Conferences - New Wine, New Wineskins

Image of a bridge with text: Blessed Are the Peacemakers--A New Wine, New Wineskins Conference

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS CONFERENCE

4.8.2022

This New Wine conference addressed various challenging and potentially divisive topics, including gun violence and COVID masks, as well as other political, cultural and religious divisions. Click Learn More to for a conference overview and access to the video playlist.

This New Wine conference addressed various challenging and potentially divisive topics, including gun violence and COVID masks, as well as other political, cultural and religious divisions. We considered how to resolve conflict and cultivate unity while accounting for complexity, pain, and diverse perspectives. The intention was to deepen our understanding of how integral peacemaking is to our discipleship as followers of Jesus, the impact a disposition of peacebuilding can have in our various relationships and society, and how to go about practical steps we all can take to be peacemakers.

Access the Video Playlist.

Panel Discussions

Unmasked: Boosting the Conversation on Covid Vaccines

Peacemaking does not always entail agreement but working through various matters in more complete and respectful terms. The need for expanding our analysis of issues to be more comprehensive and seeking to be more respectful of the respective parties in a debate proves beneficial in the long run for very controversial topics like COVID vaccines and masks. No matter how long COVID is with us or whether some other pandemic takes its place, we will need to cultivate better strategies for engaging one another on this and other contentious issues. The aim of this panel discussion is threefold: model how to raise good questions, engage in respectful dialogue and account for the various complexities in working toward a possible resolution.

Moderator: Dr. Robert Potter

Panelists: Dr. Kristen White, Pastor Cody Whittington, Phil Berlin

Peacemaking: A Core Competency of God’s Kingdom

Peacemaking is in short supply today. It’s like an endangered species or a lost art form. We will be gleaning wisdom from five Christian leaders and New Wine, New Wineskins advisors who invest a great deal of time and energy in peacemaking. The aim of the panel is to provide insights and practical tools for how we can foster peacemaking as a core competency in our lives. The panelists will engage such subjects as emotional intelligence, indigenous cultural contributions to peacemaking, the cultivation of a quiet spirit for contending against over-stimulation, and an awareness and expansion of our set of tools for addressing conflict.

Moderator: Dr. Paul Louis Metzger

Panelists: Prof. Ruben Alvarado, Pastor Trudi Sang, Pastor Tom Schiave, Pastor Jim Sequeira, and Mr. Bob Wall

Constructing Dialogue for Diverse Unity: From the Classroom to the Public Square

Multnomah University faculty will address how they seek to cultivate conversations in classroom settings that foster diverse unity. Pursuit of diverse unity is not easy. It involves drawing out students to express their convictions rather than mimic the instructor, listening well to other classmates’ positions, living in the tension of diverse perspectives, and where possible pursue synthesis. The instructors will provide illustrations from their respective disciplines. The aim will be to reflect on how this approach to dialogue for diverse unity in the classroom can flow out to discourse in the church and society at large.

Moderators: Dr. Karen Fancher and Dr. Paul Louis Metzger

Panelists: Prof. Kristyn Kidney, Dr. Domani Pothen, Dr. Jessica Taylor, and Mr. Alin Vrancila

Workshops

Pathway to Peace: A Palestinian Perspective — Rev. Alex Awad

In his workshop, Rev. Alex Awad will share about the events that his family went through during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. He will discuss how this tragic experience forced them to come face to face with the issues of political aggression, dispossession, forgiveness, and ultimately to become peace and justice advocates.

Reflection on Peacebuilding: Beyond Relativism to Redemptive Engagement — Karen Fancher, D.Int.St.

Peacebuilding is often conceptualized in our contemporary culture in terms of relativism, avoidance of tensions, or acquiesce of convictions. In this session we will consider the concept of peacebuilding through a Christo-centric lens, seeking to foster redemptive engagement, transformation, and just peace. Peacebuilding as an integral aspect of discipleship and witness will also be addressed, noting the costly and challenging work of engagement in the complexities of our world and the dispositions of a person of peace.

