Fanning the Flames

Today, I went to the Light the Fire church renewal conference at United Theological Seminary (http://www.united.edu/Latest-News-Events/First-Annual-Light-the-Fire-Church-Renewal-Conference-with-Len-Sweet/menu-id-198.html). The keynote speaker was Leonard Sweet (http://www.leonardsweet.com/). We had three keynote segments and a couple of workshops, along with worship at the end. It was an interesting day, with some good food for thought and good company in the person of my seminary buddy, Stacy. While the content and tone was overwhelmingly Wesleyan (not surprising for a United Methodist seminary), I felt there was much that applied quite nicely to the UCC.

I think one of the most helpful things for me was Sweet's characterization of social media (he was speaking of Twitter in specific) as being like the modern-day (postmodern-day?) village green. No, the posts aren't necessarily serious or deep (although sometimes they are). That's not the point. The point, in the case of the village green and of social media, is that we are touching base during our days. That base-touching, regardless of how light the conversation may be, builds community. I have often heard that Facebook is simply fluff and not worth the serious person's time. I haven't had a good argument to use when speaking to these (usually solidly modern, post-Enlightenment thinkers) aside from, "Well, we have to go where the kids are if we want to reach them" or "But it's really fun!" (I still think fun is a good reason to do just about anything that doesn't cause harm to people) Sweet pointed out, though, that people on the village green didn't engage in serious debate on things philosophical. They chatted with one another about daily life.

I think Sweet's point about how images are the new language, how we are missionaries to the new culture and how we'd better learn the language was very well-taken. He asked, "How many of us are being trained to exegete images?" Hmm. Not many, but we should be. He also spoke of how we need to be reading the Bible for the stories, for the songs, not being subject to verse-itis (being so stuck on the chapter & verse that we miss the whole point of the story). He commented that we want to live a "well-storied life." I agree. Stories are delicious! I also really appreciated Sweet's point that we are not summoning young people to help us in the church. We need young people, but we forget that they actually have a whole lot to offer.

I also found the workshop on social networking for ministry helpful. I remain unconvinced of the need to tweet (they didn't really talk much about Twitter, but Sweet did) or to create a wiki, but I feel better informed about what works with blogs & Facebook and I feel like I might even have something to offer to a conversation about podcasting/vodcasting. I'd never even heard of vodcasting before today. Now I am thinking my senior pastor would be well-suited for such a thing.

Jason Vickers' session on the theological grounding for church renewal didn't take me much further than his Intro to Church Renewal class and I probably should have taken Lori Reiber's class on utilizing media in worship & involving youth, but I didn't see much immediate hope of application for that one, so I skipped it. Vickers did give me some new kinds of church renewal movements to think about. Who knew there were such things as Liquid Church and Sticky Church? Must Google.

After the closing worship, I hung out in the lounge & read the foodie issue of Bust Magazine until Stacy was ready to go to dinner. Over Kung Pao and stir-fry, we discussed where the Spirit has been leading us, our lives, taking time for Sabbath and so forth. It was a grand time. I've missed our dinners and discussions. Tomorrow, another conference, this one on Emerging Church.