Thursday, April 21, 2005

BREAKING poll NEWSFLASH poll

[This post represents the first ever poll at this blog.]
Please reply Yes/No (plus or minus any comments).

Are evangelicals/charismatics overloaded on conferences?

[BIAS ALERT -- If you want to avoid any undue influence in how you reply to the question, stop reading now, submit your reply, then proceed with the rest of the post.] I'm all for teaching, education, and training (and in fact do a fair amount of it myself), which conferences theoretically promote. But in practice, many of the Christian conferences I've experienced seem like the spiritual equivalent of all you can eat buffets. They're great places for engorging oneself on comfort food. But they hardly promote a lean and fit spiritual lifestyle. We need more boot camp style learning environments where we get the information, but are forced to practice it till we puke (pardon the crassness) so we know that we know how to apply it in everyday lives. That's why I love Matt's Chain Reaction experiences so much (without the crassness).
Bonus poll question (Yes/No):
Would you consider participating in an experiential and relational-based learning "anti-conference"?

5 Comments:

At 4/21/2005 10:33:00 PM, Blogger tony sheng said...

overloaded on conferences - yes
it's easy to be a conference junkie today isn't it?
of course, many of our communities of faith propogate this today - the message on Sunday isn't neccessarily about action and engagement of the world beyond our walls... we enforge and then we wonder why the world isn't that enamored with Jesus...

consider particpating - yes, of course depending on time, schedule, day job, etc.

 
At 4/22/2005 12:43:00 AM, Blogger John Spartan said...

Yes. And I agree with Tony about time, schedule, etc.

The next conference I'm attending is Urban Youth Workers Institue in Azusa, CA. I hear that someone you know is the planery speaker. :)

 
At 4/22/2005 08:27:00 AM, Blogger Jeremy Del Rio said...

Abner got me. Hehehe

As I said, I do a fair amount of cenferencing myself. :)

 
At 4/22/2005 05:11:00 PM, Blogger Jeremy Del Rio said...

Hey Tony -

Sorry I missed you last week in DC. Because of Nonna's health issues (see post from Monday) I was forced to cut the DC trip short.

It would be very cool for you to meet Matt Stevens. Besides his work with Chain Reaction, he's the state coordinator for the National Network of Youth Ministries, and he's consulting YFC in Baltimore, so he's all about connecting with guys like you. What do we have to do to make this happen?

 
At 4/24/2005 02:11:00 AM, Blogger tony sheng said...

Hi Jeremy, no problem about DC... I figured as much when I read your post... I hope she is at least comfortable...
I'm going to dig up Matt's email and ping him early next week. That would be great fun.
Thanks!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home