A Life-Changing Presentation

In April of 2007 I attended the very first Q Conference, and got to listen to Kevin Kelly‘s presentation on Christianity in 1000 Years.

Sitting here a mere 18 months later, I can confirm that the message I heard on that day was truly life-changing for me. The talk gave me a focus on being able to appreciate the thrill of today, but also to think about how my choices and interests will effect not just my family but the generations to follow after me. Thinking about the future has helped me to realize just how small I am in the scope of human history – but also just how far reaching and impactful my daily life might be.

I bring this back up now because Q has decided to release the talk into the wild, for free. You can check it out be going here:

http://www.qideas.org/talks/

and then selecting “Christianity in 1000 Years.” If you have any interest in the idea of being a futurist or if, for some reason, you want to better understand my thought process or, if you just want in on one of the few things I can honestly say was “life-changing” for me, check it out.

Considering the Whiteboard Sessions

For the past few months, I’ve been considering attending the White Board Sessions.

Last year, I attended the Q Conference, and it was simply amazing.  I’m not going this year because it’s in New York, and I simply cannot afford it.  “Affording it” is my same quandry with attending the White Board Sessions.

Though the White Board Sessions is a much cheaper endeavor… it still costs me money.  It would cost me gas and miles on my car.  And, just as important, it would cost me time.

Now then, I’d LOVE to go for the connections and the experience of being there… and it really seems that Ben Arment is really making a conference worth attending.  But I don’t know how big the conference is, versus something like the Connect Conferences* where I know there’s only going to be 75 attendees (thus making connections and networking the top reason to go, imho).

But then, the reality of the fact that there are conferences all over (DJ Chaung, leader of the digital.leadnet.org blog, is attending six in April alone) and that some speakers are recycling their talks… it makes me wonder if there isn’t a better way to do this.

Q got it right last year: they filmed the talks and offered for viewing online for a fee.  Even though I attended, I subscribed to the service.  I don’t know what Whiteboard’s post-conference plans are, but I do hope they’re able to post the videos out to the rest of the world who doesn’t show up.

That being said, if I had to pick one Christian conference to go to this year, it probably would the Whiteboard Sessions.  I know Ed Stetzer will have something stellar lined up, and I’ve come to expect great things from Mark Batterson.  But still, I find it hard to commit to such a journey (a day of driving, the actual conference, a day of siteseeing(?), a day of driving back).

Perhaps I’ve been to spoiled with online video and webcasts of major keynotes in the past for non-Christian related things.  Perhaps I want an easier way to hear these messages, whether they be world-changing, life-altering, or niche-filling.  Or, perhaps, I should just find solace in knowing that there are great ideas being shared and I can let them trickle down to me and I don’t always have to be at the forefront of ideation.

*DISCLAIMER:  Yes, I work for LifeWay.  Yes, LifeWay is putting on the Connect Conferences.  But seriously… the Threads team is putting a lot into these conferences… I know, because I’ve been in some of the meetings.  The Connect Conferences are going to be an amazing oppertunity for anyone interested in young adult culture and ministries.  They’ve got some great stuff lined up, and the oppertunity to connect with other leaders and experts is going to be unlike anything else I’ve seen coming up.

now contributing at…

I’m now contributing at the digital.leadnet.com blog.  I got to interact with it’s curator, DJ Chuang after the Q Conference earlier this year (I really need to finish up my series on that… where did my notes go?) and, in an effort to be a little more intentional with my time, mentioned contributing for him at the site.  He took me up on the offer, and there we go!I’ll probably keep up with those posts here the same way I do with my Threads posts… give a teaser and then let you click on through if you’re interested.  So, without further ado, my first digital.leadnet post!

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I attend a church with a lot of artists – singer/songwriters, video producers, and actual painters/illustrators. Throughout our Sunday Mornings we often try to find ways to utilize them in some form or fashion during the worship service, so they have a time and place to give back some of their talents to God. However, we also have some technical-minded people: programmers, database analysts, and web designers. It doesn’t always seem fair that they don’t get to find an outlet for their skills and talents to be used for worship or discipleship.

click for the rest  

Q: Chris Seay | Consumerism

Chris Seay’s talk was on consumerism.  I’ve heard his name spoken around here and there; I know my pastor is a big fan.  I’m not sure about why he was chosen as the expert on consumerism… not against it but just not sure why.  His talk was much more pastoral than the others; it was needed as it was a much more familiar style of talk.

