Ethne06 is over; long live Ethne

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Ethne06 is over; long live Ethne

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ May 2, 2006 ⋅

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Momentum is a little late again, mainly due to the fact that our family had to take a trip to Singapore. Like most of the people we write about, we live and work within the least-reached world. (For security reasons, we don’t say exactly where we are.) But we are excited about this issue, which goes into much depth about Ethnê06.

We had worked on this particular event for nearly a year. Registrations had come in from all over the world. There were times when we weren’t sure it was going to happen, and then—with a rush, it seemed—it was upon us, happening all around us. And then it was done.

There were still a few things that dominated our waking hours: an article for Mission Frontiers, another for Lausanne World Pulse, and a full issue of Momentum to get out. But then, a week or so after the event was over, there was the typical mixture of emotions for the organizers of such an event: relief that it was over, rest from the enormous fatigue, an empty hollow in the “Ethnê” shaped spot on our calendar that had consumed all of our time.

Now, two months later, it’s time to reflect and create this issue of Momentum, which is focused completely on this event. What happened? What happens now?

What we’re aiming for in this issue is to give you the “flavor” of Ethnê06. For those who weren’t there, we’re trying to give you a “taste” of what it was like: perhaps a bigger spoonful than most reports on conferences, but certainly not the whole bowl. For those who were there, we’re trying to give you a reminder. This is important, we feel, because Ethnê06 itself was just a conference—but the Ethnê movement goes on. There are specific goals for the strategy groups, and these need ongoing participation.

Unfortunately, one of the things we ran up against in doing this was security. The conference featured speakers from every continent, and reports from every regional UPG partnership. Many of these reports were extremely sensitive. Instead of having these reports cut, we chose to write them in a very abstract way that will give you some idea of the work going on while not naming names or regions. I regret this, but I think it is the best compromise with the security issues we all face. I trust what we present in this issue will give you a thrill: it is intensely satisfying to know so many people are doing so many things right now, and there is even more going on “under the radar.”

There are three kinds of articles in this issue. The first are the plenary addresses. Some of these were drafted from the Powerpoints and then given back to the speakers, who tweaked them and then approved them. A second kind of article is the strategy group reports. These are somewhat shorter because much of the discussion was sensitive, so for the most part we’re only covering the results. The third kind was the workshops and seminars. For space considerations, we have chosen just a few as a “representative sampling.”

There is, actually, a fourth kind of article: a late one. Unfortunately several people who participated in Ethnê06 are also participating in other events now. They weren’t able to contribute their articles, but we hope to get them later. When we do, we’ll post them as “appendices” on the Momentum website. In this respect, Momentum is different from other magazines: a later edition may include slightly more material than an earlier edition. We’ll let you know when these “new expanded editions” become available.

We hope that these are useful to you. Discussions are underway for the next conference, but Ethnê isn’t just about conferences. It is a movement, and there are several things that came out of the conference and will continue on. I hope when you read these you’ll be inspired to be part of these major global efforts and not just wait for the next event.

On another note, we know Momentum is long and gives you an enormous amount of material to work through. In the surveys we’ve done, there have been consistent comments about the length. Please don’t view the magazine as something you need to read in whole in one setting—or even as something you need to read in its entirety, ever! One of the reasons we put up the individual articles is so you can pick and choose.