What happens when you add Ruby Sales, Jen Hatmaker, Otis Moss III (along with the Trinity UCC choir), Brian McLaren, and the Red Dirt Boys (Emmylou Harris’ band with Phil Madeira and the Barber twins on horns) to Amy Grant, Jacqui Lewis, Barbara Brown Taylor, and John Pavlovitz? Well, you get to decide – but it’s going to be special, it’s going to be the 2018 Wild Goose! We’ll see you by the river!
Ruby Sales
Perhaps no one is more rooted in history, engaged in the present, and leaning more intentionally into the future than Ruby Sales.
Ruby is a public theologian, historian, activist, social critic, and educator. She answered the call to social justice as a teenager at Tuskegee Institute as a member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked on voter registration in Lowndes County, AL. She looks at her work as a calling not a career.
She received a B.A. degree from Manhattanville College, attended graduate school at Princeton University, and received a Masters of Divinity degree as an Absalom Jones Scholar from the Episcopal Divinity School. While there, she developed a reputation as a preacher and preaches often at churches and cathedrals around the nation.
She founded, and still directs, the SpiritHouse Project, a national nonprofit organization.
Her work as a social justice activist is cited in books, journal articles, and films including Taylor Branch’s At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68; Broken Ground: A Film on Race Relations in the South; Dan Rather’s American Dream Segment; and the newly released, Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights (Rich Wallce and Sandra Neil Wallace).
She is a co-founder of SAGE Magazine: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women, has appeared on On Being with Krista Tippett, and is a frequent guest on Sirius XM Radio’s Inside the Issues. Her writing has been published in many journals, newspapers, and magazines and she has received numerous awards and honors.
An oral history of Sales is housed at the Library of Congress and she was selected as one of fifty African Americans from the Civil Rights Movement to be spotlighted.
http://www.spirithouseproject.org/; https://onbeing.org/programs/ruby-sales-where-does-it-hurt-aug2017/
Jen Hatmaker
It’s easy to say Jen Hatmaker is a widely read and enthusiastically followed author (New York Times bestseller), speaker, blogger, and television presenter (My Big Family Renovation).
These things are easy to say and they’re also true – and it’s also true that Jen Hatmaker is one of the most courageous faith leaders in the world today. Jen took a stand and she keeps standing and speaking, and every time she stands in the crosshairs of thousands – yet she still stands and she still speaks.
In April of 2016, with a huge Evangelical following, Jen called for the full inclusion of LGBT people into the Christian community, calling same sex relationships holy in the eyes of God. She reiterated her position in October 2016, and as a result, LifeWay Christian Resources, the Baptist Bookstore organization, among other retailers discontinued selling her books.
Since the 2016 presidential election, she regularly makes public statements critical of Donald Trump and challenging evangelical Christian attitudes towards LBGT people. She has been featured for an alternative Christian perspective in The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, Politico, Washington Post, RNS, and Relevant Magazine. http://jenhatmaker.com/
Otis Moss III
Otis Moss III is a great preacher – some say he’s the greatest preacher alive today – he’s also a great “practicer.” As part of his community engagement through Trinity United Church of Christ, he led the team that came up with the “My Life Matters” curriculum, which includes the viral video, “Get Home Safely: 10 Rules of Survival” created in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of Ferguson, MO police.
Moss is part of a new generation of ministers committed to preaching a prophetic message of love and justice, which he believes are inseparable companions that form the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Civil rights advocacy in his DNA and he’s built his ministry on community advancement and social justice activism. As Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL, Otis Moss III has spent the last two decades practicing and preaching a Black theology that unapologetically calls attention to the problems of mass incarceration, environmental justice, and economic inequality. https://trinitychicago.org/rev-dr-otis-moss-iii/
Brian McLaren
Brian McLaren writes the books that are the bridge of faith recovery for thousands upon thousands of people. His clarity is unparalleled and his generous spirit manages somehow to both calm and confront.
As an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian, this former college English teacher and pastor, is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good.
Notable among the many books are: A New Kind of Christian, which won Christianity Today’s “Award of Merit” in 2002; Everything Must Change tracing critical ways in which Jesus’ message confronts contemporary global crises; and We Make the Road by Walking, marking a turn toward constructive and practical theology. His 2016 release, The Great Spiritual Migration, has been called his most important work to date. https://brianmclaren.net/
The Red Dirt Boys with Phil Madeira
Red Dirt Boys, made up of Chris Donohue, Will Kimbrough, Bryan Owings, and Wild Goose favorite Phil Madeira is the name Emmylou Harris gave to her band. The street cred of this musical collection is tremendous. The Red Dirt Boys combined songwriting, band, and session credits are astounding, including Emmylou Harris, Tom Jones, Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, Taj mahal, The Phil Keaggy Band, Alison Krauss, Mat Kearney, Old Crow Medicine Show, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Keb’ Mo’, Amy Grant, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Civil Wars, Julie Miller, The Band Perry, Mavis Staples, and many more.
The Red Dirt Boys will be joined by the Wild Goose return of Roland Barber on trombone and Rashaan Barber on saxophone.
https://www.facebook.com/Red-Dirt-Boys-682981768560021/ http://philmadeira.net/home/
So let’s see, to recap, Wild Goose 2018 has already announced:
Amy Grant
Jacqui Lewis
Barbara Brown Taylor
John Pavlovitz
And now Wild Goose 2018 adds:
Jen Hatmaker
Otis Moss III (along with the Trinity UCC choir)
Brian McLaren
The Red Dirt Boys (Emmylou Harris’ band with Phil Madeira and the Barber twins on horns)
Group Tickets
Discounted tickets are available for groups of ten or more. Email Vanna for your special discount code.
Adult – $169.00
Senior 65+ – $149.00
Student – $99.00
Youth 13-17 – $49.00
Children 0-12 – Free
Post and re-post – share and talk – grab all your friends, pile up in a van, and head to the Goose! We have so much good Goose to come. Stay tuned for more announcements soon.