By Traci Rhoades
I remember the first year I attended the Doxology Conference, a three-day gathering held annually at Pillar Church in Holland, hosted by the Eugene Peterson Center for Imagination.
Peterson had passed away in 2018. His authorized biography, “A Burning in My Bones,” written by Winn Collier, released in 2022. The first conference took place October of that year.
Eugene Peterson was the author of more than 30 books, but best-known for The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, a modern paraphrase translated by a pastor to help his congregants better understand the ancient words of scripture. A pastor, a professor, a shepherd.
Amidst the ongoing popularity of The Message, those impacted by not only his work, but by the life he lived, looked for ways to honor the ministry conversation he had started. His family chose Western Theological Seminary as a partnering site to house his papers and archives, and to develop a training ground for future ministers to the Church.
“This might sound unrealistic, but it’s my hope; I hope I can be a part of changing the pastoral imagination of American pastors.” - Eugene Peterson
I’m not one to attend a lot of conferences around writing. Often times, an author’s job can feel like work on an island, and I sit pretty comfortably in that space, examining my thoughts and words in solitude. A local conference has a particular draw to me, though.
I’ve also participated in the Festival of Faith and Writing hosted by Calvin University for several years. It is good to gather with like-minded people, and always cultivates creativity in me. I gain perspective and often direction for moving forward in my creative pursuits at these conferences.
We were gathered for the first session at the first-ever Doxology Conference, and Winn Collier, named the director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Imagination, stood before the group of a few hundred participants.
“The last thing Eugene would want is to have a conference named for him,” he said, or something very close to that effect.
That year, and every year since, one of the most common pieces of feedback the center hears is that it didn’t feel like any other conference people had attended. Perhaps that’s a healthy compromise.
Who is in attendance year after year? I’m not sure there’s ever been an official breakdown. There are times the communication seems targeted to pastors. The center offers a doctoral program, the Sacred Art of Writing Director of Ministry cohort. From the school’s website at peterson center.org: “We will tend to craft as one essential thread, but also to theological and spiritual themes inherent in this vocation and essential for the life and soul of the writer. Perhaps the most crucial and formative element of our cohort will be the space itself, how we enter as a community listening to God and to one another among all the words we share.”
The students from the cohort gather at the Doxology Conference each year as well. The space for community mentioned in the program’s description above is another noted highlight of the conference as a whole.
Also in attendance, seeking a sacred space to do whatever work they deem necessary to fertilize hope among Christ’s followers, is a hodge-podge of men and women from around the globe, with varied occupations.
The conference has stayed relatively small, but each year I meet people from as far away as South Africa, who have felt compelled to give this conference a try.
Different speakers are invited to come and lead the conversation, they’re referred to as guides. They’re not selected for their notoriety, but for their intentionality around Spirit-guided work that places readers and thinkers squarely in the presence of God. Guest worship leaders lead the group into a devotional space, and a number of us sing more hymns at this conference than we do perhaps the rest of the year combined. A variety of visual artists have come to share their passion-driven work with conference attendees.
Why am I taking the time to tell you about this little conference that typically sells out in the first few weeks after registration opens up each year? There are bigger conferences, ones that cater to a more professional crowd looking to learn about the nuts and bolts of their career.
While it’s nice to attend a conference in one’s own backyard, it can be less than ideal to juggle the responsibilities of parenting and home life with immersing oneself in creative work. I don’t know if it’s a conference you’d be interested in attending, but maybe it would be for you.
I guess I wanted you to know there are still people out there fiercely determined to tap into divine beauty and truth in a world that is starving for them. They value things like learning for the sake of learning, offering creative work that points to our Creator, and tending to the soul even as we walk in a world that at times seems to have lost its own.
Collectively, just a few weeks ago, we declared, “This is my Father’s world: Oh, let me ne’er forget; That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
I think perhaps it’s a conference Eugene Peterson himself might choose to attend.
—————
Traci Rhoades is an author and Bible teacher who lives with her husband and daughter in West Michigan.
