Provision, Pondering, and Purpose - Reflections on SVS 2013

A few days ago I got back from a brilliant conference, and during that conference I briefly blogged some thoughts. Suffice to say, I had a fantastic time, for many and various reasons! This post contains a few reflections, more personal than theological, and may well be boring from some to read. The SVS Twitter feed shared a great blog from Theologian (and Conference Speaker!) Amos Yong, "From 'Empowered Evangelicals' and 'Radical Middlers' to '...?' The Society of Vineyard Scholars and the Renewal of the Vineyard". I'd recommend reading that, especially if your interest in the Vineyard extends to wanting to hear the opinions of a serious Pentecostal academic Theologian! Amos was a wonderful voice at SVS2013, and the late-night theology chat with him was full of fascinating discussion and questions.

Provision

The first thing I want to share is the simple fact of God's amazing provision. Firstly and most fundamentally was the amazing way in which God provided the finances for me to fly to LA, stay in a motel, and eat, all whilst attending the conference! Having been unemployed for a few months, and only really working since February/March of this year, my wife and I didn't have the spare cash to jet half-way around the world! Gods goodness was at work, though, and through his people he provided abundantly, several friends giving very generously! God is a God of provision - on human terms I could not afford to go, and present my paper, but on his terms, in his Kingdom, His will is done and I am immensely grateful for his provision in that.

The plane God provided - to head to less cloudy skies!

Secondly was a new friend, and fellow paper-presenter, who came out of nowhere (well, connected across the pond via email) who organised the hotel and also rented a car. His conversation, fellowship, humour and prayer were wonderful and really gave me much to be thankful to God for. I learnt a lot from him, about both pastoral ministry and American culture, and my 'roommate' was a real highlight of the conference. I mention the car thing because that enabled me to check out Saddleback Church on the saturday afternoon, and also get to the beach! Not essentials, but again an example of Gods generous provision.

Thirdly was the amazing opportunity I had - to present a paper and to meet and learn from some brilliant thinkers, pastors, and teachers. I met a lot of vineyard people I knew previously from books, or footnotes and anecdotes in Bob Jacksons 'The Quest for the Radical Middle'. That was a highlight - and meeting some people I'd really only known through Twitter was fantastic! I was amazed by the grace of people and the kindness of older brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the conference. To a Brit, the fact that a couple I had never met before took me and another conferencee out for lunch, and then gave me a lift to my airport shuttle was crazy! Their kingdom generosity was amazing. 

Vineyard Anheim, through the trees.

Pondering

Secondly is the huge amount of pondering I'm going to have to do! The questions asked of my paper where fascinating, and have given me some interesting thoughts to develop and respond to. The main sessions at the conference were also intriguing, with some thought provoking stuff particularly coming in Richard Mouw's Plenary session "Christian Scholarship and Popular Religion: Drawing Wisdom from 'the Sense of the Faithful'". As someone learning to be a whimsical Calvinist storyteller (maybe?!?) I hugely appreciated the wit, intelligence and tone of this evangelical statesman. Amos Yong's Plenary, "The Holy Spirit and the Religions: Christian Discernment in a World of Many Faiths" was also fascinating, and it was good to see a UK voice, Jason Clark, providing an insightful response. I also enjoyed all of the 'In Depth' sessions, particularly  Beth Stovells session on Hermeneutics (it inspired me to get a copy of her book, "Biblical Hermeneutics: Five Views", which I hope to read and review soon), and also J.P.Moreland's thought provoking "Keeping Vineyard Distinctives in the Plausibility Structure: a Reflection on Kingdom Ecclesiology.

Theology: LA Style - reading 'Biblical Hermeneutics: Five Views' on the Beach, post-conference!

There were many fantastic papers presented at the conference, and I simply can't go into all of them, and my reflections! I may be biased but the panel I presented on seemed particularly interesting, with the aforementioned fellow Brit Jason Clark bringing a fascinating paper looking broadly at the relationship between evangelical worship and capitalist consumerism. Bryan Hohmeier continued on with a really interesting paper beguilingly titled "Discerning The Orthodox Imaginary: Toward Episcopacy", which was a joy to hear. Other highlights included a paper on the sociology of the Vineyard Movement from a secular anthropologist, a panel on women in Leadership, and two engaging papers on Christian-Muslim relations. Possibly my highlight, if such a thing were allowed, was Brandon Rickabaugh's paper in which he worked towards an Epistemology and Phenomenology of the Vineyard. As a theology graduate, those two long words range towards the unfamiliar terrain of philosophy, but I really enjoyed and appreciated what Brandon had to say. One to watch.

The overall brain-feast of the conference has left me with things galore to read, analyse, and ponder. The fruit of the conference for me will be in the longer term, even as I remember fondly the conversations and fellowship, ministry time together and academic rigour, that rolled into one brilliant week.

Purpose

One of the real highlights of my time in LA, from a slightly selfish perspective, was the opportunity to experience some new places, people, and churches. On the saturday afternoon, after a relaxing snooze on the beautiful beach (pictured above!) my roommate and I headed to Saddleback Church (famously pastored by Rick Warren) for their saturday evening service. This was quite an experience! Saddleback is a BIG church. Really big. So much so that they have a campus:

(Everything in the 'triangle' of roads is Saddleback Church...)

And this is their main worship centre/auditorium:

Its huge - this was a long time before the service filled up. I love the glass sides. And massive screens.

The whole thing is mad big. But what was wonderful was that the Gospel was preached (by Greg Laurie, a visiting speaker), God's name praised, and his commands followed. Saddleback has a huge and varied Sunday programme, and is a great place to be part of the church. But they as a church also respond to the Gospel of Grace by extending the Kingdom of God through hundreds of missionaries and ministries.

Part of the service was a short video from Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback and author of books like 'The Purpose Driven Church' and the wildly popular (And really rather good...) 'Purpose Driven Life'. Rick and his wife Kay recently lost their son Matthew, and so the grieving father had a few words to say to his church. I was struck by his clear grief yet amazing resilience and reliance on God. It also spoke highly of Rick that his friend Greg was speaking that sunday on 'Losing a Loved One', and that this coming week Francis Chan kicks off a series with some wonderful guest speakers, to enable Rick to take some time off to grieve.

Vineyard Anheim - apologies for the sun shining, but I hope it gives you a feel!

I was slightly blown away by Saddleback, and so the Sunday morning service at Anaheim Vineyard was slightly more my style! With more chilled out Vineyard Worship, a wonderful talk from Pastor Mike, and some great chatting afterwards, I loved Anaheim Vineyard, and really appreciated the welcome and atmosphere of that church. My visits to these two big American churches were both brilliant, in slightly different ways, and have set my mental cogs rolling down a few ideas! 

Mostly, though, this week (almost) in LA taught me a lot about God's provision, the joy of pondering about him, and the value of purpose and hope. The churches I visited, the people I met, had clear purpose and vision of God. Where the questions were tough there was a humility but also a willingness to engage. I came away from LA - despite the jetlag - refuelled and re-envisioned, grateful for a Gracious Father, a Stunning Saviour, and a Living and Active Holy Spirit.

Normal blogging service will be resumed soon, but I wanted to get these few thoughts off of my chest.

Thanks for reading!