Had a great time seeing some faces I’ve only seen in tiny little avatars on twitter at the pre-camp meetup last night. Of course, social media such as twitter and facebook were part of the discussion. Social justice and compassion ministry were also discussed.
I was pretty tired and being the new guy to the group, didn’t want to speak and take away from other more-prominent people in attendance, but it was like watching a trial on tv. Ever watch a trial and basically try to be the attorney by shouting out what you think the next question or line of attack should be? Well, same sort of thing happened tonight. I had several things I was tempted to voice, but held my tongue and in every instance someone in the group eventually made the same points.
I am encouraged to know that these people of different demographics and church cultures can come together and be very like-minded. Not so like-minded that we all know what the other person is saying so that we can’t learn anything, but similar in ideas and hopes and dreams and coming together to learn how to make these things turn into reality. It’s simply awesome!
I’m looking forward to tweeting some points made in the sessions later today and posting some follow up comment. Also looking forward to making some kind of contribution through the conversations as much of the talk so far are things close to my heart such as the missional church, following in the footsteps of Christ, compassion ministry, and next generation empowerment. The Idea Camp is going to change the way people think of ministry conferences and as this is my very first conference ever, I must say that I feel blessed and privileged to be at the first conference that puts the onus on attendees and allows open, flowing conversations that allow for practical results and relationships well after we all go home after this weekend.