I remember the first year I attended the Doxology Conference, a three-day gathering held annually at Pillar Church in Holland, hosted by the Eugene Peterson Center for Imagination.
Peterson had passed away in 2018. His authorized biography, “A Burning in My Bones,” written by Winn Collier, released in 2022. The first conference took place October of that year.
Eugene Peterson was the author of more than 30 books, but best-known for The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, a modern paraphrase translated by a pastor to help his congregants better understand the ancient words of scripture. A pastor, a professor, a shepherd.
Amidst the ongoing popularity of The Message, those impacted by not only his work, but by the life he lived, looked for ways to honor the ministry conversation he had started. His family chose Western Theological Seminary as a partnering site to house his papers and archives, and to develop a training ground for future ministers to the Church.
“This might sound unrealistic, but it’s my hope; I hope I can be a part of changing the pastoral imagination of American pastors.” - Eugene Peterson
I’m not one to attend a lot of conferences around writing. Often times, an author’s job can feel like work on an island, and I sit pretty comfortably in that space, examining my thoughts and words in solitude. A local conference has a particular draw to me, though.
I’ve also participated in the Festival of Faith and Writing hosted by Calvin University for several years. It is good to gather with like-minded people, and always cultivates creativity in me. I gain perspective and often direction for moving forward in my creative pursuits at these conferences.
We were gathered for the first session at the first-ever Doxology Conference, and Winn Collier, named the director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Imagination, stood before the group of a few hundred participants.
“The last thing Eugene would want is to have a conference named for him,” he said, or something very close to that effect.
That year, and every year since, one of the most common pieces of feedback the center hears is that it didn’t feel like any other conference people had attended. Perhaps that’s a healthy compromise.
Who is in attendance year after year? I’m not sure there’s ever been an official breakdown. There are times the communication seems targeted to pastors. The center offers a doctoral program, the Sacred Art of Writing Director of Ministry cohort. From the school’s website at peterson center.org: “We will tend to craft as one essential thread, but also to theological and spiritual themes inherent in this vocation and essential for the life and soul of the writer. Perhaps the most crucial and formative element of our cohort will be the space itself, how we enter as a community listening to God and to one another among all the words we share.”
The students from the cohort gather at the Doxology Conference each year as well. The space for community mentioned in the program’s description above is another noted highlight of the conference as a whole.
Also in attendance, seeking a sacred space to do whatever work they deem necessary to fertilize hope among Christ’s followers, is a hodge-podge of men and women from around the globe, with varied occupations.
The conference has stayed relatively small, but each year I meet people from as far away as South Africa, who have felt compelled to give this conference a try.
Different speakers are invited to come and lead the conversation, they’re referred to as guides. They’re not selected for their notoriety, but for their intentionality around Spirit-guided work that places readers and thinkers squarely in the presence of God. Guest worship leaders lead the group into a devotional space, and a number of us sing more hymns at this conference than we do perhaps the rest of the year combined. A variety of visual artists have come to share their passion-driven work with conference attendees.
Why am I taking the time to tell you about this little conference that typically sells out in the first few weeks after registration opens up each year? There are bigger conferences, ones that cater to a more professional crowd looking to learn about the nuts and bolts of their career.
While it’s nice to attend a conference in one’s own backyard, it can be less than ideal to juggle the responsibilities of parenting and home life with immersing oneself in creative work. I don’t know if it’s a conference you’d be interested in attending, but maybe it would be for you.
I guess I wanted you to know there are still people out there fiercely determined to tap into divine beauty and truth in a world that is starving for them. They value things like learning for the sake of learning, offering creative work that points to our Creator, and tending to the soul even as we walk in a world that at times seems to have lost its own.
Collectively, just a few weeks ago, we declared, “This is my Father’s world: Oh, let me ne’er forget; That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
I think perhaps it’s a conference Eugene Peterson himself might choose to attend.
—————
Traci Rhoades is an author and Bible teacher who lives with her husband and daughter in West Michigan.
