Post-Summit reflections

What I liked about the Summit: Stories - lots of them! Stories about what is happening in a AIDs- and poverty-stricken township in South Africa, the inner city of Detroit. Lots of stories. Diversity - This may be one of the first conferences I've attended that wasn't dominated by white men. Hurray! Justice - The mainstream evangelical church is discovering justice. These quotes hit home to me: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" (Martin Luther King Jr.). Or this: "If a church is surrounded by poverty, it has to do something about that poverty" (Mosa Sono). Almost half of the speakers spoke on issues of justice rather than business. Southwest - If you're going to learn from business, you may as well learn from one that loves people and hates being a corporation. Listening to Colleen Barrett was a treat. Hybels getting ribbed - Hybels took a lot of good-natured abuse. That was fun, really fun. Nice to see him not being taken too seriously. Authenticity - Maybe it was just me but everything seemed a lot more real this year. The people on stage (including the music teams) weren't preened and perfect. 50% less hype - very welcome. At this risk of complaining, here is some of what I didn't like: Wifi - would it kill you to allow us to blog while we're there? We should have picked the Stoney Creek site - kudos to them for providing wifi. Parking lot attendants - They have power issues. Or else I do. Either way we didn't get along. Money - At a minimum of $169 a head it's too expensive. Decentralize the simulcast sights so that any church with a dish can pay a nominal fee to watch it. 53,000 people at $169 a head = $9 million dollars. Bet they could do it for half that. Finally a suggestion to the Willow Creek Association: Do a Technorati search and see what other bloggers are saying about the Summit. May be more useful than the feedback forms!

Comments

[Arthur]

I was hoping to go to a conference in Toronto this year. (Yes, it really is your brother who is writing this!) Turns out that this year they are having the conference as part of a cruise. Yeah, right! As if the normal Joe Christian can afford THAT, not to mention having to take the entire week off work instead of being able to attend the night services only as was the usual practice. What is up with that? Is Christianity only for the wealthy these days? Does the normal, average Christian have to forego the hearing of the Word because he/she cannot keep up with the Rockerfellers among us? I don't often get the chance to attend these conferences, living as I do in the netherlands of Eastern Ontario, AND being as stubbornly adverse to churchianity as I am. Darn! I was really looking forward to that!

[Scott Ringo]

Yes the Summit was better this year than most. Not so much talk about specifically building seeker churches and more on leadership. I wonder if we looked at our church staffs, how many staff would fit into Collen's hiring criteria- hire for attitude and train for skill http://emerge.typepad.com" rel="nofollow">Emerge http://emerge.typepad.com/coffeeforone" rel="nofollow">Coffee For One http://emerge.typepad.com/woven" rel="nofollow">Intricately Woven