Assembly
Tomorrow of to the Baptist Assembly, with the theme "centring the margins". Not sure what that means, but sure all will be revealed!
Richard Foster is due to be speaking, so looking forward to hearing him.
Also for this year there is a new "stream" called "Prism", (which Simon is involved in leading), which is billed as:
"a way of accessing the themes of the Assembly in a creative, interactive and participatory way". I'll have to pop in and check it out.

The Assembly is usually a positive experience - even if some of the stuff is not my style- its a good chance to catch up with people and get a feel for the national Baptist scene.

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner...
So getting back into things.
But as I wandered around Ealing yesterday I was struck by how good it was to be back in London.
Its great to get away from London and get some space. And some of the other cities we went to over the last couple of weeks are great - the picture is the amazing view fromEdinburgh Castle.










But for me London is the place to be.

Back!
Home again after the road trip to Birmingham, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Durham, back to London. A couple of days pottering around London then Exeter!

All good fun! Hanging out with family & friends, and visting lots of Motorway service stations.
Maybe more later.
Back to work and "normal" tomorrow, although its the annual Baptist Assembly in Brighton next weekend, so off again!

Away!
Tomorrow off on holiday - what seems to be becoming an annual trip to Scotland.
Stopping in Birmingham tomorrow to catch up with friends, then Edinburgh, then on futher to see Jesse and Marie with some others coming up. Should be fun.
(and not too far from the centre of the current wave of media hype!)

The Youth Annex?
Last night my flat turned into a salon as my wife and mother in law were having their hair cut. I was stuck in my office, which gave me time for some surfing and reading.
I came across an interesting article "Removing the Youth Annex". The author, Dave Gilpin is an Aussie, leading what seems to be a "Hillsong-esque" church in Sheffield (and other nothern cities).
Anyway the article is worth checking out. Here's a couple of quotes:

"If thirteen year olds are getting saved by the droves, that's good for everyone. They're not youth - they're people...eliminate ageism"

"Add some young guns to the driving seat of the church. Provoke the sleepy and create one passionate vibrant church - not one church with an out house called 'Friday Youth'."

I also finished reading Mark Sturge's "Look what the Lord has done".
This is a fascinating and informative account of the growth of the Black Majority Churches in the UK. It re-emphasised to me that any discussion about the shape of church in London must include the global and urban dimensions, not just the postmodern. Towards the end of the book there is a paragraph on "Inspiring a new generation", where he hits something that I see in many churches, regardless of ethnicity:
"Unless we abandon the habit of placing the most inexperienced Christians in charge of children, and the least inspiring to lead young people , this will remains the [BMC's] Achilles heel"

The challenge remains to get beyond the youth group!

tag:youth ministry

Mission
Nuno, over in Portugal is running a challenging series of posts "When missionary organisations say jump".
Here's a quote:
"Christianity has everything to do with family, and nothing to do with business. It makes me sad when people forget all about it and start looking at mission work like if it were a business."
Good stuff - plus you can read his blog in Portugese or English- personally I'll stick with English!

tag: mission

Catch up
Finally feeling back on track - amazing how a 24 hour bug can take so long to get back in balance from!

On Friday I was in Basildon with Viz-a-Viz Ministries. We're working on developing a London Baptist gap year programme with them, as part of their Optimum programme. Things seem to shaping up - the next big job will be recruiting young people to be part of it!

I was also involved last week in a meeting looking at my home church's 125th anniversary! It was good to have someone in the group who hadn't been around for a long time - as the rest of us were in danger of getting into reminiscence. It shocks me to think I've been in Ealing 15 years this year! Anyway if you were ever part of Haven Green we'll be getting in touch - and the dates are September 16th & 17th!

The weekend was relatively quiet - and included a trip to my favourite local cafe, catching up with friends as well as the usual pub quiz (which was one by a team getting a dubious 60 out of 60 - something fishy going on there I think!).

More on youth discipleship
Hamo has followed up with another thought provoking post and comments at Backyard Missionary.