I’m very thankful that the Emergent Malaysia “Open” Meeting went well with its load of surprises here and there with lots of food for thought as well as areas that causes me to think deeper (more on this later) 🙂 I’m amazed that this is actually our fourth time we’ve organized this kind of meeting.
I decided to start off with a more vegetarian approach and leave the meat for later. If you can’t wait then you could check out Al’s post You Ain’t What You Eat and some thoughts here from from Ryan (a visiting friend who’s actually been to emergent conventions)
We had a diverse group … apart from Malaysians, we had friends from Ireland, USA, Korea & Japan giving this meeting quite an unexpected enriched international flavor. Of course, we were also very different as far as church background and where we are at along our journey at this point.
One thing was constant – based on how we introduced ourselves – we came because of a relationship with another person present. Our connecting point first and foremost is RELATIONAL first before some curiosity about what this “Emergent conversation” is all about as well as mutual concerns about being & doing church in Malaysia & beyond.
We had some good food to start off … some new connections formed, old connections rejuvenated, small talk and more in depth intros took place.
After food we jumped straight into 5 small groups to have some “conversations” revolving around the whole issue of “2nd Generation Christians”. Later, summaries & highlights of the discussions were shared with all. I was a free agent to move in and out of the five groups to get a general feel of where the “conversations” were going. MISSIONAL & CHURCH-related concerns came up all over the place.
I cheekily used some questions and assumptions of a paragraph from an upcoming Youth consultation I’ll be going to … and was not suprised as well as surprised on how different people perceive the images and issues revolving around the topic of “2nd(or 3rd or 4th) Generation Christians”
as usual, there was always interesting post-meeting conversations … and some managed to finish off the Durians!
one day I’ll get to drop in and meet you all 🙂 Looks great mate
Jason