Well, went to a conference held by our Presbytery entitled Focus. It consisted of a keynote presentation in the morning, 2 workshops after that and then a worship service with communion in the evening. For the workshops, I took one about children’s literature and one about the 500th birthday of Calvin. Here are my impressions of it.
Children’s Literature: Did pretty much fulfill my hope that it would provide me a list of books that may be useful to help develop a faith-life in both my children. However, (though I should have expected it these days) it was surprising how politically correct it was in its presentation. Also, was quite touched on how some authors explored the wonder of God’s love and I could sense how powerful such talents could be in service to God as these authors can give words to something that we Christians feel but lack the ability to express. One thing that I did not like was that some of these books made me a little uncomfortable with their adoration of nature. I mean, not all of the books were explicitly Christian, but it is something that as a parent I need to stress; that creation points and celebrates the Creator.
Calvin’s 500th Birthday: With such a topic as John Calvin, I did not envy the instructor as I am sure with so many sources of information and opinions and written works about that man, that it would have been tough to know where to start and how to cover Calvin satisfactorily in an hour’s worth of time. I noted couple of books of interest, but as for the class, it just tickled the surface of the man, his time and his work. One noted irony is that predestination and election were doctrines that was introduced to downplay any notions of works-righteousness, but it ended up fueling works – as the question of who is the elect was answered by, you shall know by their fruits and thus people wanted to make sure that they had the fruits.
Speaker: Now I am not a proponent of the emerging church movement. I agree with what they are trying to do: They want to bring people to Christ. I agree with what the speaker said about how the church is the people and I too agree that we need to present the message of Christ in a way that is relevant, accessible and contemporary (to an extent). But, I think they miss one big point – that of demographics. Basically people having children (note the plural form) and bringing them up properly in the faith. Also kinda like what I said about predestination, because they do not stress the forms of the church and worship, ironically it seems that it ends up focusing attention onto it. Finally the big thing is that from what I have seen, the emerging church movement guys implicitly or explicitly attack or denigrate other Christians. I think I heard couple of jokes about Bible thumping and end times novel reading believers today. Some may state that these guys are just making fun of themselves, but I would bet that presbyterians are in general politically, theologically and in other ways opponents of these so called Bible thumpers and do not identify with them. It is like east or west coast urbanites making fun of the flyover, rural people of the American heartland. Interesting thing, and it was shown by the video that the speaker presented on perceptions of Jesus and the church, was just how much things have remained the same even after two thousand years. The responses about impressions of Jesus reminded me about the question Jesus asked His disciples concerning who the people thought Jesus was. The responses by the students of UCSC would probably be the same if they were asked about impressions of Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa or other widely perceived moral exemplars and teachers.
Overall, it was nice. However I wonder if is of any use. In my observation today, I saw many senior citizens and predominantly composed of women (who knows, perhaps the men have all died off). It may be too late for many of the churches to make any changes or have the energy to draw any seekers to them and thus too late for the Presbyterian church. It would be sad if that was the case, as there is such history in the church.
