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

Yesterday Tim Hawkins spoke in the main session in the morning and in a workshop on the youth worker and marriage in the arvo. Both were very helpful.

The morning talk was very challenging. We looked at Jeremiah 17 and reflected on trusting in God vs trusting in ourselves and the consequences of each. A check point that Tim had was “do you spend more time planning your programs for the teenagers you’re trying to reach or praying for the teenagers you are trying to reach.”

I have been convicted on day one and two on trusting not in myself and my own strength but to trust in God. This is shown in my prayerlessness.

It would have been helpful to talk about the cross and trusting in the work of Jesus on the cross more specifically than Tim did. 1) It ought to be central to all that we do. 2) It’s a distinctive of evangelical theology. 3) Tim is an evangelical in a context where there are people who aren’t.
—
Tim and Karen spoke in the arvo about marriage and their context. It was encouraging. Everyone has difficulties in their marriage. Christian workers have unique difficulties. While men and women are different and sinners (therefore there will always be struggles), I need to make sure that I’m married to my wife and not my ministry.

Tim Launched a new book yesterday: Disciples who will last

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast.

CCECYOUTH has a weekly Podcast. I did a special interview on the Gold Coast with Internet Superstar: JOSH GRIFFIN. He has a blog, podcast, myspace page and youtube channel. We talk about safety on the internet and other stuff. Good times.

www.simplyjosh.com
www.simplyyouthministry.com
www.myspace.com/griffinjosh
www.youtube.com/joshgriffin

www.ccecyouth.com
ccecyouth@gmail.com

RSS address: http://ccecyouth.podomatic.com/rss2.xml (subscribe with iTunes)

Download

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving.

Observation: Americans are good at giving thanks. Culturally they have a day set aside each year to express thanksgiving and it seems that they are much better at acknowledging people in ministry than we are in Australia. Josh Griffin and The Skit Guys are both good at simply saying ‘thank you’ to youth pastors and volunteers for the work they do in loving teenagers and loving Jesus.

Is it trite? I don’t think so. I think we have much to learn from the Americans in how to show our thankfulness to people for their work – and ultimately God for his work.

Shout out to CCECYOUTH leaders. Thanks for your work with Central Coast teenagers – I am truly thankful to God for the way you share the gospel of Jesus and your lives with them.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace.

New record for September: 7.5 hours of sleep!! Glorious! This morning Josh Griffin ran a seminar on the internet, social networking and teenagers. I’m running some similar things early next year – so it’s good to rip his ideas! Here’s some:

To protect yourself on line you must…

1. Stranger-protect your profile
2. Limit the use of personal information online
3. Open up to parents and accountability
4. Regularly clean-up your profile
5. Only befriend real-life friends
6. Don’t talk to strangers
7. Report red flags to the proper channels
8. Take a few minutes and clean it up
9. Move the computer to a public space

6 Key to remember

1. What you post is like a billboard along the information superhighway
2. It is quite possible you are being lied to
3. People say things online they would never say in real life
4. What you post is permanent
5. Don’t be afraid of “shoulder surfing”
6. The internet is as safe as you want it to be

To get people to your website

• Content
• Community
• Current

Stay tuned for a special episode of On the Poddy with Josh.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin.

Today was a professional development day. I spent the day with Josh Griffin. He’s a good guy (and famous blogger). The workshop was called: Your first two years in youth ministry. While I was familiar with lots of the ideas he presented, having read lots of the gear that has come from Doug Fields and the Simply Youth Ministry crew, it was a very encouraging day.

It was good fun. I won a prize with an sms competition (yesssss!). Three statements stood out to me and were very timely:

• A healthy youth ministry requires leaders to depend on God’s power
• A healthy youth ministry requires leaders who recognise they can never do enough… but God can.
• Ministry never ends… believe you can’t do it all

It was also good to chat to Josh over some Seafood noodles at lunch about some specific questions to do with our ministry.

Good times. Thanks Josh.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here.

I like to think of myself as a city-slicker. Let’s be honest. I’m really just a country-bumpkin! Here are two sms’ I sent to Row on my way here:

• Conversation #1. “Excuse me sir you seem to look a little lost”….”Um can you tell me how I check in”.
• I’m on the bus. I thought we were going the wrong way until I realised the ocean was on the right hand side

I made it to the Gold Coast. I made it alive. And I even made it on time! However… I came without having booked any accommodation. God provided. Thanks to Andy, Cameron, Ron, Chris and James for letting me bunk in with them. Good times.

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging

I’m at the National Youth Ministry Convention 2007. If I get a chance I’ll do some ‘live-blogging’ of some of the gear. (Click here for some live blogging I did at a youth convention at the start of the year)