Conversations in the Raw. Conversations in the Raw. Okay. So this is loosely further engage the topics that we're wrestling with at the conference. And these cohorts are going to be led by various conference speakers. Okay, so there's four cohorts. Each one will meet for a monthly webinar, hour and a half webinar led by the leader, who is also a speaker.

I'll tell you who it is in a second. And you will also have opportunities for weekly further conversations and dialogue with other members of the cohort. You will have resources that will be curated for you by the leader. So you'll be like going through maybe a book, an article, maybe a podcast. You'll all listen together and come together at the webinar and discuss it. And you'll do that for three months. Okay. So once a month webinars for three months, plus other opportunities to engage with each other. So the four cohorts are Christianity and Race,

led by Kimmy Katiti, who's speaking at the conference. The Gospel and Political Identity, led by Ed Yuzinski. Christianity and the Doctrine of Hell, led by both Gary Brashears and Chris Date, who are going to have kind of a dialogue slash debatey kind of dialogue, more dialogue than debate, but it's going to be set up in a friendly debate format, if you will. And then faith, sexuality, and gender led by Dr. Greg Coles. So you can go to theologyintheraw.com forward slash conversations. Theologyintheraw.com forward slash conversations and sign up for, I mean, one or two or three or four. You can sign up for all the cohorts if you want.

That'd be a lot, you know, but I mean, we're going to offer them at different times so that if people do want to attend multiple cohorts, you can do that if you want to. I told the leaders, I said, don't, as you kind of assign different reading material, podcasts, things to watch, things to read, whatever, listen to, try to make it like less than, no more than like five hours a month. Okay. So I don't want to like bombard people with a lot too much stuff, but yeah, give them, you know, something to read through, a few things to engage that when you come together for the webinar, the leader can kind of introduce the topic, say some stuff, and then guide a conversation around these really important topics.

And we developed this because I just, as you can probably gather, I just, I didn't want to do just the typical Christian conference thing. And look, I go to Christian conferences. I love them. There's some I like more than others. I love like the Q conference. I love others I can't think about. Anyway, but really good conference, one of the fallouts is that it's just short-lived. You come. You typically are very passive in that you're receiving. You're not really participating. And so that's something we're doing a little differently in that there is going to be opportunity for audience engagement and different types of conversations, not just monologues at the conference. So that alone, I think will help

foster a more holistic engagement with the topics. But then I'm like, ah, still, we just have a couple of days where everybody's going to get hyped up. They're going to buy some books. They're going to be stoked. But it's like, how can we nurture the discipleship opportunities that are being opened up at the conference? And so that's why we created Conversations in the Raw. We're teaming up. We, Theology in the Raw, we're teaming up with Eternity Bible College to facilitate this. They've done a fantastic job setting up all just the structures on how to go about this. So here's the thing. With Conversations in the Raw, you don't have to have attended the conference. It would be, I guess, maybe slightly better because you'll know the speakers a little bit. You'll get a

running start on the topics and the vibe and everything. So I mean, it would be best if you did attend the conference. But you don't need to have attended the conference. If you're like, man, I can't attend a conference live, can't even attend virtually, but this sounds pretty cool. I would encourage you to check it out. So again, theologyintheraw.com forward slash conversations. And by the way, yeah, we've got a website. Theology in the Raw has a new website. So if you haven't checked that out, go to theologyologyNarod.com. And I want this to be a resource page for, I mean, it's more than just a podcast now. I feel like Theology Narod is becoming kind of a way of being Christian in the world. I don't know, movement. I don't call it movement. It's a resource page slash platform for people to engage tough topics in a way that I think is honest and curious.

So, TheologyNarrah.com, check out the website. What else? What else? Oh, okay. Okay. And little do people know that the very first person to kind of sign up for Theology in the Raw, to the conference, to participate, is my very good friend Jay Newman, who's going to not be speaking at the conference. Jay is going to be dragging his smoker from Nashville, Tennessee to Boise, Idaho. Now, Jay Newman, his passion for, I cannot overstate his passion and knowledge of barbecue. Like it is, and he'll even say it's not disconnected with my religious, my approach to religion and Christianity. He has this whole

biblical theology of barbecue that I'm not even going to get into. I'll let him do that. But he is going to drag us. Oh, so Jay works for the top rated barbecue joint in Nashville, Tennessee. I think two years in a row, they've gotten voted number one by certain outlets, whatever. This guy knows how to smoke a piece of meat. And he's going to drag a smoker out to Boise, Idaho. He's going to be smoking meat all day, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. He's already buying all the wood. He's planning.

