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come to the feast diary.

Come to the Feast is unique as far as young adult conferences go. It's split into two parts - the first part is a training session for developing young adult ministry. The second part is where some of those bits picked up during the training are put to use with other young adults attending the conference. So, it truly tries to help develop new young adult ministry.

I like the format. The whole event is sponsored by the National Council of Churches young adult ecumenical team, made up of a whole bunch of folks from different backrounds. Our Disciple rep is Courtney Richards from Geist Christian Church in Indianapolis.

After arriving and checking in, we had an orientation time. Basically, the first session (which is the only part I am attending) is divided into four tracks, all geared for young adults and young adult ministry. There is Expressing Faith, Renewing Spirituality (the track I am on), Mobilizing, and Building Community. Each are supposed to deal with a specific issue among young adults and allow us to develop ideas to use in our local congregations.

After orientation, we had a reception and got to know a few of the folks in attendance. I was so jetlagged, that I didn't stay long.

The next morning, we had worship, then broke down into our individual tracks. We had introductions and got to know our conveners a bit. The whole experience is supposed to be hands on, giving us tools to use in our congregations. So, in my track for example, we did an icebreaker and a spiritual inventory. In other tracks, they did various other exercises, like African drumming, roleplaying political type issues, and so on.

Today, I am going to skip out of my spiritual renewing track, which I totally have NOT enjoyed. I think the conveners are great, but it has not been super helpful at all to me. I am very surprised though at what I heard. Well, maybe not very surprised, but there is a lot of pain for those in ministry. A lot of feeling like you are going alone... I think I am going to skip over into the mobilizing track and experience that for the rest of the day that I am here.

By the way, Portland has been great, if wet.

Of course, I like wetness, and it's a pretty nice city all in all.

Today is my last day, as I cannot stay for Part 2. I've got a mission trip to go too! It's interesting though, because this is a real innovative practical type approach to young adult leadership training.... but, it hasn't been super great for me. It has been helpful for others, so I can't necessarily give it two thumbs down. It seems like, if you are new to young adult ministry or trying to figure out what to do, this can be very helpful. If you aren't (like me), it's slow. I'll post another update of my experiences after switching tracks, and maybe some of my opinions will change. All in all, it's a great idea for a conference, and I hope they can keep making changes to improve and solidify the vision for it.

Now, I need breakfast.

It’s May 12.

Finals have come and gone. I'm in that post finals bliss, where you have free time... but you don't exactly want to do anything productive.

Still, I am working on some things. I hope to put together a panel or discussion time at National City about immigration and refugee issues. I am also working on a weeklong focus of activities at Wesley next semester about North Korean refugees. I also hope to finish an article soon about young adults as a solution to reconciliation & racism issues. I don't know if that will work yet, but I'm going to try it.

Look for an upcoming four part blog post about some of the core concepts of Disciples, pulled straight from a Disciples polity course I am taking this summer. I will try to update them for today. Should be good.