RENEW 2010 Conference
Many folks are wondering about our upcoming conference, RENEW 2010. The dates are February 19-21, here at the college CHURCH building.
You perhaps know that we hosted a worship conference in Fresno the last 5 years. We didn't actually organize the program. The Zoe group brought a major part of their program out and repeated it here for anyone on the West Coast who couldn't make it to Nashville for the bigger conference. Zoe has decided to pull back to just the Nashville conference.
It seemed good to us to host our own conference. We wanted to build on the momentum of hosting Zoe, but we also wanted to add new impetus that would connect worship to the need for missional Christianity. Here is some of our thinking:
Churches everywhere are struggling to cope with our changing world. Many feel that young people are abandoning faith and/or organized religion. Some wonder what future Churches of Christ have, especially on the West Coast where our best days seem to be somewhere in the rear view mirror. What should we do about it? Should we dust off the sectarianism of the past & reinvigorate the old ways of thinking and talking? Should we reinvent ourselves with a newer & trendier image? Should we toss off the "burden" of our heritage and just claim to be a "free" or an "evangelical" church? Or maybe invest more in gender equity? What do we need?
The aim of this conference is to specifically focus on the real needs of West Coast churches. We want to worship and celebrate a glorious God who makes us in His image, and we will have exciting times of worship & praise. But we also want to figure out how to be His people in a world that seems to be changing. We want to explore how to fulfill our God-given role to care for the earth and to make disciples of all nations -- starting right HERE in our own towns and neighborhoods.
Tomorrow, I'll share the specific conceptualization for this year's RENEW conference.
Blessings! Jason
You perhaps know that we hosted a worship conference in Fresno the last 5 years. We didn't actually organize the program. The Zoe group brought a major part of their program out and repeated it here for anyone on the West Coast who couldn't make it to Nashville for the bigger conference. Zoe has decided to pull back to just the Nashville conference.
It seemed good to us to host our own conference. We wanted to build on the momentum of hosting Zoe, but we also wanted to add new impetus that would connect worship to the need for missional Christianity. Here is some of our thinking:
Churches everywhere are struggling to cope with our changing world. Many feel that young people are abandoning faith and/or organized religion. Some wonder what future Churches of Christ have, especially on the West Coast where our best days seem to be somewhere in the rear view mirror. What should we do about it? Should we dust off the sectarianism of the past & reinvigorate the old ways of thinking and talking? Should we reinvent ourselves with a newer & trendier image? Should we toss off the "burden" of our heritage and just claim to be a "free" or an "evangelical" church? Or maybe invest more in gender equity? What do we need?
The aim of this conference is to specifically focus on the real needs of West Coast churches. We want to worship and celebrate a glorious God who makes us in His image, and we will have exciting times of worship & praise. But we also want to figure out how to be His people in a world that seems to be changing. We want to explore how to fulfill our God-given role to care for the earth and to make disciples of all nations -- starting right HERE in our own towns and neighborhoods.
Tomorrow, I'll share the specific conceptualization for this year's RENEW conference.
Blessings! Jason
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