Ex Nihilo

Over the past two years, a group of young adults I advise did something amazing: out of nothing, they created a new conference for peers in their faith tradition. They had virtually no seed money, but they received all they required and more. To make this event a reality, they needed sixty registrants to meet their contract obligations to the hotel and break even financially. More than twice that number registered for the Connect Conference. In the two months that have passed since this inaugural event, I’ve often wondered:

How did this happen?

As a person of faith, I believe the power to do something like this ultimately belongs to God. But we humans must also do our part. On that level, I clearly see three things that allowed this event to happen:

1. the conversations we had,
2. the shared vision that resulted, and
3. the encouragement to continue when things got difficult.

The conversations didn’t start with me. But when I noticed they were happening among various individuals, I simply invited them to gather in one place so we could all talk about this conference idea together. We did. And the energy started to build.

That energy came from a very simple shared vision: organizing an event at which young adults could connect with each other through their shared faith. There were plenty of differences of opinion about the details. As might be expected of a first attempt by a group of amateur, volunteer conference planners, it was often a messy and less-than-perfectly-organized process. But it happened—in large part because of the unifying power in that simple, shared vision.

Finally, there was encouragement. I learned from a mentor that, as a clergyman, serving as the “Chief Encouragement Officer” would be my best contribution to the group. We received a lot of encouragement from others as well: from the donors who gave to fund what was at the time an unproven event to the aforementioned mentor, who passed on what he learned from Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, about encouragement. When asked once if a person needed encouragement, Mr. Cathy answered, “Are they breathing?”

Before God breathed life into humanity, those of us in the Christian tradition believe He created the world ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” He spoke the world into existence, just as the organizers of the Connect Conference spoke it into existence. But God’s creative word was not a monologue. In Genesis, we read that He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” It was a conversation.

If you want to create something out of nothing, start with a conversation. Look for shared vision. And encourage each other through the difficult work of creation ex nihilo.