Imagine a room full of people, all of whom come from different parts of the world (mostly Norwich) with a diversity of knowledge, experience but a shared passion for getting together and making a difference. That's pretty much what Soundcheck is about.

See, now Christian conferences are weird affairs. Lots of folks get together for some funky worship and mass teaching and then move off for bunches of inspiring seminars and weighty dialogue. In other words, the experience, although collectivly shared, is really often just experienced on an individual basis. Which is fine when folks just want to absorb, but difficult when the aim is to inspire towards action. There is, after all, only so much we can do alone.

SPEAK, as you will quickly grasp when you read its theology, is based on the concept of a collective theology. A collective culpability for sin and, therefore, for a prayer and campaigning life which emphasises the importance of collective action. And that's perhaps what Soundcheck does different from other conferences. It's about learning, and worshipping and praying of course but all with a focus of real action as individual SPEAK groups and as a network. Seminars as diverse as Racial Equality in the UK (and especially in the church), An Introduction to Israel/Palestine and The Day Before Yesterday (working between generations in the church) all had plenty of background but wouldn't let a vistor leave without a few bullet points of direction for prayer, action and futher reading.

Of course it's a challenge to go along to a weekened of exhausting proportions and be left with the message that, although it's great everyone's showed up, it won't make a difference unless folks use the experiences to go away and actually take action as a result. Whether being entrenched on the streets of London whilst DESO workers look on, or being a little more assertive about introducing that Fair Trade coffee into the workplace. However, the fact that the message is 'take action together' rather than 'it's all down to you alone' makes that challenge more practical and (funnily enough) a lot more realistic. And, at a time when Christians struggle against collective apathy along with everyone else, that's got to be a good thing.