Voices III

Just made it back to the church at 9 in the morning. It’s freezing cold out, and there’s snow. Yes, snow.

Diana Butler Bass is opening the morning session. She has a Ph.D in church history, and wrote A People’s History of Christianity, which is you haven’t read it is very enlightening.

“Christianity in the 21st century depends entirely on what happened in the 20 centuries previously.” – Diana

“History guides our actions. The best predictor of future action is how people have behaved in the past.” – Diana

There are many similarities between our times today and other times in our past. Some similarities with ancient Rome, the Reformation, the Middle Ages, and 18th century.

“History is the basis for wholeness.” -Diana

“History is to a country what memory is to an individual.” -Diana, quoting Jon Meachum (sp)

She says we are losing our memory, and therefore losing our ability to learn from history, or to remember the great treasures of our past.

“History is the basis for change.” -Diana

“People who know history are not afraid of change. We’ve seen it all before.” -Diana

She said we have forgotten our Christian history in America, and the void has been filled by the religious right, who created a revisionist Christian history in its place.

Alyce is resuming her skit from yesterday again, this time on self-absorption. Fairly self-explanatory this time around – focus on other people’s needs instead of your own.

Now Elaine Heath is speaking, who wrote The Mystic Way of Evangelism. She seems to be focusing on missional ecclesiology and contemplative spirituality. She saw some of her former students here earlier, so she invited them on stage to share their stories. A lot of them seem to be centered on living with a common “Rule of Life,” some practices to keep them grounded and focused.

She says when she introduces the idea of living communally, the first questions she usually gets asked are who gets the buildings and who gets the money, rather than questions on what practices of prayer or life that make this possible.

A singer named Heatherlyn is going to perform. I’ve heard her once before, and I loved her voice.

Not disappointed at all. She’s fantastic! It will be even better later today I think when I’m more awake and alert.

Seth Donovan is closing out this session. She was one of the presenters I was most intrigued to hear from.

“I need a place in this world where I can be wrong.” -Seth

“This world is kind of a fucked up place for someone who doesn’t have a lot of power.” -Seth

She’s grabbing volunteers to be embodied sculptures symbolizing confession.

“Confessing a faith and standing boldly in it” – another aspect of confession

“Church needs to be a place that when I walk in, the most important thing isn’t whether I’m right but whether I’m loved.” -Seth

“That relationship doesn’t get to be taken away because I don’t have something figured out.” -Seth

“I’m asked to compartmentalize myself when I walk into most churches.” -Seth

“I need to be able to show up as a whole person, with a faith that has everything to do with the rest of my life.” -Seth

We all got together with partners and made our own human sculptures as to what confession looks like.

“What would it be like to show up at church and know, know you are loved, and are never asked to be right?”

Shauna Niequist is continuing her presentation again.

She says we all know how to preach in the conventional fashion. We’ve seen it a thousand times. We bring a distant, polished, fancy version of ourselves to church, not the raw and uncut version of our story.

“Please stop acting as if Pastors are the only ones with the right and the ability to tell God’s story.” – Shauna

And that finishes this session. We’re taking a quick 30 minute break now. Be back soon!