The weekend went woosh

Well the weekend came and went as did Monday. This weekend felt as though i didn't spend much time at home or with Jo. I was at the London Baptist Association event Re:Action which Pete blogs about here, had a friend teaching about worship in a youth work on sunday, legged it up to mums after a great sunday dinner before running back to be at Discuss our new format evening service based around the Nooma 'Noise'.

Monday was child protection training before preping for a session on advent with a group last night.

Phew! Well i must get my mail out done now. I still intend to write up some more of my journalled thoughts from Youthwork the Conference at some point.

Our new laptop 'a macbook' arrives tomorrow hopefully. I have to learn how to talk mac now.

Youthwork the Conference (Day 2, part 1)

Wow it was windy this morning as i ambled along the sea front back towards the conference centre (video has been removed because it seems to start all the time even when its not the latest post and that is far too annoying. The video is here instead now). I love having that chance to walk first thing in the morning especially by the sea. I like my 15 min walk to the office each day, if only i could move the sea there.

Rob was straight into it this morning as we explored Sabbath, boundaries and various other classics that come up at these type of gatherings. The main thing today that has been taking up my headspace has been a nagging question.

What has God called me to? What is his/my vision?

There's a lot of stuff caught up in this for me, personally and theologically. I find it hard to nail down one thing but i have a sense that i need to work through again my calling and then re-focus ensuring that i don't spread myself too thinly.

This probably sounds more worrying and extreme than it is. I don't have doubts about my calling into Youth Ministry at this time, it's more about making sure that my time is spent in the right areas and perhaps that there are others who should be doing other things.

Well it's the end of the full timers mini conference and as i sit drinking my coffee i can see the swell of people arriving for the main event. I managed to fill 19 pages of my note pad and i only took notes in 2 and a half of Rob's sessions as there was quite a lot of Q&A

Part of this Q&A should appear in Youthwork Magazine next month.

Here are a couple of quotes from Rob Bell

whilst speaking about dealing with criticism 'Bloggers are the new Pharisees'

'It's not a good time for any american to be going around the world telling anyone how to do anything'

'If the bible was a movie, most Christians wouldn't watch it'

Youthwork the Conference Day 1

Over the next few days i will be posting my journalled thoughts and relfections during my time in Eastbourne. Some will be thoughts on the conference and the things i have learnt and some will be personal reflections upon my journey and the things God has been saying to me and what i am working through.


We were asked at the start of the full timers pre-conference event to consider our expectations for this time.

My immediate thoughts were that i had none. Instead of hopes and expectations i was using it to break from normaility, from routine.

But as i began to empty my mind and attempt to become still these thoughts came to mind.

- restore my soul
- restore my passion
- give me new/renewed vision
- what is God calling me/us to over the next few years?

We spent this first session with Rob Bell delving into the Torah and looking at its influence on Jesus' teaching and how it should speak into what we hear through Jesus.

Rob spoke about 2 locations

1) Jerusalem - respresenting the Jewish Christians, the tradtion that they have, the back catalogue, the true way.

2) Lystra - Lystra a place of gods and no pre-knowledge. We went on to explore Paul's appraoch to sharing God's message, the message of Alam Haba 'living in harmony with God' in a place where they have no reference point.

For many of us i'm sure it struck chords within youth work. We often work with young people who don't have the same reference pointd as many in our churches and how do we communicate affectively with them.

We went onto look at the tensions that can arise from these 2 competing cultures.

Jerusalem - 'our churches' paying our pay checks

Lystra - many young people we meet with.

Paul communicated very differently with the peopel of Lystra starting with their gods and having to use language that was on the edge that could be misinterpreted by people looking in. Paul didn't start with talk of YHVH and Torah because they just wouldn't have understood it, he had to start in a different place.

However what we didn't look at were what many will face is those groups that have a combination of both, yp brought up within church with prior knowledge of the other group who don't, all together.

This has a interesting knock on to what we teach. Do we try to root everybody in our church understanding and often the baggage that come with that?

A good time, Rob also introduced us to a way of understanding in a cyclical way the human condition presented to us time and time again throughout the bible and history.

I must write up these notes at some point to re-process.

A nice walk back to my B&B about 20 mins down the coast. I feel tired but also excited about some of this stuff we have started to grapple with.

It's been a good day, time alone, good teaching and the opportunity to see some old friends.

(Good to see you Tim, leave me a comment i love to think of you sitting besides Lake Geneva typing away)

Listening to

I've just been listening to Bart Campolo's message at last years youthwork the conference here. Really provocative message, i encourage you to have a listen to his take on Ruth 3.

I'm off to Youthwork the Conference in a few weeks time in Eastbourne. I've never been before but am quite looking forward to it. I haven't been to a conference for a couple of years so it will be nice to get some input.