Here are my notes from Ed's talk (yes, the laptop is useful for something and no I wasn't playing games). I haven't edited them well as they were written as memory joggers. Hopefully makes a bit of sense still...

[Ed's words are in italics - my own thoughts are not.]

Reiki - personal energy - and the 11-yr-old girl who was using it to help her through big life issues. "This works for me." Don't want to know if Xianity is true - does it work? My question: is the reiki she was practicing a form of prayer? Silence, focussing, meditation.

Moral diversity...

"Younger evangelicals" - Robert Webber. Ed likes this book.

Postmodern view (which I would probably subscribe to) says that Christians don't have a monopoly on truth. Yes, we have some truth but we can't claim to have all of it.

My question: is the gospel unchanging? Or does it need to be re-discovered with every generation?

Moving away from print media to cultural transmission. Relational truth?
Has truth ceased to be intellectual and moved to being relational? Or some mix - perhaps the truth of God is prevalent whatever happens - but is most understood in the context of relationship?

Ancient/future faith. The road to the future runs through the past.

Missional. Outward focussed. Move away from power to servanthood (as leaders).

We had quite a bit of discussion over "Ahistorical" and tradition. Are young people wanting a return to history/tradition - or wanting to throw the past off completely? For me, the core of that discussion isn't about the recent Apartheid past with young people not really caring what their elders went through, but more of a realisation of the richness and diversity of our faith heritage. An ancient/future faith is one which realises both the worth of tradition as well as the desire of moving forward. This is seen in:
- a revival in monastic spirituality - even (and especially) among Protestants (!)
- communal living - families etc, like Vineyard is doing
- use of liturgy, praying out of a book together
- increase in traditional spirituality: contemplative prayer, meditation, silence

Younger evangelicals are looking for smaller, community-based churches that are committed to being intergenerational, intercultural and postdenominational.

So that's the summary of Ed's talk - well, more key thoughts than a summary - but some good stuff there.

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