#SVS2015 - Day 2

First off, apologies for the delay in writing up the second day of #SVS2015. The first day was really quite something, preceded by an evening of worship, and set us up for a brilliant conference. Day 2, then, held a range of topics and sessions.

In the morning we were privileged to have had Professor Stanley Hauerwas, one of the world's best known theological ethicists, speaking on "Church Matters: Sustaining Ecclesiology across Time". As well as unpacking that title in a profound and challening way, Hauerwas warned us of two upcoming books - one on 'The Holy Spirit' and the other 'The Work of Theology - before ending in a passionate and powerful q&a session. Whilst the above photograph and quotation encapsulate the essence of the talk, there was a brilliant blend of pithy, resonant one-liners and more complex theological argument. This walk was so powerful, to be honest, that I'll be blogging on it as a standalone piece soon. 

Following Hauerwas's keynote I went to a brilliant panel discussion on 'Human Rights, the Church, and the Kingdom of God'. Hauerwas presented 'The Problem of Human Rights', considering the question of whether our culture is trying to make the relatively recent concept of human rights do too much work. David Johnston from the University of Pennsylvania and the Blue Route Vineyard, along with Derek Morphew, Dean of the Vineyard Institute, were the other panelists, with Kathy Maskell of the Vineyard Justice Network providing some great moderation. The pressing issue of human rights is not one that is going away any time soon, and so I was glad to see serious and nuanced discussion of this topic at SVS this year. The session I didn't make it to was really well received, with Andy Crouch  of Christianity Today moderating a panel of Vineyard Artists, whose various sculptures and paintings provided a powerful source of reflection throughout the week.

After lunch, I thoroughly enjoyed a panel titled 'Pneumatology and Sacrament in the Vineyard. With two Alumni of the London School of Theology (LST) presenting, it was great to enjoy Steve Burnhope and Jason Clark from the UK, and Kristen Daley Mosier, presenting some thought-provoknig papers around some vital themes. Steve brought a much needed Christological perspective to bear on how we talk about the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), whilst Jason's talk was a tour-de-force, providing some memorably resonant ideas. Kristen's paper was also excellent, 'Inverting the Anxious Bench: Vineyard Prayer as Sacrament', echoing a number of themes in my paper from SVS last year, where I considered a sacramental angle on Vineyard  understandings of what it means to be human.

The second panel in the afternoon I attended was on pure ecclesiology (the theology of how we do church), 'Organic Church Forms within the Vineyard', with three papers which interacted well with each other. Brad Blocksom presented the provocative and necessary 'Organic vs. Institutional Models: Can There Be A Happy Medium', whilst Kenny Burchard offered us 'Re-Discovering Kinship: The Cell Group as Relevant Mission Expression'. My friend Luke Geraty closed out the panel with a passionate presentation of 'Small and Slow: Rural Ecclesiology and Effective Missional Praxis'. Rose Madrid-Swetman's moderation, influenced by her own studies and experience in this area, was superb. Which really rather set the stage for things to come...

After dinner was the third plenary of the Conference, given by Rose, and titled in the program 'Speaking the Truth in Love'. Bookended by worship, and followed by a time of powerful prayer and celebration of the Lord's Supper, this evening was a highlight of the conference. Rose rightly focused on some of the powerful passages in Revelation, bidding us as academics, pastors, leaders and other folk to 'let Jesus slay us', that we might be part of his plan for life. The ministry time that evening was fantastic, I personally really appreciated the prayer that many offered for me, and a good number of us ended up talking and drinking together early into the next morning...

Over the next couple of days I'll post the third bit of this selection of roundups, which will include some reflections on the conference overall, and what I make of SVS after this, my third conference.

Thanks for reading!