Day one was spent getting to know the area where we’d have the conference. Mount Hermon, California is a very beautiful place. After arriving, and being told that I was a bit early for check-in, I took some time to walk around the ground. Redwoods and sequoias all over the place. Taking a small trail walk was a humbling introduction to what I would begin to understand as one of the common themes for the week.
Day two there was actually the first day of the conference. After introductions and a shared devotional, we got into the day’s sessions. Day 1 of the conference centered on social networking (see the sketchnotes, top-left corner). Presentations by Jesus.net, Cornerstone, BeRemedy, World Wide Open, and several others pointed to the growing use of Facebook in outreach, discipleship, and evangelism efforts. There’s a lot of room in terms of just Facebook activity for several players, but probably at lot more potential outside of using English languages.
Day three (that is, Day 2 of the conference) talked about web evangelism. The day was bookmarked by two great words of encouragement by Stephen Douglass (CEO of Campus Crusade), we heard more about what was happening with Campus Crusade, Jesus.net, and the conversation opened a bit more towards understanding hot just the opportunity, but the implications of using the web as part of the discipleship and engagement effort. I also got a chance to hear from the author of the book Netcasters - to which we’ll have a review coming of that book. Many people also participated in the canopy tour, which took you on heights amongst the redwoods. Apparently, there was also a 2000 year old redwood there – I didn’t go (heights and me don’t get along), but that would have been great to see.
Day 3 of the conference was dedicated to mobile. Clyde Taber (Visual Story Network), Dave Hackett (VisionSynergy), and myself were present to present – and we had Cybermissions and URMobile presenting virtually. Suffice to say, that was probably the most stretched day technologically, but one which ended with several questions and possibilities in terms of what MMM can bring to the table to assist with efforts in that space.
Day 4 of the conference had to do with visual story and visual media. I’ll have to mine for what happened then as I had an early flight out and missed that day of presentations and final remarks.
I will say that personally, I was edified, challenged, and humbled by the impact that many are making in the Body. I’m also quite pleased to see how many people and groups are working other. Also, the “big ships,” and how they have turned and are focusing their efforts not so much on the technology, but making sure that they don’t lose sight of former and new audiences with their Gospel presentations and engagement efforts.
Side note: do a YouTube search for My Last Day by the Jesus Film Project. Amazing artwork and production to their familiar storyline. Graphic warning, but you’ll want to let this one hit you and others.
Other than that, it was an encouraging time just connecting. The brother that I roomed with is working with a group doing some incredible work to train pastors and be solid believers in the Asia region. They have a ton of good stuff, and you can bet that we’ll be hearing some great things of their works as time goes on.
Lastly, I would encourage you to reach out to the GCIA or any of the groups noted on the sketchnotes and partner with them. A unified voice speaks more to Christ’s need to be heard and received than anything else we can do (peep John 17:20-26). If we can work hand and hand, no matter what out issues might be before and after, we’d have the kind of voice and impact in this world that won’t just win people to Christ, but it will have the better effect of making a better world to live in for us all.
About the Sketchnotes
There was a lot of information passed throughout the conference, and it was my hope to capture what I could using the sketchnotes method. I was able to get a ton, and for various reasons left certain names/items out. However, if you really want to see how the first three days of GCIA connected, I’m not sure that there’s a better way than with this kind of picture.
You can click on the picture, and then download it to view at full size. It was created totally on my iPad using the Adobe Ideas application. However, I took full advantage of the iPad as a canvas here and there is more to explore as you zoom into the image. There’s text and color all over the place.
I have pulled out most of the organizations that appear in the notes as tags to this post if items aren’t clear. Most should be, but just in case, that should help some. Many of these groups we’ll end up talking with/about again, stay tuned for those moments.
Apologies to the GCIA group for not getting Day 4 in there. If I were able to attend those sessions, I’m sure that I would have gotten them to fit in there. As you can see though, there’s a lot of detail here, and I hope that I did you all a good service by creating this.
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Where is the Christian?
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011I had to think about this for a bit, but history agrees with me: media has contributied to (and oftentimes accelerated) the disembodiment of those things we consider “spiritual” and those things we consider “life.”
We look at the term Christian and some see it as a form of language, style of dress, political views, or even just the signifiers of people based on a common location and behaviors on a few days a week. Some see it as all of the above. When the phrase Christian was termed, its was first a slander for a sect within Judiasm who happended to also be persecuted physically, economicaly, and socially. Peter took this title and used it as a point of empowerment (1 Peter 4:16).
From then on, it would seem that the early church saw it as connection – a unity defined by love for one another, demonstrated as love for their world that effectively preached the hope of reconciled unity with God. Location was only part of it. Behaviors were a contentious part of it. They maintained an identity not because of location or behaviors though, they thrived because they werent limited by either. There were various contact points, the Scriptures, letters from disciples and other community/church leaders, meetings places, and events. These were Christians, ever being pushed, pursued, and transformed. Constantly finding their place within layers of life, defining themselves by a layer of a life that reaches beyond.
Last week’s article from CNN throws some fuel onto the discussion. The author postulates that while remembering the democracy and effective changing of the world by the printing of the King James Bible is good, we should also be calling to question whether we have been as present with the faith (as a Body) as the technology has allowed us to be. To borrow from several streams of discussion over the past weeks: are we Christians because of what we do, or because of whom we are connected to?
A person noted on Twitter (and several retweeted) that they disagree with the title and conclusion of that CNN piece. I can see how they might disagree with the title, it takes a strong and pecular-to-the-age kind of faith to agree with the point that a technology is stripping the leaves off of what we might have defined as Christian for several generations. However, the fact of the matter is that efforts like YouVersion, BeRemedy, Jesus.net, the Lausanne Global Conversatioins sites, and thousands of others are making the concluding statement of that article a point that has to be understood as an implication to those efforts:
You cannot give people personal access to the Bible (or any tome of knowledge) without it later redefining their relationship to it and to others. If we do not understand this, but hold onto models of Christianity which are imperial/behavioral, then we are the worst hypocrites – plunging digital behaviors into a box they don’t fit, constraining a faith that was never meant to fit in a box (Exodus 20, John 4:21-24).
Lives that are unified (John 17:20-26) and knit by love (Deut. 6:4-8) and identified by love for one another (John 13:34-35) preach the Gospel. The CNN article says as much in that conclusion, as we should all be saying with our endeavors in this digital faith space.
So then, where is the Body? Is it cloistered on this mountain or that mountain (John 4:19-24)? Or, is it knowable by a select few (Mark 6:1-3) and therefore found only in specific social contexts? Or, is it identified only by a certain association (Mark 9:38-40) that’s unable to be recognized unless it runs with the clique? Or, is it Body that speaks to the one who saves (John 17:1-10) that connects where-ever, influencing a world how-ever, espousing the same message (1 John 4:2) no matter the context?
To the discussion that the CNN piece raises, we’ve got to let go of elements of what we’ve used to define Christian in the past. They were layers then, and hindrances now. The technologies of our time can help push those things away, but we shouldn’t let those contact points define who or where Christians are. A life that connects, lives by love defines the Christian. Were in print and digital faith are those contact points?
Tags: BeRemedy, Bible, CNN, community, fellowship, Global Conversations, innovations, Jesus.net, lausanne, YouVersion
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