New Life, New Hope, New Mission!    

August 3, 2006

Good Morning, Brothers and Sisters:

We'll, as you can guess, the internet connections at the TradeWinds conference center in Florida, did not work, so there have been no postings during the events.  Let me try to summarize what happened.

This year the conference must have had around 150 church planting pastors who were joined by their families, church leaders and Presbytery committees.  Linda and I attended most of the workshops on such things as "what to expect after the first five years," and "financing the project," and "mainline church trends."  But the most engaging event was a group of young (under forty) pastors exploring what is emerging in the church of their generation.  We met each day at 7:30 on the beach for meditation and (don't laugh) yoga.  Then for about two hours to discuss and pray about the emerging directions of Christian religious (meaning the human devised practices of corporate devotion) styles that connect with the young emerging generation. 

What I found was a fundamental shift in attitude emerging between us Boomers and the under forty crowd.  Where we have polarized debates, this group is seeking synthesis.  Tired of the right-left, liberal-conservative, right-wrong, us-them polarities that have riddle debates with anger, there is a deep shift to a more life-giving dialogue that tries to find common ground, or at least understanding. The shift suggests that our rhetoric, in order to connect with younger families, needs to be more encouraging of life-giving language.  This generation is tired of the fights, the diametric oppositions, the condescension and arrogance that has defined the public discourse over the last twenty years.  They are looking not for words that polarize and engender hate emotions, but opportunities to seek life-giving dialogue based on a desire to understand each other and to help one another find truth.

Of course, as Christians our rock and salvation is revealed solely from Scripture.  But rather than beat each other up with the Bible, we might do better to ask, "given what is said in the Word, who do you understand the perspective you hold?  I would like to talk about this with you."

Linda and I will be trying to slip in a little vacation time between now and August 10 when the Session will reconvene for our August ministry work. 

Have a safe and blessed summer, one and all.

John

Updated: 09/29/08