Space at the Table: Open Conversations on Gender and Sexuality — Brad Harper, Ph.D.

As the discussions around LGBTQ+ issues are growing and diversifying, we will look at some of the strategies for having productive conversations, both inside and outside the church. How can the church engage the LGBTQ+ community in general and what are some of the growing challenges for engaging the issues inside the church as many Jesus followers are taking a more affirming posture?

Shot of Love: Advocating for Peace Amid Growing Gun Violence — Pastor J. W. Matt Hennessee, M.Div., D.D. A

Pastor J. W. Matt Hennessee has advocated against gun violence for over forty years. He will bring his Christian faith and many years of experience as a pastor and community leader and advocate for shalom in the city to bear on the rise of violent crime.

Beyond the Satanic Panic: Where Neuropathways Lead to Peace — John W. Morehead, M.A.

Evangelicals and other Christians have often failed to account for their cognitive and affective biases in relating to outgroups. This presentation will discuss aspects of neuroscience in our psychology that must be accounted for in science-informed peacemaking.

From Disgust to Empathy in Political Discourse — Robert Lyman Potter, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Robert Potter will draw from Jonathan Haidt’s work in social psychology involving moral intuitions and apply his analytical process to such topics as COVID masks. The aim will be to cultivate greater understanding and empathy rather than disgust for those who hold divergent positions on hot-topic issues.

COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FORUM

10.27.2021

This forum featured Dr. Dave Kresta and a highly knowledgeable and experienced group of panelists addressing economics, community, faith and the truth of Jesus walking down main street today. Click Learn More to view a recording of this forum.

The New Wine, New Wineskins’ forum on Community Economic Development featured Dr. David Kresta and his recently published volume titled, Jesus on Main Street: Good News Through Community Economic Development (Cascade, 2021), which emerges from his PhD research in urban studies at PSU. We are passionate about this subject and the import of it for gentrified Portland. Dr. Kresta gave a brief presentation, which is followed by responses from a highly knowledgeable and experienced group of panelists.

Featuring:

Dr. David E. Kresta (PhD, MBA), is author of Jesus on Main Street, a book for churches looking to bring healing to their local economies. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Portland State University where he teaches community and economic development. He is also a Fellow at the Ormond Center, Duke Divinity School, working to foster congregations that are agents of community thriving.

With Panelists:

Elder Catherine Brown, is a bi-vocational elder and member of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church where she serves as Business Manager, gospel preacher, and teacher under the leadership of Senior Pastor Craig L. Brown. She is also an elder associated with Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church. Additionally, Ms. Brown is the Senior Vice President of Marsh USA, Marsh McLennan Companies based in Portland Oregon. There, she is involved with delivering insurance, risk management, and advisory services to publicly traded, private, not-for-profit, and public sector companies. Ms. Brown is a mother, grandmother, and woman of the Most High God.

Dr. Greg Burch (PhD), is the director of the M.A. degree program at Multnomah in Global Development and Justice. Greg and his family lived in Venezuela and Costa Rica where they were involved in ministry with street-living children and training leaders in community development work in support of vulnerable children around the world. Greg is the author of the book Community Children: A Ministry of Hope and Restoration for the Street Dwelling Child and other articles and book chapters on transformational development work and vulnerable children. Greg is host of the Development and Justice Podcast and teaches courses in Transformational Development, Intercultural Communication and Children at Risk Studies.

Mr. Rudy Carrasco, is a program director with the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. He is a past organizer of Christian Community Development Association’s Market Solutions pre-conference. His articles on community and economic development have appeared in Forbes, Urban Faith, and Christianity Today.

