Conference Time!

So I missed Catalyst this year...What a bummer.  However I was at a different leadership conference of sorts this weekend.  I was at SWACUHO.  A conference designated for Resident Assistants from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

We go to conferences to learn things.  I'm sure that if I had gone to Catalyst I would have learned some pretty phenomenal things.  I know I learned some pretty great things pertaining to my job by attending SWACUHO..

However, with many conferences we attend, listen, and then forget.  To this I say, what's the point?  Granted I will forget things about the conference that I just attended.  But, I do have ideas for pretty much every door dec I'm going to have to do from now until December, written down, and ready to be made, which is pretty great.

So why then would we attend a conference and then forget everything we learned?

I think it has something to do with the culture we live in today.  When we feel like we can access the knowledge that we learned at a conference at any time, online, we are less likely to remember it.

But there are also things that require real life application.  I believe we are unwilling to apply these new ideas because we don't want to have to work any harder than we already do.  We live in a culture that is all about what makes you comfortable which spells failure for new ideas typically.

We want to change but then when we get to the point to where change needs to happen, we decide to do something that is "more fun" instead of changing.

I believe we need to change our mindset in order to gain ultimate knowledge from a conference.  I will try to expound on this thought later this week.

Transformation

So I'm not rich by any means. I mean I am a college student.  But within the past year I have noticed and even documented how I have succumbed to the American culture.  This culture of pleasing self.

As I began to notice this I began to take preventative manners.  I pledged in March to not purchase any new shoes for myself until I had no more shoes to wear.  Before that I decided that due to the amount of cloths that I wear I would no longer purchase any article of clothing that caught my attention, unless it was less than $10.

I'm sure I've probably saved some money doing this.  But that's not the point.  There are several other points.  Saving money is just a byproduct of these actions.  First off as God's children we are called to be stewards, and following up with that we are called to care for those in need.  So as I considered these things, and I have been considering them a while, (I wrote something along these lines back in my freshman year as well) I realized that this is a really positive thing to do.

I'm not saying this to blow myself up, because there are still things where I am living the American lifestyle in, for example, disc golf.  As I have grown into the sport I have spent money on it an so forth.  It's really grown on me, but at a monetary price that I am slightly ashamed of.

Today I was approached about attending a conference.  Also Catalyst is this week.  I am also actually attending a separate conference this weekend (which I get to attend free). But I was considering how much that conference would cost.  As I considered this I realized that really I should probably spend that money on something more productive, then going and experiencing a ton of great worship, and hearing speakers that I have already heard before.

This mindset, is a transformation for me.  I believe it could be a transformation for many people.  As you can tell I'm still working on it.  However, I think that if Christians today could grasp this simple point, that we would see a radical difference within the church and within outsiders perceptions of us.