So yea... this blog is going to be about orientation though... here is our team photo, we've finally all met each other now! :)
And here is where we stayed... I know.... immense!! :) they treated us well... the pool was too cold for me to go in though!
So here's a bit of a run down of the talks and stuff we had:
- Andy Mason from St John's in Chelsea gave five Bible Talks on the topics of Servanthood and Perseverence over the course of the week.
- The Nice team leaders gave a talk on Exectations for the year.
- The Milan co-worker, lead a session on Culture Shock and Entry Adjustment.
- The Athens team leaders lead a session on 'Realities of Gospel Living as a "professional" Christian'
- I attended two seminars run jointly by the team leaders in Paris and Berlin, on how to lead dynamic small group bible studies
- There were two sessions on team building (i) team dynamics & (ii) dealing with conflict in relationships
- Several team leaders/general secretary types from around europe answered questions on a panel about Mission in Europe. (which ended up being quite a deep discussion about the sovereignty of God and election...:S my head was spinning!)
- On Tuesday Rico Tice from All Souls in London came to lead four sessions on training others in evangelism and discipleship... which trained us quite well in the process too!
- Daniel Bourdanné, the IFES General Secretary came on the last day to share the IFES vision 'Living Stones' with us.
- On the last night there was a commissioning and celebration service where we were encouraged to always go back to Jesus, the fount of living water, for our sustenance, and then prayed for each other as teams, and shared communion together.
So it was a pretty packed week, and around all of the organised sessions was time set aside to get to know each other in our teams and pray together, free time to enjoy the grounds, great food and great fellowship! :)
Here are a few things that really challenged and/or encouraged me this week:
- This train of thought began when I was on camp actually, but seems to keep coming up again and again... that we have NO rights here on earth, and we shouldn't try to claim any. In Philippians 2: 5-8 it says:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in
very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be
grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death— even death on a cross!He gave up all of his heavenly rights to come to earth, and then served us humbly, giving up even the rights of a man to a fair trial, to suffer and die for us. So more and more i'm reminded that on earth, we can't claim any rights for ourselves, if Jesus is the example we're seeking to follow after.
- Too often we talk about 'the Gospel' and forget to talk about JESUS. That he is a real man who really exists and really suffered and died for us. 'The Gospel' can seem detached, but when we remember Jesus, I think thats what makes it personal and relatable to...
- Suffering is NORMAL for a Christian. The pattern of our lives should be suffering now, glory later. Hebrews 12:2 says:
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the
joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God.
so we shouldn't be surprised when it happens to us!
- There are three key ingredients in evangelism: sovereignty of God, gospel integrity and creativity. If one is missing, it all collapses. Imagine evangelism as two hands. One of them is rock solid, holding onto the Gospel in all it's truth and fullness faithfully. The other is reaching people and asking HOW can I best reach these people with the message of Jesus?
- Acts 17:26-27. I really believe these verses will change my life. Although I'm too wussy most of the time to let them, but I hope...
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole
earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where
they
should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach
out for
him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
God is sovereign over the EXACT places that people live and work and travel...etc. He has put US there to sow the seed, are we am I making the most of those opportunities. I can't help feeling if every Christian, myself included, really understood these words and put them into practice every day, the world could really be different, and we could see a revival. We are too blasé about our faith and salvation and the needs of the lost to meet with God and recognise their standing before him! This moves me on to something else we talked about: - Evangelicals today, too often, we separate ourselves from the world in the WRONG way. Yes we want to live distinct and holy lives that do stand out from the world, but not in such a way that we create our own little sub-culture that separates us so much that people think we're weird, holier than thou and not like them in any way at all. On the other hand, we don't people to look at us and think they're just like us, because then they won't see Jesus, and they won't be confronted with their sin. It's a fine line I guess but when it was said I just thought... yes... we are too separate, we need to learn how to engage with culture, without becoming the same as it... if that makes sense?
Lastly... - We need to learn to connect with people in a real way. Too often people come into our churches and christian circles, and see people who look "better" than them, and they feel they have to measure up, always be happy and nice and everything. But church should be the one place we can be really open and honest about our sin, because it's the place where we have all recognised it in ourselves and admitted it to God! I think we put on masksto each other and it's preventing us from really have deep relationships and honesty with other Christians, and probably even builds up resentment between people because then we're trying to measure up to human standards and etc etc. I have no answer for this, other than to pray and to really make a conscious effort to be honest with people.... where appropriate obviously. And not be burdened by the "english culture" of being very reserved and private... we are built to be in relationships with God and with other people!!
Oh yes, and one last note...
We preach Christ,
God opens blind eyes!
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