I had a really productive time at the Threads Connect Conference last week in Austin. The second of these conferences is in Nashville this week. For both of these conferences, I’m leading a breakout session that is trying to find the practical implications of one of the 4 key markers of Threads.

Those key markers, the things we believe should characterize young adult ministry are as follows: Community, Connection, Responsibility, and Depth.

My session? Depth.

First of all, let me say that I recognize how presumptuous it is to lead a breakout session about depth. You better bring your A-game for something like that, and pray to God for Him to say something through you, because who is really qualified to lecture about something like that?

Nevertheless, the main idea of my session was that depth is not necessarily about the level of the information; it’s more about the encounter you have with the information. That is to say, depth isn’t achieved by including a certain number of Greek and Hebrew verbs. Rather, it’s achieved by providing an encounter with biblical truth that engages people in every area of life – spirit, emotion, intellect, and even body.

I argued that the only way to create such an atmosphere is to have first encountered that truth yourself in a way that engages your whole person. Once you’ve been there yourself, you can lead others to do the same. So I really tried to provide 7 steps to finding depth in your personal study, and then putting that forth to others.

What do you think? Is there a better way to define this tricky subject?