Pastor J.W. Matt Hennessee serves as the Senior Servant of Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon. He has had the distinction of serving in a variety of leadership capacities locally, nationally, and globally in public administration; private business; non-profit boards and commissions. He has served on the Board of Trustees at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA for nine years and presently serves on the Board of Trustees at the Berkeley School of Theology in Berkeley, CA. Pastor Hennessee has a passion for teaching and working alongside others in equity, economic development, and restorative and social justice wishing to see the barriers between people destroyed.

Moderator:

Dr. Paul Louis Metzger (PhD), is Professor of Theology & Culture at Multnomah University and Seminary. He is also the Founder and Director of the university’s Center for Integration & Cultural Engagement, Editor of New Wine’s journal, Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture, and author and editor of numerous volumes, including Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church (Eerdmans). Dr. Metzger is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey, and served as Senior Mission Scholar in Residence, Spring 2018 at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut.

Watch the Recording

2021 CONFERENCE: MENTAL HEALTH: BUILDING BRIDGES, NOT WALLS

2.26.2021

The discussion on mental health within the church and the community is a vital and most timely one to have in our current culture. Often conversations regarding mental health are marked by religious stigma. How should we, as the church, foster hope and connect empathetically with those struggling? Video recordings available in the link below.

FROM ISOLATION TO INCLUSION: A NEW WINE DOCUMENTARY

11.18.2020

This online screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring special guests from the documentary.

FROM ISOLATION TO INVITATION: A CONFERENCE ON DISABILITIES

3.16.2019

For too long people with disabilities have been isolated in the church and our culture at large. This conference aimed to heighten the awareness of the church and the community, and to serve as a catalyst for those already involved to move from isolation to invitation within the church and broader culture.

RELIGIOUS PROSECUTION, PRIVILEGE, PARANOIA–AND HOPE

4.7.2017

We had such an amazing turnout this April 7th that was filled with great energy, and even better conversation. If you weren’t able to make it, here is the workshop audio from five of six of our workshops! (One of our workshop presenters declined to have their presentation recorded due to some sensitive information being shared).

TRAUMA AND RESILIENCE

3.18.2017

Trauma occurs when the very tools we use to build trust in the world are those things by which we’ve been betrayed. How does one cope, when the usual ways to cope are the things that cause harm? During this conference our many speakers presented trauma from a variety of angles to help us not only recognize how trauma affects all corners of life—from relationships, to communities, to politics, to literature—but also how we can begin to help one another heal and move beyond brokenness into resilience.

CHURCH & SCIENCE: PARTNERS FOR THE COMMON GOOD

4.16.2016 & 4.23.2016

Exploring the lost connections between faith and science — and forging new ones.

IMMIGRATION REFORMATION

4.27.2013

Everyone wants immigration reform. But we stand a divided country, ready to come to blows over the prescription for our broken system. Even within the church, hostile opinions leave us wondering what the “Christian position” on immigration ought to be. Could it be that all of us in the United States desperately need both a restructuring of laws and a restructuring of the heart?

CHURCH & STATE CONFERENCE

10.27.2012

In anticipation of our upcoming election season, many Christians are asking “Is there a Christian way to vote?” This conference will go beyond the “Christian voter card” to considering holistic ways of bringing our faith to bear in the public sector.

GENDER CONFERENCE

3.3.2012

What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? Does it even matter? How do these questions bear upon topics such as how we work together in society at large and the church in ways that affirm and promote us in all that God has created us to be? It is so important to seek clarity with civility in pursuit of biblical unity, diversity, and honor in a culture where our beauty as God’s human creation is so often endangered by physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse. We approached gender identity from a variety of angles in a biblically integrated and in a culturally meaningful manner. We had a full slate of topics including gender roles, sex trafficking, pornography, gender non-conforming, masculinity, femininity, complementarianism, egalitarianism, the Trinity and gender, gender and social construction, headship, and ethnicity and gender.

WORSHIPING IN THE MATRIX: TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION, CULTURE, AND THE CHURCH

11.5.2011

People worship. Whether we’re talking about money, work, sex, drugs, rock n roll, or the Triune God. At this conference, we will reflect upon how technology and social media help foster or hinder authentic communion with the Triune God and community with the church and culture at large.

