Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, wrote an interesting piece on The Resurgence. In it he talks about “conference Christians”, defined as “someone who spends a great deal of time (and often money) attending Christian conferences.” I have to admit that I’ve never been to one of the conferences that he talks about, but have wanted to go to a couple of them.
Pastor Mark makes a good point about people who attend many of the “big” conferences.
However, if a decent percentage of those attendees are in fact conference Christians simply touring around like Deadheads used to, then we’ve got more of a crisis than an upsurge.
As I said previously, I’ve not been to any of these conferences, but I can see the draw to them. You get to hear from some great speakers, listen to and worship with bands that make any church’s band look like rank amateurs, and socialize with like minded people throughout four or five days. That all sounds awesome to me, but it sounds like something else.
Camp.
Anyone who has even been to a youth camp can remember that euphoric feeling when you are there, that nothing can be better than that moment. Your commitment to God is unbreakable, and your dedication to your calling is beyond reproach. The messages were unforgettable, and the music was way better than you had at your tiny little church at home. Everything was better and you wish you could stay at the mountaintop.
There is another phenomenon which looks very similar to me as well. Conference Christians sound a lot like church shoppers. Rather than be content with where they are and attempt to build up what is in their local body, they look for something else, something bigger and better. I know this feeling because I’ve done it myself. You want somewhere with more emotion, a better band, a more engaging speaker.
Shockingly enough though, we don’t live on the mountaintop. We live somewhere in between the peaks and valleys. We may find something that gives us that emotional charge, but it won’t last forever. If you are a human being for any period of time (and I think that most of you reading this will qualify), then you will experience highs and lows throughout life. As much as we want to hold on to the great things that happen to us, we have to move on into the valleys.
The mountaintop is where we gain the vision and perspective that we need in order to navigate the valleys below. The valley is where we gain the character and endurance it takes to climb that next mountain. Going to a conference is a great thing, but go too much and you begin to expect your life to constantly be like that. You lose perspective on what everyday life really is. The same goes for church shopping. If you don’t get in the trenches with your community of believers then you don’t build the relationships needed to help get through the valley. James 1:2-3 says:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
Living life is hard. Living life alone is even harder. With a community of believers around us and a relationship with Christ to sustain us, we can make it through to the final goal.
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