Conference Welcome
Let me extend our heartfelt welcome to our second bi-annual poetry conference! We look forward to our two and a half days together as we contemplate how poetry serves the multi-faceted mission of the church in the 21st century.
As with our first conference, our goals are simple: we want our sessions and our interactions with one another to be inspirational, practical, and worshipful. From our plenary sessions with Mary Karr and Christian Wiman, to our concluding panel discussion with theological educators, we want all of us to feel motivated to engage our congregations and communities with the many unique resources that poetry offers. Because the mission of the church involves both vision and practice, in all of our presentations and especially our workshops we aim to equip one another with fresh, practical ideas about how to integrate poetry into the worship, preaching, teaching, and devotional practices of our congregations. Our poetry slam will also give conferees the opportunity to share their own poetry.
Our ultimate focus is not poetry, of course, but God and God’s call to live for the flourishing of all in the world. The ‘any-angled light’ of that revelation begs poetic expression and response. In ways that are both inspirational and practical, our worship and meditation together will both demonstrate further how to draw upon the riches of poetry in our devotion, and, most significantly, direct our attention to the One who invites us into shalom.
With gratitude for your company,
David Mahan
Conference Coordinator
Note: Because they are an integral part of our schedule, we have made every effort to offer a worship service and guided meditation that will embrace all of the diversity represented at our conference. Some elements may be familiar to you, others may not be. But we encourage you to participate in ways that you feel comfortable.