After a year of rest, it is Pigfest time again in Roanoke. Time to crank it up.
I am going to invite you into my mind to learn how I do it. I want you to be a Pigfester too. So pull up a chair, have a rest, kick up your feet, and learn from my successes and my failures.
First things first. What are we trying to accomplish?
Let me back up for a second.
For those of you new to the Dawn Treader, a Pigfest is a gathering you host in your home. The purpose of the Pigfest is to enjoy community and food ... but more importantly, to feast on truth and ideas.
The Pigfest format involves a moderated discussion whereby one person presents a truth proposition for the group to discuss. The moderator guides the discussion and makes sure that the conversation observes good form [i.e. everyone practices the golden rule] and stays on track. The discussion lasts for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, the moderator recaps the discussion and offers closing comments. Then, the moderator calls on a new person to present the next truth proposition. On a given night, I have seen up to six propositions discussed. The range of topics fall into the categories of culture, religion, history, politics, economics and philosophy.
The first thing you have to decide is the goal of the Pigfest.
There are at least two broad goals for a Pigfest.
Goal one, to gather Christians together to discuss truth and exercise their worldview muscles. The Christian mind is underdeveloped in our day and age. Christians, by and large, are sloppy at integrating Biblical truth into all of life. They live bifurcated lives where they use their Christian mind on Sundays, and their secular mind on Mondays through Saturdays. The goal of the Pigfest is to force Christians to learn how to think Christianly and take every thought captive to Christ on a variety of topics.
Goal two, to gather Christians and non-Christians together to enjoy spirited and friendly conversation about truth and things that matter. It is not often that Christians and non-Christians mix and talk about things other than sports and weather. The Pigfest allows deeper discussion about important issues of the day in a friendly format. Most people fear that these kinds of discussions will degenerate into heated arguments. As it turns out, heated arguments are fairly rare. The reason is that people are shown extraordinary hospitality and are guests in a home. People who are treated warmly and graciously usually respond in kind. The blended Pigfest is exciting because non-Christians learn how Christians think about things without fear of being preached to ... and Christians gain an eye-opening glimpse into the perspective of a non-Christian worldview. Both parties benefit from getting out of their cloisters.
There may be other potential goals to the Pigfest, but those are the two I am most familiar with.
You have to decide the goal up front because every other decision will flow from this first decision.
The next Pigfest I am hosting will be of the type 1 variety. The goal is to strengthen the ability of Christ followers to think with the mind of Christ, articulate their ideas, present their rationale, and persuade others to believe likewise.
Comments