Skye and I arrived in San Diego this afternoon for the 2009 National Pastors Convention.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the opening evening of headlining sessions was the variety.

The evening started with a short routine by acclaimed comedian Michael Jr. Michael is a young black performer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who says he operates by a sort of "comedy accountability." Because he performs in bars, clubs, casinos, and even churches (Michael's a Christian), he says "everything I say in a club has to be clean enough to say from a church pulpit; everything I say in a pulpit has to be funny enough to say in a club." His material tonight drew from his experience becoming a Christian and encountering the Bible for the first time.

Next, Andy Crouch interviewed A. J. Jacobs, best-selling author of The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs calls himself a "respectfully agnostic Jew," but his insights into the power of Scripture were really interesting. He decided that the best way to deal ...