Opening Reflections on the Center City Summit

It's been a relatively low blog week for me, because the first three days of it were spent at this inaugural event that focused on the issues discussed here.  We called it the Center City Summit.  (I suspect there's still a button to register for it on this site.  Someday soon we'll get that down.)

We had a diverse and hardy crew—perhaps 130 people from—I'm sure I'm leaving some state out in my count—at least thirteen states, representing the west (California, Arizona), the Midwest (Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio), and the east (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts).  So, at the very least, most of us made some new friends around these passions, from all over the country.

It was—as promised (or threatened) on our first day together—a content-heavy experience.  Lots of sessions, each—in intention at least—chock-full of new things to think about, which led some of us towards sympathy with the classic Far Side strip...

There were occasional moments of controversy, as some folks had to wrestle with whether this point of view cohered with their understanding of faith.

But by and large what I heard was an experience of feeling buzzed, deeply excited about the prospects for pursuing a fresh experience of faith alongside such dynamic and inspiring people as we were meeting around the lunch table. 

And what was at least mildly surprising to me was something that I feel abashed to be surprised at all about.  I was struck by how meaningful our collective prayer experiences were for me.  I shouldn't have been surprised: in theory the faith we're talking about is "mystical" to at least some degree, and that, of course, needs to focus on an actual connection with an actual, living God.  You'd think this would involve at least some prayer. 

But my inherent introversion often helps me make those connections best when I'm by myself.  Group prayer or worship, as needed and helpful as those experiences can be for me, are rarely as meaningful for me.  And yet somehow this experience got past all those defenses for me and very much impacted me, each time. 

It brought back to me this insight that should have been obvious: For all the heady theories and powerfully-argued points, we are, after all, talking about connecting with God here.  And when that happens, it's a really, really good thing.

More soon, I'm sure.

Comments

[reconnecting]

This experience and others have led me to realize that I have much in common with those at d-C. I grew up in the church and had very profound experiences with Jesus in both high school and college. However, over the last few years I have neither felt the power nor presence of a living god in my life. At times I have called into question major tenants of my faith. I feel like I have just been going through the motions. Last night during prayer I heard a clear voice saying that this lack of relationship in both the spiritual and temperal dimensions is caused by a wall of bitterness and anger. Please pray for me as I seek to reconnect.

[Adam Coates]

Dave, I think I am right on track with you with regard to the prayer experiences. I am slightly more introverted than extroverted, and I found it profoundly impactful to pray with so many people from so many parts of the country. These prayers, despite slight or large differences in some theological aspects, seemed to ask God for the same thing--for His presence to lead people to a greater understanding and connection with Him.
I would just like to thank you and all those that coordinated this event for the hard work and effort. It was a great experience for me.
Also, as a side note, I did learn that MapQuest and Google Map directions, when used as navigational tools to maneuver through Boston, basically stink. (I am a South Carolina native, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I would like to think it has more to do with my sources). Thank you again for this event and for the dialogue this blog is creating.

[mark valente]

Dave and crew,

I am extremely greatful for God's apprehending me for this conference/summit.
I too am a "Paradigm" kinda guy. If its broken, fix it or do a 180, but find what works and where the fruit is. Thanks for the opening lines from J.R.R. Tolkien's book, "The world is changing" It set the theme for the summit and was a prophetic statement of courage in an otherwise unprogressive and sometimes entrenched view of church rules/doctrine etc..
The 3 days were all about getting CONNECTED! w/ Jesus, His church, [aka Kingdom] and w/ one another.
The time of prayer for our respective cities was POWERFUL! and cut a wide swath across all lines of societal hurts and ills, I was touched by the hearts of men and woman here, old and young, of which I will never forget.
One short story,
Tuesday night me and 8 other guys all from other states and 1 friend from VCC went to Bernucchi's for Pizza. We could have held our own summit as we just fell in love w/ one anothers company, talking over beer and pizza just reminiscing over our journey's together.
I have to have 2 sets of "Pray my 6" 1 for my locals and 1 for the bretheren God has knit me with and for His kingdoms sake because of the goodness and sweetness of this Summit.
Love to all, esp. the pizza rabble remnant!

[DJ Sybear]

I think it was overall a pretty good experience for me as well. Conferences tend to be good experiences for me on the whole; I think this was a cut above most.

There's something about gathering together with a group of people where the baseline commonality is that everyone is practitioners. Certainly it's not feasible for that to happen in our churches; people are at different places in understanding what it means to follow Jesus, and rightly so. After a little experience with God we start to yearn after a little more mission, a little more impact. Conferences like this facilitate that, and in this case I am particularly grateful for how much I've gained.

I think two things were particularly useful for me, the first of which was a vocabulary change. There's plenty of talk about stage theory (yes, a helpful paradigm) and Jesus-following and whatnot, whether at the conference or the book or on this site. But somehow the utility of that idea finally "drove home", as it were, at the conference. It might have been Carl Medearis's talk especially, but I think that was in the context of everything else I'd been hearing.

The second thing I gained was a renewed call to action, I suppose. I've been intensely aware (for years) that I'm not very good at this following Jesus lifestyle, but I've given it a good go. Recently it's been hard to keep in focus what I think God had been leading me towards, so much so that it would be easy to give up certain dreams now. I think God has encouraged me to keep at it, to rejoin the conversation, but on slightly different terms. I think I'm going to have an increasingly stage 4 approach to my public conversations with Christians, and am more willing than ever to engage the secular stage 3 masses with a more speculative understanding.

Thanks again to Dave, Not Religious, and the Greater Boston Vineyard. May God bless your continued endeavours.

[marlster]

will you have mp3s of the event?