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#EVDC09 Recap

Posted Apr 28, 11:45 PM | 5 comments | by Editor | Link

The stories from this weekend’s “Future of Emergent Village” gathering in Washington, D.C., are starting to roll in. Here are some links to follow and read for more details:

Search #evdc09 on Twitter

Julie Clawson

“We are about being a village of friends – learning from and supporting each other in the way of Christ. We share and give away power and the voices of the many are heard. How that will look and which structures will be created or retained is yet to be determined. But I am hopeful for the future.”

Makeesha Fisher (update)

“For a very long time I have tried to argue against those who say that post moderns are selfish, relativistic and that emergents are completely unable to submit to anyTHING or anyONE. This weekend confirmed what I always knew – that at the heart of what is going on here is a deep and intense desire to celebrate the individual but for the benefit of the collective – the BODY. Not a small group, not a clique, not just the cool kids but the WHOLE.”

Tim Snyder

“It is clear to me that once again the vision of Emergent Village will be rooted deeply in generative friendships. This is a rooting in story, diversity, authenticity, vulnerability and co-laboration in an on-going incarnation of the gospel. There is a wonderful simplicity admist the complexity of relationships that is Emergent Village. In some ways this is a shift back to how this all began or perhaps a re-affirmation of what has been there all along. The story of Emergent Village will continue to be authored among soul friendships.”

Sarah Notton

“We are profoundly devoted to the idea of friendships and still identify Emergent Village as a gathering place for our tribe. The fact that EVDC09 took place in a room with one another spoke profoundly to our need for friendships in this tribe. We need these collaboratory experiences, and we will find ways to encourage and sustain cohorts, events, gatherings, and virtual meeting spaces.”

Amy Moffitt

“About 2 hours in to the gathering, about 80% of the people in the room had declared that they felt like they were ‘outsiders’ in the discussion, which seemed really awkward at the time… all these ‘outsiders’ staring at each other, wondering who was on the ‘inside’. So, I wasn’t alone … everybody there felt jittery and/or out of place. The truth, of course, is that there really isn’t an inside.”

Mike Stavlund

we’re starving out here
and you’re hoarding
speak, share
lead, feed
unburden yourself

Other voices (of those who weren’t in D.C.) have been joining in as well:

Zach Roberts at Baptimergent (see also pre-EVDC09)

Travis Keller

There’s more to come, no doubt, so keep an eye out here for updates.

UPDATE 4/29/2009:

Mike Clawson

Troy Bronsink

“We began to discover that Emergent Village was changing from a tribe committed to the ‘brand identity of Emergent’ into a village that seeks to integrate the practices of Art, Theology, Way, Justice, and Social Media. Emergent Village then is moving from emphasizing ‘emergent’ toward emphasizing ‘village.’ ... The tasks and functions are still being clarified—so if this is not making sense, be patient. And of course the transition into this season of Emergent Village’s life will not be complete until more and more join in refining its articulation and new practices—so jump in!”

Michael Toy

“there was suprising beauty. ... we all spoke of dreams we had, dreams for a better world, where the church is aligned with justice and healing and all the stuff that we hope for. we talked about the way that a movement bigger than emergent village, realy a movement bigger than christianity, seemed to be in process and we also talked about our weakness and how we needed something, something like the emergent village, to help us continue to reach for that dream. ... as i read blogs of other people who were there, they are all looking back on the weekend tenderly and gently.

“so i am not allowed to say that it was a huge waste of time which didn’t accomplish anything.

“however, if our task was to make decisions, then we have to live with the above sentence hovering over all that beauty.”

Julie Clawson (update)

“No matter how often we in emergent say we are open source or about shared power, if people can’t easily perceive and access that then our words have no value. So there need to be deliberate steps taken to listen to the voices of the many, to link to the diversity of voices within the conversation, and to make invitations to join the conversation (both publicly and privately) upfront and apparent. Unless leadership is transparent and invitations for involvement continually offered, the perception of a closed group of insiders will persist.”

UPDATE 4/30/2009:

Brittian Bullock

“It was clear; I think to many, that national presences will find themselves more distributed into regional and local coordinates. As we, individually, imagined our future in five years the absence of a National Directorship was apparent. The Kingdom of God, breathing and naturalized among us, was dreamed outloud (to which the Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly’). Communities of restorative justice that lent themselves to transformative coalitions among groups that God is already using were birthed in the language of hope. The artist and dreamer were invited once more to cultivate their gifts and tend to the thing of beauty that is to come. Theology and Philosophy, those most subversive of all talents that Emergent has hoped to possess, were re-imagined as drawing from new and collective voices. These were the optimisms of the moment.”

UPDATE 5/2/2009:

Kelly Bean

“As each one shared, the sense of God’s voice seemed more and more clear … the sense of awe and something like a heavy and holy weight grew.

“It was simply amazing to hear one story after another articulate a vision of a broad network of people taking local action and practicing holistic living. This movement had become a way of life which had transformed local and global communities. EV was a point of connection that existed for the sake of connecting people who were doing justice in winsome locally embodied communities.”

UPDATE 5/3/2009:

Mike Stavlund (update)

“When we dreamed about the future of EV, we found a common theme of organizational invisibility, and of a lack of individual ego or single spokesperson. It wouldn’t be a secret society, not by any means. But it would be a place of rampant collaboration and nearly nonexistent national and formal ties. My new friend Jon [Irvine] put it this way: ‘It is not that EV would disappear, but that it would truly go public.’ Activism, creativity, and kingdom goodness would spread wide.”

UPDATE 5/4/2009:
Tim Snyder (update)

“It is clear to me that the impact [of the] conversation in DC for The Village will be rooted in the openness to God doing a new thing with ‘unqualified people’, in telling the story, in embracing the instability, in being clear that our identity comes in God’s claiming of us and not of our own doing, in a radical audacity to be about unreasonable followings of God in the Way of Jesus.”

Eliacín Rosario-Cruz

“As I said before I went to the meeting with hope in joining what the Spirit might be stirring inside this network. Knowing that in spite of what I’ve considered wrong turns in the journey, EV has been a point of connections and a space for people to find kindred spirit for mutual transformation and creative expressions of God’s Kingdom in their local settings. After a weekend of hard work and much listening and conversations, I am very hopeful for the future of EV.”

UPDATE 5/7/2009:

Anthony Smith

“There were no elaborate concrete projects planned for emergent. But there was something new that emerged. What that is will be coming out in a more collective voice than I could represent here on a personal blog. I’ll say though that EV will be more localized than before. I believe there will be more of a harnessing of life from the various nodes spread throughout emerging church culture than we’ve seen before. In other words, I believe we’ll see more of a public grassroots movement emphasis than we’ve seen before. But these are my observations. I could be wrong. As far as turning points are concerned that’s a major one I anticipate.”

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