Q Debriefing

After the Lakers game, the crowd spilled out into the L.A. Live area, a hotspot of Los Angeles’s vast and uncompressed city limits, including The Grammy Museum, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, and the hotel where my wife and I were staying. I was regularly walking in and out of Club Nokia as a participant of the 6th annual Q Conference, which is best described by Jamie Smith as “a conference that has brought together over 700 practitioners and leaders from an array of cultural ‘channels’--entrepreneurs and artists alongside pastors and academics,” discussing ideas and exchanging resources in the continual strive to apply the Truth of the Gospel in “holistic, culture-making, world-restoring” ways.

It was a bit of an overload of information and wisdom. Bobette Buster, a story consultant of Pixar, opened up the discussions with an engaging presentation on the recent socio-cultural history and spiritual needs of the city of Los Angeles. Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, connected culture-making to the Creation mandates in Genesis. Dale Kuehne, of St. Anselm’s College, spoke of Aristotle’s family values and argued that society, literally and financially, cannot afford the breakdown of the nuclear family. We were updated from leaders and their charity and justice work in North Korea and Uganda, and also learned of the unique and effective churches in the area such as Reality LA. Dale Partridge, of the innovative charity Sevenly.org, encouraged Christian businessmen to lead the business world into integrity and Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, talked about how we’re to think about the Gospel as a virus, and was worried that a weak strand of the Gospel has inoculated many. 

That evening, I attended a forum/concert of Christian songwriters including musicians that have served in bands such as Evanescence and written songs for movies such as Twilight. I was particularly intrigued by the creativity of the liturgy-inspired fusion of folk and classical music portrayed by Wisconsin-native David Gungor (Michael’s brother) and his band, The Brilliance. For me, it was a break from the dominantly U2-based worship music. I should have known The Brilliance long ago.

The next day, we were privileged to hear from Mark Burnett, producer of Survivor and The Voice, who talked about the worldwide impact of the recent Bible mini-series and encouraged church unity. Kim Biddle of Saving Innocence gave us a sobering presentation on the reality of human trafficking (a near-to-heart issue for Los Angeles), and Romanita Hairston of World Vision’s urban ministry curiously connected Old Testament passages such as Zechariah 6 to her work. Tom Krattenmaker of USA Today encouraged us with the notion that stereotypes of evangelicalism are crumbling and that Gospel-bearing Christian influence is growing in the media. Contemporary visual artist Lynn Aldrich challenged the Church to embrace deeper, complex and abstract art as they do the same for concepts in theology and to move on from their linear and function-based view of the arts. The third day, I chose to attend a special session on storytelling from the aforementioned Bobette Buster in the local Regal Theater, where we had already been privileged to screen State 194 and Terence Malick’s upcoming To the Wonder.

And this recap is extremely abridged. I haven’t even talked about our talk from the president of the Barna Group, Rebekah Lyons’s thoughts on ministry to the mentally ill, Kara Powell’s convictions on our technological-ized and impersonal society, Jessica Rey’s modesty-comeback swimsuits, Jessica Dominguez’s views on immigration, the ministry of the Orange County Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope, and Southlake Church’s impact on Portland’s Roosevelt High School. We also heard from Margaret Feinberg and Father Elias Chacour. I still haven’t mentioned everyone.

And there wasn’t really a moment to spare. Sessions started at 9am and ended around 9pm, only with breaks for mealtimes, which usually consisted of spillover discussions. Such informal and unofficial gleanings and conversations easily went past midnight in mostly nocturnal LA.

As a conference, Q stands out from many other Christian conferences, so to speak, with their emphasis on Gospel application and their avoidance of method prescription. Many church-related conferences focus on the pastorate, a certain demographic outside of church leadership, theological discussion or the promotion of a certain new understanding or way of “doing ministry.” There are no book sale tables at Q, however. Q, very knowledgeable on cultural exegesis, is about discussion, and inspiring the diversely-gifted collective Church towards their diverse local communities with creative and effective forms of impact, discipleship and evangelism. It’s very much a lively and inspiring conversation to see God at work and to think of creative ways to serve Him. You can see some photos and session streams here. 

This next year, Q goes to Nashville.