Posted 95 days ago
Another Conference…So What’s Different?
By Tom Sine, Mustard Seed Associates
In the last few weeks, several people have asked me, “What’s different about The New Conspirators conference?” It is a fair question. One might be tempted to think it will be exactly like all the other emerging church conferences that are happening now. Let me try to explain some elements of our conference that we hope are not only new, but valued by those that come to this gathering on February 28, 29 and March 1 at Bethany Community Church here in Seattle.
Distinctive 1: Hearing from Four Streams Instead of One
In the last five years, there has been an array of conferences and “learning parties” on the emerging church. Since we at MSA believe that God is at work through the innovators and risk-takers of more movements than just the emerging church, we will bring together the leaders of four streams of renewal: missional, mosaic (or multicultural), monastic and, of course, emerging.
Emerging leaders can be characterized by their brilliance at creating very contextualized expressions of faith, like cafés or art centers, to engage a specific cultural group that would rarely be found in a more traditional church.
Missional churches planted by young church planters often look like traditional churches, but have one fundamental difference: they focus outwardly on the needs of the community, rather than inwardly on those inside the building. Churches like Life Covenant in Torrance, California, equip their members to reach out and address the needs of those in their neighborhoods though small groups. They actually “out-counsel” people that are simply looking for good church programs for them and their kids. Life Covenant is only three years old, but they have planted two other churches, and 30% of their budget is invested in local and global mission.
Like the missional stream, mosaic (or multicultural) churches tend to be more outwardly focused in mission to their own, often needy, communities. They also intentionally give people from traditionally mono-cultural enclaves an opportunity to glimpse our richly multicultural future in God’s mosaic kingdom. One example of a new multicultural church plant is Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, pastured by Efrem Smith. Sanctuary supports a range of ministries in inner-city neighborhoods to empower those at the margins. Fully 50% of their budget is invested in those kinds of ministries.
Leaders in the monastic stream, unlike the other three, have little interest in church planting. Young risk-takers, like Shane Claiborne, are living in community and working alongside the poor in urban neighborhoods. Like Franciscan monks, but they also develop a rule of life and intentionally practice spiritual disciplines.
At the New Conspirators conference, we are interested in learning from these innovators in all four streams, and excited about the streams talking to each other as well.
Distinctive 2: Bringing New Expressions and Established Congregations Together
My wife, Christine, and I have spoken at a number of emerging gatherings. We always see a few older people in attendance, but they often seem to be looking in from the outside, pressing their noses to the window, trying to make sense of the emerging edge. They rarely seem to be brought into the conversation as full participants. We want these more mature Christians to participate by sharing their experience and insights, and also by being open to learn from younger risk-takers. For example, we asked Eileen Hansen to share how Trinity Lutheran in Lynnwood, Washington, started a Mustard Seed ministry to enable creatives in their church to create new ministries in their community to engage those who would likely never enter an established church.
Distinctive 3: Exploring Questions Important For the Entire Church
Younger leaders in all four streams are not only creating new models from which we can all learn, but they are also raising important questions that we believe the entire church needs to re-examine. Over the years, I have met a number of older evangelical leaders that operate as though all the important theological questions were answered decades ago and that we got all the answers right. As a consequence, many in this camp seem to be happy to focus exclusively on strategies and resources, without reflecting on the theological implications.
As an older guy, I appreciate how a number of postmodern, post-Christendom, post-establishment younger leaders have helped me to re-examine some of my theological assumptions about what it means to be a disciple, be the church and do the mission of the church. The four streams ask two questions, with which I hope we all struggle at our gathering:
1. What does authentic faith look like? Young leaders want to see more authentic expressions of biblical faith in daily life, and in new forms of community that seek to more authentically embody the faith we claim. A number of the workshops will address this important question.
2. How can we make mission more central to our gathered lives? Younger leaders are troubled that addressing the needs of those within the building seems to be the de-facto mission of the church. They want to see the church become more missional—focused on working to empower the poor and the marginalized, and individuals and communities. Several of our workshops will give examples of both experimental and established churches reaching out to those in need. Others will explore social entrepreneurship and economic/agricultural cooperatives, new ways to make a difference that receive little mention in churches.