Seay started out by talking about how commercials have been telling us a counterfeit story.  This flowed really well out of Donald Miller’s talk.  Seay stated that the counterfeit story we’ve been told is that “when we get what we want we will be happy” – and it is this lie that diverts our attention to consumerism.

Seay used the interesting analogy of how, when playing Sims, buying things make your Sim’s comfort level go up.  We’re being trained that buying things simply for the sake of buying things is going to make us feel better.  That we’re trained to want more.

Seay sees that in the history of scripture, Israel is always asking for more.  There is always this human need to want more.  Now, in America, the richest people in history are obsessing over what we don’t have.

In response to all this, Seay lets out the major point here: We were made to create, not just consume.

Some interesting stats he laid on us:

Americans spend:

$18 Billion on makeup

$15 Billion on perfume

$17 Billion on pet food

It would cost:

$5 Billion to eliminate illiteracy worldwide

$10 Billion to solve the water crisis for everyone in the world

$19 Billion to eliminate hunger worldwide

Seay also charged us to not spend so much on material gifts for Christmas, but instead use that money (Q attendees together spend an estimated $344,000 on gifts in 2006) to help change the world.

 

For me, this talk reminded me of one my ongoing threads of thought as of late: the role of the church in America is to be the pocketbook of the global church.  Our money is worth such an average amount here to by above-average material items.  Even a small portion of our money redirected to another country can literally save lives every day.

It’s hard because we have been so uneducated and inexperienced.  Even at church we talk about all the new gadgets and gizmos and ways we can stay connected to build community… but don’t think to build community by changing lives across the world by giving $5 here and there.  America doesn’t help us either, as – just as Seay said – the story has been made into a counterfeit consumerist one.  We don’t get the news or see the images of our human brothers and sisters struggling while we try to decide what temperature to set the room we’re in.

Seay’s talk was a tough one because I feel like I should be moved to do something great and give away more than I already am.  But we’re stuck in debt and can’t seem to do much until we get out of that.  There are things I can sell and clear out my “space”… but are we called to have little?  Or are we called to have wisely?

While I’ve been reading through the Old Testament I found that having things isn’t bad… it’s an honorable thing.  I think the important thing is that we can “have” – but that we shouldn’t have in such excess that the people around us have so dramatically less.  It’s ok to have a large house… but have people living with you.  It’s ok to have toys… but make sure that the kids you know (and some you don’t know) have toys too.

Is that being too easy on myself?  Should we live in poverty for the sake of poverty?  It’s  tough, strange line.  Probably will be something we’ll all be dealing with as we live in America and spend on one meal the amount that could feed a child else where for a month.  It’s probably something we’ll always be thinking and processing through.

And maybe that’s a good thing.

Q: More Bloggers

(found on Duncan’s blog)

Living on the Edge

Andrew Sikora

L2 Foundation Blog

SBC Outpost

Q: Jeff Johnson | Hip-Hop

Jeff Johnson educated me.  He took us through the ins and outs of the history of hip-hop culture and its effect on global culture in 18 minutes.  I don’t really feel at all adequate to go through and try to detail that history… but wow.  He knows his stuff.

He talks about how in other countries, where they don’t even have MTV, where they are in the midst of civil war, you can find G-UNIT written in graffiti or purchase Eminem posters.  How has hip-hop gotten to a point where it is spread across the world, even where the music isn’t supposed to be available?

Hip-hop came out of a post-civil rights movement; the integration was happening, but the economic benefits had yet to reach the black youth of the day.  They were disenfranchised and had no voice; so they created the voice of hip-hop.  Suddenly they had a voice.

The problems came first when someone realized they could make a product of that voice and sell it.

The problem now is that, as Johnson puts it, hip-hop is being created by a “post-soul generation.”  It used to be that someone in the family had a spiritual influence on the youth; the parents, the aunt, the brother – someone.  But now there are people growing up with no one to reel them back in.  Now, as Johnson describes it, you have 40-year-old grandmas clubbing with their daughters.

