Well, once we arrived we were greeted by numerous people who knew Mark, Nate and Adam from other Emergent events and some people who had been friends with Mark for many years. It was raining when we arrived and so we waited to unload the car which was full of food (for everyone at the Gathering) for the week.
At the night’s first meeting the flow of the week was laid out. The gathering is one of the most organic meetings I’ve ever been to. It is certainly a for-us-by-us event, and a time for ideas and conversations to be exchanged. There is no stage and big screens for large gathering worship times, no nametag with the schedule on the back, no assigned rooms for seminars, and no feeling that anyone is really concerned about these things. There is really only the central meeting room.
When everyone was in the room Mark and Doug began to welcome people and to lay out how the Gathering works. Basically the schedule is laid out like this: in the morning everyone meets for a morning liturgy (which was lead by Karen E. Sloan who is coming out with a book called Flirting with Monasticism, http://www.flirtingwithmonasticism.org/), then there are times set aside for people to lead conversations. Anyone can host a conversation on really anything. If on Tuesday something sparks an idea in your mind that you’d like to chat about with others you
can post your conversation idea on the wall and ta-da, you’re hosting a conversation. If some people from Truett were there many conversations could have been initiated…for instance:Chris Moore: A Theology of Food
Vernon Bowen: Redefining Christian Dating Through the Blogosphere, or How to Get Those Random Comments on Your Blog to Become Your Future Mate
Dr. Michael W. Stroope: The Art of Strooping, Subversive Question Answering in the Classroom
Meagan Farber: Body Worship, Discovering Hand Motions that Express Ideas/Actions/Emotions and Using Them for Corporate or Private Worship
Mollie Richardson & Denver Combs: An Exploration of the Importance of Animals is the Christian Scriptures
Grayson Goodman: The Gospel According to Mashed Potatoes
Perhaps some others can think of other conversation ideas Truett folks would host.
Anyway, all that to say that anyone can hold a conversation.
There are also two cabins that work as “houses of hospitality.” Each night these houses would be open for people to come and chill. Most of the time there would be snacks and good conversations. There would be up to fifty people in the cabin each night, and also in the morning for breakfast. It was these times at night I enjoyed the most.
I could tell about some of the conversations I participated in, but that was not the aspect of the Gathering I enjoyed the most. I loved the laid back, grassroots feel of the week. I never felt like I had to rush to get to something, or to meet someone. I never felt like the people who were well known were separate or held-up more than anyone else – it felt like a big family. That is the
way I’ve described the emergent event to people. I felt like I stepped into a family reunion and just happened to be the new person welcomed into the family. It really felt like a week for people who had not seen each other in a long time to catch up with each other and to embrace new relatives.On our final day we gathered for communion and I really hated to say goodbye to this new family. I felt like the people I had just spent the last four days with were kindred spirits, and I would miss their company.
