So our keynote speaker was touted beforehand as an expert on church vitality. I hadn't heard too much about him, but I was willing to give him a chance. Here's a handful of words and phrases that he used:
- Post-Christendom
- Organic community
- Local context
- Missional
- Post-modernism
I sat there beaming through the whole thing. Here I was at a UCC gathering where I'd previously ranted and complained on this blog about the absence of such terms in our denomination's conversation, and here they all were. I went to a workshop in the afternoon that talked all about assessing the local congregation's story and strengths in order to minister to a local context. All this from a national staffperson!
Admittedly, I'd done all this ranting and complaining without really checking out UCCVitality. Apparently it's all there. It's been there all along.
So I left with hope. I also left eating a modest plate of crow, because I decided to leave a little early and thus couldn't finish it there. Thankfully they had take-out containers, so I could finish later.
There's more to say, but it's Sunday morning, it's Mother's Day, and my brother graduates college this afternoon. So it'll all have to wait.