I have a new idol - Doug Pagitt, from Solomon's Porch. I just attended his session: "Options for Ministry in an Emerging World: For, With and As Postmoderns." He did a wonderful job of describing how churches and church leaders can work for, with and as the postmodern world. Which is probably why he chose that title for his talk. I got my nuggets, many of them, many of which I will share with you later in hours of excited and probably confused ranting. Look forward to it.
I also realized two things: first, that the disciplines drawn on by church leaders over the years have radically changed. "Back in the day," church leaders drew on the disciplines of academics (Eugene Peterson). In the 80s, etc. (I know my timeline is not precise here), church leaders drew on the disciplines of business practice (Robert Schuller). Today, at least in this conference, we seem to draw on sociology. Which works for me, because that's my background! None of these draws are inherently "good" or "bad" but they do signal significant shifts in how we're doing church.
Which I will talk about later. Don't worry, never fear, I have a CD of Pagitt's presentation for everyone. You won't be left out. And now, we're off to the zoo, to LA, to let all this sit and digest. It's been fun. God bless you!
Pastor Bran
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If you've been with me for a couple of years, you may have already heard of Doug Pagitt. I posted about him on this blog some months ago, and raved about his first book when it came out. If you haven't read the book on the founding of Solomon's Porch, and their work on creating intentional Christian community, I highly recommend it (Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church). A shameless plug: buy it at Amazon through our church site (www.campbellucc.org) and we get 4%!
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