This past week, Calvin College hosted the Q Commons event for the second time in recent history. Q Commons is a regional version of the national Q Conference started by Gabe and Rebekah Lyons, longtime pioneers in the church who work at the crossroads of faith and culture.
Taking place in downtown Grand Rapids at the Ladies Literary Club, this gathering was carved out to be a space of education, inspiration and conversation.
Passionate members of the Calvin community came together to wrestle with the question of advancing the common good in the world, but more specifically in the local Grand Rapids context.
Modeled after the creative structure introduced by Q Conference founder Gabe Lyons, the Q Commons most notably opened space for local leaders to connect.
The connection was based on a desire to manifest a vision of Christians working to renew and restore culture as a whole.
In 2007, Lyons and his wife, Rebekah, made that desire a reality. Since then, Q has prompted questions and conversation that engage over 20,000 individuals across more than 75 cities globally through its Commons event, which Grand Rapids is a part of.
Q Conference events are similar to TED talks but are distinct because the talks are focused on explicit faith-based conversation.
Lyons and regional directors seek to involve a wide stream of voices and sectors of engagement within God’s world. From the business sector, publishing, the church and beyond, the event intends for listeners from different walks of life to find inspiration by attending this gathering.
Q Commons stands out from other conferences because of its emphasis on global connectivity. Throughout the conference, presentations on current events and topics of justice from all around the world were showcased in order to grow awareness of the significance of issues worth believers’ attention.
Listeners heard from faith-based organizations such as World Renew and had the opportunity to relate global topics and events to local settings. Also during the event at the Ladies Literary Club, attendees had the chance to experience a set of six speakers.
Three speakers, New York Times best-seller Malcolm Gladwell, award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien and Emmy-award winning television producer Mark Burnett, were broadcast via video stream.
Gladwell spoke of Christians “wrestling with the issues of legitimacy”, while O’Brien challenged listeners to deal with “the dicey racialized past of America and its challenging present implications”.
These big-name speakers drew in much of the interest, but the local Grand Rapids big names were just as engaging.
Interspersed with broadcast speakers, Calvin College Dean Christina Edmundson, Mayor George Heartwell and Manasseh Project founder Andy Soper showed up with fiery appeals for audience members to think deeply about their influence in the sphere of change in the coming years of Grand Rapids’ development.
The local leaders discussed issues facing Christians today. Legitimacy influences how we treat others, Soper mentioned in his speech, and Heartwell discussed how race matters in making Grand Rapids green.
Lyons summed up the importance of conversations like those had at Q Commons, remarking that, “the next generation of Christians will come from the pews, not the pulpit.”
