Formation in Christlikeness Conference by Aprentis Institute: Day 2

Now, to discuss day two of my experience at the Formation in Christlikeness event:

General Session Speaker: Scot McKnight

I really enjoyed Scot McKnight's talk. I was hoping he would have spent more time talking about the content in the King Jesus Gospel, but instead he basically did an overview of some of the material about spiritual transformation that was in his book Jesus Creed.

In his talk he spoke especially about Peter's spiritual transformation, but also the transformation of Mary (moth of Jesus) and John (beloved disciple). He often spoke about how his perspective on spiritual transformation differed from the Willard/Smith model. As far as I can tell this took place in two specific ways.

1. McKnight believes that most meaningful transformation comes through the "crucible of events" as "in moments of crisis we respond". This varies from the attitude of Willard, Foster, and Smith, who attempt to help people transform through the ordinary moments of their lives.  I favor the necessity of the Willard/Smith approach, but believe in truth most meaningful life change comes either through crisis or transition.
2. McKnight feels it is less helpful to be conscious of our transformation, giving constant analysis and feedback to the transformation process. He instead believes that we should live through the transformation process in a more natural and organic way.

What I enjoyed most about McKnight's talk was his sense of humor. He was bright and witty, but often had us laughing outloud during his presentation.

General Session speaker Mindy Caliguire

I have nearly every book Mindy has ever written so I was excited to hear her speak.

To be honest, she was hard to follow at first, and my notes are not good for her presentation.

I wanted to get a lot out of it, but her notes she included were not existent.

She shared a lot of information about burnout with ministers, and how God is eagerly pursuing us, even as believers and pastors. And that he longs to spend time with us and be around us.

Worshop: Mark Scandrette and the Jesus Dojo

I debated on whether to attend this workshop. After all, a workshop titled after a karate studio was perhaps a little too trendy for me. I attended the workshop anyway. I am glad I did.

What was insightful for me in this workshop was its emphasis on "communities of practice" as a model of spiritual growth for the church and for individual believers.

Scandrette believes the church should resemble a dojo more than a college lecture hall. A place where we learn something, and then immediately put it into practice, and then have instructors and a group of practicioners of what we are doing be able to give us feedback and insight into how to do the spiritual life.

While the style in which Scandrette ministers does not necessarily fit my current context, the means for spiritual transformation may be a helpful way of helping people grow spiritually.

Having went to this workshop, I immediately went and bought his new book from the bookstand. His methodogy of doing the spiritual disciplines makes sense, both for outreach and for personal growth.

General Session: James Catford

Interestingly, this session seemed to focus on getting the message of spritual transformation and God's presence out into the world, instead of just keeping it in the church. I loved the evangelistic emphasis.

An evangelistic emphasis in a "Renovare" style is less about decisionism, or recruitment than it is helping people be aware of God's presence, and join him by faith in his Way and his Purposes. Catford explained this very well.

He also explained how believers have an opportunity to transform culture by their presence in it, and how necessary this ministry is.

General Session Eduardo Pedreira

Being from Brazil, I found Eduardo difficult to understand at times. But as I listened to what he said, much of what he shared was very transferrable.

He shared a lot about how if we are going to truly help people be transformed, we need to be incarnational. We need to be where people are, going through what they are going through. Then we need to show them a different way.

He shared how much of our congregations and pastors are in a cycle of behavior that leads to spiritual death. Thus, many people in our church segment their lives, surviving their weeks, and coming to church with a different persona. Then, we have a hard time reaching them.

He shared that in order to impact people, we need to impact their negative spiritual cycle, which moves this way: Competition--Effort toward Accomplishment--Exhaustion--Entertainment. In order to do that, we need to move into the world where this cycle takes place, and offer an alternative that makes life more meaningful and intentional than the "cycle". Specifically, we need to help people move from narcissism to selflessness. Interesting stuff.

Overall Observations

• Loved having both the publishers and the 8th day bookstore at the conference
• Enjoyed the messages, especially in the first two sessions. Thought they should have mixed in the final two presenters. They kind of felt like add-ons
• Would like to see more worshop time at this conference.
• Would have liked to see speakers and presenters more accessable to the relatively small number of attendees. In this sense, the conference should take its model from Youth Specialties conferences
• Thought the curriculum presentations were especially helpful
• Loved the Friends campus
• Am thinking about implementing the Aprentis curriculum in the near future