Transition and Change

After over 6 years I think it’s time to wind up this old blog.

There’s not been much posting in recent months, because I’ve been in a time of transition.

When the blog started in 2004 the focus was youth ministry, emerging church, church, and random personal ramblings. Since then Twitter has become my place for the random stuff. And by the start of next month, after many years, younger generations will no longer be my main ministry focus.

My role at the London Baptist Association will come to and end, and from Sept 1^st I will take up a position as a local Baptist church minister in South London.

Some youth ministry people may see it as “selling out”. But for me the last few years have primarily been about church – helping churches be what they are called to be, which includes mission to and with the younger generations. And now its time to focus on a local church and see what God will open up, across the generations.

So that’s the story, and the end of this blog.

But when one blog dies another begins, so a new blog will come online, here:

http://peteleve.wordpress.com/

Numbers
Realised that before today I had got stuck on post number 900.
But this will be 902.
Not sure why that matters, but it interested me!

Back to Work...
Back to work after a couple of weeks off.
Spent the first week down in Dorset, which was a good get away. Managed to include a trip to Wellworths, the management run Woolworths replacement (story here), which was obviously a highlight!

Then it was Suzie's birthday and our wedding anniversary weekend, followed by a week of chilling out around London.

Yesterday we were down leading worship in Brighton and Hove, and today back to meetings in London!

+ Happy New Year
2008 draws to a close.
Here's looking to 2009...

*Happy Christmas!
It's Christmas eve! Have a great Christmas.

I'm due to be doing the Christmas day service at my home church tomorrow.
Hopefully will be less full of cold by then...

Away (again)
So I'm away again.
Last week having got back from Youthwork the Conference, I had a couple of days away at Hothorpe Hall. This was for a process called the "Residential Selection Conference", basically a couple of intensive days of interviews. Wayne describes the experience well here. This is a route in to "accredited" Baptist ministry in the UK for those who didn't study an accredited course at a Baptist college. I did some stuff at Spurgeons, but currently coming to the end (hopefully!) of an MA at Cliff College. Anyway it was a successful process for me, so in January I will be reocmmneded to be enrolled on the list of accredited Baptist Ministers...

At the moment I'm at High Leigh, for a "regional and national teams" thing. It's the senior management of the Baptist Union plus the Regional Teams (of which I am part of the London Regional Ministry Team). This is an annual gathering and is a good chance to compare notes, pray and look ahead as a Baptist family without the pressured agenda of BU Council and other bodies.

But the best thing about being here is that they still have Five Alive in a can! Something I have seen nowhere else.

Another Conference
Off to Youthwork the Conference in Eastbourne later today.
Should be fun!

Derbyshire (again)
Am back in Derbyshire at the moment for a couple of things.
Currently hauled up at The Hayes in Swanwick for Baptist Union Council. A few Baptist bloggers here but not much comment as yet, probably due the nature of the agenda which varies from session to session. Interesting session on the European Baptist Federation this evening, which covers a huge geographical area. Some inspiring and challenging stories of churches and pastors risking for the gospel.

Tomorrow off to a dissertation day at Cliff College. I've done my 4 modules, so just the dissertation to crack if I want to get my MA! I see I'm missing Andrew Jones by 1 day, as he's a guest lecturer on the emerging church course on Thursday, at the invitation of Ron Willoughby, with whom a previous set of emerging church module students (myself included) shared a few fun conversations in the local watering hole a year or so back.

Art and the Gola Store
I posted a couple of years ago about my love of Gola trainers (here, here).
Hunting for Gola's in old naff shoe shops and TK Maxx is part of the fun (and I can usually get 2 pairs for the price of your new fangled Nikes or other trainers), but now the hunt is over. Not the cheapest place to get them from, but on Saturday we went to the new Gola store in Carnaby Street. Amazing - wall to wall Golas, with T-shirts and other stuff too. Such temptation!

Apart from the Gola store we also checked out the exhibitions (degree shows) at Central St Martins. A mate of Suzie's had a couple of pieces (one of which was a noose - interesting!) on show, and another friend some knitware. A mix of stuff really, some interesting and thought provoking, some random and pretentious!

Temples, Churches & Castles
On Saturday I was at Alperton Baptist church talking with them about youth & children's ministry stuff. I know it's a large Gujarati population and knew there was a temple opposite the church, but (and the photo does it no justice) was struck by the detail and intricacy of the architecture of the new temple building. (click pic to see larger). It raises some big questions about outreach, being a good neighbour and approaches to ministry in a multi-faith context. (This conference with the great title "Is evangelism a sin?" looks like a good exploration of the issues)

After preaching at my home church on Sunday we set out with some friends to Wales for a bit of a Bank Holiday chill out. As it was it seems we got much better weather being away from London.
We checked out Powys Castle which was fantastic. Huge gardens and grounds, and a great castle to tour. All in all a good get away.

