Ministry Conference (Change of Heart)

Friday and Saturday was the University of Chicago Divinity School’s annual ministry conference.  This is the fifth annual student-led conference.  This year’s theme: “From the Ends of the Earth: Christianity in the 21st Century.”  What does that mean?  Well, luckily the conference organizers gave a full paragraph to unpack the potential meanings:

How will the co-incidence of the post-colony with the failures of nationalism influence new forms of Christian leadership? How, in turn, will developing forms of Christianity demand and resist new approaches to cooperation and unity? Finally, how do these things influence and even produce new self-understanding for the Church in America? While building on important efforts of social scientists and missiologists, the 5th Annual Ministry Conference of the University of Chicago Divinity School will approach these topics with specifically ministerial and ecclesiological lenses. This conference seeks (1) to help deepen understanding among ministers, students and lay-persons as well as professional academics of certain realities and potential futures of being Christian around the world and (2) to equip the same with resources for engaging the issues of the conference further.

For such a lofty goal, the conference succeeded.

I went into the conference as a tired, worn out student.  I helped do tech. support for the two-day conference “Theologizing Cultures, Culturing Theologies” last week and this conference was going to be more demanding.  I woke up at 6:30 a.m. on Friday and drove to Hyde Park to do all of the tech. setup and logistics before the conference began.  The biggest reason I was grumpy that morning was because I hadn’t found out it was a two-day conference until the week before!  All of the Divinity School’s official communications had said the conference was from 9-5 on Friday; but alas, I should have talked to my friends instead of reading the “At the Divinity School” bulletin.  

The conference, like many ministry conferences, began with worship.  Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, a Baptist minister and professor at North Park Seminary, preached.

Worship was good, but I felt under fire with the first keynote speaker.  Dr. Kwok Pui lan, a professor at Episcopal Divinity School, was presenting and was nervous about the laptop and projector/lighting situation.  There wasn’t much we could do to change the circumstances, but thankfully it went well and she and I had a conversation later in the day that relieved some of the tension.

The content of her presentation was good, but her responses to the question/answer section were even better!  Without the shackles of Powerpoint, she was super-relevant and pointing out implications for Christian mission that deserved her nuance.  Her Powerpoint presentation, however, was aesthetically beautiful on her laptop screen (pastel colors and all!), but showed up too faded and hard to read on the larger screen.  I need to say it more, but if in doubt, DON’T USE PRESENTATION PROGRAMS.  Or, if you’re going to, at least spend a month soaking up Presentation Zen – a superb guide to design, simplicity, and messages!

Dwight Hopkins, a prof. at the Div. School, was her respondent.  I thought it was funny when she was talking about him WHILE HE WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE!

Another reason I wasn’t looking forward to the conference was because the two-days seemed too long and draining.  I had a major change of heart, however, after lunch when I still had energy.  With most conferences, there are three events crammed before lunch and then an exhausting afternoon of non-stop panels.  This schedule, however, gave breaks was more humane.

After lunch, three practitioners gave presentations and then had a Q&A panel where they talked to each other and to the audience.  Dr. Rah, Teresita Valeriano, and Carmen Nanko-Fernández (who happens to be replacing Ed Foley as the CTU D.Min. program director) all gave great talks.

As if that wasn’t enough content, the conference had an art gallery in the Divinity School common room, with photography by David Johnson (www.dwjohnson.net) — whose photographs were RIVETING!

Then came the banquet dinner and the lecture I was looking forward to most: William Dyrness.  Bethany Lowery would be proud; I think I have one of my first Professor crushes; I love his books!  Can you see why?

• Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: The Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards 
• Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue
• A Primer on Christian Worship: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We Can Go

I’ll post a podcast link at some point to the conference audio/video for those who wouldn’t make it!