I have a pretty good network around the country, or so I thought.
I’ve been in the religion business for 55 years, have maintained professional connections from college and seminary, three denominations, plus a generation of college students, more than a thousand young AoP preachers, and a weekly newsletter to another thousand readers.
Since 1998 I have been talking to all kinds of people through my media platform The Meetinghouse: imams and authors, preachers and professors, converts and critics, even the New Apostolic Reformation.
I thought I knew what was going on, but no.
Earlier this week, I discovered I am very much in the dark about lots of things.
I read a book titled Brave Cities. My review is elsewhere in this newsletter (or on this website). Using Google search, I attempted to track down more information about the authors; and this led to me a website promoting a large conference last week in Orlando, Florida.
“That’s the big church planting event,” a more knowledgeable person said to me when I described my journey down the rabbit hole. “More than 6,000 people attend every year.”
The organizing entity is, I think, Stadia. The event is called Exponential, I think, because the brand that appears at the top of some pages is ONEIGHTY: The Return to Disciple Making. I assume that word ONEIGHTY is a clever reference to 180 degrees (or turning around and going in the opposite direction).
Their website listed 255 speakers for the event. I scrolled through the pages of names and finally found one I recognized: Preston Ulmer. He is a Pentecostal minister in Missouri who launched and leads The Doubter’s Club. I exchanged emails with him a year or so ago about an interview in The Meetinghouse.
Everybody else was unknown to me. 154 names. And none of the three conference names printed above were familiar to me.
I went further down this rabbit hole. I began to open and read the speaker bios. The first thing I noted was how infrequently things like education, ordination, and denominational affiliation were mentioned. Hardly ever.
But two things were there every time: first, the name of some non-profit organization, like SermonShots, Dandelion Resourcing, PreacHER Academy, Empart, Warrier3Project and 4Sight Group. Everybody had their own platform and often the names were clever, creative, catchy.
This is a typical identification: “Bill is a Governing Elder in the Tampa Underground Network and has served in various capacities for local churches and organizations including the Cornerstone Knowledge Network, Youth for Christ, Heartland Christian School and BeTheChangeProject. Bill is the coauthor of Unleashed! Finding Epic Adventure in Everyday Life,”
I understand this, because I have spent the last quarter century working through organizations that I created and led: The Meetinghouse and the Academy of Preachers. We all know that it is often easier to start your own thing, raise your own money, and go your own way. Entrepreneurial Religion at its best.
The second ubiquitous element of these speaker bios is some version of this: “He is married to Amy and they have three young adult boys, two cats, and one electric motorcycle.” Many took it a step further: “Eric has been married for 24 years to his beautiful wife Erin and has three incredible children: Joey (19), Lydia (17), and Max (14).”
I get this, also. Most of us are proud of our marriages and especially our grandchildren. But I wonder about the purpose of such markers. Who is this trying to include or exclude? How do these qualifiers play into the credibility that speaker bios are trying to establish?
Mostly, though, I marveled at my ignorance of this entire enterprise. I have been so caught up in denominational and institutional networks that I was oblivious to the size and scope of these non-denominational, non-institutional initiatives that are flourishing all around us.
George Bullard, identified above as “a more knowledgeable person” has said to me (and to others when a guest in The Meetinghouse): “The largest denomination in the United States is Non-denominational.”
This description of one ONEIGHTY speakers helps to explain why: “He also leads Community’s 4 church expressions: 1) Online, 2) Physical Locations, 3) 3C Communities (micro-sites/house churches), and 4) Community Freedom (churches planted in local prisons).” Pretty impressive.
I
I have a pretty good network around the country, or so I thought.
I’ve been in the religion business for 55 years, have maintained professional connections from college and seminary, three denominations, plus a generation of college students, more than a thousand young AoP preachers, and a weekly newsletter to another thousand readers.
Since 1998 I have been talking to all kinds of people through my media platform The Meetinghouse: imams and authors, preachers and professors, converts and critics, even the New Apostolic Reformation.
I thought I knew what was going on, but no.
Earlier this week, I discovered I am very much in the dark about lots of things.
I read a book titled Brave Cities. My review is elsewhere in this newsletter (or on this website). Using Google search, I attempted to track down more information about the authors; and this led to me a website promoting a large conference last week in Orlando, Florida.
“That’s the big church planting event,” a more knowledgeable person said to me when I described my journey down the rabbit hole. “More than 6,000 people attend every year.”
The organizing entity is, I think, Stadia. The event is called Exponential, I think, because the brand that appears at the top of some pages is ONEIGHTY: The Return to Disciple Making. I assume that word ONEIGHTY is a clever reference to 180 degrees (or turning around and going in the opposite direction).
Their website listed 255 speakers for the event. I scrolled through the pages of names and finally found one I recognized: Preston Ulmer. He is a Pentecostal minister in Missouri who launched and leads The Doubter’s Club. I exchanged emails with him a year or so ago about an interview in The Meetinghouse.
Everybody else was unknown to me. 154 names. And none of the three conference names printed above were familiar to me.
I went further down this rabbit hole. I began to open and read the speaker bios. The first thing I noted was how infrequently things like education, ordination, and denominational affiliation were mentioned. Hardly ever.
But two things were there every time: first, the name of some non-profit organization, like SermonShots, Dandelion Resourcing, PreacHER Academy, Empart, Warrier3Project and 4Sight Group. Everybody had their own platform and often the names were clever, creative, catchy.
This is a typical identification: “Bill is a Governing Elder in the Tampa Underground Network and has served in various capacities for local churches and organizations including the Cornerstone Knowledge Network, Youth for Christ, Heartland Christian School and BeTheChangeProject. Bill is the coauthor of Unleashed! Finding Epic Adventure in Everyday Life,”
I understand this, because I have spent the last quarter century working through organizations that I created and led: The Meetinghouse and the Academy of Preachers. We all know that it is often easier to start your own thing, raise your own money, and go your own way. Entrepreneurial Religion at its best.
The second ubiquitous element of these speaker bios is some version of this: “He is married to Amy and they have three young adult boys, two cats, and one electric motorcycle.” Many took it a step further: “Eric has been married for 24 years to his beautiful wife Erin and has three incredible children: Joey (19), Lydia (17), and Max (14).”
I get this, also. Most of us are proud of our marriages and especially our grandchildren. But I wonder about the purpose of such markers. Who is this trying to include or exclude? How do these qualifiers play into the credibility that speaker bios are trying to establish?
Mostly, though, I marveled at my ignorance of this entire enterprise. I have been so caught up in denominational and institutional networks that I was oblivious to the size and scope of these non-denominational, non-institutional initiatives that are flourishing all around us.
George Bullard, identified above as “a more knowledgeable person” has said to me (and to others when a guest in The Meetinghouse): “The largest denomination in the United States is Non-denominational.”
This description of one ONEIGHTY speakers helps to explain why: “He also leads Community’s 4 church expressions: 1) Online, 2) Physical Locations, 3) 3C Communities (micro-sites/house churches), and 4) Community Freedom (churches planted in local prisons).” Pretty impressive.
I
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