My buddy and HBC Deacon Davis is at the Q conference in Chicago. He is one cool progressive baptist minister and fellow Demon Deacon graduate. Here are his reflections…..
I have heard the term “justification by faith” more times in the past five hours than I have in the past five years. Not to mention the term “double imputation” which I am guessing weaves its way back to some kind of penal substitutionary atonement. Am I in the right room???
After my initial shock and subsequent regrouping, I have gathered a few reflections from Day One of the Q Conference in Chicago!
1 – Evangelicals are preaching social justice!?! Could this be a fatal blow to the mainline Protestants who preach social justice? Liberal strands of Christianity has always included social justice in the message of Christ…we are just not very good at actually doing it. We’ll see if the evangelicals can do any better. But after listening to the speakers, I think they might beat us at our own game.
2. The table is bigger than I had thought it would be…but still not big enough. So here is a run-down of WINNERS and LOSERS who are at least at the table on Day One at the Q:
The leader of a gay ministry in Chi-town asks the church leaders present to let loose their holds of the proverbial “gatekeys.” He gets 2 minutes to speak. The guy who wants to convert the 1.57 billion Muslims, he gets 9 minutes. WINNER = the leader of the gay ministry with the rainbow color backdrop; the missionary to the Muslims has been at this table for a long time.
Scott McKnight gets 20 minutes to compel his audience not to confuse the plan of salvation with the narrative of Jesus Christ, what he would define the “Gospel.” Going one step further, he even asks them to let the narrative overshadow their coveted salvation plan! His very spotty reading of Paul as “story-teller” of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15 only goes so far as “story”, and his assertion that Jesus proclaimed himself, John 14:6 only goes so far as well notwithstanding, WINNER = Evangelicals.
Doug Pagitt is on the sidelines as a table leader when he should be a speaker at this conference, WINNER = no one!
And finally – the Christian subculture of tight jeans, wacky hair that actually takes a lot of time to prepare in the morning, plastic rim glasses, designer shoes, and the I am different than you…and telling you how to “do” church, WINNER = certainly not my 60 year old colleague who dresses in ties, slacks and nursing shoes, at least they look like nursing shoes.
My suggestions after Day One, just keep making room, (and hey, at least you all have a table that folks actually want to sit around. I am would still give my left arm to have 30 youth show up at our Sunday night youth group). And yes, even make space for the liberals, we’ll need a seat after you evangelicals actually practice what we have been preaching for so long! Wait a minute. Maybe there is still time!
Godspeed, adam davis
Student Minister
You heard Andrew Marin speak? Whoa! I *heart* that man… and did the plan to convert a billion muslims include having more babies so you can raise up little missionaries? b/c there was a guy teaching that at a deacons retreat my husband attended last year… bizarre.
And also? I love the tie and suit wearing, nursing footwear look. I despise the “trying to look cool” look. In the words of Derek Webb re: the church “You can dress her like the culture, but you’ll shock them just as well” People see through the masks.
A REFLECTION ON THE Q CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO
Ken Meyers (drkenneth1031@gmail.com)
30 April 2010 / Chicago
Not much has changed with the evangelicals. They are hugely focused, uniformly conservative, and culturally aware. The Q Conference meeting in Chicago attracts lots of millennials and technology and sound bites. They know who they are and where they are going.
Over my years of conferences and continuing education, I find it helpful to stay in touch with the evangelical stripe. Theologically, they can find theologians who support their theories. But over time, they do make accommodations, just like the rest of us. They gave up keeping women out of ministry. They gave up calling environmentalists tree huggers. They gave up calling social justice acts of liberals.
So, where will their next accommodation come from? It appears it will be with the gay community. That was evidenced when one of the “three-minute” presenters spoke of his ministry to the Chicago gay community and pleaded for the “gatekeepers” to open the gates and build bridges to this humanity created in the image of God.
The presentation was extraordinarily personal and powerful. There was a stunned silence in the room. At the conclusion, only a small unsure applause was followed by a select few. The moment generated a pregnant pause – this matter is now on the table.
Accommodating for the kingdom of God – there is a lesson to be learned from these evangelicals. They are fast learners. The difference is their accommodation does not change their theology – gay folks will still be sinners, but it appears the evangelicals will now talk to them. Lesson for the progressive community – be hugely focused, uniformly conservative, and culturally aware for the sake of the Gospel.
I never understood much of the debates surrounding ‘culture.’ I always thought certain voices in the church would get the inevitability of cultural change and the younger generation will naturally assume the culture they are participating in. For this reason I consider conversations about the aesthetic dimension of culture (the arbitrary part at least) to be unhelpful. When will we understand that certain people are just doing church in the way they do all of life?
The evangelical world definitely needs to have more conversations about homosexuals et al. Most are open to the idea of sharing God with them but have no clue what that might look like. Best efforts usually look something like smiles and nods. I really enjoyed the talk from that leader.