Convocation explores Christianity at the Crossroads
Do you feel the ground shifting beneath your feet? Denominational loyalty is disappearing, replaced by new ranks of the “spiritual but not religious.” People mix and match from various spiritual traditions. Christianity is truly at a crossroads. Explore the upheaval around us at the 2010 Bishop’s Convocation with Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence, and Stephen Bouman of the ELCA’s Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission unit, Monday, Nov. 15 to Wednesday, Nov. 17 at the DoubleTree Resort (Lancaster/Willow Valley).
This upheaval is to be expected, according to Phyllis Tickle, who argues that the church had held just such a “rummage sale” every 500 years or so since Jesus’ time, when Christians re-examine traditions and world-views in order to keep what is essential and discard the adiaphora.
Five centuries after the Reformation, we are blessed as well as challenged to be living through a similar transition. Dr. Tickle points as examples to a renewed focus on the person of Jesus, on Christian community, and on new avenues for communicating the Gospel and connecting believers, all the while rearticulating traditional beliefs with new energy and relevance.
“Join us for a fascinating conversation about this ‘Great Emergence’ of the Church, and how our own denomination also finds itself at a crossroad,” Bishop Burkat says in her invitation to rostered leaders. Also on the agenda is the Rev. Dr. Stephen Bouman, Executive Director of the ELCA’s Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission unit, who will share his perspective of how this shift is affecting the ELCA. “Bring your questions and ideas, your hopes and fears, and share with colleagues and our presenters as together we wrestle with the future God is calling us into, and as we seek the power of the Holy Spirit to work within and through us,” the bishop said.
