in the world

Last week’s Big Tent 2011 and my thoughts this week about it caused me to revisit Unco as an alternative, complementary, or perhaps even competing event in the life of the church. To be sure, there were many people who attended both events (my hope is their comments will fill in the analysis below), but the Big Tent and Unco struck me as fundamentally different events that cast starkly different visions for the future of our connectional life together. While my experience of the Big Tent 2011 was largely positive, it at the same time left me wishing I had attended in person Unco, instead of watching and participating via the Internet and twitter (scheduling conflict).

The respected and thoughtful Jill Hudson illustrated the divide. While reviewing her book When Better Isn’t Enough? Evaluation Tools for the 21st Century, Jill pointed to Generation Y and post-modernity shaping the future of the church and the effectiveness of our ministry. Ironically, as she pointed out herself, her presentation in lecture form, without largely the use of technology, without young adults in the room, and without collaborative conversation would largely fail her evaluative test.

The critique could have been made in many places of the Big Tent itself and went beyond the format. The larger shift on the horizon for the church beyond 10-A and nFOG, is the twin flattening out of power for some and empowering of others in the church as a result of the democratizing, open source, social forces active in the world today and in the church. This shift has already started happening in places. To put it another way, this shift represents a return to something closer to the priesthood of all believers rather than the more hierarchical structures that exist at present.

Big Tent came to represent the opposite direction for me. At Big Tent 2011, there were lecturers and listeners, worship leaders and in many ways passive participants (i.e. opening worship). I was impressed by the quality of those leading worship and workshops, but were all in attendance without their own wisdom and experiences? Would their voice have added or subtracted from the voices of others? Could more have been done to make Big Tent a more cooperative effort?

While the priesthood of all believers does not assume equal giftedness or call, it does assume a more equal giftedness and call than our structures often do. The story of pastoral confidence abuse shared by a man sitting next to me in one workshop would have been a powerful addition to one lecture, but was silent. The insight of a woman in another workshop that was said off-hand, besides being funny, was exceedingly true to the point the lecturer was making, but again was silent. Alternatively, the dinner conversations, where authentic conversation and life sharing were taking place, were prematurely interrupted by structured “ice breakers” meant to accomplish the very tasks they were interrupting. I enjoyed hearing about who my brothers and sisters in the world mission and peacemaking conferences were before that was interrupted.

From my observation, Unco offers an alternative vision of our connectional life together. Unco bills itself as “an open-space gathering of church leaders dedicated to fostering creativity, thinking innovatively, and inspiring friendships.” The emphasis is on participant generated, driven, and led topics and conversations. Experts, knowledgeable individuals, and inquisitive observers are equally as likely to be in a room teaching and learning from one another. This participatory model values the various giftedness of all in attendance and relies almost solely on them for direction. At the Unco 2011, there was even the ability to broadcast via the internet live video of various discussion to further open the conversations.  Twitter and other social media were extensively used. Creating and fostering community and conversation were highly valued, knowing that is there that the Holy Spirit often works.

Unco, at present, represents the future hope of many for connectional gatherings and the life of the church together beyond both the politics and decisiveness of the General Assembly and the leader/learner divide of Big Tent.  Unco is a truly open-space, open source, social conference that from worship to workshops to simply times gathered around tables is a witness to the priesthood of all believers in action today. Unco has made present today a future reality for the church and perhaps a glimpse at the Kingdom of God.