Liquid @ NCCC
Just returned home after the Liquid Day at NCCC - must say I was dissappointed.The first session had input by three people, - Stephen Said (neurotribe.net) , Leighton Tebay (the heretic.com) and Marke Syares (Forge) give a short 3 point intro each on Justice, Spirituality and Culture respectively. The points they made were very good, but unfortunately they were not given the opportunity to open them up (less than 10 minutes for an intro and three points!).
Stephen: JUSTICE
1. The False seperation of Private & Social Transformation
2. From Protest to alternatives
- many people know and can articulate) what they are against, but few know (or can articulate) what they are for.
3. True Vocational Options
- the potential role of transformational businesses ( a matter I want to discuss further with Stephen)
Leighton: SPIRITUALITY
1. From Event to Engagement
- participation is more important than presentation
2. From Formula to Formation
- not a 5 minute marriage courtship, but a slow development of a long term relationship
3. Embrasing the Mystery
- not everything is knowable, nor should we try to explain everything.
Mark: CULTURE
1. Acknowledge (and name) Implicit Religion
- Religion of 'Hyper-reality' - marketers' use of peace / Family / Community/ etc - but its failing is that it cannot deliver heaven on earth
2. Liquidity
- Society is fluid, not just changing cultures, but people move jobs, change communities, move to different countries
3. D.I.Y - in Renovation / making home movies / file-sharing / etc
- they will not need permission to DIY 'church'.
After a bit of discussion almost all taken up on the theme of individualism, we then broke into 5 groups to share thoughts and ideas on specific topics that the whole group had nominated during Afternoon tea.
This is where I feel things fell in a hole. There were no prepared moderators and thus our group, instead of fine-tuning the question, opened it up so widely you could have discussed it for months before you began to achieve anything. This was not just my view. I encourage four members of our Church Strategy team to attend, and the one (who attended a different group) whom I asked how things went after the second session said in a charitable voice: "I'd only give that an average, Gordon".
The plan for the evening was for more of the afternoon, so I came home.
What would I have done differnetly? I have let the three initial speakers each have ten minutes to expound each of their three points, and then had the discussion groups further enquire into and disuss the issues and questions that had been raised. The initial input was too short and thus didn't have the depth it needed.
Of course, This is one person's opinion, and I may have had the wrong end of the stick before I attended, but... I did meet Stephen Said and Leighton Tebay and a couple of others which was good.
posted by Gordon Gray @ Wednesday, February 09, 2005
4 Comments:
I would have liked to attend this one, mostly because I have never had a face to face with other missional, emergent Christians and I would have expected it to be stimulating.
Steve's second point is one that I used to find frustrating when I first ran up against it myself, so I guess that one stands out for me.
Leighton's spirituality wuold have been of interest as spirituality is so brushed over in the church generally yet fundamental to a connection with God. So I would have liked to hear where he went with this one.
There may have been a survey at the close of the day guaging how they went as is usual for this sort of thing. Perhaps the organisers would do well to get your feedback.
Thank you for your last post clarifying your points further.
Garth
The list of Liquid blogs is here.
nice to meet you Gordon. Thanks for posting on my new blog. Will keep on reading yours, looks very interesting.
Hey Gordon, did you go to the Forge Intensive or open nights?
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