National Pastors, Conjoined Conventions

This year’s National Pastors Convention managed to break new ground in a couple of significant ways. First, the event was actually two conjoined conferences. Some 2,500 registered for the National Pastors Convention, and more than 700 attended the simultaneous Emergent Convention, which was for people doing ministry in a postmodern context.

Second, the conference was so well received that in 2004, the conjoined conventions will be held twice—in San Diego in March and in Nashville in May.

The two conventions offered separate general sessions but a shared lineup of workshops, morning Bible studies, book clubs, and late night concerts, comedy, and conversations.

Walking into the lobby, your first impression is that NPC is for those over 35 and EC for those under 35. More balding heads in one room; more shaved heads (or frosted) in the other. Goatees abound in both. Early morning sessions are populated mostly by the NPC; late nights draw more EC. Music at NPC is from contemporary artists like Fernando Ortega, while EC features edgier sounds such as Over the Rhine. There’s more humor and laughter at NPC; more artistic expressions, sacred space, and symbolism at EC.

These surface differences provided enough healthy friction to keep things interesting and to spark conversation. The interaction between the generations was fascinating and fruitful at such workshops as “Preaching as Midrash” and “Multi-Sensory Worship” and “Helping the Chronically Needy.” And in next week’s column, Kevin Miller will reflect on his conversations with both mods and pomos.

For now, here are a few random snapshots and sound bites from my mental notebook of the week:

Brooklyn Tabernacle’s Jim Cymbala preaching on David “inquiring of the Lord” before making key decisions (1 Samuel 23), and the importance of our inquiring of the Lord before we make decisions in ministry. Time spent collectively inquiring of the Lord for the decisions each of us needs to make.

The EC pastor who tells me, “The modern church is driven by designing itself to reach outsiders. It’s very pragmatic. I’m just trying to develop a church where I can be authentically Christian, along with anyone else who shares that desire.”

Bishop Ken Ulmer of Faithful Central Bible Church preaching on Psalm 23, especially the phrase Yea, though I walk THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death (“We’re not stuck IN the valley; God is going to see us THROUGH the valley. We’ve been on one high place, and we’ve got to go THROUGH a valley to get where God wants us to go.”)

At the end of his sermon, Bishop Ulmer issued an invitation—any pastors who are in the valley, who are struggling with whether to give up on ministry, who need prayer for the ability to continue THROUGH the valley—Bishop Ulmer invited them to come forward. And scores, maybe a hundred pastors streamed to the front, and Bishop Ulmer led us in praying for them.

Another session ends with thousands of us on our knees praying for our world, with the threat of war imminent. We pray that peace and justice would reign, and that we would be faithful to God and be given eyes to discern the purposes of the Almighty.

Speaker Anne Lamott, an NPR commentator and best-selling author, describing her own relationship with Jesus, and then causing many of her listeners to cheer and others to gnash their teeth as she said, “What we really don’t need from pastors is certainty. People who are too sure of themselves scare away people like me.”

The pastor who said, “This week I learned the three key ingredients in the NPC liturgy: Music, Humor, and Preaching. I’ve been neglecting the humor aspect in my church, but it’s so significant in building the community and freeing the spirit to worship. I’m going to try to rediscover that element.”

An EC leader who said, “The difference between the modern church and the postmodern church is how each addresses pain. The modern church tries to pray it away. The postmodern church doesn’t. Our church is trying to learn the language of the biblical prayers of lament, not just praying to escape pain, but to learn to dwell in the land of pain and uncertainty, because that’s where people live today.”

Differences? Yes. Thought-provoking? Absolutely.

But my observation is that the many differences mentioned above mask the deeper similarities among the attenders of both conventions. Yes, there are differences in philosophy of ministry, but there is a shared calling to minister, a shared desire to be authentic as Christians, and a shared commitment to engage the culture in which we’re placed.

Marshall Shelley is editor of Leadership.