Busy!
Been a busy weekend.
Training sessions in Bromley and Ruislip, and preaching & leading at my home church
Some good stuff happening with churches in terms of youth ministry, people asking good questions and keen to engage and make a difference with young people.

DJ Pete's return
Yesterday I dusted off my turntable, CD decks and mixer.
It was the 70th anniversary celebration for a local church I have connections with, and they had a party with music from the last 7 decades. So I got to spin some tunes for them, from "We'll meet again" through to Beatles, disco classics, even the dreaded Birdie Song. Was much fun, and plenty of dancing (even without alcohol).

Today I was doing a Pentecost service for another church also celebrating their Sunday School's 99th Anniversary!

Laptop Problems
Blogging from Mrs Lev's machine as my laptop has decided to play up.
Some kind of power problem or loose connection - keeps turning off, and sometimes not starting.Usually cuts out just when I'm about to send that crucial e-mail etc. It's not an overheating thing, and I don't think a memory problem, so not sure what's up. Annoying!

Back
Back in action after a week and a half of holiday. Had great week in York (staying in a converted Methodist chapel), chilling out and doing touristy stuff. Caught up with friends in Birmingham on the way back which was good too.

Came back to a bloglines reader full of stuff. One that caught my eye was Fernando's Is it possible to be a post-congregational Baptist? I just loved that title, and I think he raises some good questions about church and belonging.

Quick Catch Up
Been lots going on since Easter, such as:

• An away day with leaderships from 2 churches in Chippenham, Wiltshire
• My home church weekend away at Pilgrim Hall
• A training with a church on teaching the Bible to young people
• Assignment for my last college module (just the small thing of dissertation to look at now!).

Clicking the link to Cliff College, I see the postgrad department has got some new titles happening such as "Mission and Religious Pluralism", "Celtic Mission and Evangelism", and "Mission and the World of Work". Looks good...

Meanwhile it's our 10th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow! (That makes me feel old!).
And a week or so off work, which I'm looking forward to.

Happy Easter!
Happy Easter! Jesus is alive!

Hope you had a great day. Was involved in leading worship at my home church this morning and then so far a great "feast" day, hanging out with some friends eating roasts, chocolate cake etc. Nice!

Spy Wednesday
A couple of years ago I discovered that this day in Holy Week is Spy Wednesday (or Holy Wednesday). So maybe it's a day to watch Bond films? In reality it's about the time when Judas plotted to betray Jesus.

One site suggests:
"As believers in the power of God's love and goodness, Spy Wednesday, should provide a period for reflection and introspective prayer. We need to examine our lives and look for the moments that we have falsely shared intimacy with our brothers and sisters in faith. More precisely, contemplate of lack of true, "communio" in our lives."

Esther, Terry & Grace
These 3 names sum up the weekend so far!
On Friday we went to see Luv Esther. The tour hit Ealing Christian Centre, a great venue for such a show as it's an old cinema. The production is good, with lots of multi-media stuff (part of the "cage" set double as a screen), and good tunes. All in all an interesting re-telling of the Biblical story (my only criticism would be too much girls dancing the same kind of moves).

On Saturday evening we went to BBC Television Centre to be part of the audience for the Eurovision: Your Decision. Watching back I'm pleased to say we didn't really make it on to camera, but it was fun to be part of, and to see the great Sir Terry in the flesh. And I think the right man won, certainly when he came on for the 1st show the vibe in studio picked up considerably, and his vocals were the best by far.

And Grace? Today we watched (rather belatedly) the movie Amazing Grace, which I thought was excellent. Of course it is a "spin" on history, and only focuses on Wilberforce and is white in perspective, but highlighted the issues of slavery well, and some of the struggles to overcome it.

Extraction
After gold crowns before Christmas and emmergency trips from Cliff College, the saga of my tooth took a new twist today. It was still troubling me, so today the dentist decided it needed to come out. So I now have a large row of vacancies on one side of my mouth - it'll be few months before we can discuss replacement options!

The week that was
Another great teaching block at Cliff.
Good teaching, as well as good space for reflection, conversation, worship and ministry.
Lots of good stuff, although a session this moring on "Postmdern Discipleship" was particularly inspiring. Instead of rehearsing the usual arguments Phil Meadows focused on discipleship as participation in God, living in the Divine Embrace.

The picture on the left is the river in the picturesque town of Bakewell. My discovery of Bakewell was not so pleasant though, as it was where I needed to go for a emmergency dental appointment - apparently an infection under a tooth I had crowned a couple of months ago. Always amazes me how something so small can cause such distraction.