If you haven’t reacquainted yourself with the strength of feeling against religion (certainly amongst the liberal Guardian readership) then read the comments to this piece. Faith of all forms is provoking a very strong reaction.
It was no surprise to read something like this in the Guardian online (I share many of the Guardian’s views on the environment, economics, development, politics but definitely not faith). While this idea is probably in the realms of fantasy, it doesn’t hurt us to know what our opponents would like to do given the chance. In this case severely restrict, control and ban Christian youth festivals like Newday after all,
“A scrutiny of the youth evangelism strategies of one of the UK’s largest faith groups, evangelical Christians, should give liberals serious cause for concern.”
Among the ridiculous things we teach young people apparently, are that God will judge people for sinful thoughts, that witchcraft is bad and that God heals people. Ridiculous.
The author’s solution to such nonsense?
“I believe a public commission should be established that issues non-legally binding guidelines on the forms of doctrines that it is desirable that children are taught. The preaching of hellfire or of divine faith healings to children could form part of such guidelines. Non-compliers could be “named and shamed” by such a commission.”
Well aside from the fact that no government is going to want to appoint a doctrinal commission to rehash the Christian faith it is interesting that secularists do want to control, prescribe and mandate what is or is not acceptable to believe and apparently in a modern democracy – and it seems God as judge and healer is no longer acceptable.
This is not going to happen any time soon but like I said, nice to know their plans in advance.
It’s a spiritual song of searching and longing. It’s also one of confusion and at the end of the day hopelessness. You get the feeling from the song that they think, ‘it would be nice if Jesus did die for me but I just can’t believe it’. There are a lot of obstacles to faith.
I talked of the search for significance and meaning, the quest for hope and love and I said it could be found in Jesus. I had less than 10 minutes, so I’ve no idea what sunk in, but maybe something did.
Here are some others that have reflected on this new Robbie Williams song:
*Update* Nicholas Ferguson from Catford adds his review of Newday and Adrian Warnock has his daughters report on her first time there. CCK have an interview with Mike Pilavachi.
*Update 23.08.09* Matt Hosiers posts a video from the young people of Gateway at Newday
Here’s another video for you:
The weather has been great but now everyone is tired. It’s time to go home. But God has been good and for some of our young people it has indeed been a new day.
The highlight of the day was the evening meeting – hundreds healed, hundreds giving their life to Jesus and hundreds more recommitting themselves to His lead. Three of our young people responded in some way to the Gospel and one that God had healed her back.
Please pray that this would be the start of something lasting and transforming in their lives and not simply a summer festival high. More details to follow (if I remember).
Here are some quotes to make you think: “If there’s something I want, I’ll buy it,” says Connor’s classmate, Courtney. She admits she has a bit of a spending habit. “Its just those little novelty items that you have to buy,” she says. “Its just impulse goods and I’m just not very good at saying no.”
and…
“And the financial habits learned at their parent’s knee may be hard to shake off. “We’re very, very consumerist,” says Paris, another of Oriel High’s lower sixth. “We know how to spend money. If we could have a credit card, we would spend money on it. So its essential we’re getting taught now how to manage our money because otherwise we will get into more trouble than the generation above us.”
They know they’re consumerist, we know they are and yet because we are so comfortable and because we are so indebted we don’t really know what to do.
Christians seem quite fond of blogging – writing thoughts in an online diary that everyone can read. What do you think of that phenomenon?
I am pretty removed from that whole block of culture. I don’t read single blog; I don’t think I’ve ever read a blog actually, unless maybe someone has forwarded one to me. I write long books by and large; publishers keep looking for shorter books and I tend to write longer ones. It just seems to me that there is a place for books that take time and effort.
So these blogs…I can’t imagine anything of worth coming out of something that was just spun off as soon as you got up in the morning. I guess the question for me is what will it look like in 50 or 100 years? As I age my question is; ‘what do I want to leave behind after I’m gone?’ If I have a collection of 3000 blog posts, then I’ve basically left nothing because no one is going to be reading them in 50 years’ time. My faith has been formed largely by people who are dead; Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gandhi, Chesterton, CS Lewis and Henri Nouwen. Their lives live on in their writing and I can learn from them; be moved by them.”
I found this interesting because a) I often write posts in the morning b) my blog is probably more important to me than it should be c) Adrian Warnock reviewed his blog and hit 3000 posts
in March (although to be fair he is also trying to write a book) d) Yancey has some points about bloggings weaknesses but he misses blogging strengths.
But before I say what I think Yancey misses, what do you think?
It’s always good to take young people to massive gatherings of other Christian young people, it gives confidence and encouragement and reminds them, they are not alone. It’s also a great opportunity for them to deal with issues in their lives and open themselves to God’s leading and guidance, be excited about mission and be stirred to give their lives for His glory.
They witnessed the healing power of God as people, for me the standout was the lady who did the signing for the deaf, testified how she had been wearing hearing aids for 8 years and was healed that night. They saw 300 young people make first time commitment and jumped with joy when they heard the news. The roar was even louder when the offering was announced. For 6000 teenagers to give £111,000 was staggering. It’s so exciting to see young people be motivated by the purposes of God enough to give generously.
I’m already looking forward to next year!
Their faith gave me renewed faith that God will provide for all our needs.
I saw this today at a social action conference I attended. Thought I’s share it
I’m always impressed by web wizards and I caught this site from John Allan’s latest web round up in Youthwork magazine.
Breathing Earth is a simple and clever site that shows you how often countries emit 1000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere and also how often someone is born or dies. That’s it. But if you want a graphic illustration of carbon emissions – this is a great site to show people.
“I’ve tried long-term relationships but I’ve got a fast-moving internal mechanism. There’s a tyranny of choice, endless options. You buy loads of washing machines, cars, jeans – why not consume people in the same way?”
So how would you answer that?
This is another book review and although the subject matter is different (youth ministry) from the norm it’s title ‘what matters most?‘ is a good question.
Doug Fields essentially calls people to say ‘no’ more often, that over-busyness can kill the soul, that saying ‘yes’ to everything and everyone leads to a crash. At the heart of our society is the view that we must be busy to be meaningful, the more purpose, drive, action we have the better.
In contrast of course there’s a whole generation that have the opposite – no purpose, no drive and not enough action. They need to do something, anything while the majority need to slow down.
If we all heeded Doug’s advice – quality of life would go up. This is a call for quality over quantity and a fresh focus on the most important things. It’s not the only book, it’s not even a brilliant book saying nothing particularly new – but it communicates its message well and for those that read it – I’m sure it will have an impact.
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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