The conference was totally amazing this week. Some things became much more clear about our movements theological basis, and there were some great tips on prayer. I never thought of just praying the Psalms before, so now I’m doing that, and it is a great way to start my day. Not to mention I’ve been avoiding praying in the morning in general because I’m barely coherent in the morning, so I usually pray till I fall asleep at night. But this takes the pressure off to think about what I’m going to pray about, and there is more power in the scriptures than your average scientist / engineer would care to admit, so it covers a lot of my bases for the morning. Also, the last two days praying the Psalms before I get in the shower has made me remember more to pray for people in the shower. This is good because I can pray about stuff that is bothering me internally, or the people that I forget to pray for sometimes before I fall asleep.
Dave Schmelzer was an awesome speaker all around. He speaks a lot like I think, that was weird. He managed to pull his tangents back together better than I usually do though. He is so cool that I am going to tell you that you can listen to his sermons at http://www.cambridgevineyard.org, so go check it out and see if any of his sermon titles interest you.
Thanks to Monica Lin, and Kelley Shimmin I have been thinking about some stuff about post-modernism. Does anyone else notice that people around my age and younger don’t like being called either modern or postmodern. Also, there is a large segment of the population that is my brothers age looking for a sharp return to tradition. I talked with my Dad about this and he didn’t think it was so much of a shift culturally as it is disillusionment with postmodernism and modernisms rebellion against tradition and science. But I will write on this later, I mainly mentioned it because I made up a name for this phenomenon, and I will use it until I or someone else comes up with a better name. That name is enlightened postmodernism. I’m throwing the word enlightened in front of it not because I think people are smarter now, or they think more or something, but because post-postmodernism doesn’t sound very nice, and because I think that there is a large group of people who are not so much rebelling against postmodernism as they are accepting the scientific or hard truths that hold as sound generalizations brought about by modern techniques, and acknowledging the importance of peoples relationships feelings, and the meta-themes (as Kelley put it) that are also important. I know I’m not the first person to think of this, I’ve talked with James about it before, the tension between modernism and postmodernism, but I have had some more coherent thoughts on it lately in trying to figure out where I fit in culture today.
Finally, as I mentioned before, the theology stuff from the conference was great. Derek Morphew amazed me. At first I thought he was a vibrant speaker, but was focusing more on the academics of the theology than my poor little sleep deprived eye-lids could handle, but then in the second session he talked I felt much more enthusiasm start to swell up as he spoke on the more personal aspects of this theology. Then toward the end of the third session I knew something big was up. Even before he stopped speaking I could feel the electricity of anticipation grow in the crowd. If you are one of those people who is very skeptical about “feelings” and how the holy spirit uses them I don’t think you could ignore this. By the time he was done speaking and moved into the ministry time I practically couldn’t hold down my excitement. I knew something was happening, and I knew it was going to be big. And when all of the people in a room are either praying for someone, or being prayed for you know God is really moving. This is, as Happy put it (our senior pastor), “like the old Vineyard conferences.” “This is something that you are going to hear people talk about in the future as one of those life changing conferences.” That was probably my most powerful encounter with that kind of thing, and I didn’t even have anything drastic happen to me, I mostly just prayed for Dirk, and watched the people around me some. If you believe that God doesn’t do miracles today, or you are skeptical about how God changes peoples lives come talk to me, I have some stories from the conference that I can share, and I would love to talk to you about it. The speaker, even without that amazing ministry time, has given me a clearer idea on how to articulate this amazing theology, this amazing way of looking at the world, to others, and I am holding a strong passion to share it at the moment. And this is small changes in how people tend to look at Jesus ministry. This stuff is sound theology, and very close, maybe even completely compatible, with any existing sound theologies in other churches. It is really just a realization of one of the ways God works today.
Well, see, there you have it….I’m already rambling on and on about it so you know I’m excited about it. But seriously…a little skeptical of this stuff, which you probably should be because your an American damnit and we’re skeptical of everything, you should talk to me, cuz this stuff is hot….the life-changing, world view shifting, and spiritually accelerating kind of hot.
Finally, I had to miss the annual “Drunken Barn Dance” this year. Lauren and I are both sick, and last year I didn’t have nearly as much fun when she wasn’t there. It just isn’t cool to dance with your friends the way it is cool to dance with your fiance. And if she couldn’t go, then there didn’t seem much point in me going. Plus, I really really really needed the extra sleep. I slept like 4 hours last night and woke up feeling like crap. That means I probably would have ended up being grouchy and a pain in the ass for the people who did go, so they are probably better off without me So I’m bummed I missed that, but it seemed a much wiser choice to stay at home and try to get healthy so I can focus in on my classes this coming week. Grades first, party later….I hate being old and getting responsible.
Well, with that, I’m done with my thoughts that are sharable (I’m working up a political scheme, but for it to work, I can’t share it with any more people than I already have) so now off to bed to get some more of that much needed sleep.