Reflections on the Cynicism and Hope conference
posted by Tim Nafziger on 11/04/07 at 08:42 PMThis weekend was the culmination of eight months of planning for a group of young adults at Reba Place Church and Living Water. We hosted the Cynicism and Hope conference, a gathering that I've written about here before. Its too soon to do much heavy processing, but I thought I'd share a few windows into some of the workshops from the weekend.
Ric Hudgens, pastor of Reba Place, opened the conference on Friday night with a presentation called “Three Cheers for Cynicism” in which he suggested that “constructive cynicism” can play an important role in avoiding misplaced hopes. He looked at the origins of Cynics as a Greek school of Philosophy, whose emphasis on simple living and challenging the status quo he compared to Anabaptism.
The theme of reclaiming cynicism introduced by Rick reoccurred throughout the weekend. Rather than focusing on overcoming cynicism with hope, many speakers challenged the dichotomy of cynicism and hope.
One of the highlights of the conference were two workshops in which community leaders reflected on the failures their communities had experienced. Bren Dubay discussed the cycles of despair, renewal and growth over their 65 year history. She focused in particular on the decision to end the common purse community in 1992 and the decision to return to a focus on community in 2005. The intervening 13 years were a very difficult time from which the group is still recovering.
Chris and Cassie Haw shared their experience at Camden House, a 4-year-old community in Camden, N.J. The group has struggled during that time with how to define itself in the midst of a high level of attention and many visitors coming and going. Chris and Cassie reflected on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's concept of “wish dreams” and letting them go.
Theologian and author Steve Long called for a non-protesting, non-reacting Christianity. We can no longer define ourselves by what we are against, but rather by what we are for. we need to reassert that it is capitalism that is counter-cultural, not the church. He drew on John Howard Yoder's image of Christianity working with the grain of the universe.
Peter Dula, our keynote speaker, shared stories from his time in Iraq. He told the story of being in Baghdad when a number of different churches were bombed on the same day. What does it mean to find God in the groaning of creation rather than simpling looking forward to happy times? He shared how he discovered the truth of Stanley Hauerwas's assertion that worship is political.
If your interested in hearing more detail from these workshops, we'll be posting audio recordings of the sessions on cynicismandhope.org.
Tim Nafziger is a activist, writer, organizer and web developer. He lives in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago with his wife Charletta where he attends Living Water Community Church. Recently, he helped to start the Young Anabaptist Radicals blog. For more about his life, read his first blog post.