#SVS2015 - Day 1 in Media, Res...

This is a picture which for me sums up the first day (and evening?) of The Society of Vineyard Scholars Conference 2015. Don Williams, one of the key theologians of the Vineyard, encouraged us after the plenary session, to get down on our knees and repent together. As individuals before God and each other, and as a group, of whatever God was putting on our hearts. It was one of the most profound prayer experiences of my young life - and a stunning way to start an academic theology conference.

But I digress.

It is a joy, a privilege, and a relief to be back in the USA with members of the Vineyard Movement from all over the world, for the Society of Vineyard Scholars Conference. This is my third time, presenting and attending, and this year the conference is being held in Media, in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

The theme this year, 'Thinking with the Church, Thinking with the Vineyard', and there is a brilliant set of papers, plenaries, seminars and panels. As well as that, we've had and will enjoy great musical worship and prayer, fellowship, all in a really rather lovely setting. Without further ado, then, what have we got up to on Day 1?

First up, many of us gathered yesterday with some of the church body of the Blue Route Vineyard (our hosts!) to worship. No agenda, just worshipping together. It was brilliant. And so it began. This morning we had our (now almost traditional?) welcome from Caleb Maskell, worship together, and then we rolled into the first Plenary talk. Dr Michael Raburn, a pastor/scholar from Vineyard USA, presented a stimulating talk, 'Revisiting Don Williams on the "Third Wave" and the Renewal of Theology". Raburn mixed his own thoughts and reflections with recordings from a powerful, powerful talk from Don. I will blog on the content separately - and will hunt down the 'tape'. What was cool is that we ended that in prayer, on our knees, and I think that is a perfect place to start a conference that is focusing on theology and the church.

Secondly in the order, came a session that I was very excited about. My friend Jon Stovell (From the Canadian Vineyard Movement) hosted a panel on 'Eschatological Anthropology', which I was part of. I was excited to be presenting 'We Are Not Yet What We Will Be: The Relational-Eschatological Turn and its Contribution for a Vineyard Theological Anthropology', which starts to draw together lots of themes I've been studying for a while (Abstract here). Bethany Joy from the USA presented a fascinating paper on 'Liminal Witness: Theological Anthropology between the 'Already' and the 'Not Yet'', whilst Aaron Blue who is a fascinating figure from the other side of the world (Apologies if that doesn't quite capture either of you, happy to edit) presented selections from his deep and rich paper 'The Image of God Struggling Toward the Eschaton: A Phenomenology of Hope". We have, I hope, started a fun conversation. We over-ran, and conversations continued into lunch, and beyond.

Shameless self-promotion picture...

The third session was one which I spent snippets of time in different panels, and missed out on what by all accounts sounded like a brilliant session with Matt Croasmun, 'The Emergence of Sin: Re-Mythologizing Paul with the Help of Modern Science' - I hope to buy and read his book soon. I enjoyed papers in a session on Identity and Character Formation in Education, and enjoyed catching up with a friend how the Seminar 'Economics and Linguistics' went, which featured two fascinating papers. Whichever way you spin it, the SVS Conference this year has got off to a cracking start.

The fourth set of things, where I committed to the Seminar: Navigating Culturally Relevant Mission, included a panel on Social Ecclesiology moderated by my friend and VCUKI Pastor/Scholar Jason Clark, and an Education Forum: Models of Theological Education for the Vineyard, moderated by Caleb. I can only reflect on the seminar I was in, which saw two quite different but complementary papers, by an American man and a British woman, provoke a lively and passionate discussion in a smaller group setting.

We broke for dinner, and then came back together for a time of worship, before three faculty members of City Seminary New York (Mark Gornik, Carrie Myers, Maria Liu Wong) presented the first plenary session, 'Learning Together for God's Kingdom: Living Into Theological Education in the City'. This was a helpful and thought-provoking session, though I must confess I spent some of it out on the porch in Media's beautiful sun. The work going on at City Seminary, though, is likely to inspire and inform us for a while.

The first - and brilliant - day of #SVS2015 (do check out the hashtag on Twitter) closed with a wine and cheese reception in the beautifully dying light, of which I might say no more. 

Till tomorrow, friends, readers and bemused-ly-interested parties...

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Thanks for reading! Do follow me on Twitter over the conference, or follow the hashtag, as well as the Vineyard SVS account. I'd love to connect with you in person if you are here, or online in the future.