I have been stewing over this question since I first read about the premise for the Evolving Church conference this year. It is an economic choice to go to a conference, especially to go to one with an economic theme. Doubtlessly the guys at Epiphaneia are fully aware of the subtle paradox here: titling a conference “Kingdom Economy” forces potential participants (like me) to ask, “How do Christian conferences fit into the economic picture of this ‘kingdom’ we speak of?”
If we fail to ask this question then we fail to actually recognize the theme of the conference itself. So let’s think this through…
Full disclosure: travel, food and registration expenses for me to attend the conference would equal about one hundred dollars. This expenditure is first and foremost an investment in myself: my own learning, growth and perspective (all of which, of course, are arguably valuable—nay, essential—to this kingdom way of life).
Conversely, if I were somehow able sweet-talk the conference organizers into giving me a free ticket and paying for my travel then I could hypothetically show up at the Kingdom Economy conference and hold up $100 bucks that I saved and ask everyone, “What is the best way to use this money in the kingdom of God?”
I do not suspect that anyone there would say, “You should take that money and go to another conference!”
Ironic.
The explicit message of the Kingdom Economy conference will probably not be that followers of Jesus should leverage their funds for hosting more conferences.
Herein lies my struggle: if I give away my $100 to a person or family in need then I am in fact modeling some small dimension of this kingdom-oriented economy. If I sacrificed my capacity to go to the conference by this alternative (“crazy”) economic behavior, then the conference indeed served its purpose (even though I didn’t actually attend) by elevating my consciousness to the way I control the resources I have in light of the kingdom priorities around me.
But let’s be honest (or employ some holy cynicism, take your pick) – who would actually give up going to the conference in order to give away their money? We both know that I’m darn well spending that cash on myself either way, so I might as well use it to go to an event that will challenge me to be less selfish, right? Does the fact that my lifestyle choices are already so far removed from my “stated” kingdom convictions mean that I actually need to go this thing? Or does it mean that I need to not go?
Or…perhaps the subject of economics simply tends to disintegrate into idealistic naiveté: Conferences, like all forms of learning, are embedded in their own material economics. Whoever first penned the phrase, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor,” first had to purchase (acquire, trade, whatever) the physical papyrus to write it on! The choice to “publish” one’s convictions generally requires a certain “suspension” of the idealism they preach. We naturally accept this whenever a charitable organization sends us a glossy brochure telling us that they need our money to do their good altruistic deeds, while obviously they are also spending money on glossy brochures. In the same way, the topic of “kingdom economics” demands that we live, at least temporarily, in a rather ambiguous paradox.
This is the natural tension of the kingdom economy. It is like an eternal, shifting equilibrium—one debated by the mystics, ascetics, and theologians for hundreds of years.
In the final analysis, the issue is not whether or not you go a conference in May; the issue is whether or not you choose to wrestle wholly, fully and deeply with the implications of this economy in your life, including its relationship to this conference itself.
James Shelley describes himself as an educator, storyteller, fitness instructor, and fledgling author. His writing reflects his belief of the interplay between writing, ecology, solidarity, leadership and ecclesiology. He blogs at plumblinemedia.com
