After The LinkedIn TED Talk Bros Came to Classical Education

“You attend a classical education conference this summer and, while perusing the speaker biographies in the conference program, you come across the following:

“Harge Manning is the founder of the Diluvian Consortium, a group of Christian thought leaders who specialize in dynamic vision forwarding, cognitive missional flexibility, core value development, servant viral marketing ethics, and integrated ethno-mindful solution differentials. Under Harge’s leadership, the Diluvian Consortium has helped church ecosystems across the globe reposition themselves for optimal market/Gospel outreach. Harge owes his success to his ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable and his confidence in the Church’s antifragile entrepreneurship. He enjoys equipping tomorrow’s leaders today, energizing today’s leaders for tomorrow, and tomorrowing today’s energy for leaders. Harge is a member of many boards, groups, councils, panels, committees, and clubs. He is married to Desiree, who is the executive director of the Cross Wellness Initiative. They live in a heavily gentrified Houston neighborhood.”

You flip over a few pages to see what Harge is lecturing on. It’s a plenary session.

“Futureproofing the Dynamics of Your Vision’s Marketability by Harge Manning. Is your vision outfitted for the dynamics of marketability in a post-COVID world? In this engaging lecture, Manning offers strategies for vision-outfitting your institution so you can optimize the Kingdom’s next steps.”

There was a time when classical Christian education laughed at guys like Harge Manning—and yet I’d swear that guys like Harge have become an increasingly regular feature of the classical Christian world over the last ten years or so. Maybe Harge wasn’t interested in the movement when it was small, maybe we couldn’t afford Harge’s services when the movement was small, but by this point, I think it’s fair to say Harge has settled in. And not just at conferences.”

-from my latest for CiRCE