IS Conference Summary And Analysis

In today’s society, where there is an extensive amount of debate circulating around the Christian church, we as Christians must become informed on the different aspects of the church. By going to the IS conference, we as attendees go to look at the past, present and future of the church. To fully understand these aspects we got to look into how the past shaped us as well as seeing how the present is to pave our “way forward”. In the IS conference I was able to go to two session which talked about the reason behind teens leaving the church as well as how we are able to change our prejudices. These breakout sessions nicely complimented the main speakers which discusses the way to move forward in the church. The church in the past is significantly

These opinions where solidified when I went to breakout sessions #2 by Rev Ingrid Cramer-Doershel when he talks about how a broken church is preferred over a church that seems to have it all together. To emphasize his point he quotes, “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security’ (Pope Francis, 2013). This idea of having a welcoming and open church is why I believe we should be optimistic. In the breakout session by Rev Cory Seibel he talks about how millennials feel like the church is harsh and cold. This kind of attitude contradicts those feelings harshly and hopefully we can start to have these young individuals walk about to a church setting because they see the change that is going on. As the keynote speaker, Dr. Richard Mouw talks about, in the past we deconstructed the past and traditions we set in place, right now we are in the process of re-enchantment. Hopefully, as we do this we can start to take into context what young individuals need and incorporate that with church

Growing up in a Christian home I have been surrounded by church life but not necessarily with our origins or learning why the church is how it is today. What especially challenged me was the questioning on how we can move forward in the church today. I was once again affirmed by my thoughts that more and more young individuals are walking away from the church, and in my opinion that is a scary thought. I was challenged when individuals like Rev Cory Seibel asked us in the crowd how we can change this walk away as well as why it was happening. Additionally, this game me lots to think about over the last couple weeks as this issue has to deal with my friends and co-students as I am at the age where its happening the most. The one thing that I wish was talked about a little more was the ways that the church can change its attitude to young people as there were a lot of elderly people that attended. Many of the reasons that I heard for leaving the church had to do with the judgment that young people felt by the elderly crowd in church. In the conference this wasn’t addressed very much but I believe that it would have been