Announcing: The SVS Workshop

“Theology is the work of the community seeking to understand the faith its members share.” — John R. Franke, The Character of Theology, 182.

Are you working on a theologically-oriented project that would improve with constructive interaction and focused feedback from other folks in the Society of Vineyard Scholars?

If you are, then read on! We’re excited to announce a new initiative: The SVS Workshop.

What is the SVS Workshop?

The SVS Workshop creates a space where Vineyard scholars can share their latest research  and receive constructive, focused, and friendly feedback from others in the SVS community. By reading and commenting upon one another’s papers, we can develop our ideas and improve our scholarship. This is a great way to get feedback on a thesis or dissertation chapter, a conference paper in development, or even a book that you’re writing.

How does it work?

The SVS Workshop will workshop one paper at a time, for a period of one week. The process goes like this:

1. You submit some writing that you’d like to workshop to You have not entered an email address for this shortcode.vineyardscholars[insert a dot here]org"].

• There is no set word limit for submissions, but to maximize readership it is recommended that submissions aim for a maximum length of 2500 words.^[1]
• Please include two or three questions in areas where you would like feedback, in order to foster helpful discussion (e.g., “Is my evidence for X point compelling? Why or Why not?”).
• Please include a separate 200 word abstract that describes the core elements of the piece you have submitted.

2. Your submission will be reviewed by the SVS Workshop Team and then put into the queue of papers to be workshopped.

3. When it is your turn to have your writing workshopped, your abstract and questions will be posted on vineyardscholars.org, along with a link to the private Workshop Discussion Forum, accessible to SVS members. There, SVS members will be able to download your paper and comment on it.

4. When your Workshop week is over, the comment thread on your piece will be closed.

Who can participate?

The Workshop is open to all SVS members. Abstracts of submitted papers will be posted on vineyardscholars.org and linked to discussions in the SVS Forum.

Does my work have to be of “publishable quality” for me to participate?

Emphatically not! The whole point of a workshop is to help people develop ideas and improve their work-in-progress. There is no expectation that this work will be “perfect” or even “done.” Don’t be reticent to submit your work.

What is expected is as follows:

• A clearly stated thesis with which fellow SVS members can interact
• A defense of that thesis through interaction with relevant literature
• 2-3 questions that you are considering as you work on this project

That’s all. The bar is fairly low, and the payoffs are likely to be great for your work. Plus, people will get to see what you are working on, and that will be awesome for you and for the wider SVS community.

One further note: an SVS Workshop is an ideal place to workshop your idea for an SVS conference paper.

We are very happy to be kicking off this SVS Workshop project, and are confident that many people will benefit from these interactions. Please consider sending some work-in-progress to You have not entered an email address for this shortcode.vineyardscholars[insert a dot here]org"] today!

As always, if you have comments or questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch.

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[1] If the submitted work is significantly longer than 2500 words, the SVS Workshop team may recommend that the work be divided into multiple installments. These installments will each be released as their own workshops, one at a time. Installments in a series of workshops may be interspersed with submissions from other authors at the discretion of the SVS Workshop team.