I just got out of a seminar where I was out of place.
It was helpful, though. Tim Conder was talking about bridges between established and emerging churches. The following question made me realize I wasn’t the target audience: “How many of you are senior pastors who feel like you don’t understand this new way of doing ministry that your younger staff is advocating?” Hands up all over the room, but I’m the reverse: a senior pastor who very much approaches ministry with postmodern/emerging/contextual philosophies in a church that sometimes struggles to understand.
What was helpful is seeing some of the ways Tim communicated that defused conflict and increased understanding. I think I need to think about moving a thought that’s long been in the back of my mind to the front burner. It may be time for me to lead some meetings/discussions/classes on the differences between modern/existing assumptions of church and postmodern/emerging assumptions.
One other thing I didn’t write about this morning. Todd Agnew was a part of our morning session. I loved him! Very humble, very articulate, one of the few singers I would have been ok listening to even if he didn’t sing. Some of his gems:
“People think of me as an authority on all things spiritual–but all I do is sing loud! When you think about it, all I have is one hit song [Grace Like Rain]. And when you really think about THAT, the song is really Amazing Grace, so who am I?”
His current project is about asking questions, giving voice to the hard questions that are often ignored by Christians.
“As a Christian musician, you can ask any difficult question you want…as long as you answer it in the chorus.”
He’d like to model something different, and I’m all for it!