At surrender I was asked to be on a few panels. One was on ministry as a family that was with my wife. The second was on starting communities from scratch. And the third was on worship. I was honoured to be on each of these panels, as the people I was with were very amazing people, doing some great works, and I did feel a bit humbled to be among them.
I will not go into too much about what was said, but if you have any questions about any of these things please just ask and I will try and give you the combined wisdom as I heard it. But what I did want to point out was the quality of teaching and instruction that came out of these sessions was very very strong.
As you may have recognized from my posts and maybe from me personally, I am not shy. I speak my mind quite freely, and usually believe I have something worthwile to say. And even if I don't I'll will speak up anyways :) But I really saw this weekend, that I always gave, just a piece of the picture. And when we had a group there was a more complete picture given. And thats not all, since it was not just one person speaking, the "audience" not only felt allowed to ask questions, but to offer their own answers as well. I hope to use this format more in FORGE, and I think it is something that church should be more about. The collective wisdom of a community of faithful disciples will always bring a more well rounded wisdom.
rev
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9 comments:
Hey Rev, Great comments mate about the conference and Mick's sessions. I have been silently mulling over all I heard and was disappointed I could not have been there to hear your comments in the panels but alas duty called and I was honored to hear Ash talk about this life. I agree that community is a fantastic way to hear and share and discuss things especially within the Forge context! God Bless and I look forward to getting to know you and your family as you are an inspiration to me!
I'd like to support the sentiment that the group can fill out the picture more completely than any one member.
But isn't this how humanities collective knowledge and improvement develops in general?
Aside from a few hiccups, do you think, one day, we humans will develop a world free of all human created evil through this gradual and continual improvement in humanities collective wisdom?
so a new name for you huh?
Nice one.
I think God will usher in His Kingdom, not man.
rev
What happened to the panel post? ( maybe its just my drunkeness) Have i missed it? I had a comment all set, coz I know i read it the other day...
well, my question was going to be, what happened to the experts telling people how to share their faith? Your perspective seems to have shifted markedly..( ah, there it is! my apologies for being a drunken, inept disciple
Secondly, their were some words that stood out on the mick duncan post...hmmm.. what were they again?
Urbanmonk,
the sharing the faith time was simply a time of a panel of people sharing their stories and their wisdom in a discussion with others that were trying to do the same thing. I have never ever advocated one person telling others how to do things. As much as possible I believe that we learn as a community.
You will notice however that the panel, were the primary speakers, and they were chosed for their experience and expertise.
BTW you have an email to respond to.
:)
rev
Hey Rev,
Was great to have you and your beautiful wife as part of the action at Surrender. Yes there were many amazing people doing some amazing stuff and I too was humbled to be in the presence of some. Yea panels are a great way to go, the collective wisdom of the community as opposed to THE expert, thanks again bro.
Hi John,
Was also at Surrender, and got to sit in on the Worship workshop/panel discussions (how do we inspire youth to discover their own forms/language of worship?). Thanks for your insights, contributing to the larger, collective perspective. It was quite an experience.
(best of prayers for the retreat time also mentioned in a later blog).
PAUL JOHNSON ASAMOAH
PLEASED TO BE MEETING YOU AND BLESSINGS IN THE LORD. I HAVE $US55 MILLION DOLLARS I WISH TO TRANSFER FROM AUSTRALIA TO YOUR COUNTRY.
PLEASE SEND DETAILS OF YOUR BANKING ACCOUNTS AND YOUR PASSPORT PHOTOGRAPH.
I BELIEVE WE CAN PARTNER SUCCESSFULLY IN THIS VENTURE TOGETHER.
GOD'S SPEED TO YOU MY FRIEND
Rev,
yes, yes, yes. A lot of my friends would list "leadership" or "teaching" (or something similar) as the most important thing they look for in a church. They find it strange, even disturbing, when I say I don't particularly care about the "teaching", my primary concern is "community" - I say this for many reasons, but among them are the fact that I think we learn far more by being in conversations with a group than we do sitting in an audience hearing someone give a 20-45 minute spiel on their point of view. :)
(I think the emphasis on "leadership" and "teaching" is not only dangerous for "congregations" but also their "leaders", but there's a reallly long post there...)
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