This is exciting news for anyone who attended our Book Club discussions of “Take This Bread,” — the author, Sara Miles, will be the keynote speaker at Diocesan Convention November 21 in Lombard, at the Westin Hotel.

Did you need motivation to sign up as a delegate or alternate? Want to experience Convention and connect with someone whose books have led many people to a more deeply spiritual life? This is your chance!

Author Sara Miles, who has written deeply personal books on her conversion to Christianity and her ministry in poor communities in San Francisco, will be talking about listening when she gives the keynote speech at the diocese’s convention on November 21 at the Westin Hotel in Lombard.

“I am really interested in talking about evangelism and what evangelism is and isn’t,” says the author of City of God, Take this Bread, and Jesus Freak. “The short version is that evangelism is about listening; it is not necessarily about telling. It is about listening to people’s stories and really paying attention to how others’ experiences of God are part of a larger story.

“It is about training ourselves to engage in a midrash on our own lives and to do that in a way that is honest, that is not looking for a moral, that is not looking for a solution, that is not looking for ‘Aha! I have found the theme of this essay.’ That’s not story telling. That’s bad English class.”

via Telling Our Stories :: Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.