Tuesday, June 20, 2006
GC ‘06 Update 2
Update from Grants Colloquium by Kent Hendricks:
John Witvliet began by outlining the goals for our time together. He described this as an occasion to celebrate together. For those attending for the first time, he hoped that grant recipients would “use this event to improve and hone your projects… [by finding] one or two ways that this project can be improved.”
For returning grants recipients, Dr. Witvliet described this as a “time and space to step back and reflect about how this project is turned into significant long term gains for your community.”
“We hope this is a safe place for you to speak in a candid and open way about things that are really hard back home, things that didn’t go as well as you hoped. We want to speak about those frustrations, because sometimes the best learning happens through things that didn’t go as planned.”
Dr. Witvliet also introduced us to a working and continually evolving definition of worship renewal. “This event is a time for all of us to step back and look at a big picture, that looks across Canada and the United States and thirty seven different denominations and very different kinds of organizations, and asks about the shape and nature and texture of worship renewal. Through this event we uncover and overhear wisdom that doesn’t capture the headlines. The greatest wisdom in the church is scattered in places where at first we wouldn’t expect it. Our goal at the Worship Institute is finding ways of lifting that up for other people to see.”
How do we talk about worship renewal within the context of this kind of diversity? Dr. Witvliet cautioned against defaulting to what he described as the least common denominator, “where we agree to only talk about the things that everyone will agree with. Because that will limit us to a small set of things – essential things, true – but small.” Important to any discussion about worship renewal are the twin virtues of humility and teach-ability.
Worship renewal has to do with engagement, with exploration. “It’s hard to think about worship renewal as a spectator sport.”