So today was nice, we woke up early to have breakfast and our second sermon on Jonah with some songs of praise. I should probably highlight the difference in worship styles between what I’m used to and the “worship” this weekend. I’m very conservative, i like hymns and keeping my hands behind my back, but the worship we’re having this weekend is more charismatic, people dancing and chanting and climbing to the front to share prophesies and such. not that I have anything wrong with it as long as they worship Jesus as well, but I will mention that it does make me uncomfortable.
I then went to a short seminar on how to recruit and lead a mission team, this was lead by a couple who had lead mission teams, so now I know how to do that.
after we had lunch I went for a stroll around Milton Keynes for nostalgias sake, it is a place I used to go to a lot. I missed out on a session of mission pioneers equipping which I was hoping to be involved in but was held back by an overload of washing up which needed to be done, and dutifully embraced as the team runner.
Then there was another seminar, this one on key lessons which we can learn from church history, lead by Andy (mentioned previously). it was really good, exceeding my expectations; normally when it comes to the topic of church history I simply switch off. but this evening there was a lot of Christian doctrine mentioned alongside all of the argumentative dilemnas which arose in history concerning their acceptance. Andy tied the situations which we were observing to potial problems which might happen to us as the Christian church as we extend our ministry further west (east beyond the Americas) into Asia.
for the curious, here are the 4 things we looked at:
- The Quartodeciman Controversy in the late 2nd century
- The One-ness and Three-ness of God as argued in the linguistics of 4th and 5th century Europe
- The Semi-Arian controversy of the late 4th century
- The Arian controversy of the early 4th century
He has left a lot more on the handout than what we discussed!
then after our evening meal I joined the majority of people in another seminar, this one on having a healthy devotional life, as lead by Peta who is a great young girl with her own healthy devotional life (she gets up at 5am to just love God before her day begins). It was nice to know that a lot of holding on to a healthy devotional life is actually about a genuine mindset of simply loving God, trying to dialogue with him and studying him – nice to know because it’s what i do normally and I actually went in thinking that i didn’t have a healty devotional life – turns out that i have it in my mind right already; although i do want to give more of my own time back to God, that’s the challenge I guess.
Last on the agenda was a mini mission!!!!! we all went out in pairs.
And He [Jesus] called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two bytwo, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts— but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.
– Mark 6:7-13
We went to the Xscape complex in the centre of Milton Keynes and did this; but with tracts instead of staves and sandles.
All in all, it was a nice day, and the conference is going well.
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