Today was the final day of the GodBlog Convention. The only scheduled activities were breakfast and two blocks of breakout sessions. I attended DJ Chuang’s session on Emerging Church blogs. He co-led the discussion with Aaron Flores of thevoiz. DJ did a great job outlining the history of the emerging church and what’s going on with it in relation to the blogosphere. The size of the group allowed for easy discussion, which was nice since Dr. Andrew Jackson of SmartChristian.com was there and had plenty of good insights to offer. The last thing we talked about was why there were so few emerging church bloggers present at the convention, especially considering how central blogging is to the emerging church community. The Smart Christian made a good point that we can’t really say it’s economics since plenty of emergent folk go to their own conferences and retreats like the one this past week in New Mexico. Rather, it seems the main reason is some sort of separatism.

The second session I went to was one by The A-Team on apologetics blogging. It was the best thing at the convention and entirely worth the registration fee. So you know how sarcastic that comment was, I hope to post the mp3 of the session here tomorrow. There was a late addition to the schedule- the Narnia trailers and behind the scenes clips. Though I’d seen it all before, it’s always fun to watch it on the big screen and get chills when Aslan’s around. He’s good, but not safe.

Overall the convention was a blast. Definitely the best thing about it was simply meeting people and hearing about their experiences online. The networking and community opportunities would be good enough, but the plenary and breakout sessions were also great. Matt Anderson and his team of volunteers did an excellent job of putting the whole thing together. I was disappointed at how many people weren’t there. There are so many Christian bloggers, especially in southern California, who would have benefited from this. There’s really no reason for anyone not to be at next year’s convention.

I’d like to lodge some minor random complaints/suggestions hoping they’ll be helpful for next year… There was too much emphasis in the panels on pastoral blogging- It’s an important subject but it didn’t seem relevant to most of us. The last day should have at least one group function (aside from breakfast). I’d like to see more lectures like what John Mark Reynolds gave on Thursday night as opposed to a bunch of panel discussions. Since we got Hugh Hewitt at the event, why was he just moderating and not on the panel? I’ve heard some people say they’d like to see people with moderate hit counts on panels and such- I think they really mean they’d like to see themselves up there. The reason people with higher hit counts are on panels is because they appear to be doing something right, and those are the people I want to hear from. I do agree, though, that an absence was felt by only having male panelists. Enlist a graphics designer to do the paperwork and logos.

Since Stacy Harp asked that I Iink to her again, here you go. I also had a great time at lunch with Lores Rizkalla, Aaron Pina, DJ Chuang, Charles Lehardy, Alex Jordan, and Christy Lynn Wilson.