A Tale of Two Conferences... #missiodei14

Following on from my initial post, this post is the second report in light of my post 'A Tale of Two Conferences', with a few words, reflections and images from #missiodei14. Properly titled 'Missio Dei? Evangelicalism and the New Politics', this was a packed day conference run by academics from the Theology and Religious Studies department of the University of Chester (who, incidentally, validate my St John's MA, and have a lively Twitter account) in partnership with the William Temple Foundation. As a theologically-interested evangelical, I was excited and stimulated by the Call for Papers, and was thrilled to present at, and attend, this conference.

Held in the very pleasant surroundings of Chester's Theology Department Hollybank, pictured above), this was a conference I'd heard about part way through last year, and was encouraged excited about for a number of reasons, but primarily the focus on evangelicalism and 'the new politics', as well as the invitation to both practitioners and scholars. Somewhat surprisingly, my own paper was plonked into the 'scholarly' slot, but as I noted at the outset of that paper, 'I am neither a true practitioner or a true scholar, instead occupying something of a crack between the two'. The conference was well attended by those types, but also by pure practitioners (thinking theologically!) and pure scholars (reflecting on/looking to influence practice!). This meld made the day very stimulating and rewarding, and I want to here contribute a few (belated) reflections on the day.

The day began with a keynote from Steve Holmes (who you can follow on Twitter here) of St Andrews. Titled 'Politicising the Strands of New Evangelicalism', his paper offered a fascinating overview of the way in which evangelicalism and politics so often interact, and how the shift in evangelical identity from a monolithic unity to a 'self-confident largeness' of diversity and dissonance relates to that. Holmes tracked historically important events, including the emphasis of Lausanne 1974 and the shifts of Lausanne 2010. We enjoyed Holmes' sharing some of the names of societies that had sprung up over the years for the transformation of society - emphasising the evangelical thread of personal change leading to local change. Holmes also reflected (very helpfully) on the emerging strands of evangelicalism - identified as neoReformed, Charismatic, and Black Majority churches. Holmes paper set the tone - inquiring and generous - for the day.

For the first short paper session, I flitted between two rooms, and enjoyed three engaging but radically different papers. First, I heard Simon Cross of Oasis Grimsby read his provocative paper, 'Re-engaging with the 'other''. He reflected theologically on his practice in Grimsby, which was fascinating, but I was slightly bemused by his self-professed panentheism. There were various controversial threads which lead to a lively discussion. Secondly, I thoroughly enjoyed my friend Alan Molineux (who you can follow on Twitter here) present his paper 'Quantative Measuremento of Evangelicalism and its Social Impact'. Alan is a pastor and writer who runs a training business, and his paper had a helpful handout as well as one of the most complex diagrams I have ever seen. It was a joy to meet Alan in the flesh (having conversed and argued on Twitter for a while!) and his paper provided food for thought from a discipline I am unfamiliar with. The Third and final paper of this session was Tom Wilson's 'Exploding Joyfully? Reflections on urban ministry in an Anglican context'. Wilson provided a winsome and thoughtful set of reflections, drawing on Leslie Newbigin and the challenge to the church to be a hermeneutic of the Gospel to the world. I resonated with Wilson's identification of the situation we face as being a form of 'post-Christian paganism', and enjoyed his paper.

Al's brilliant diagram - which, on reflection and later reading, made a lot of sense!

Appropriately following the first paper session (though not as scheduled, due to travel difficulties) was Krish Kandiah's keynote, 'Missionary Ecclesiology on the Run - a conversation with Leslie Newbigin'. Krish, who you can follow on Twitter here, gave a well-presented and fascinating overview of Newbigin's life and theology, with three key points. First, Newbigin was a strategic thinker, which explains the unsystematic and responsive/reactive nature of his writings. Secondly, he was an ecumenical evangelical - comfortable in the company of Barth and Brunner, lecturing at HTB - and crossed bridges for the sake of the gospel. Thirdly, Newbigin was a missionary theologian, who genuinely reflected on practice of a life lived in mission and service. I was grateful for Krish's observation that practical theology is a daft name - all theology is practical, to the extent that it is for the church and the church's mission, the question being whether it is good or bad, helpful or unhelpful, life-giving or soul-destroying.

