What the Heck Is a PechaKucha?

What the Heck Is a PechaKucha? January 14, 2013

Barry Taylor giving a pecha kucha presentation. (photo by Courtney Perry)

Doug and I like to mess with people. That probably doesn’t shock anyone who knows us. So, at the conference we convened last week, we messed with a bunch of presenters. While we allowed Phyllis Tickle, the keynote speaker, to give four hour-long talks, we asked a bunch of our other speaker friends to talk about something they are passionate about.

For 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

With 20 slides timed at 20 seconds each.

For presenters who are used to giving hour-long talks, or even 20-minute long sermons, this is a tight constriction. It’s called a pechakucha presentation, and it’s scary as hell. I know, I did one (see below).

In addition to Doug and me, 17 of our friends did presentations. Here are the names of those presenters, with links to their online presence, and my one line summary of what they talked about:

Melissa Greene: How she went from the CCM industry to a more progressive version of Christianity.

Barry Taylor: The church needs to learn obfuscation from the arts.

Adam Walker-Cleaveland: Starting a theology pub.

Cameron Trimble: The work of the Center for Progressive Renewal.

Mike Stavlund: How to talk to someone in grief.

Scott Griessel: What’s behind Darkwood Brew.

Troy Bronsink: Bring art back to church.

Laura Truax: Walking a church through the GLBT conversation.

Bruce Reyes-Chow: We’re not done talking about race.

Suzanne Stabile: The unlikely places I found church on my vacation.

Spencer Burke: Combining photography and mediation for monotation.

Steve Knight: The growth of missional.

Drew Sumrall: Liberalism needs fundamentalism to survive.

Mark Scandrette: Family trumps all.

Jay Bakker: The church is Gotham, and I am Batman.

Gareth Higgins: Peace isn’t easy, but it’s imperative.

Tim Conder: It’s time to get serious about reforming education.

Doug Pagitt: Running is spiritual.

Your Favorite Blogger: Hunting is more sublime than you might think.


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