I understood Johnson’s challenge to the church to be to stop excusing and ignoring race and the cultures of the diverse races.  We are more comfortable saying Jesus wouldn’t see color instead of dealing with the realities that differences make us great.  Johnson suggests there is still racism in the church –that a black person isn’t a “black” person when they’re a part of your church.

The point of hip-hop in our conversation is that it’s an example of how it transcends ethnic and cultural communities without shedding who “I am”.  Instead, when we can create together, our diverse backgrounds can add value.  Unfortunately, we most often get “urban ministry” that is, and I quote, “suburban ministry in blackface.”  The white church needs to “remove the fakeness” – a young black man will see it, because “I am us.”

 

 

I really enjoyed this session.  Johnson is obviously passionate about his craft and how it creates culture.  It was also good to have just a completely different style of speaker than I’m used to.  Johnson just oozed with passion and you knew that in those 18 minutes he was telling us the most important things he knew to say to us.

For me, the best thing out of this was the reminder to not ignore race.  I need to always remember that other people come from different memories.  How I remember church growing up is not how my brother who is Asian remembers it.  How I remember celebrating Christmas is not how my sister who is Black remembers it.  How I remember my first day on the job is not how my Hispanic neighbor remembers it.  There are deeper stories and deeper disconnects there than I might expect.  Instead of being afraid of them, we’ve got to rejoice in them; and your story can make my story a better one.

Q: Donald Miller | Narrative Expressions

Donald Miller was the first of the second session presenters.  The second session was decidedly different from the first.  Whereas the first seemed to be experts who set the tone for the key points of our conversation at Q, the second session felt much more pastoral.  Perhaps the better was to synthesize it is that the first session was “here’s the story” and the second session was “here’s what my part of the story could be.”

Donald Miller did a great job at setting the tone for the following presenters, talking specifically about narrative and how stories effect us; specifically, how our personal story effect us.

Miller began by telling the story behind on of his yearly rituals: every year he spends time to sit down and literally decide what he’s going to spend the next year doing.  What is your next year going to be about?

This past year he was struggling, however, as he couldn’t decide what it was he wanted to do for the first time.  While he was still trying to figure it out, he received a call from a friend he’s known for years.  He had once sent her a letter that described the things he wanted to accomplish in life.  They talked about that letter and he discovered why he no longer knew what he wanted to do: he had accomplished all the he had once dreamed of.  He needed a new story to take part in.

We as humans identify most with a three-act, single protagonist story.  We are the single protagonist, and we need an antagonist.  A few things he points out from this idea:

·         The story becomes as important as the dream.  If the protagonist dies, their dreams die.  What is lost if the dream dies?

·         If your ambition is evil, you are the villain.

·         If your ambition is apathetic, you are a background character.

The problem he describes for the church today is that our story has been hijacked by a lesser story; the story of secular culture.  For all the time we spend on “sacred” entertainment, we spend hours more on “secular” entertainment.  We need to be a part of a better story.

Miller describes a friend whose daughter was dating a… less that appropriate suitor.  Her life was going down a path the father did not approve of, but he didn’t know how to help her.  When the family stumbled into an opportunity to help build and fund an orphanage in another country, the family rallied around the idea.  The suddenly found a better story.  Saving lives was such a better story to be in than rebelling against her father.  The family found themselves in a better story, and better for it.

I think the psychological implications of story and narrative can run deep.  I find myself agreeing greatly with Miller – I wish he had taken the ideas further.  I don’t think that the church has been simply hijacked by a lesser story; I think most churches don’t have a story.

In Kevin Kelly’s presentation he made the “controversial” statement that we have to consider the possibility that Armageddon won’t happen in our lifetime.  That there are other options for what will happen in the year 2100, 2200, or even 3100.  So many churches have grown lazy because there is no greater story; they don’t know about social injustices like slave trading or environmental issues that will affect their children’s children.  And so, the biggest story their church is caught up in is the color of the carpet.

