Last year I attended the first Total Church Conference in San Diego. It was excellent content. This year, Total Church 2.0 builds on the first conference with a robust Jesus emphasis. Looks like a stimulating conference, with talkback interaction for community processing.
Tuesday, November 17 through Thursday, November 19, 2009
Read more here. Registration opens next week. Here are the main speakers/sessions
Mike Goheen (check out his excellent books Drama of Scripture and Living at the Crossroads)
Session One: The Cross and the Missional Church
The crucifixion has often been interpreted simply in terms of its benefits for individual people. While true, this is inadequate. When the cross is placed in the context of the literary structure of the gospels and in the context of the whole biblical story, the cross has cosmic and ecclesiological significance. This talk will unfold the cosmic scope, communal significance, and the transforming power of the cross, all of which produce a missional people.
Session Two: The Resurrection and the Missional Church
Like the cross, the resurrection has often been shorn of its ecclesiological and missional implications. The resurrection stands at the centre of history with cosmic and communal significance, and this lecture will open this up with an eye to its missional importance.
Session Three: The Commissioning of Jesus: Our Identity
All the gospels end with a commissioning by the resurrected Lord. Often these commissions are interpreted as sending individuals to do evangelistic or mission work. Yet these are words that define the church in terms of its identity and its role in the biblical drama. We will open up these commissions in terms of the way they define a missional community.
Steve Timmis (check out Total Church )
The church wasn’t some idea that emerged out of Paul’s missionary journeys. Jesus came to create a new stand-out community that would model to the world what it actually looked like when Jesus ruled. When we read his manifesto known as the Sermon on the Mount, we see that it was (and is) something altogether phenomenal. In these three sessions, we’ll take a close look at just what it means to be the people of God.
Session One: A Phenomenal Holiness
Session Two: A Phenomenal Dependency
Session Three: A Phenomenal Obedience
David Fairchild
Eating is an activity all of us do. It is a basic human practice. Yet when Jesus came, He transformed the ordinary meal into a missional encounter. In fact, one commentator said that Jesus “ate his way through Luke’s gospel.” Luke gives us nine meal narratives with Jesus to show us the power of God’s Kingdom, the character of the King and the nature of His mission. The welcoming grace of the True Host is put on display as He calls us to come and dine with Him and invite others to His feast. The coming wedding banquet is for us to taste now as we rehearse this feast of grace with one another before a watching world. These sessions will look at what was accomplished by our Great Host and the example He sets for His church to enact His grace in these missional encounters.
Session One: Invitation to the Party
Session Two: The Humble Feast
Session Three: Jesus, the Scandalous Host
