Plenary Program Advisory Meetings

Here are some photos from our very successful Plenary Program Advisory Meetings. We got a lot of good input and I think people had a good time. In particular our conversation about "Calling" was an interesting one - we're doing quite a bit of thinking about what we're calling people to and how. I'll keep you posted.

Flash Slideshow

A quote for your reflection and comment:

"The scandal of the church is that the Christ-event is no longer life-changing, it has become life-enhancing. We've lost the power and joy that makes real disciples and become consumers of religion and not disciples of Jesus Christ.

It would be fantastic if people not only said of Jesus Christ, 'What sort of man is this?' but said of his followers, 'What sort of people are they?' "

Dr. John Sentamu, the recently enthroned first black Archbishop of York

So here's kind of a cool thing - I discovered that there is a Wikipedia entry on Urbana that has a pretty good summary of the convention on it. Anyone want to own up to that shameless (nor should you be ashamed!) promotion of the event? In any case, good to know!

I had a profound thought on Sunday that I thought might be worth blogging about, but now I can only remember half of it - which doesn't seem nearly as profound. There's a very simple truth about me in this somewhere! Perhaps the truly profound thought is that really you're probably more interested in what I'm doing than my musing on life!

This week I'm working with Lucille, my co-Program Manager (she's the Plenary Program Manager, I'm the Development & Non-Plenary Program Manager... for those of you who are keeping track of these things! - We're not always entirely sure where the line between us lies, but we're happy to try and explain it to you if you'd really like to know!) Where was I before the long paranthetical insert? Oh yes, this week...

This week we're working on calls to commitment for Urbana. It's a struggle to think about how to clearly and succintly express something which will be compelling and memorable (it's important that people remember what they're committing to!), broad enough to include a wide diversity of people yet specific enough not to lose it's punch, so to speak. We spent a couple of hours digging into Ephesians again together and looking at the overall program as it's currently planned and attempting to answer the question: "So what are we asking people to commit to? What do we want the outcomes of Urbana 06 to be for individual participants?"

I love that kind of thinking - it's a bit like interpreting Emily Dickinson - you start with an enigma and if you work hard enough you get through to a beautiful and clear truth. We'll see. My draft one summary was too verbose - but that's just me. We'll cut out some words (which will be painful for me, but there you have it) and get down to something which I suspect will be good. We'll see.

The profound church thought had something to do with worship - the measure of good worship being the quality of our lives lived in response rather than the affective experience in the moment. But then I had to qualify that - because the affective experience matters to God as well (our worship has more quality when it springs from joy and thanksgiving than if it is merely a dry rational obedience). So it must have it all - our hearts, our minds & our lives. And true transformation must engage all of me - my emotion, my will, my thoughts, etc. Perhaps not so profound. These are the things I stand and think about in church. Perhaps I think too much!

My beautiful niece, Elisabeth Adelaide (otherwise known as Libby) turned 1 yesterday. Here's a collage of some of my favorite Libby shots from year one: