Shaun Groves
I taught two classes at the National Worship Leader Conference this week: Basic Blogging and Advanced Blogging (I know, catchy titles). Most of the folks in the basic class don’t have blogs (yet) and were just attending to figure out what on earth a blog is, why people blog and decide if they should do it too. One of the main things I wanted them to understand was that a blog is a two-way communication device, like a phone, and not one-way like a megaphone.
Yes, I admitted, there are some bloggers (a lot of pastors, in fact) who don’t allow comments on their blogs or allow them but don’t respond to them. These blogs, I said, aren’t really blogs; they’re pamphlets.
After the class, we broke for lunch. I joined a few folks under a tree, opened my boxed meal and bottled water and did a lot of listening in an interesting conversation. The National Worship Leader Conference is well organized, held in a beautiful location, expertly staffed, well attended. It’s a great conference. The folks under the tree with me went on and on about all the great stuff they’d heard and seen. But then one guy said, “I wish there was a way for me to take this experience with me, pass it around when I get home and keep it going.”
After lunch someone in my Advanced Blogging class made the same kind of remark. “And I wish we could share our own ideas – like if there was a time where everyone here could share one or two of their best ideas.”
Both of these people seemed to me to be saying that they want conferences – learning in general – to be more like a telephone than a megaphone. This is the same thing some people seem to be looking for in their formal education or at church. Some people are craving more interaction with information and the “expert,” more opportunities to share their own insights, and a way to keep the conversation going when the class or conference is “over” – a way to spread the stuff they learn and love.
Have you been to a conference that does this well? A church or a school? Tell us about it.
Sarah Chia says:
The church we came from in Indiana had an emphasis on taking the sermon farther by small groups.
It was an optional thing, but our small group always found that the message sunk in deeper and changed our lives more often if we followed along to the questions that our pastor provided, and if we discussed it either before or after the sermon.
It’s not a real high-tech way, so it was limited to the small group, but I’m sure it could easily be modified into a blog format for churches (or conferences) that are interested.
Diana says:
I attended Small Business Marketing Unleashed in Houston last April. After (and during) the conference, everyone I spoke with came away with the same phenomenal reaction. This conference was awesome.
Since the conference many many of us have stayed in touch with each other and use Twitter as a means of sharing.
Charlie Park says:
I think the concept you’re maybe looking for is the terribly-named “Open Space Technology” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology#The_OST_approach) … the basic idea is that everyone gathers in a space, and there’s no pre-set agenda for the meeting (although there *is* a “theme” for the gathering). If you want to lead a discussion on a topic, you go to the front of the room (or middle of the circle), grab a piece of paper, and write down the topic of your “workshop.” You then tape it to a wall that’s divided up by workshop times and workshop spaces. So … let’s say you want to lead a conversation on “blogging platforms for beginners” … you write that on a piece of paper and announce to the group that you’ll be leading that conversation at 9:00 in the [insert conference room blandly-named after local geographic feature or area famous person]. Other people suggest other topics they’ll talk about in different rooms, or at different times. Then, everyone disperses to the rooms / topics that interest them. If there aren’t any topics that are appealing to you, you can spontaneously announce your own, new topic, just by putting a piece of paper up on the wall in a free room / time.
The best implementation I’ve seen has been at something called BarCamp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp), a technology “unconference.”
Grovesfan says:
Our church does a weekly class called “Sermon HD.” It’s much like the above in that we discuss the previous week’s sermon in a much deeper way. I’m learning a ton!
Beth
Chelsey says:
I think that maybe you have to be careful within a church as to how far this goes. If the discussion is about Scripture that has already been preached, then great. But if the discussion isn’t carefully watched, I think that it could turn into somewhat of a pooling of ignorance – that is, a bunch of people who don’t really know what they’re talking about making absolute statements.
I don’t think it always has to be that way or that it always is, but I do think it’s a danger.
Grovesfan says:
I agree with Chelsey. I’m sure I will spark a huge debate here, but at that risk, I’ll say that the Emergent Church is founded largely on that very thing and is very dangerous when no one is willing to take responsibility for and speak THE TRUTH about scripture, it’s absolute inerrancy, accuracy and completeness.
One of my favorite quotes:
Uncertainty in light of our human limitations is a virtue. Uncertainty in light of God’s Word is not.
Beth
Hannah says:
You might disagree with me on this one but for me GMA week (which I’ve only been apart of the past 2 since I graduated college 2 years ago) has been a dialogue that pretty much keeps going for me. I met a couple really amazing individuals one in particular who is my current boss and we talk all the time about what I am learning in the industry, stuff I learned, questions I have, alot of it is follow up to staff that was heard/learned at GMA week etc. But that is probably a really rare instance and I realize that…
Shanda says:
I don’t get to many conferences since I’m a single mom with limited income and opportunity.
This blogging community has become my “telephone”. I’m the only parent my kids have. I can’t be hopping off to conferences all the time. But I can join the discussion going on in different corners of the blogosphere. And I’m extremely grateful for that. Especially when blogging friends give great recaps on what they learned.
Chris Morris says:
+1 Open Space
Dan da Man says:
Many mainstream tech conferences (and other ones, I suppose) that are more community-oriented often have an hour or two of “Birds of a Feather” sessions. Basically, there’s just a list of topics and a room or part of the room where people can congregate to talk about those. The idea is to sit and listen to a conversation for a couple minutes and mix it around. It’s a great way to just talk with others at the conference and ask questions to a group of like-minded people. Something like that, some more loosely-scheduled time to hang out, would probably be something helpful for the Worship Leader’s Conference (or probably any conference).