So many churches have dissention because their pastor has not given them a better story to be a part of.  Every story needs an antagonist; if the church isn’t aware of opportunities to change culture for the better, if they aren’t aware of the movements of Satan, they can easily lose sight of who their antagonist is.  In a culture where the greatest antagonist is “the man,” then if the church has no other antagonist the first, and easiest, person to see as the villain is the pastor.

If the pastor hasn’t given his church a better story to be a part of, his people will turn on him or leave.

Big churches can get by on the story of being part of something big.  Church plants can get by on the story of being part of something new.  Aging churches can get by on the story of being a resting place before they die.

Or, we can have a better story.  What is your church’s story?

Q: Other Bloggers

Taking a break from thinking…. found some other Q Bloggers online…. I don’t think I’ve actually met them here though.

Wonderland

Facedown Worshipper

Marcelliot

What’s Your Point Caller

And one blogger who’se blogging about it… based on other blogger’s posts…

Think Create Design

Q: Kevin Kelly | Christianity in the Next 1000 Years

Kevin Kelly.  I took three pages of notes from this man.  His talk steamrolled through the future.

Some of you might know that I’m in the opening stages of writing a book.  There are so many things he said that fall right in line with the stuff that I’ve been working on, that it was a huge encouragement that I’m heading in the right direction.  The hesitation for me is to question how my voice can even begin to matter when someone like Kevin Kelly is saying similar things… he’s going to do it bigger/better with a larger audience… so there is this fear of why should I even try?

I think for me the key here is that while I ate up his stuff, while I thought it was phenomenal, while for me just hearing this one session was worth the cost of admission… looking around I saw a lot of people that just didn’t “get it.”  The issue is a matter of what voice do you bring to these conversations.  I may not have as much experience as Kelly, but I have my own, unique voice.  Perhaps people might resonate with my sentence structure and vocabulary more than they can with Kelly.  Perhaps have do have some new and unique perspectives.  Perhaps there is room for me at this table of conversation.  But after listening to this man just throw out idea after idea that each are so revolutionary that (in my opinion) Fermi needs to consider having a full-fledged futurist conversation, it’s a bit intimidating.  But I digress.

I could spend 10,000 words pouring through the wisdom that Kelly spilled onto the Tabernacle floor.  I think these notes will be something I return to several times.  Let’s just try to get through a couple of the more “key” concepts and things that really set off stuff for me.

First of all, the future is not that far away.  By looking at birth records, Kelly finds that we need only go back 13 generations to reach 1000AD, 30 generations to reach Christ, 60 to reach Moses.  That means thinking about Christianity in 1000 years really means thinking only 13 generations out.

13 generations ago, the church was dealing with these hot issues:

·         Catholic Indulgences

·         Is the Holy Spirit from the Father or from the Son (people were killed over this argument)

·         Marriage for Priests?

·         Can we take a leavened Eucharist?

·         Will there be an Emperor Pope?

·         The Crusades

That was only 13 generations ago.  How will 13 future generations look back on our struggles?  Will things like musical style be that important then?

We’ll reach 2040 in one generation – or, really, ½ of a generation.  The social issues we’ll be dealing with in 2040:

·         End of the Boomer generation

·         Shrinking world population due to currently falling fertility rates in every country

·         Age-lust; youth is precious because it cannot be regained

·         China will be largest economy, outgrowing America

·         30% of China will be Christian

Perhaps one of the more interesting ideas is that of discerning what possible futures exist and what are impossible.  Kelly makes a great (and EXTREMELY controversial) point: every interpretation of the apocalypse has been wrong so far.  It simply hasn’t happened yet, but every generation interprets the scriptures to say that it will happen in their generation.  Kelly suggests that we realize that the apocalypse happening in our timeline is just a possible future.  And that it happening in the next 1000 years is just a possible future.  But that it hasn’t happened yet… so we need to think past it.

Denominations are growing and splintering at a rapid rate.  The number of denominations:

·         1800: 500

·         2007: 40,000

·         2100: 260,000

The current fastest growing denominations are Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, and the Amish.  If current trends continue, the future “Christianity” will be a para-Christianity.

