2012 Society of Vineyard Scholars Annual Conference

The Kingdom and Ecclesiology:
Learning From, Learning With, Learning As The Church

April 26-28, 2012
Minneapolis, MN, USA

The third annual Society of Vineyard Scholars Conference will be held April 26-28, 2012, in Minneapolis, MN, USA. The theme of the conference is "The Kingdom and Ecclesiology: Learning From, Learning With, Learning As The Church." The conference will be hosted by Jeff and LeQue Heidkamp, co-pastors of Mercy Vineyard Church in Minneapolis.

We will have three plenary speakers. Dr. Greg Boyd is an internationally recognized theologian, preacher, and teacher. Greg is the founder of Woodland Hills Church, an evangelical mega-church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Holding PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, he has published eighteen books and many articles on a wide range of topics.  His primary vision is to help the Church become the Kingdom of outrageous loving servants God called it to be, and to help non-believers discover the transforming power of Jesus Christ. Dr. MaryKate Morse is Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Formation at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. MaryKate has wide-ranging scholarly expertise and practical experience in developing healthy, enduring spiritual leadership in the church, particularly among scholars and those training for ministry. She has published scores of books and articles, and has also provided leadership mentoring for many individuals, churches, and Christian organizations in transition. Caleb Maskell is a graduate student in American Religious History at Princeton University and leads the Steering Committee of the Society of Vineyard Scholars. He has published in a variety of scholarly journals. He also tweets quite a bit.

Panel sessions featuring presentations of and responses to papers written by SVS participants will be spread over Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. This intellectual interaction forms the heart of what we do at SVS.

Alongside our regular panel sessions, we will also have four long-form paper sessions from distinguished thinkers in the Vineyard. This year, we will hear from Jason Clark, Christena Cleveland, Rick Love and JP Moreland. These very promising sessions are intended to foster more extended discussion on themes that have been well-developed in the presenter's work.

We will also have two Book Review panels, one on N.T. Wright's Scripture and the Authority of God, chaired by Matt Croasmun and another on Conor Cunningham's Darwin's Pious Idea, chaired by Erik Peterson.

Also, we will make significant time for prayer, worship, and prophetic ministry. We highly value the essential relationship between the worship and the life of the mind, and we will bear that value out in our time together.

Finally, along with the papers, presentations, worship, and prophetic ministry, we will allow plenty of time at this conference for people to hang out and form relationships. Our goal is to develop and nurture a community of theological discourse in the Vineyard, and we are committed to allowing the time that it takes to do so. There will be a wine and cheese reception, lunchtime breakouts for people with particular shared interests, large bowls of M&Ms, and more.

For all the most up-to-date details on the conference, see the conference website.