tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1983737958656660025.post3144508123892218537..comments2012-07-16T06:20:05.765-07:00Comments on Notes on Practical Divinity: Reflections on Annual Conference: Asking the Right QuestionsAndy Kinseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05675926106497722177noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1983737958656660025.post-79491707624786412542010-07-13T20:24:58.004-07:002010-07-13T20:24:58.004-07:00I was only at Annual Conference a short time this ...I was only at Annual Conference a short time this year (another commitment took me away). My experience this year and the last few years is that there is very little business that takes place on the floor. Mostly there is the giving and receiving of reports. And despite some usual go-rounds on the budget and insurance - there are very few comments and little or no significant engagement on issues that come close either to the three questions you propose - or to anything else that has an impact upon the daily life of the members of my congregation or the other residents of this state. May I just add (parenthetically perhaps) that at the end of your article contains one of my problems with what we do and it is perhaps incredibly insignificant. It is our use (or from my perspective, our misuse)of language. I want to be clear that I don't think that there are souls that "we seek to save." God saves the souls. And all things considered I'm pretty darn happy about that. I do think that a big part of my responsibility is to help people recognize that joyful good news. But the saving itself - it's pretty important that we keep things like that in perspective. I only bring this up because I think that (as my mother would often say to me when I was growing up) "you're biting off more than you can chew" or "your eyes are too big for your stomach." In areas of mission and evangelism - we often think that the work is ours, not God's. I think that is why our notion of mission and ministry has shrunk to the size and the captivity of our buildings. I don't know what came first - the practice or the language. But it's why I think we need to recapture the biblical language - like that found in Matthew 11 -- where Jesus tells John's disciples to go back and tell John (languishing in prison) what they see - "the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor hear good news...etc..." Jesus did that. I imagine he could use the help of us acting like that was true - rather than acting like we were the ones doing it.Mike Matherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16235028237943894027noreply@blogger.com