Great Second day so far.  Again here is a link to full of live blogging and I’ll pitch in my highlights.

Rob Bell…

*Where & how you start the story & where & how you end the story shape & determine what story you are telling.

*Sets up our meta-narrative in talking through Gen1/2; Rev 21/22

…the story begins & ends here

…Rev 21/22 is another beginning

…Take sin out of the Bible & you have a 4 chapter pamphlet (Gen 1/2 & Rev 21/22)

…a story that would start in a gard & progress toward a city

*But we have Gen 3…disruption, rebellion, participation, missing

…shalom is broken

*But Gen 3 is not how the story begins or ends!

*When we tell the story sin must be put in its place: it is real; it is serious but it is temporary.

*We must teach admission, confession, recognition, declaration, agreement, repentance but the point is not Genesis 3.  The point is for us to deal with our junk and return to our place in the creation as stewards and particpants in God’s plan!

*The story is about a God who Renews (Matt 19); Restores (Acts 3) & Reconciles (Col 1)

If your story starts in Gen 3, it’s about the removal of sin
If your story starts in Gen 1, it’s about the restoration of shalom

If your story starts in Gen 3, it’s about what you aren’t
If your story starts in Gen 1, it’a about what you are

Evangelism that starts @ 3 is a flawed story!

If your story starts in Gen 3, it’s about a disembodied evacuation to escape it all
If your story starts in Gen 1, it’a about participatory physciality (you have a real part to play)

*John’s Gospel amazingly shows us a God who has birthed a new creation right in the middle of this one.  The problem of death is done.

*The resurrection re-affirms the goodness of creation

*Live now so that the way that you are living could go on forever.

If your story starts in Gen 3, you look at situations of hurt and poverty & say, “That’s sad.”
If your story starts in Gen 1, you look at situaitons of hurt and poverty & know, “We aren’t being good stewards.”

*A sermon then is about continuing the insistence that through the resurrection of Jesus a whole new world is bursting forth and you are invited to be a part

*A sermon this is about helping people see the new creation with their own eyes.

>>>> What you are looking for, you will find.

*A sermon brings hope rooted not in escape but engagement, not in evacuation but in reclamation, not in leaving but in staying and overcoming

*Build your life around things that will last into forever

Peter Rollins…

*We want leaders we can dominate…so that when they fail we can say, “I told you so.”

*They offer Omega Courses (in contrast to Alpha Courses) > Here’s how you exit Christianity to follow Jesus.

*Atheism for Lent > During Lent they read atheists who critique Christianity…to see how we are coming off.  What are our blindspots?

*Every person is a universe (brilliant)

*We must affect people @ their core/change behaviors that are creating real problems: simple & systemic
> Batman’s Vicious Circle:  He by day ran Wayne enterprise who if like most mega-corporations created poverty which led to
crime which he fought by night as Batman.  He could, in theory, be creating the problems that he was fighting.

…our actions & platforms (our social self) simply don’t line up well with what we know in our gut to be true

*What about the church as a flash mob?  Creating a stir that people have to deal with.

*Don’t think conversion / think re-birth

*When you can grasp God/define him/put him in a place > he is nothing…just another object.

*Create space where everyone empties themselves @ the door (kenosis)

*No-one gets to colonize the space.

Shane Hipps (BTW, I think this may be the most insightful, most useful conference talk I’ve ever heard.)

*Christianity is fundamentally a  communication event

* Marshall McLuhan > “The medium is the message”

> “We become what we behold”

….Before the printed page (think 2 column page), there weren’t pews with a center aisle in churches

*Photography has begun the shift back towards icons in Christianity

*Images pin the logical side of our brains to the back of our skull!

*Images always win

*The question is not should I use images…the question is what am I trying to evoke/communicate with them?

*In the middle ages Jesus was the main focus of the church (stain glass & other art forms could communicate the story of Jesus)

*With the invention of the printed page (Paul and other writings replaced Jesus at the center.  Hipps used a quote from Luther that stated that He thought the writings of Paul and John were far better works than the Gospels. (John contains no parables. & Is more like the works of Paul…built around theological arguments.)

*As we are becoming more imaged base Jesus is making a comeback & Paul is being re-interpreted in the light of Jesus.