Krish's great powerpoint - which was a solid counterpart to his dynamic presentation.

Krish's keynote was followed by Anna Strhan, lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent, who delivered a really interesting and intriguingly wide-ranging paper which was titled 'A Tale of Two Cities? A Sociological Perspective on Evangelical's Political Engagements'. Seeking, in her words, to move beyond standard portraits of evangelicals, Strhan was incredibly honest in sharing some of her own story, and the predjudice and motivation she brings to this area of study. Her sociological approach was fascinating, and echoed and expanded on some of Steve Holmes' thoughts, particularly on the area of the contemporary political moment. Strhan's sociological perpsective gave weight to her comments, some of which were deeply pertinent to the ongoing debates about the role of the political right and the question of religious freedom. 

After lunch, we rolled into the second short paper session. In the 'Doctrine' strand, I was presenting first in my session, and I read my paper, 'Dignity Demanding Love: a theological understanding of the relationship between the Imago Dei and the Missio Dei in contemporary British evangelicalism'. I thoroughly enjoyed presenting the paper, and interacting with some good questions, and if you are interested you can read the paper at my academia.edu profile here. Following me in the Doctrine program, and of interest to me, was a paper jointly written by Nathan Paylor and Owen Edwards, provocatively titled 'Complementarianism: The Reconstruction of Gender in Conservative Evangelicalism, with a Postscript on the nature of Roles in Drama'. Presented by Edwards, this was a paper which rejected the work of theologians such as Grudem and Ware, in favour of the appraoch of Kevin Vanhoozer and Hans Urs von Balthasar. This was fascinating - and there were some questions around this constructuve proposal - and the discussion afterwards was lively, somewhat heated, and interesting to watch. I was glad my paper came first!

The final paper session of the day brought three fascinating papers reflecting particularly on real life evangelical communities. The first of these, from James Butler of Kings College London, was 'Being Holistic: Exploring how to overcome the separation of social action and worship in the Charismatic Evangelical Church through a study of Small Missional Communities'. It was a shame that our papers were not in the same session, as I felt my theological response would have made an interesting counterpart to James' paper.  Secondly, I enjoyed Sarah Dunlop, from the University of Birmingham, present 'The Transformation of Society and the London megachurch: a case study of HTB'. Sarah's paper, the initial findings of a major AHRC-funded project looking at London megachurches, was fascinating, and echoes the thoughts of NewFrontiers blogger Andrew Wilson regarding the importance of HTB. The final paper of the session, and of the day, came from Emily Winter of Lancaster University. Her paper, 'Micah Challenge: An Evangelical Experiment in Development Advocacy', was a fascinating set of insights into, and reflections on, the work of Micah Challenge, which was a refreshing way to end the day.

Following, and related to (though not necessarily, I believe, part of) the conference was the public lecture, given by Steve Chalke, the founder of the Oasis Trust, and an engaging and controversial figure. Titled 'The Progressive Power of Religion in the Public Square', Chalke gave a lively and very provocative exposition of his understanding of evangelicalism, and the challenges and opportunities presented by the public square. Given the recent removal of Oasis from the Evangelical Alliance, there was an undertone throughout the lecture that I couldn't place my finger on. I will admit that I personally struggled with some of the things Steve said - in my mind there was much 'soundbite theology' mixed in with some very penetrating and accurate insights - and I was amused that I wasn't alone in that. The questions and answers that followed Steve's lecture were helpfully revealing - I appreciated his clarity regarding my question about the meaning of words - but I (and others) had to catch a train before this section ended. 

Overall, then, #MissioDei14 was a really excellent conference. Well run and hosted by the Chester Theology Department, and bringing together a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds, it was a very enjoyable and stimulating day. On a personal note, it was great to finally get to Chester (my degree from St Johns is validated by Chester, and some good friends of mine have recently planted a great church called Vineyard 53, which I got to briefly check out!). Chalke's lecture, for me, was an interesting reflection of the state of evangelicalism - and the reflections on Newbigin, HTB, and other papers contributed to my own thinking. This was an important and thought-provoking conference, and I hope that the papers I missed will be available in some form soon...

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