On 14 May, Gospel Reformation: UK hosted a free online conference, Zoomutopia.
Thrown together in just a few weeks, delegates received great preaching and teaching from Kevin DeYoung (Christ Covenant Church, Matthews, NC, USA and RTS), Garry Williams (Director, Pastors’ Academy) and Jonty Rhodes (Christ Church Central, Leeds).
In the promotional videos GR:UK explained that they never intended to do a conference. Their aim is to promote all things Reformed and especially church planting. However, with many conferences suspended due to the coronavirus (for example Banner, Keswick, Word Alive, Catalyst) coupled with an obvious pastoral question about suffering during this pandemic, GR:UK were persuaded otherwise.
It turns out to have scratched where people were itching. 375 households connected with the conference and 200 for the live Q&A session. Through the Facebook stream there were 8,212 reaches. It was broadcast using Zoom (hence the tongue-in-cheek name, Zoomutopia) and live streamed across various platforms. The largest group of attendees were from the UK, followed by the USA, but there were people from across the globe as well.
Kevin DeYoung preached on Psalm 22 and Jonty Rhodes on Psalm 116. Both preachers dealt honestly and pastorally with the tough issues, whilst coming back to the theme of God’s sovereignty and glory. Garry Williams spoke on ‘Calvin, the suffering Reformer’, a moving case study showing how Calvin’s personal suffering and tragedies shaped his doctrine and writing, and how his theology carried him through harrowing times.
All three speakers dealt with hard-hitting live questions very well. During each session there was a video ad for 10ofthose books, a summary of the church scene in the UK and a video on a church plant in Burke, near Washington, DC. In the pre- and post-conference build up there have been related blogs and podcasts.
Many participants commented on YouTube, and to the apparent surprise of the speakers and other organisers, Michael Cochran engaged with these comments live during the breaks. This gave an appropriate lightness between serious teaching, but added to the live experience.
When church life and worship is truncated and people feel cooped up, Zoomutopia seemed to provide some manna in a dry place and connect Christians more broadly. Many have asked when the next one will be.