The last thing I’ll hit for now (I’ve skipped like half of his talk) is the dangers that a falling world population bring.  The world has always been growing in prosperity and the population has always been growing.  Futurists fear this dip in world population because they’ve never seen it happen before; the human race has always previously replenished itself.  The U.N. charts on fertility predict the human population will peak in the year 2050, and then dip down.  And that’s a conservative estimate, based on fertility rates alone – no major famine, war, etc is taken into account.

In the talkback session with Kelly later, he talked a little more about this issue, and the cause of it: People are having smaller families because of TV.

The U.N. conducted studies in Indian counties, tracking what the effect TV had on the population as it entered the areas county-by-county.  They found that as TV entered a county, the fertility rate dropped dramatically.  The culprit?  Soap Operas.

It was found that soap operas have changed women’s perceptions of their role in society and what they want for their children.  Previous to TV entering a county, a woman would want for her daughter to have a large family.  Once they began to watch soap operas, however, they same the glamorized life that smaller families had.  Smaller families meant more money, which meant better opportunities for the children.  Thus, the mothers wanted fewer children so that their children could have a more glamorized life.  TV is the best birth control, doing for countries what planned parenthood and laws couldn’t.

And yeah, I skipped a ton of stuff.  I think the key thing to glean from his talk, if none of that stood out to you, is that we must be thinking about the future generations.  They aren’t that far off.  We also need to be observant of future trends.  If a Christian publishing house is based in America, they must be actively seeking entry points into the growing Chinese economy.  We don’t simply need to be hiring Spanish-speaking employees and a Hispanic marketing expert… that’s the sort of things we should have been doing 5 years ago; America is already there.

We need to be researching the market in China.  We need to figure out how house churches utilize materials.  Do they even have a budget?  Do we even produce materials that make sense to their culture?  How do you produce a Bible study that doesn’t contain the Bible, since we don’t want out customers to die simply for having purchased our materials?

…are American Christian publishing houses, these great institutes of wisdom, these treasures of gifted writers and designers and managers who help America better understand the scriptures, our lives and our culture… are American Christian publishing houses even thinking about China?  Should they be?

Q: Catherine Rohr | Redeeming Justice

And after the most pleasant presentation came the most emotional: Catherine Rohr.

Rohr is the founder of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program.  She uses business as a tool to love inmates and help them succeed in life – and stay out of jail – once they leave.  As part of her program she takes in the top gang leaders and drug dealers – the people who are already naturally leaders and entrepreneurs.   In the program all the inmates spend four months in a business plan competition (and doing the chicken dance).  When the are released from prison, Rohr picks them up at the gate and will already have housing arranged for them and planned interviews with companies.

In three years, the PEP has had 256 graduates.  There have been no active participants who have gone back to prison; and only 2.8% of the people in this program have been kicked out.  Rohr believes this huge success rate is because of one simple thing: she and the PEP staff love them.

When prisoners in Texas are released they are given one outfit of clothes, $100, and a bus ticket to the city they committed their crime in.  Rohr tells the story of one graduate who, when she picked him up, immediately handed her $10 (of the only $100 he had to his name).  He wanted to tithe.  He currently makes $9/hr and tithes 10% to his church and then gives another 5% to the PEP.

Rohr reminds us that prisoners – even murderers – can be role models.  She questioned why the church won’t have faith in former convicts, but will allow grace for the “old-school” murderers in Moses, Paul and David.

This was, without question, the most emotional time of the day.  The guilt that comes from being cleansed from the stereotypes we have of people so foreign to us like prisoners.  They’re criminals… they must be evil, right?  Is it safe to have a former convict as a church attendee if we have a preschool program?  Can they ever really change?  Why should we bother even trying to help?

And in telling her story, Rohr lavishes love on these people we have sought to de-humanize.  My first reaction is to simply think – “well, I don’t interact with that culture.  My life doesn’t intersect with them… that’s why I’ve never thought about it that way.  I don’t know any ex-cons.”

Aaron, Aaron, that is the point!  I don’t interact with that culture; I never have… and there’s too large of a chance that I never will.  Why do I refuse to lavish love on them?  If I don’t, if my peers don’t, if this body of Christ doesn’t intercede and pour love on them… what kind of life are they going to have off of $100 and a one-way bus ticket?  If we who claim that “love wins” don’t bother to love them… who will?