Live Laugh Love with Kristin Kobes Du Mez
This past Saturday was such a special day at FUMC Denton! We had the incredible honor of hosting New York Times bestselling author Kristin Kobes Du Mez for a conversation about evangelism, power and control within church leadership, the history that has brought us to where we are today, and how we can work toward greater unity while also holding leaders and groups accountable.
Du Mez’s previous book, Jesus and John Wayne, challenged assumptions about who would read the book and sparked important, long-overdue conversations in faith communities and far beyond the walls of the church. Her highly anticipated new book, Live, Laugh, Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Created, debuted this week and is already a New York Times bestseller.
More than 200 people filled our church for this conversation—and what was especially exciting was how many of them were not part of our FUMC community. People drove from Wylie, Dallas, Prosper, Carrollton, and even Stillwater, Oklahoma, to be part of the conversation. It was a wonderful reminder that our church building can be a place where our wider community comes together to ask hard questions, learn from one another, and engage in meaningful conversations about faith and the world around us. Many of the staff and volunteers had wonderful conversations while people stood in line to get books signed and so many shared how welcoming our church was and how grateful we were a place that was not afraid of having these kinds of conversations. A special shout-out to our Church and Society committee that is leading the charge with this kind of work!
We were also incredibly proud to have our very own Dr. Keri Ladner, author of American Dominion, help facilitate the conversation and contribute her own research and expertise.
This is one of the things we love about being FUMC Denton. We want our church to be more than a place we gather on Sunday mornings. We want it to be a place where our community can come together, where thoughtful conversations can happen, where we can learn from one another, and where faith intersects with the real questions facing our world.
What a gift to open our doors and welcome more than 200 people into that space this weekend. We’re grateful to everyone who helped make it happen—and we’re excited to keep finding ways for FUMC Denton to be a place where our community gathers, connects, learns, and grows together!
Click here to learn more about the work that Church and Society is doing. If you missed the event, you can watch the livestream below!
Photos by Dustin Kaps from HTC Conference