Distinctive 4: Taking the Future of God Seriously
One of the major characteristics of young leaders in all four streams is that they tend to spend much more time discussing the kingdom of God and exploring how to fully embody it in their lives and communities.
Shane Claiborne has three great lines in his book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
Throughout our time together, we hope and pray that you will hear the clear invitation to live into, serve and celebrate the new world that is breaking into this one.
Distinctive 5: Taking the Future Seriously
Most of the conferences I have attended, and most of the leaders with whom I have worked, tend to unconsciously work from the unstated assumption that the future will pretty much be an extension of the present. Even as we gallop into a recession, I am not hearing Christian leaders ask, “What kind of an impact could a full-blown recession have on the lives of the people in my church, my Christian organization, on the poor and vulnerable, or our capacity to serve those in need?”
At the moment, most pastors are not aware of how time and money pressures have dramatically increased in the lives of their members over the past ten years as we have raced into a new global economy. They certainly are not looking ahead to how those pressures are likely to increase in the next ten years.
In a world changing as rapidly as ours, it is absurd to operate as though the future is static—as though we are frozen in a time warp. At the beginning of this gathering, we will provide a brief outline of some of the new ways we can respond to the challenges likely to confront those in both established and experimental churches. Particularly,we will talk about how not only our poorest neighbors, but the middle class as well, will face daunting challenges in this increasingly uncertain future. We hope this provides a backdrop for our time together.
I am convinced that if we anticipate a few of these challenges, we have lead time to respond with new ways to give expression to God’s compassionate kingdom in our lives, churches and in the lives of those with whom we share this trouble planet.
Distinctive 6: Taking Our Imagination Seriously
One of the most compelling characteristics of young leaders in all four streams is the unusual level of imagination, innovation and entrepreneurship that these young leaders demonstrate. They often take unusual risks with very little resource and encouragement. In that spirit, we are calling our gathering “a festival of imagination.” We hope that this is more than a slogan. At most traditional conferences, almost all of the input comes from the front of the room with little opportunity for interaction. Emerging gatherings and learning parties tend to be more informal and often more participative, but at The New Conspirators, we want to try to move beyond simply listening and discussing. We are seeking to design a process that provides space for imagination and innovation.
Essentially, we want participants to imagine new forms of life, community, worship, advocacy, mission and celebration that 1) more fully give expression to that world that is already here, and 2) more effectively engage the new challenges of our increasingly uncertain future.
We are seeking to involve participants in the creative part of this gathering by:
1. inviting every participant, before they come, to imagine new possibilities for celebration and ministry to others in some area of their lives, churches, and communities.
2. setting aside 30 minutes in each 70-minute workshop to allow every participant to unleash their imagination to develop his/her ideas.
3. using the final session of the conference on Saturday afternoon to have participants solidify their ideas for creating new timestyles that include spirituality and service, new forms of community and church, and new ways to make a difference in their communities and to party the kingdom 24/7.
Distinctive 7: Taking Connections Seriously
We really want the conference space to be a place of learning, discussing and creating, but we hope it will also be a place of connecting, especially with other participants. To meet this end, we will have an informal hangout space with abundant coffee, wireless internet and places to meet up with new friends. To encourage ad hoc discussion on any subject at lunchtime, participants can put a placard on a table with a topic of interest inviting others to join them.
We would also like participants to connect with speakers and other leaders in the field. Speakers will be available to chat in the gathering place after the Thursday evening session and throughout the conference.
One of the highlights of the gathering will be the Urban Field Trip—an opportunity to connect to place. On Friday afternoon, we will send groups to visit four Seattle neighborhoods, observe and connect with people in those communities. Each group will be asked to imagine how one might make a little difference in the city of Seattle. On Friday night, the groups will be asked to share what they observed in these neighborhoods and what they learned about God’s work communities and peoples’ lives.
We hope this will be a worthwhile gathering in which to communicate, create and connect. Consider joining us for “The New Conspirators: What in the World Is God Doing?” and let us know if we succeed in creating a different kind of gathering.
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