Monday, August 01, 2011

 

WHY?

MMI turned me on to this now past conference, one that got a lot of buzz, but I had to ask "Why?":
The idea for this conference came from two sources: A blog post from J.R. Briggs, a pastor at Renew Community in Lansdale, Pa and the wildly popular site www.epicfail.com.

A few dangerous questions were asked:

-What if we offered a space that is gutsy, hopeful, courageously vulnerable for pastors to let go of the burden to be a Super Pastor?

-What if we could hold an event that was free from the thrills and frills of other pastors conferences?
Why, for example, would a conference free from "thrills and frills" resort to such a marketing gimmick as calling itself the "Epic Fail" conference? Why would we seek to repackage failure in a fashion that makes it appear to be success. Isn't that sort of a way of putting pride where humility should be?

Trying to do away with the superstar mentality of things is not a bad goal, but it is only part of the problem. Even without the superstar mentality, the fact that pastors think it all depends on them is a big part of the problem. Somewhere the church has lost its feel of community where the pastor is a role player in that community and taken on the aspect of entertainment where the pastor is the focus, whether that pastor be a workman, star or superstar.

Maybe if pastors spent less time at conferences, "Epic Fail" or otherwise, and more time amongst their flock, encouraging and developing and building community....

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