Shift conference: Complexity and simplicity
April 10th, 2008 | 
Brian McLaren, originally uploaded by jakebouma on flickr.
It’s day two of the Shift conference at Willow Creek in Chicago, and it’s been going pretty well. Yesterday there were three main sessions, with Brian McLaren, Mark Yaconelli, and Shane Claiborne, and they were all great. At points throughout the sessions, I laughed, cried, and gained some insight and wisdom.
I’ve decided to not post any of my notes from the past day and a half, because much of what I’ve been mulling over boils down to the question of the seemingly simultaneous complexity and simplicity of the gospel and its implications. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, keep reading. This morning at Brian McLaren’s Onramp to Postmodernism discussion, there was a Q&A session in which I decided to go up and ask for his insight into the matter. I really liked his response, and I recorded both the question and his answer for your listening pleasure.
Click here for the mp3 of my question and Brian McLaren’s answer (03:58, 3.7mb)
I looked up the quote he’s referring to (read: “Googled”), and it comes from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He said, “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” Do you know what he’s saying? Do you understand how awesome that is? I totally dig that.
Anyways, there are several people blogging and Twittering from the conference; Gavin has a roundup (actually, I met the guy thanks to Twitter). I started using hashtags to track tweets from the conference, so check the hashtag page for #shift08 to see all of the various comments and perspectives, and be sure to keep up with my Twitter feed as well.
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i read that quote about three times, then my brain exploded. that’s some good stuff.
sounds like lots of fun is being had. so…you didn’t happen to record anything else did you. ;)
blake: my mind was blown as well, and that’s one of my favorite feelings. no joke. and yes, i DID happen to record a bunch of stuff. i’m debating whether or not to post it later, but if you want something i can send it to you for sure.
word. it’s a good feeling for sure.
i’d definitely be interested in getting some of the stuff. do you have aim or anything?
wow…brilliant response by McLaren…that leaves us all something to chew on for awhile.
that really was, a great question.
That was pretty interesting. Very deep of you to think to ask a question like that.
I liked the response too.
I keep finding myself questioning my efforts to make things complex honestly. Just the above post made me think it’s time to stop reading and writing blog posts, stop reading more ‘Christian’ books and just go out and live what I already know. Does that make sense?
I was at Shift and heard Mclaren talk but what blew my mind is that it sounded more like a professor talking about secular humanism and communism than christianity. Did anyone else feel that way? This is what I was thinking the whole time… lets say that we fix social injustices those people still need Christ in their lives to be ‘fixed’. I never heard anything about evangelism or the gospel. Jesus said he came to seek and save the lost. He came offering life. But I’ve never read the Gospels and thought that meant he was more concerned with social injustice than the brokeness of mans heart. My concern is that churches across the world will get on board with social injustice but forget the foundation of Christ’s life on this world and that was to offer life spiritually not physically. I’m just a little concerned with a message that sounds more like marxism than anything else. Did anyone else feel that way?
Is there audio available for purchase from the conference? I’m especially interested in Vanhoozer’s addresses.