Since couple of folks have already emailed inquiring about the brief note I had in an earlier entry, here’s more specific information so you can plan ahead.
Quest is very excited to host a “learning conference” with Lauren Winner on October 10-11, 2008. The previous two learning conferences we hosted were with Tony Campolo and John Perkins.
Details are still coming together but we’d figure we’d have some good conversations surrounding faith, sexuality, chastity, and gender issues. But, who knows. But mark those dates [and forward this link to others] if you are interested in joining us. And don’t schedule anything during that weekend! Our hope and commitment with our learning conferences are to make them financially accessible and a venue for community building.
Her bio from the website:
Lauren F. Winner is the author of three books, Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, and Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity. She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today. Winner has degrees from Duke, Columbia, and Cambridge universities, and holds a Ph.D. in history. The former book editor for Beliefnet, Lauren teaches at Duke Divinity School, and lives in Durham, North Carolina. Lauren travels extensively to lecture and teach, and during the academic year of 2007-2008, she is a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. (While there, she’s revising her dissertation, which examines household religious practice in eighteenth-century Virginia, for publication.) When she’s home, you can usually find her curled up, on her couch or screen porch, with a good novel
Filed under: religion, lauren winner, quest church, seattle
[...] Lauren Winner @ quest church, seattle Lauren Winner @ quest [...]
I am soooo excited about this
I love her writing – and I think it will be one more opportunity for Quest to engage more deeply on gender/sexuality issues 
is that columbus day weekend? i would love to come, but there is a conference junior high retreat that weekend!
I have a serious crush on her glasses.
So very excited to have her come out! Girl Meets God is on my short list of favorite books on faith and spirituality.
Wow, I wish Lauren can come to my church and speak. Her book is interesting; she uses a good deal of Catholic categories (per Thomas Aquinas) of sexual ethics in her book. For example, she would point out that sex is for the purpose of building up the family and community, and hence sex has a higher purpose than mere pleasure. Using these categories, she also points out that sex is not only a private matter, but a public one as well (since it’s designed by God to build families and communities). I’m just surprised that Lauren being an evangelical would rely so heavily on Catholic ethics to talk about sex. I’d be interested to hear more from Lauren how she sees sex is used to build up the local faith community.
Lauren came to North Park Seminary last year and was awesome. She was an engaging speaker, relevant, and just plain cool. I went to a lunch with her and loved hearing more of her story. Maybe we’ll have to come home for that weekend to see her again.