Actually, just more notes from the conference…

- There are things we have to Do to Earn a voice with others.
- We benefit from being not methodical but rather relational.
- We need to discuss loneliness (and individualism as idolatry).
- Can we create a culture hallmarked by radical hospitality?
- It is an exercise in frustration to preach ‘be a good neighbor’ without providing a platform for practice.
- Take snap shots of your community: what is attractive, what is not, where are the gathering places?
- Build a playground, paint over graffiti, plant a tree, protect clean water.

-Conversations no longer happen alone. Count the cost.
-Ponder hospitality and boundaries. One without the other and we are destroyed. Messy is okay.
- Ponder availability, vulnerability, presence, awareness.
- Ponder what are your “non-utiltarian relationships” - not work related, not home-centered; non-institutional, non-obligatory.

Dangers for the Church
- Anger and/or reactivity, especially when facing differences.
- when distorted images of God are accepted as true.
- Learning what to embrace and what to resist.

Those are the ‘cliff notes’. Some of the ‘hopes’ expressed at the ending included a desire to overcome anger and ageism, to decrease in a spirit and posture of competition, and a desire to adapt our heritage toward unity.

This was a terrific time of listening and we who went will share more. I will say, the time with the epinoians who went was as worthwhile as the conference itself.
Thoughts for the day

The path to your dreams may take you places you never imagined.

I will meditate on your wonderful works. Psalm 145:5

:P.S. Has anyone out there read “Hope for the Flowers”? I bought it for a stock broker friend years ago and I still think it has so much to say about building the kingdom… Read it with your spouse and kids.