Conversations was a first-time event for the RCA.  The purpose of the event was to bring together “pastors, elders and deacons, lay leaders, and other congregants of all ages to discern God's future direction for the Reformed Church in America.” 

I must admit I came into the weekend with a certain degree of anxiety.  How were over 500 people—with many different contexts, passions, thoughts, and opinions—going to come together and discern a clear and cohesive way forward for the RCA?  I had no idea how it would work, or even if it could.  So, I arrived in Orlando on Friday slightly skeptical, prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best.

Our time together started out Friday night with worship.  If there is one thing I love about RCA gatherings, it's that we bookend our time together with worship.  We begin there, and we end there. 

Tom DeVries, the new RCA General Secretary, gave us a challenge for our time together.  He challenged us to lay down our own agendas, and instead to seek after God’s agenda.  What an important message to begin with as we gathered for the work of discernment.  It’s not about us and what we desire; it’s about what God has in store for us.

On Saturday morning, we gathered in small groups.  These groups are where the main work of discernment took place.  Each small group had 20 people, and there were 26 groups total.  Each group had a trained facilitator who led us through the discussion.  My group was a good mix of pastors and lay leaders, as well as ethnicities and gender.  

After sharing our own stories and establishing some ground rules for our time together, we split into groups of four to tell our congregational stories.  I talked about how Pella has a rich and long history, and about some of the challenges we have faced in the past years.  I also shared how God has been so clearly moving, how we are growing spiritually and in numbers, how we are being challenged and enriched by the Word of God, how relationships are being healed and established, and how our hearts are being turned towards our communities.  We wrote down some of the common themes we saw among all of our churches.

We reported back to our small group and celebrated how God is at work throughout the denomination.  We spent some time talking about different RCA ministries and their impact in our lives and congregations.  All of this was to get us thinking about what sorts of things the RCA has focused on in the past and present, and how that might inform our future. 

After lunch and some more discussion, it was time to work in our smaller groups of four again.  We were asked to compile a list of themes we thought the RCA should focus on in the future.  We were encouraged to take into account all of the things we had been talking about throughout the day, how God had already been working, and what common themes we had heard.  Tom's words about laying down our own agendas and seeking God’s agenda rang through my mind.

My group of four began to compile a list.  We talked about many things.  Worship.  Social justice.  Young adults.  Sexual and gender equality.  Valuing education for clergy.  Ministering in our contexts.  We debated and hemmed and hawed over the list, and eventually ended with nine things before we took a much-needed break.

When we came back together in our small groups, each group of four presented their list and explained what was written and why.  After hearing from the different groups, the lists were taped up on the wall and each participant was given five dot stickers to place on five themes that we as individuals saw as the most important.  It was basically a way of voting for what themes we thought should get attention going forward.  We could vote for themes on our list or anyone's list including our own, but we needed to choose five different things.  We all paused to consider and reflect before proceeding to place our stickers.

I placed my stickers on the following themes:

1: Embrace our liturgy while remaining culturally relevant.

2: Create an office of social justice.

3: Going deep (discipleship, leadership, revitalization) while going wide (mission, church planting).

4: Focus on seeing kingdom come, rather than denominational distinctiveness.

5: Stronger commitment to and leadership for young adults.

Some themes got lots of stickers, some got only a few, and some got none.  It was surprising and interesting to see how the group as a whole seemed to rally around a couple of the themes.  Social justice.  Worship.  Mission.  Strong clergy education.  

With our task almost at an end, we were heading into the home stretch.  We had some group discussion about at our reaction to the stickers, and whether we thought they were representative of our group, of if things were missed.  

We closed the day with a time of thanksgiving and sharing about the process, and sang the benediction.  

But, my job was not done.  

I was nominated by the group to stay after and continue to synthesize our discussion.  Two of us were given the responsibility of taking our small group’s five charts with all the themes written on them and synthesize them onto one chart, reflecting the voting and desires of the group without losing the items that had gotten less votes.  After lots off discussion, we got it figured out.

Our next task was to get together with another small group and combine our two synthesized charts into one.  Thankfully, we were able to fill in specifics under categories, and ended up with a good representative final product.

As we were going through this synthesizing process, I was worried that what we were synthesizing wouldn't really be true to the discussion and intent of the group.  But we were assured that the writing team that was going to work on compiling the information from all 26 groups would see all of the charts, not just our final ones.  The final ones were just a way to help distill themes as a starting point for the writing team.

After this long day of conversing, it was time for supper and evening worship.  Efrem Smith, a pastor from the Evangelical Covenant Church, preached to us about living the gospel and about being missional in a world that doesn't always nurture the attitudes we need to do that.  The phrase that stuck with me was that he told us we need to have a "kingdom urgency".  It’s so easy to be complacent in preaching the gospel, complacent in the mission of Jesus, and that can't happen.  You want life and vitality in your churches and in your life?  Get some kingdom urgency!

Sunday morning began with a breakfast, after which we all gathered in the great hall to worship.  Before we began our worship, the writing team gave a report.  The writing team was tasked with synthesizing the discussion of all 26 groups and putting together a representative document that would be sent to all the churches, and eventually to General Synod for further discussion and discernment.  

The team was made up of six people, and they shared that they had to work until 3:30 that morning to accomplish their task.  They also shared that it took longer because they wanted to do it right.  They had three people working on distilling the information, and three people in a room across the hall praying that the Holy Spirit would guide them, and that their work would be honoring to God and to all of the participants.

It was really good to hear that testimony from the writing team.  It renewed my faith that the intention and instinct behind this gathering was good and right, and that we were really genuinely trying to listen to God.

They reported what they discovered, and I was excited to see many of the themes that we talked about in our small group make an appearance.  There was even some of our specific wording.  Of course not everything I desired and our group talked about was there, but I never expected it to be.  The document they shared can be seen here. 

The writing team got a round of much deserved applause, and our worship began.  Tom DeVries gave us a final challenge to not let the "what" of this process be the most important thing.  It was the "how" that needed our attention.  We could make all the plans and strategies and goals in the world, but if it wasn't rooted in a deep love for God and neighbor, it was useless.  He challenged us to love.  To love radically, deeply, with our whole beings.

After celebrating communion and ending the worship service with more prayers and songs, the weekend was suddenly over.  Hugs and goodbyes were exchanged, and we were all on our way back to our homes and churches.

When people ask me how the weekend was, my initial response has been "good". This may seem like an innocuous response, but it was one that I was not sure I was going to be able to give.  As I said, I had a certain amount of anxiety when this all began.  But I trust the process that we went through, and mostly, I trust the hearts of the RCA leadership.  There was no sense of manipulation or control at this gathering.   Instead, what I saw were women and men in RCA leadership desperately wanting to honor and serve the Lord in our confusing and changing world.  That more than anything puts me at ease about the future of the RCA.

So what happens next?  The document produced by the writing team goes out to all the churches.  Churches are encouraged to read and respond to this document, offering their thoughts on how they see God moving and speaking in the RCA.  The document will then go to General Synod 2012, who will work to establish a clearer vision for what the future of the RCA looks like. 

If you are interested in responding to this, please take some time to read the document linked above.  Chew on it, pray over it, lay down your own agenda, and search for God's.  I would love to hear your thoughts and impressions about the weekend and its outcome. 

For more information and photos from the weekend, you can go to www.rca.org.