Tag: NYMC 07

The National Youth Ministry Convention 07 was lots of fun! I met some great people, was reminded of some incredible truths and have been challenged to trust in God and not myself. There were just under 500 people at the convention and it was exciting to meet so many who are passionately proclaiming Jesus in their context.

The convention closed with a time of communion. The organiser, Stephen Parker, closed with a clear reminder of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was an encouraging time – however the cross of Christ was not given the centre stage throughout the whole conference as it ought. I think that it is helpful to get speakers from different backgrounds, but there were some who share a different gospel and ought not be part of this conference if it runs again in the future.

I said it elsewhere, but what was missing most from the conference was the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection for sins. A pastors conference ought not be an evangelistic rally, but as the troops are brought in from the battlefront, they need to be equipped and reminded of what really matters. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul outlines that which is of first importance:

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 

Australian Youth Ministry needs leaders who will preach Christ Crucified to a dying generation.

NYMC Live Blog Summary:

• #1 – Live Blogging
• #2 – Getting here
• #3 – Josh Griffin
• #4 – My Place on MySpace
• #5 – Thanksgiving
• #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast
• #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God
• #8 – The danger of assumptions
• #9 – Forge and the emerging church
• #10 – The Skit Guys
• #11 – Duffy Robbins
• #12 – Tony Campolo
• #13 – Graham Stanton

Did you go? I’d love to hear your reflections…

Graham Stanton is the Dean at Youthworks College. On Friday morning I went to Graham’s workshop on ‘Answering Difficult Questions’. It was brilliant! There were some guys sitting nearby that were expecting him to go through a list of tough questions and then give the answers. What they got was much better! Rather than giving the specifics of different questions, Graham gave a Christ-centred framework to help think through how to answer difficult questions. Here are some of my notes:

Understanding God’s Drama (Vanhoozer):

• Creation
• Fall
• Israel
• JESUS
• Church
• New Creation

We live in the 5th Act of the drama. Understanding the drama will help us to understand how to live in this Act (and therefore answer questions).

Principles for answering questions:

1. Directed by God – therefore study scripture
2. Does your answer point to Christ? – magnify Christ

A BIBLICAL RAFT TO NAVIGATE THE WATERS OF CONTROVERSY

• How does the doctrine of creation help me to answer this question?
• How does the doctrine of the fall help me to answer this question?
• How does the doctrine of redemption help me to answer this question?
• How does the doctrine of eschatology help me to answer this question?
• The mast of the boat is CHRIST.

Being from similar tribes, we had fun hanging and chatting with Graham over a couple of meals…I also scored a free lift back to the airport – thanks!

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast, #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God, #8 – The danger of assumptions, #9 – Forge and the emerging church, #10 – The Skit Guys, #11 – Duffy Robbins,#12 – Tony Campolo.

Tony Campolo is a gifted communicator. He had some great things to say in his two talks. However, I fear that his gospel is different from the Biblical gospel. I believe in doing justice and feeding the poor and I’m thankful to God for Christians who are doing something about it. It seems that for Campolo the gospel is ‘being Jesus to people’. Campolo rightly affirms that the gospel is about the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15) but neglected to mention that people need to ‘repent and believe the good news’. At one point he said that “teenagers don’t need to be saved from sin, but given a deep passion”.

At the 2006 Reform and Resurge Conference, Tim Keller did a marvellous job at both explaining the gospel and doing justice. It’s not one or the other. Preach the gospel of Jesus’ death for sins AND do justice.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast, #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God, #8 – The danger of assumptions, #9 – Forge and the emerging church, #10 – The Skit Guys, #11 – Duffy Robbins.

Duffy Robbins spoke at general sessions 2 and 5. In his first talk he spoke from Philippians 2:5-11 on Authentic Passion. Jesus’ passion was a little bit irrational (v6), excessive (v7) and costly (v8). Youth Pastor’s are called to authentic passion and Jesus is the model of that passion.

In his final talk he spoke from Psalm 46: Be still and know that I am God. He helpfully showed the violent context of the Psalm, and yet the response of being still and knowing that God is in control. It was a great passage with which to finish the conference.

Duffy is a gifted communicator. Unlike some others at the conference, Duffy opened the Bible, and spent time explaining the Bible. His insights were refreshing and stories amusing.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast, #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God, #8 – The danger of assumptions, #9 – Forge and the emerging church, #10 – The Skit Guys.

The Skit Guys are funny. Understatement. The skit guys are very very funny. They have done some hilarious skits at each of the main sessions. On Thursday morning I went to their workshop on using drama and skits in youth group. It was very helpful in thinking how to do it well.

Last night they did a show from 930-11pm. It was awesome! I literally fell off my chair at one point. We had sore stomachs by the end of the show. They do a great job of having lots of fun on-stage, but they still manage to illustrate stories or themes from the Bible as well as encouraging youth ministers in their work.

Before last nights main session I recorded a special episode of On the Poddy with them. It was fun. Check it out here.

Are you an Aussie? Do you use skits and drama much in your youth ministry?

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast, #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God, #8 – The danger of assumptions, #9 – Forge and the emerging church.

This afternoon I went to a seminar on the emerging missional church. It was run by Tim Hein from the Forge network in Melbourne. I’m quite well read on the emerging church in the US but need to do more work in thinking through what it looks like in the Australian context.

While I disagreed with a number of things that were said, I was heartened to hear that Forge aren’t at the extreme left of the emerging church. I don’t think that Tim has sold out on the gospel. I would like to continue to interact with them on how to best engage with culture.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast, #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God, #8 – The danger of assumptions.

The cross of Jesus is the central point of Christian theology. The cross of Jesus is central to the gospel. Jesus dead, buried, risen and appeared is a summary of the gospel that Paul preached from 1 Corinthians 15.

While I don’t think that a pastor’s conference is the forum for an evangelistic rally, I feel disappointed how often I’ve heard the gospel of Jesus’ death for sins articulated. The cross of Christ is the starting point for everything in Christian life, theology and ministry.

The music has focused more on the doctrine of God than the doctrine of Christ. I want to sing and affirm the marvellous truths about God that we’ve sung, but feel that the conference has been lacking in cross-centred, Christ-exalting songs.

There is an incredible danger in assuming the gospel. The gospel is only ever one generation from being lost if we continue to assume it and not effectively pass it on. A pastor’s conference is the place where the gospel needs to keep being clearly proclaimed in order for our ministries to continue to keep the main thing the main thing.

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel…” 2 Tim 2:8