Month: October 2008

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Youth Ministry Conference 08

The Youthworks Youth Ministry Conference for 2008 is fast-approaching. November 24-25, 2008. It’s always a good conference… so make sure you’re in on the action! The early bird special finishes next week. They have online rego + here’s the brochure (pdf). The conference is great in thinking through theology and practice of youth ministry.

If you are currently involved in youth ministry – or in the future may have oversight of a youth ministry – this is a great conference for you. If you have it all sorted with youth ministry, come along anyway and share some of the love over breaks + meals.

See below for full details:

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I almost punched a guy on Saturday night

Context: I have mixed feelings about The Way of the Master (I agree with what Mikey blogged on it today) evangelism technique. My concern is theological (using the 10 commandments as a yardstick with 21st Gentiles) and pragmatic (not sure if it puts more people off considering Jesus because of the manner). On Saturday night there were a couple of cowboys doing some open air preaching on the corner of George St and Park St (diagonally opposite Town Hall) in Sydney City.

I spent some time listening to the preachers, and thought I could try to get into a conversation nearby. An 18(ish) year old dude yelled out some terribly obscene comments about Jesus. I was offended. I begun thinking about how an extreme Muslim might respond in a similar situation. So I walked after this young fella and sized him up. As I followed, I couldn’t help but reflect on Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” So instead of punching him, I prayed for him and then prayed God would forgive me for being a crackpot.

pic from here

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Don’t worry about your exams

Exams. I’m allergic to them. Seriously. I haven’t really done any since the HSC. My four year university degree involved lots of essay writing and some fun projects, but only 2 exams. No sweat. Sweat: I have 7 exams coming up very soon for Moore College! I don’t really do stress, but I’m starting to feel a little stressy-bessy about our Greek exam this Friday. I’ve been working hard but not sure if I’ll cut it…

Scott Petty’s sermon at Senior High tonight was particularly aimed at Year 12s getting ready for their HSC exams, but I felt that it was a timely word for my ears. He spoke from Matthew 6 and how Jesus says not to worry about your life (v25), your clothes (v28) or tomorrow (v34). His big question was: Why not worry?

  1. Your life is important to God (v26)
  2. Non-believers run after these things (v32)
  3. Worry about the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (v33)

Resolution: work hard – but keep it all in perspective…

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My Face on the Hack Half Hour

Triple J TV have recently launched a new program: The Hack Half Hour. In their first episode, My Face, they discuss social networking and the implications about what you reveal about yourself online. It’s a good format with a good variety of opinions. Do you care about what you post online? Some people are paranoid and say nothing and others are post-now-think-later people… which one are you?

ps – reuben (greek tool making legend) just linked to mark sayers’ latest podcast on Facebook + Faith