...to add to that...
Maybe I should finally expand my ideas about Convergence (again, my artist/creative community/church). I've learned from Seth Godin that I shouldn't apologize before delivering information--and I agree--however, let this serve as an unnecessary disclaimer that this may or may not be very exciting for all of you. That being said...
I was reading over my last post, and didn't like the way point C sounded. I think its because whenever I've heard words like that used in the past, I just assume its coming out of the mouth of a well-intentioned yet hip-to-the-jive pastor. I say hip-to-the-jive to make a point, that not only does it not make sense to say, but its also really lame to say. Just painting the picture for you. Hopefully that obscure way of painting it is serving its purpose.
To state the obvious: every church has its own lingo. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it usually becomes one. It starts out as a normal and expected facet to any place that has an environment--all offices, industries, homes, friends, you name it- have their own lingo. Somehow in the church it gets taken to the next level and words suddenly become currency...like if you can somehow fit the popular lingo into your sentence it creates value and even has a decent interest rate, too. It starts to remind me of some pop-lingo on CNN lately: "Change!" "Hope!". See what I mean? Innately, nothing wrong with either. But now its just currency. (Although inflation is really getting the best of it in that case....but lets not go there.)
What I love about what I've found at Convergence is that I'm pretty sure there is no lingo. Seriously. When my pastor says something like "open up the space for creativity" he doesn't mean anything other than exactly that. He doesn't formulate his sentences to ring the right way in the listening artists' ears. He is entirely unmoved that he phrased it the way he did. There's no currency. He is not hip-to-the-jive. He's just real. You can tell by his vocal inflection. He's just talking. He's not trying to instill his lingo into our brains, or his belief of his lingo into our brains, and he's not trying to sell us anything.
In short: he's not marketing our own church back at us.
The lack of lingo.
Other reasons why I am enjoying Convergence:
The attitude of curiosity.
The smallness.
The total lack of glamor.
And
There are lots of old people. By lots, I mean probably like 10, but that's a lot considering there are only 30ish people to begin with.
These old people are something special. How many people over the age of 70 do you know that would be excited about regularly supporting and gathering with a church of artists?
These old folks could put a hippy in her place.
I was reading over my last post, and didn't like the way point C sounded. I think its because whenever I've heard words like that used in the past, I just assume its coming out of the mouth of a well-intentioned yet hip-to-the-jive pastor. I say hip-to-the-jive to make a point, that not only does it not make sense to say, but its also really lame to say. Just painting the picture for you. Hopefully that obscure way of painting it is serving its purpose.
To state the obvious: every church has its own lingo. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it usually becomes one. It starts out as a normal and expected facet to any place that has an environment--all offices, industries, homes, friends, you name it- have their own lingo. Somehow in the church it gets taken to the next level and words suddenly become currency...like if you can somehow fit the popular lingo into your sentence it creates value and even has a decent interest rate, too. It starts to remind me of some pop-lingo on CNN lately: "Change!" "Hope!". See what I mean? Innately, nothing wrong with either. But now its just currency. (Although inflation is really getting the best of it in that case....but lets not go there.)
What I love about what I've found at Convergence is that I'm pretty sure there is no lingo. Seriously. When my pastor says something like "open up the space for creativity" he doesn't mean anything other than exactly that. He doesn't formulate his sentences to ring the right way in the listening artists' ears. He is entirely unmoved that he phrased it the way he did. There's no currency. He is not hip-to-the-jive. He's just real. You can tell by his vocal inflection. He's just talking. He's not trying to instill his lingo into our brains, or his belief of his lingo into our brains, and he's not trying to sell us anything.
In short: he's not marketing our own church back at us.
The lack of lingo.
Other reasons why I am enjoying Convergence:
The attitude of curiosity.
The smallness.
The total lack of glamor.
And
There are lots of old people. By lots, I mean probably like 10, but that's a lot considering there are only 30ish people to begin with.
These old people are something special. How many people over the age of 70 do you know that would be excited about regularly supporting and gathering with a church of artists?
These old folks could put a hippy in her place.
posted by Julie at
10:19 PM
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