Category: life

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.
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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)

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