Society of Vineyard Scholars | Wild Goose Chase

If you have been wondering about my silence, it is because I was enjoying the company of friends at the annual Society of Vineyard Scholars (SVS) conference in Seattle.

In typical Vineyard fashion, the conference was a wonderful blend of “spirit and scholarship” with 46 academic papers and times of worship and prophetic ministry. To show this blend, the Lord gave a local artist at the Vineyard Community Church (Shoreline), who hosted the event, a vision of two waves crashing into each other. This painting (show to the right) was prominently displayed throughout the event at the front of the church as a reminder to everyone present of the need for both spirit and truth.

Another reminder of this blend of spirit and scholarship was James K.A. Smith’s plenary session outlining a “Charismatic Epistemology” (i.e. a spirit led way of understanding knowledge). As a Pentecostal Philosopher, James Smith challenged the SVS scholars to two ways:

To drink deep from the well of the Vineyard – Allow the values and Kingdom Theology of the Vineyard to impact and guide the academic nature of the Society. Don’t just parrot the theology and discussions of everyone else.
Embrace a Narrative Epistemology (i.e. a story focused understanding of knowledge) moved by the Holy Spirit – Don’t allow the intellectual focus of Western enlightenment culture overrule ones embracement of emotions and experiences that God has given humanity.

My first thought when I heard this was, “I’ve been duped! I came to a scholars meeting to escape my emotions only to have God tell me to trust them!”

Continue reading Society of Vineyard Scholars: Review →

Just found out that the Vineyard Movement is gathering the “thinkers and scholars” of the movement. The newly formed Society of Vineyard Scholars (SVS) is going to be launched next Tuesday at the National Conference in Galveston.

The cool part – I’m going to be there!!

The purpose of the group is to:

“think theologically” in community—both in order to address the critical questions of the moment and to put down theological and intellectual roots for the long haul. Our expectation is that doing this well involves building a diverse, interconnected community of scholars, pastors, and scholar-pastors within our movement.

Ultimately, our desire is both to deepen our theological reflection and to broaden our engagement with our culture. Towards these ends, we anticipate holding conferences and other events to provide forums for collaborating and sharing intellectual work as ell as pursuing other ways of facilitating connections among current Vineyard seminarians, graduate students, and scholars.

I don’t know if they will take this backwoods wanabe…but dang it, I’m going to try – if nothing else, I may pick up a jewel or two.

Oh – the powers-that-be is also hosting a SVS conference in October in which folks are encouraged to submit papers to be reviewed. Talk about both an opportunity and a very, very, very, very scary ordeal.

Following The Spirit Wherever He Goes