Ok, Ok. So this post is around a month late, but I’ve had a lot to think about (and no time to write it). I was also prompted by the arrival of all the talks on mp3 yesterday. I attended the Eastbourne Conference and although the whole weekend was good, I was most struck by the speakers in the main sessions who presented some difficult challenges.

Rob Bell was impressive due to his intimate understanding of the bible and ability to give fresh insight into passages (without ever referring to notes)! By attending the early day we were given a number of sessions with Rob, but what I personally took away from his talks was the importance of having both a ‘mission’ and a ‘Sabbath’. For mission you could substitute vision, goal or purpose, but generally it must be some bigger picture you are working towards in everything you do in line with God’s will. A Sabbath is not simply Sunday off, but time away from work and ministry to celebrate God’s creation. This could be with family, friends, whatever – but must be space to recharge in Him without being on-call. Both of these things are relevant to me right now and I have tried to implement them more over the past few weeks

Back when I first went to Soul Survivor in 1999, I heard Andy Hickford speak on the subject of Esther. He was so engaging and endearing that he inspired me to be more creative in my teaching and youthwork. As he only lives in Worthing I’m surprised I’ve not seen him more often, but when he took to the stage at Youthwork he was not only just as inspiring but immensely challenging too. He spoke on Luke 10:1-24 and the Kingdom of God. By outlining what the people of the day thought about God’s kingdom and how they were proved wrong by Jesus, he effectively questioned our own assumptions about the Kingdom (and who’s in it) now. How do we present the Kingdom of God? Do we dumb it down? Do we actually understand it? How and why do we invite others into it? Are we seriously missing the point? Good questions with one answer: We need to align our own “kingdoms” with God’s purposes and encourage our young people to do the same. Much food for thought there.

Probably the most bittersweet, controversial, funny and humbling experience at the conference was Danielle Strickland from Vancouver Salvation Army delivering a heavy blow to the conscience in her brilliant closing address. By taking us on a giggling and adrenaline-fulled trip around her experiences, she introduced the ridiculous views of the Pharisees in Luke 13:10-17 where they’re so caught up in the law that they criticize a healing; and in one swift move she identified herself and subsequently myself as one of them. I’m guilty of exactly the same thing: so caught up in the how or why that I have ignored the poor and needy right in front of me! A sobering thought indeed.

There’s much more that could be said of the various seminars and workshops that I attended, but these three are the one’s that most struck me. Maybe I’ll write some more youthwork related posts over the Christmas break when I have time to catch up on my reading…