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/

Flying Ant 2010
Seems in West London, Dartford area and elsewhere to be flying ant day 2010.

Is about the right time, humidity etc.
Another annual summer marker!

Update
Flying ant day part 2 in West London: August 8th!

Assembly Reflections
Lots of blog posts about the Baptist Assembly (listed here, so far!).
Fear I'm becoming an Assembly junkie as I've been every year for the last while (trying to count, might be as many as 10!). I like the vibe, catching up with people, having coffee etc.

The demographic of grey haired, ageing, mainly white population still concerns me (but maybe those who weren't were all at Prism, which I never made it to).

It would be easy to get into what I did and didn't like - fair to say we are a diverse Union. Many bloggers commented on enjoying the worship at one of the sessions that I struggled to relate to. In fact I overheard one punter near by say "if this was Songs of Praise I'd definitely turn off"!

I appreciated the emphasis on listening to God and one another. Always a good thing, and I think that was a positive move forward, to drag us back to an assembly from a conference.

I am concerned by some of the blog and conversation reactions to the event (and to church life) which seem to have an almost snobbish dislike of popular evangelicalism, and its connected styles of spirituality and worship. Of course it can be overly sentimental and triumphalist, lacking in theological depth etc. But it can also be a blessing! And sometimes people need something uplifting.
Rant over!

So Assembly 2010 has been and gone.
And it was good to be there.
And I shall continue to enjoy lurking on the blogs to see what others have to say!

One World, One Mission
Thanks for the entrants to the competition (previous post), both of you!
Will be in contact with my sponsor to see if there will be a prize...

Meanwhile it's May bank holiday, which means 2 things:
Dodgy weather
And the Baptist Assembly, the annual UK gathering of Baptists.
This year it's Plymouth, with the theme "one world, one mission".
Will see what comes out of this years gathering...should be fun!
And if Twitter is your thing the hash tag to look for seems to be #baptassem

Competition Time...
Back in 2004 I quoted a fellow blogger that "Scooby Doo matters deeply".
So true.
Maybe not that deeply, but important never the less!
And then I saw this from Mr Cloud's wonderful T-shirt emporium (check it out for some other gems):



Which got me thinking: what would Scooby do?
Must be competition time: Come up with a good answer to that question and you might win a prize (UK commentors only and keep it clean!)...
So what would Scooby do?

(competition will close at midnight, Sunday 25th April, 2010)

Vote Baby Vote!
All the talk of General and local elections coming up has reminded me of the brilliant short track "Vote Baby Vote" by Deee Lite. A funky 30 seconds with a serious message...

I'm quite unsure where to put my cross this time, although will probably end up with my usual choice. I did a "who should you vote for" online test, but found it little help! One thing that does concern me is that with all the expenses scandal stuff still in people's mind that people will decide not to vote. I'm not sure that's a helpful way forward. For all its flaws this is how we do it, so I think I'm with Deee Lite in saying "Vote Baby Vote". And in case you're not sure if you're registered, try here...

And for Christians, this article is interesting "Jesus calls us to vote..."

Pop charts and Bishops remarks
Nice post by Rob on Lord Carey's comments on UK Christians feeling squeezed and attempts to put a retired Christian band in the charts.
Couldn't have put it better myself!