Logos Goes to Texas

Today’s guest post is by Greg Hoerter, manager of strategic partnerships for Catholic Products.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and so it was at San Antonio’s Fullness of Truth Conference on August 25 & 26. The weekend event kicked off Friday night with a Bible study on the practice of lectio divina hosted by Logos and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Rob Corzine, vice president of programs and development for the St. Paul Center, presented the traditional roots of the divine reading of Scripture from the heart of the Church. Then I had the honor of demonstrating how we can use Logos software to put this prayerful study into practice.

On Saturday and Sunday, about 1,300 attendees heard from an all-star speaker lineup made up of Dr. Scott Hahn and the “Killer Bs,” as he is known to call them: Dr. Michael Barber, Dr. John Bergsma, and Dr. Brant Pitre. They gave the crowd two solid days of Catholic theology based on the theme “Why the Cross? Salvation and Suffering in Scripture.” These four contemporary Church leaders gave the capacity crowd some deep insight on what Scripture has offered the church in regards to salvation and suffering. We enjoyed moving liturgy, excellent music by Dave Moore, and a dramatic performance by Doug Barry and RADIX.

Then I packed my bags and flew to Dallas/Fort Worth to attend the Catholic New Media Conference at the Arlington Convention Center from August 29 to 31. Talk about a universal Church. I went from demonstrating one of the Church Fathers’ oldest traditions—the prayerful reading of Scriptures in lectio divina—to discussing some of the newest ways of spreading the Good News: blogs and tweets! Sponsored by Star Quest Production Network Inc. (SQPN), this year’s Catholic New Media Conference, the fifth annual event, was packed with rising stars in social media and the blogosphere.

The keynote speakers were Cliff Ravenscraft of The Podcast Mastermind and Gspn.tv, Elizabeth Scalia of Patheos.com, and Jennifer Fulwiler of ConversionDiary.com. MCed by Fr. Roderick Vonhögen, a leader in Catholic new media, the speakers included Brandon Vogt, author of The Church and the New Media, and Bishop Christopher Coyne of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, who blogs at ThoughtsOfACatholicBishop.blogspot.com and posts frequently on Twitter and Facebook. Some may think the Catholic Church is behind the times or needs to do a better job of reaching out to our youth. The Catholic New Media Conference is an excellent example of how we can use technology for the glory of God.

Praise God for the New Evangelization and the new media! To God be the Glory!