*Today’s church landscape is a complex blending of middle age, print age, broadcast age and Internet age based churches.

*Audience capacity to listen and engage is shrinking.  What is demanded of preachers is only going up.  What you used to do want work. You have to evolve.

Tools…

1) The Art of Surprise (Exegetical, Rhetorical or Linguistic)

2) The Art of Letting Go (You must offer your gift to people boldly and fearlessly and let it go.  The best artists don’t care how it lands.  There is something they must express & they let it out & let it go. You can’t control the outcomes.)

Q & A With Rob Bell

Video Venues & Screens: Screens like images win.  Research has shown that even if you are in the room people are more comfortable with what comes off of a screen than watching you.

Screens are like cotton candy for the brain.

Hipps feels like they undermine the priesthood of the believer; they create celebrities; the big guy on the screen is the floating wizard in the room.  The person on the screen or Image Magnification is given authority he/she hasn’t gained morally or relationally.

Image Magnification & video venues create celebs who are famous for being seen.  It changes the dynamic of the relationship with the person in the room.  ***Remember the medium is the message.  The person is bigger & up there  on that screen so their  approach to you going forward will be different.  Your good works will always be overshadowed by your celebrity.

Being on the screen can prevent us from having a normal life with the people we are entrusted.

Twitter:

Hipps has a concern that it pushes towards simplicity which is good but we lose the complexity that lead the simplicity. (if that makes sense)

The focus should be on giving our best now.  The complexity gives depth to our simple statements that is often missed amid so much chatter.

Well session one of Poets Prophets Preachers is over & it was beautifully encouraging and challenging all at once.  The sessions are geared strictly toward teaching the scriptures and tonight’s first session was a great discussion of what a sermon is and why in the world anyone would want to preach one.

Rather than blog the whole talk I’m just going to hit some of my highlights.  You can get a detailed live blog  at novus – lumen.  They are live blogging the week. They must be the “offficial” feed   There is no interet in the building & laptops are not allowed.  So check them out.  It is a great play by play of what happened.

My highlights…

(Remember this whole thing is for teachers/preachers.  It is about the art of teaching so there were not a lot of “warm fuzzies” or “wow” moments.  It was amazingly solid and if you stand up & teach week to week, you felt the discussion more than you heard it.)

*What do people think when they hear the word “sermon”?

*People will always evaluate…Did you like it? Did he/she do a good job?

*Sometimes sermons are propaganda…our side is right. We are the only ones.

*Sometimes sermons are tools…we gotta get that building built!

*Sometimes they are lifeless

*Giving sermons can be lonely.  It can be lethal.

*Moments = crickets vs. that was the most powerful thing I’ve ever heard in my life (you can’t control it)

*When people want the “old you” or for you to preach like you used to…you can’t.  You aren’t the same.

*For a teacher there are certain elements in the room> you, the audience, your body of work, you current talk.  The audience is trying to piece the other elements together to figure out what you are saying.  You are always adding & changing…being led to new places so there is always a process of figuring out where we are.

*Using Ezek. 4 > God has a message; now you go & deliver it.

*John the Baptist spoke volumes before he ever opened his mouth.

*Sermons are part performance art, guerilla theater, and actions that evoke response

*Sermons can be a witness (Acts 4) (Think of Jer. 20; I just have to get it out!)

*Sermons can be a reminder (Jer. 2) (This isn’t what God had in mind.)

*Sermons can be an invitation (Mark 1:15)

*Sermons can be subversion (Is. 52) (There’s another story.  Don’t buy the lie.) (Luke 4)

*WHAT IS FOREIGN AND DIFFERENT AND SHOCKING MAY JUST BE AHEAD OF ITS TIME.
Most people won’t be able to see it.

*There is a possiblity of hope and desire and change or misrepresentation or anger or confusion or jealousy.  You can’t want the one without being willing to accept the other.  You don’t get to pick.  You have to speak the truth of what God has given you.

*Acts 17 > you will get mixed responses

*From Genesis 1: “And God said…” > WORDS CREATE NEW WORLDS

*Talks should start talks.  If you can resolve it at the end of your talk, your talk is flawed.  The words start something.  Let the Spirit work.

Keith Sherwood & I are in Grand Rapids, MI for this….

I’ll be updating regularly so stay tuned.