We will use worship as a seminal case study, both because many churches frame their community around the “worship experience” and because there is a sense in which all individuals worship someone or something.

Subjects addressed at the conference will include the “fourth wall” which separates leader from participant, forcing us to rethink our models of worship relative to technology. We will ask whether the church’s use of technology seeks simply to improve consumer cultural idolatry (mere entertainment) or if it causes us to enter into the Triune God’s presence corporately. We will examine the double-edged sword of technology and social media, which enables churches to establish satellite campuses – a practice whose theological impact is bound up with our implementation. Further, we will examine how technology impacts our relationships, our authenticity, and our capacity for intimacy.

Our speakers will consider how the church and culture have historically stewarded its resources, dating back to ancient forms of technology. Stories will be shared of utilizing space either for or in spite of public missional engagement.

Keynote speaker, Quentin Schultze, is a leading voice on media and its place in service to Christian worship and mission, as well as a prolific author. Some of his recent titles include High-Tech Worship? Using Presentational Technologies Wisely; Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age; Communicating for Life: Christian Stewardship in Community and Media; and many more. Dr. Schultze will help us discern how best to proceed so that we can love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. He will articulate that technology, like the Sabbath, is made for humans – not the other way around. As actors in the theater of redemption, Dr. Schultze will exhort us to be on guard that we do not let technology use us, but that we use it in the church’s worship experience and in the broader culture of creation.

The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins of Multnomah Biblical Seminary at Multnomah University brings a theological-cultural vision to this subject. New Wine leaders Dr. Paul Louis Metzger (director), Dr. Brad Harper (associate director), and Dr. Robert Redman (dean of Multnomah Biblical Seminary) will provide biblical and theological underpinnings for the church’s wise stewardship of its various means of communication. They will demonstrate how such resources can be used for the building up of the Christian community and its mission in the world.

TWO WAILING WALLS AND THE PEOPLES OF PROMISE

10.2.2010

There are two wailing walls. One is the remains of the Temple, symbolizing in part the sense of oppression the Jews experienced under foreign invaders and their longing for their dreams as a people to be realized. The other wailing wall is that erected by the Jewish state, and which the Palestinians believe marginalizes and keeps them from pursuing their dreams as a people.

LIFESTYLE EVANGELISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY: BUILDING BRIDGES TO NEIGHBORS AND NEIGHBORHOODS

9.26.2009

New Wine’s fall conference, Lifestyle Evangelism in the 21st Century: Building Bridges to Neighbors and Neighborhoods was held Saturday, September 26th at Mosaic Church. The conference highlighted the profound evangelistic and missional approach generated by Dr. Joe Aldrich’s classic book Lifestyle Evangelism and what lifestyle evangelism looks like in the 21st century.

NEW WINE SPRING CONFERENCE “CREATED TO CREATE”

4.25.2009

New Wine’s Spring Conference on faith and the arts, “Created to Create” was held on Saturday, April 25th, 2009, at Mosaic in Portland. The conference will highlight the need to see how the Arts are vital to Gospel witness in the twenty-first century, and will draw attention to current artistic expressions in the region and beyond.

BOUND: THE GLOBAL SLAVE TRADE

4.12.2008

The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins presents its spring conference, “Bound—the Global Slave Trade”, on Saturday, April 12, 2008 at Multnomah Bible College & Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. “Bound” will explore the topics of the present-day slave trade including human trafficking, sex slavery, and the ways consumerism affects this on global, local, and personal levels.

BOILING POINT: A CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

10.27.2007

People’s temperatures soar when discussion shifts to global climate change. At our autumn conference, “Boiling Point,” New Wine hopes to create an atmosphere where cool logic and open, refreshing dialogue prevail among those of various opinions.

PAST CONFERENCES