Curate’s Chronicles

A few days ago my Dad warned me about the latest “revival” about to hit this country.  In the tradition of the Toronto Blessing and Brownesville Revivals come: the Lakeland Revival.

There’s a good chance this could be the next “big” thing to a) get some charismatics very very excited, b) confirm conservative evangelicals in their anti-charismatic prejudice.  Oh, and make us look weird in the eyes of the media.  If you want a heads up, go see this page for a criticial look from a charismatic blogger.  And while you’re there, look here and here for more wise comment from one charismatic to others.

For something far more edifying, the same author wrote this list of 100 reflections based on 30 years of being a Christian.  Some fantastic and provoking thoughts to be read. Here’s a few good ones to do with Family and Youth Work:

• We do a great disservice to families in our churches when we split them up the second they hit the lobby.
• A youth minister’s primary responsibility isn’t to teens directly but to their parents. A good youth minister teaches parents how to teach their own teens, leaving the bulk of the responsibility to them.
• We make an idol of the nuclear family if we raise it above the needs of the household of Faith.
• We spend too much time trying to keep our youth from sleeping with each other and not enough time teaching them to be husbands and wives.

Update - here’s another report from Lakeland, the sad story of a family who went with their autistic child and the abuse of religion they experienced.

If I haven’t said it before on this blog, I’m a bit of a fan of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network.  I’m also a bit fan of what Steve Timmis and Tim Chester are up to in Sheffield, and loved their book Total Church.  In fact, I’ve been meaning to blog my way through it, but that never quite happened…

Anyway, I discovered minutes ago that Mark Driscoll and Steve Timmis were doing a day conference (12th July) in this country!  Fantastic, I thought.  I had really wanted to go to New York in April for the joint conference between Acts 29 and Tim Keller’s Church Planting Centre, but finances prevented me.

Then I checked my diary.  I’m already booked, for a training day on “Priesthood and Presidency” in preparation for my ordination to the “priesthood” in October.  Gutted!!  I may repent of this statement after the day itself, but is this going to end up as a day on “how to limit church growth by limiting those who can preside at the Lord’s Supper to those who are episcopally ordained” vs. “how to grow your church with the gospel of grace”??

Anyway, anyone in or around London - you really really must go.  Here are the details. And a pdf is available here.  Don’t forget Mark Driscoll live at St James Clerkenwell on the night before.