Last year, we did this missional conference that is a non-conference kind of thing. We gathered, had very short presentations, nobody paid, some people brought food to share, and we talked all things missional. It was encouraging and informative. I think we can do it even better this year.
So… I am calling for another meeting of the “Seeding Missional Communities Learning Commons.” This year we’ ll meet in Fort Wayne Indiana on Saturday Jan 3rd. We will meet be at the place Ben Sternke’s community gathers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We’ll gather and discuss an array of issues including a.) the merits of missional orders as a community-forming missional/evangelistic discipline, b.) the Sunday gathering as missional, and c.) the need for a missional evangelistic tool to nurture new conversions in our communities (read about that here). Now there is very little organization being done for this. We’ll gather, have different presenters and open discussion, and some time for decompression. THERE WILL BE NO CHARGE. No one will be selling books. We’re just getting together to encourage and commiserate for the gospel.

The day will look like this:

8 a.m. sitting around introducing ourselves and what brought us here – prayers for the day.
8:45 a.m. First presentation 20 minutes.
9:15 – 10.00 Discussion- questions – prayer.
10:00-10:30 Break – coffee – chat – decompression.
10:30 a.m. Second Presentation 20 minutes.
10:50-11:45 Discussion-questions – prayer.
12 noon – 1:30 p.m. lunch -with friends.
1:30 Third presntation – 20 minutes.
1:50- 2:45 Discussion-questions- prayer.
2:45 Fourth presentation – 20 minutes.
3 :05 – 4:00 Discussion- questions-prayer.
4:00 p.m. Dismissal- benediction- Being Sent Out for Mission.

Again, I’m proposing we gather Saturday, Jan 3rd, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For those who come in Friday nite, we can coordinate hanging out somewhere. For those who don’t rush off on Saturday, we can hang out somewhere then too.

We need at least twenty people to commit (who won’t back out). So let me know if you can join us by e-mailing me (e-mail me at fitchest@gmail.com). I’ll collect these e-mails and I’ll e-mail you back with a confirmation and a map as to how to get to the church and any hotels we all might be staying in. If you want to present, tell me who you are, what you want to present, give me an outline and we’ll get back to you. For those who have already e-mailed me, I have received your e-mail, no need to e-mail me back. I’ll confirm what’s going on here by Dec 22nd.

If you have a blog/web site – feel free to promote this! In fact – if you’ll create a banner for this “Learning Commons,” I’d be grateful.

To give you a taste of what an informal presentation looks like, take a look at my 15 minute presentation below at Canada’s Cultivate gathering last year. It’s rather humble I admit. And it’s short and it’s goal is to get the discussion going. This is the kind of presentations we’ll be shooting for. I’ll be doing only ONE of the four presentations BTW.

Dave Fitch – the Cultivate Talk on Missional Orders from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.