More significant takeaways from last week’s Q Conference:

Steven Garber spoke of how vocation is integral to the mission of God. “Most of what God is doing in the world is being done through the vocations of his people.”

This idea was reiterated by David Kinnaman of the Barna Group, who challenged the Church to focus on connecting with teens and 20-somethings through their giftings and vocation. This demographic is largely missing from many churches, primarily because of our “mass production approach.” This means the Church is losing young artists, scientists, politicians, etc. We must mentor and encourage their gifts and calling.

Jennifer Wiseman, astrophysicist, presented incredible pictures from the Hubble space telescope, some from as far as 200 million light years away. Rather than Christians being threatened by this information, she suggested it shows us more of God – His patience and the scale of time. She sees that we have imperfect interpretations of both Scripture and Nature, and so the two can compliment each other.

Rick McKinley of Imago Dei talked more about the Church in the city. (See yesterday’s post for more about Imago Dei’s unique partnership with the city of Portland.) He identified two portraits of the Church.
Portrait 1: The church exists for itself, Pastors exist to build the church, and Disciples exist as resources to build the church. (Church staff – how many times have we been guilty of using volunteers as resources to accomplish our goals?)
Portrait 2: The church exists for the world, Pastors exist to equip disciples, Disciples exist to announce the reign of Christ in the public square.
McKinley’s premise is that our job is not to “fix” the city, but to serve it as citizens, and this partnership is how the city will actually save the church. (Consider that in light of today’s political posturing.)

And Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine talked about technology, which gives us new choices we didn’t have before. And new solutions can bring new problems. When “bad technology” happens, the solution isn’t to do away with it. Just like the proper response to a bad idea isn’t “stop thinking,” it’s to come up with a better idea.

There’s so much more. Thought-provoking and often challenging – why we love Q.