I mean, it's just it takes a lot of work to kind of organize this too. One thing he said though, is he has a pre-order sign up on his website. And yeah, so if you want amazing barbecue at the conference, I would, well, he might have some kind of walk-up type of stuff he can serve, but really if you want want the whiskey-soaked brisket that is unbelievable, you're going to want to sign up early. Is your mouth watering? I'm so hungry right now. It's like 10.58 a.m. my time, and all I want right now is a bunch of brisket. Anyway, go to NewmanFamilyBBQ.com, and you, sign up early, uh, or you can, you can, you can put your order in early and it'll be ready for you at the conference. So, um, but we're, uh,

Jay's going to come on the show right now and we're going to talk through this a bit more. So, um, here is, uh, the one and only Jay Newman. Jay, you were on the podcast. Um, uh, I want to say about nine months ago or something, talking about Christian anarchism. That's right. So if people recognize your name, your voice, that's who Jay Newman is. But I want to, real quickly, you're dragging your barbecue out from Nashville, Tennessee to Boise, Idaho for the Theology in the Raw conference, which is just in just a few days. And you're going to be selling your barbecue. Can you tell us about your family business just briefly

and then what people need to do to preorder their barbecue for the conference? Yeah, so we started a family business during the pandemic shutdowns. I've been working in music pretty much my whole adult life, and there was none, no touring. And so, um, I, uh, started making barbecue, which I'm very passionate about. And we kind of started just making meals for friends and neighbors and selling it and just trying to make ends meet that way, literally ends meet. Um, and, uh, yeah, I'm getting pretty good at it.

Um, you know, I work for a place that, uh, we've place that we've won some awards. This is like my life now. I'm a barbecue guy. I love you. I love everything you do. As soon as you announce the conference, I'm like, hey, I'm in. and pop-ups around Nashville area and anywhere. My smoker's on wheels, so I can go anywhere and do that. But I just want to be a part of what you're doing because I support it. And I also want to, you know, listen, I imagine that people on that side of the Rockies have never had proper barbecue. I mean, I just make that assumption. Maybe that's wrong of me, but I want to bring some legit barbecue.

And that's Texas-style brisket. That's Memphis-style ribs. I've got Nashville smoked hot chicken that I'm going to get on the menu. But the thing is, I want people to preorder it, which you can do at NewmanFamilyBBQ.com. The first thing you see there is the menu for the Exiles in Babylon conference. So, you know, click on that because barbecue takes a long time to prepare for. It takes a long time to cook. I need advance notice.

And so if you want the best stuff, you got to tell me in advance so that I can make it for you. And I assume there's going to be a line. There's going to be about a thousand people hungry for dinner and lunch every time the sessions break out. So you can skip the line and schedule your pickup. And, and listen, here's the thing. If you're going to be at the conference, you're going to smell it and it's going to be so good. It's going to smell so good.

You're really going to regret that you didn't pre-order. If you didn't, you're going to be smelling it and everybody's going to be talking about it. And they're going to be like, OMG, I've never had anything like this. And you just don't want to be left out. You know, so, you know, hit that link, NewmanFamilyBBQ.com and make sure you don't get left out of the barbecue line. Pre-order ahead of time, you guys. That's a good sell, man. On your Instagram, you have a picture of

some whiskey soaked brisket. The whiskey brisket, man. That's a brand new item. I've got some barbecue lifers from Texas all over the place are messaging me. They're like, what in the world

like this is a unique rare kind of thing and it really gives a different kind of flavor to the brisket it's it's very interesting i have to wet age it so i've got one brisket wet aging and whiskey right now if i get more pre-orders there's still time to get uh some, but it costs too much and takes too much time. So if you want that, you click hard on that and go ahead and pre-order that one. So during the lunch on the Friday session, we have a big lunch, two-hour lunch, a lot of space. We have like six or seven food trucks, so lots of options. And there's restaurants not too far away. But you're going to be smoking meat basically as much as you can, right? so there'll be times when you're the only one out there with with food like

for breakfast or even post-conference dinner someone wants to grab a quick dinner i'm gonna start the fire thursday morning at 7 a.m and it's not gonna go out until saturday at lunch oh man some yeah so i'm gonna be running the fire pretty much nonstop, um, for over 48 hours. So, uh, yeah, I'm going to be there and, uh, I want to share with everyone. Also, you know, massive risk on my end to drive 2000 miles000 miles and, you know, financial risk with the gas prices and everything. And so, but I don't, you know, whatever. We have the phrase, and I'm going to have a T-shirt available for sale. But this is kind of my mentality.

No risk it, no brisket. So, you know, you want the brisket, you got to give it a risk. So that's how it goes. That's the life, man. All right, guys. Check out the menu and the show link uh newmanfamilybarbecue.com pre-order your stuff your barbecue otherwise uh you may not get no barbecue and that'd be pretty lame so jay thanks for coming on the show briefly to talk about what you got going on i'll see you in a couple weeks appreciate you breston thank you so much take care